❝I once stood at the edge of a cliff and thought about jumping.❞
• • • [ x | for mnjun ]. The rooftop was one of the places that Vera could count on on being empty. Mostly because she’d gone to great measures to ensure that she was the only person allowed past the security guard. And okay, smoking on a rooftop just about made the list for Top Office Clichés, but it was a cliché only because it works. Which was precisely why she didn’t appreciate seeing another person standing in her space. Granted, the stranger wasn’t talking or moving or… doing anything, really. For a moment, Vera considered turning on her heel to return to her office; she had no desire to witness someone throwing himself from the top floor and straight onto the frontpage news. It bode ill, not only for her day in general, but her reputation in the print industry. Her nicotine addiction, however, had a mind of its own. Heaving a loud sigh, she strides closer to the stranger, giving him a wide berth—all the space needed to illustrate that she was just here to take a glorified coffee break. She was already pulling out her lighter and cupping it against the warm wind. To his credit, the stranger didn’t move so much as a muscle, standing eerily rigid and looking far too deep in his own reverie. Of course, the silence that fell was too good to be true. It only took the time for her to smoke a third of her cigarette before he starts opening his mouth to speak. Not to ask who she was, what she was doing here, not even to bum a stick off of her. But he began with a non-sequitor (“I once stood at the edge of a cliff and thought about jumping.”), something that Vera had nothing to say too. Sympathising with others wasn’t a strong trait of hers, especially not when she was in an irritable mood to begin with. Then again, saying shut up would be too direct, and rolling her eyes was just plain bad manners, considering he was a stranger of undeterminable social standing. So Vera pulls out her pack of cigarettes instead, holding it out to him in hopes that he was tactful enough to understand.