Monday is the worst day of the week. Some of you maybe curing your hangovers from the excessive weekend partying, few would be so lazy to get up early from bed after watching one too many movies the night before. And whichever reason all of us might have, Mondays just keep on putting us back to our realities that money does not grow out of trees, you need to work hard for it.

My typical Monday would start with me not getting breakfast and rushing to get myself done because I maybe running fifteen minutes late. I may have snoozed in for more than thirty minutes and has ignored my phone alarm for six times. Yeah, typical? It's more of a Monday routine.

Monday traffic kills too. If I were to go to work during eight o'clock, then most possible that I will be an hour late or so. But I don't work during eight in the morning, I work at 3 AM. I'm not a "normal" person who works during the "day", though I still do work during the day but usually ahead of most people does. Like gahd, I work at three in the freaking morning!

I work in a call center company. That's why I work that early. No, I'm not a college drop-out or undergrad. I graduated with a degree in Architecture. I'm just working my ass in a call center for me to be able to afford to take my board exams, because those things, the reviews and the exam itself, cost too much money. Much more money than what I actually paid for when I'm still studying in the university. Just when you think you're free of worrying about finances after you graduate, surprise, but there's so much more to come!

I usually come to work early, an hour ahead of my schedule which leads me to the perks of working in a call center. There's no traffic especially if you live nearby your workplace, which explains why I usually snooze in for more z's.

I got to work early as expected of me. I settle down to my station, check if all of my stuff is there, open my emails, read any new company updates or anything that comes up on my computer screen that has to be prioritized. Once I feel like I did well on that, I sat there like a boss, just kidding, I reread my emails. As I was browsing through my emails, my instant message pops up.

Gaby Dela Cerna: I see you're already here! Why not come to my station?

Zoe Andrenada: Copy that!

Gaby is my best friend. We've been friends since we were in high school. She's the reason why I'm working here. She invited me to try part-time and eventually, after I graduated, I was made into a regular employee. Even though we're not on the same team, we're lucky enough to have the same schedule!!

Unlike Gaby, who is a voice agent, I'm a non-voice agent. What I do is just send out emails to customers, make sure their email inquiries get replied as soon as possible. Easy life? Not really, I still have to be very smart about replying to emails even though most of it has templates. But what makes my life somehow crazy is that sometimes I take in calls, it's just for billing concerns, nothing stressful.

I get to Gaby's station and found out that she's munching on a doughnut.

"Hi Gaby!" I said as my eyes settle on her newly dyed hair. I think she changed her hair color every three months.

"Hey, Zoë. Let's smoke?" She said as her eyes light up.

"Yeah." I replied, "Did you dyed your hair again?"

"Yeah!" She says as she grabs her phone and wallet, "I did, but this time, it didn't cost me anything. I mean except for the hair color or something."

"So you did it yourself?" I asked her, bewildered that she'd do such crazy thing.

"I did! I know it's crazy but I did! And it was satisfying." She ran her fingers through her hair, "And I followed a decent hair tutorial on Youtube so, no, I did not damage my hair. Go ahead, feel it."

I ran my fingers to her hair and... WOW! It feels so soft and smooth!

"What hair miracle did you do?" I squealed, "Your hair is so soft!"

"I told you!" She smirked as she opened the doors to the smoking area, "Ugh! It's just around two in the morning and it's already crowded here!"

"I wonder why everyone is stressed about?" I asked.

"No one's stressed my dear, everyone just happened to have more free time to roam around." Gaby stressed on the word free time which practically made sense to me.

We took our places and opted to stand up since it's pretty crowded already. The smoke is just filling up the air and it seems that I really didn't want to smoke my cigarette but my lungs wanted to inhale something fresh.

"Do you know that today is talent night?" Gaby asked as I inhale fresh smoke into my system.

"Talent night?" I said, puzzled while I puff my cigarette.

"Oh you forgot! How can you?" She punched my arm.

"That hurts, Gaby!" I told her, "W-what's with talent night anyway?"

"Oh shit you did forget? How could you?" Gaby said while laughing, "Silly Zoe, you know Ned will kill you."

Crap. I almost forgot about that. I was supposed to help Ned with his talent for this competition in our company. I feel bad that I forgot about it.

"Remember?" Gaby asked while smirking.

"Ha-ha Gaby. I do remember now. Thanks for reminding me in a very bad way."

"You're welcome. I always love to make you feel bad at forgetting things you promise you'll do for you friend during a competition he might win."

"I really do appreciate you reminding me, Gaby. Just don't rub it into my face that I actually forgot."

