Mystery cards on the workfloor

Finally she was working on a project that she had envisioned when she joined the company a couple of years before (the implementation of a new big software). Some projects had started and stopped, some projects weren't quite as exciting, but now they had launched the roller coaster ride and the ride was accelerating.

A nice big team had been assembled with people from different departments who were going to specialise and parmeterise and test their modules of the software. Slowly everyone was adjusting to his new role. They had arranged a project team space with little islands for all subteams. She was managing the overal planning, listing the tasks, monitoring the progress, next to her own portion of tests. She was still a littl uneasy in her role, but slowly she grew in it.

The weekend after her birthday she took some days off to enjoy a long weekend with her boyfriend. The day she returned one of her female colleagues Annette came to her desk with a big grin on her face. She looked up with a questioning face when Annette kept grinning. Finally Annette threw a postcard with a quick movement on her desk "I think you lost something last week". She took the card, thinking she had somehow lost one of her birthday cards last week in the office although that seemed a bit odd to her. While she opened the card, Annette was still grinning at her.

'I love you very much.....xxx Goofball' it said on a sweet card full of teddybears and red hearts.

"You lost it last week apparently on Roy's desk" , Annette continued while she was staring at the card. While it sunk in her mind that this wasn't one of her birthday cards that had gone missing, she also realised to her devestation what the others had been thinking.

"You found this where? What is this? This is not my handwriting"
"Seriously this is not my handwriting" she repeated quickly again while her stresslevels were rising. She quickly thought how many days she had been away and how quickly gossip would have started circulating.

"Oh well we found it behind Roy's chair on the floor last week and I must say that it has given Roy quite a fright. We thought you had lost it after you had come by to check the status of our tests. Jeff was already happy to accept the card from you if Roy didn't want it and since they were discussing to whom it had been addressed, I have kept it safe until now. You know what they are like. They didn't have the guts to come and ask you. Yeah Leslee was wondering as well when we showed her the card, ...." Annette goes on and on.

Her mind went quickly...how could she make clear that she had not left love notes to her colleages in a credible way? They did know she was in a relationship right? How many people had seen this card? Where did this card come from and who was this Goofball who signed it?
"Where was it when he found it?"
"Oh on the floor behind Roy's chair and then Kyle's back. We had asked Kyle whether he had lost a card but he had said no"
"Well is there anyone here in the team dating a Goofball?"

They both knew Roy was in a relationship with no Goofball, Jeff was married already a long time, Francis was in a relationship, ....They both turned around to Kyle and realised they had no clue what his girlfriend's name was. So they both walked up to his desk and now she was the one throwing the card quickly on his desk as if it was contaminated.
"Kyle, do you date Goofball?"
Kyle opens quite surprised the card at which his face promptly turns tomato red. Aaaaaah mystery solved.

Kyle's girlfriend had surprised him by slipping a love card into his backpack the week before. Only...he had not noticed it and while taking out his papers, the card had fallen on the ground and had been found by Roy. He had asked Kyle before opening it whether it was his card, but Kyle didn't know he was missing a card and had said no. After wich Annette, Roy and Jeff had opened it and concluded she had been the sender. It had given them a lot of inspiration to discuss in her absence!

....and Kyle....well he had some explaning to do at home why he had not responded to the card sooner...after which his Goofball has never taken the risk anymore to slip surprise cards in his backpack.


If you want to read more soap opera stories, check out Jenn in Holland this week in order to find the other participants. If you want to participate yourself, you can check out the rules at Brillig or walking kateastrophe.