How I met my Best Friend!

Best friends are a true blessing. They can make you happy and motivated. Particularly, they make your life a lot less difficult and give you the perfect company. I am also one of those people who have a best friend and his mere existence makes me happy. Although, we are not living together anymore and have to connect via long distance relationship since life can be harsh sometimes, but the moments we spent with each other have bonded us for the rest of our lives.

Back in the start of 2017, I was working for a small firm which had also provided me accommodation. I absolutely had no friends at my workplace since most of my colleagues were either seniors or juniors. There was not a single coworker that had the same age group as mine. Even my roommate was a senior and I never got to engage with him due to significant age gap. It was 7th of February and I was eating my food during lunch break. I was sitting around the dining table with all of my colleagues when a young man wearing a formal dress consisting of pant and coat appeared before me. He was accompanied by a senior colleague who addressed me with my official name and told me that this young man has come for job interview and you need to entertain it. It was customary in our workplace that we treat all of the job interviewees with greater protocol and offer them free meal as well. I glanced at that young man momentarily who was sweating in his formal dress since he just came from outside and then I asked him to join me for lunch.

After the lunch, I took the young man into the guest room and started chatting with him. He told me that he lives in a near by city and his name is Zac. He was almost same age as mine and kept a file with him. Since I had no idea that he will become employed later, I did not engage warmly with him. He was addressing me as a “Sir” because he was an interviewee and talked briefly. We exchanged phone numbers and I asked him that he can contact me regarding any information about employment or similar stuff. Then, I went back to my own room to take a nap for the rest of the break.

Entering the room, my senior colleague already started inquiring about who I was meeting with. I told him that it was an interviewee who was referred by some senior colleague and he had come today to take the interview. That colleague seemed to be more interested in Zac and he pushed me to go back and invite him to our room. Since I was about to take a nap in the remainder of the lunch break, I really felt uncomfortable that inviting him would spoil my break time, however, due to constant requests of my senior colleague I went back to the guest room where Zac was staying and invited him in my room. Zac and me returned to my room where senior colleague was also present. He started questioning Zac about his whereabouts and formal questions and I had to join in the conversation. I asked him what was in the file he had and he showed it to us that the file contained his credentials documents like resumes and certificates. At the end of lunch break, he thanked us and left.

The next day, I had already forgotten about that interviewee since I had no idea if his interview went successful or not. It was almost the end of afternoon, when I received a text from unknown number addressing me as “Sir.” It was Zac who told me that he will be joining our workplace soon. I told this to my roommate and he started panicking because he has to leave my room now. We even discussed that we can shift Zac to some other room. The next day, I was doing my usual chores in the office when I saw Zac coming towards me. This time, I took a better look on him since he had become an employee and potentially a new roommate for me. He seemed slim and had a decent height. I greeted him and made a joke that where did his formal dress go. He pleasantly responded and then I told him that we were going on a tour of the workplace.

I showed him every corner of the workplace and answered various questions about the nature of work, responsibilities and any specific rules and regulations of the workplace. I even took selfies with him in order to capture his first moments in our workplace and I had never thought how much I cherished those first pictures with him later.

After the conclusion of the working hours, I took him back to the guest room since I needed to figure out with my roommate about the situation. I went to meet with senior colleague and he told me that he still needed instructions from management. He suggested that temporarily we can keep him in our room tonight and he can move out tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. I went back to guest room and told him that we will all temporarily stay in the same room tonight. Back in room, me and my roommate joined our beds and then we had plenty of space to fit all of us three. At the end of the day, I slept in the middle and also shared my blanket with Zac and this is how I met my best friend.

Human beings are complicated creatures and I must confess that I did not develop any kind of feelings for Zac on the first day. I only considered him my roommate and a colleague, even I saved his phone number as “Zac work” in my mobile phone. However, since we had to sleep in the same room as roommates and had to work as equal coworkers in the same workplace basically living together for 24/7, it brought us closer. He was a curious fellow who use to question me at all times regarding the work and then after work he had no idea to spend the rest of the day. He used to sit bored on his bed after work or waste his time mindlessly scrolling through his cellphone. Seeing him bored made me sympathetic of him and one day I invited him to watch some TV show with me on my laptop and he happily agreed. After that, we started watching TV shows together after work and developed positive feelings for each other. We used to discuss a lot of stuff while watching and it allowed us to understand the comfort zones of each other. He was starting to become more than a coworker to me until one day I finally realized that he is my best friend. It was fall of 2017 and we were going to some get some food with our senior colleagues. I was on a motorcycle with him heading towards the restaurant and ahead of us were other colleagues. We were required to maintain our proximity with them; however, I suddenly had the urge to pee. I told Zac that I needed to take a leak and he immediately stopped the bike and asked me to go to nearby shop and use their washroom. I never expected some sudden response from him since seniors were waiting for us ahead and I could use the rest room in the restaurant. However, Zac stopped the bike for me and urged me to do my business. That was the precise moment when I knew that Zac truly cared for me and he does not care about other than my wellbeing. I told Zac that I could wait until we reach the restaurant since it will be impolite if we get late. So, he started the bike again and asked me to hold tight. We reached the restaurant eventually but the journey was a real breakthrough for me since I had finally got the best friend I always wanted and he was worth it!