"But you did forget, Zoe." She smiled, "You had one job, Zoe, one."

"To remember." We both said in unison.
 

During my lunch break, I went to Ned's station because I only have one job as a good friend.

"Hey Ned!" I said nervously and I don't even know why I'm nervous.

"Oh, Zoe! Thank God you're here. I was about to come to your station!" Ned said happily and it's a relief, like he never remembered I forgot something. "As you know, I'm going to sing as my talent and I've already picked out a song. Here." He hands me a sheet of paper which reads on the title Somewhere Down the Road by Barry Manilow. "Can you play this song, Zoe?"

I smiled, "This is too easy, Ned. I've been playing this since I was in grade school."

"Great! I'll see you later after shift! We'll do a quick rehearsal for tomorrow's pageant!" He yelled. "And thank you so very much for lending me your time and your incredible talent for this competition. You are the bestest ever, Zoe!"

"Don't mention it, Ned. If I needed you, you'd do the same exact thing."

"Of course, dearie!" Ned smiled and hugged me, "Off you go!"
 

I still had twenty minutes left off my lunch break so I decided to walk outside the building. In my head, I'm carefully remembering the chords to the song. C9, C/E, F.... I stopped walking for a while and fired up one stick of cigarette. That song is just too easy, but I hate that song.

What the heck am I thinking! This is not the time for me to mix my emotions with Ned's competition. I have one job as good friend, just one.

I immediately went back to my station after shrugging off the eerie feeling.
 

"Hi, my name is Zoe of Brownwood Billing, how can I help you?"

 "Hi, I want to find out why you billed my credit card twice for a plane ticket I purchased last week", the customer asked.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, please give me a second to check your account", I replied with an emphatic voice.  "Can you please provide me your account name and account number so I can pull it out?"

"Oh yeah, account name is Ezra Ruiz and my account number is 98157423***"

"Okay, thank you. Let me go ahead and check this issue here. Is it okay if I place you on hold for a minute?"

"Sure."

As soon as I heard him agree, I immediately placed the call on hold while checking the customer's record, I suddenly felt something unnatural and unease. It's been almost a minute that I was looking at customer's record but couldn't think of something to explain.  

I immediately checked with Jessica, the finance department but she said I should not transfer the call and finish the call.

I went back to the customer.

"Thank you for patiently waiting! I do apologize for the long wait..."

"Yeah, whatever. Can you just please tell me now why you billed me twice?" the previous soft voice is now becoming angry and his frustration is noticeable.

I noticed that I was not able to do anything in the last five minutes while putting the customer on hold. I panicked and asked the customer to give me more time but he demanded to speak to a supervisor. I tried to deescalate the call but the frustrated customer is now determined to talk to someone with higher authority.

I'm becoming frustrated.  I couldn't explain why a simple call, with a simple customer problem has becoming problematic but I will not report this simple matter reach my supervisor. I can figure this out.

"Okay, if you don't want me to talk to a supervisor, give me your name and I'll give you more time to check my account", he said.

As a standard operating procedure in our department, we are allowed to say my name if ever the customer asks for it.

"Zoe Andrenada." I said, "Please give me two more minutes to check your records. I'll do it quickly this time and I really apologize for inconvenience."

I took my time and analyzed the account and bill properly. I'm supposed to be this way, doing my job like I always do! Once I got all my notations done, I went back to the customer and explained. "The second charge was actually a mistake and I already sent a request to our finance department for a refund. You should see changes on your bill in your next billing cycle. Again, I apologize for inconvenience."

But the other end of the line seemed dead.

"Hello? Are you still there?" I said.

 "Yes, I'm still here, thank you", he responded. 

"Do you have any more question?", I askedagain.

"You're still the same – authoritative", he wasn't able to control himself.

"What? I'm sorry?", I asked abruptly.

"No, nothing, thank you. Nice meeting you Miss Zoe Andrenada", he responded emphasizing my name and then hung-up.  

I  was left stunned and couldn't believe what I heard. I immediately instant messaged Gaby.

Zoe Andrenada: Where are you?

Gaby Dela Cerna: I'm still working.... in my station.... acting to being busy....

Zoe Andrenada: what time is your break?

Gaby Dela Cerna: fifteen minutes from now.

Zoe Andrenada: I have to tell you something! See you in fifteen minutes!

After that message I sent to Gaby, I went to the smoking area because after that call, I need a lot of smoke to unclog my thoughts.

Oh, I love Sundays.

I just finished a good business deal yesterday and this day couldn't get any better. Let's call this day, my rest day since I earned this from working hard the past weeks.

I wake up earlier than my alarm, as usual. I went out for a jog with Max, my pug, got breakfast at Joe's diner and got back home around seven to catch up morning news.

By the looks of my living room, my secretary was here just to drop off paperworks, some packages and mail. I ignore those things lying on my living room floor and went to the kitchen to get some fresh juice. Nothing beats fresh juice after working out.

Max, however is feeling playful today. He kept bringing me his ball so I took him out to my backyard and played with him for a while. Eventually, his fat ass got tired and decided he'd chill in his dog house.

I went inside the house and took a bath. It was glorious. Not having to think of business, just yourself and what you want to do with all the free time you have.

I didn't think of going out. I was always running around town, going from one place to another, meeting people here and there. Everything is moving too fast or happening too soon, something in this world I live in that I never really have gotten used to. I still like going slow, it makes me process things better and efficiently. Even though all jobs require that everyday, some don't practice it at all. But all that comes up in haste, falls down as quickly as it went up.

My life changed drastically when I moved here. I used to live in Manila, Philippines, but since my dad was already asking me to be with him, I went here just to find out that I will be working for my dad and our business-which I made into a huge company. My dad, he did not train me to own the business, my dad made me work in the business to know how really working the business truly means. I started from the bottom going up, and safe to say, I earned my job from all the years of hardwork. I made my dad proud by living up to his standards, making my own style and strategies in the business and eventually, our small town business became a huge company serving and providing service in several countries around the world.

After reaching such kind of success made me wonder, what more can I ask for?

I went back to the living room and the mess-the packages and mails-were too much for me to handle that I had to open it up. I opened up the packages that happens to be gifts from other companies and the children's hospital I am funding. It melted my heart when I saw the kids' drawings, thanking me for being so kind in helping them. It made me happy and proud because this is what I'm really aiming for... To give back.

I reach up to my mails which are usually just bills and other subscription notices then the bank mail caught my eye. I immediately opened it and scanned the letter.

"This is to inform you that you used your credit card to pay for two (2) business class seats at American Airways for a flight going to Manila, Philippines..."

I blinked twice, how can I have booked two seats? I'm the only one going to Manila? This is insane! I immediately dialled up the number of my bank. I patiently went through the prompts and waited on the line to talk to one of the billing representatives. I'm keeping my chill because this will ruin the whole Sunday-is-the-best-day-ever vibe.

"Hi, my name is Zoe of Brownwood Billing, how can I help you?

Oh great, a lady! That's nice. I find talking to women easier, a little bit comfortable and somehow soothing in fact.

"Hi, I want to find out why you billed my credit card twice for a plane ticket I purchased last week", I asked.

"I apologize for the inconvenience, please give me a second to check your account", the lady replied with an emphatic voice. "Can you please provide me your account name and account number so I can pull it out?"

"Oh yeah, account name is Ezra Ruiz and my account number is 98157423***"

"Okay, thank you. Let me go ahead and check this issue here. Is it okay if I place you on hold for a minute?"

"Sure." I politely said and she placed me on hold.

I notice the clock hand swinging faster and I'm getting anxious by the second. What the heck is she taking too long to analyze my bill?

"Thank you for patiently waiting! I do apologize for the long wait..."

"Yeah, whatever. Can you just please tell me now why you billed me twice?" My soft voice is now becoming angry and I wanted her to notice the frustration in my voice. "Can I talk to your supervisor?"

For a moment there, she fell silent and with the seconds that passed, I snapped back to my old self. I was being too harsh on her, this maybe her first time or her first call and she might be nervous. Geez, Ezra!

"Okay, if you don't want me to talk to a supervisor, give me your name and I'll give you more time to check my account", I told her and I was very careful about the tone of my voice.

"Zoe Andrenada." She said, "Please give me two more minutes to check your records. I'll do it quickly this time and I really apologize for inconvenience."

Zoe Andrenada?

Zoe... That name sounds so familiar. I closed my eyes and in my mind, her name kept repeating to me.

Zoe Andrenada, my college sweetheart. The one who broke my heart to follow her dreams. The one who taught me to love myself.

My heart sank. What the heck is she doing? Why is she working in a call center? Didn't she finish her course? Did she recognize my voice?

The questions in my head came like a flood. Flowing and seemed to be never ending. I became more nervous than anxious and it's like I wanted to talk to her more. Ask her how she's been.

She finally came back and explained, "The second charge was actually a mistake and I already sent a request to our finance department for a refund. You should see changes on your bill in your next billing cycle. Again, I apologize for inconvenience."

For a moment, I fell silent.

"Hello? Are you still there?" She said.

"Yes, I'm still here, thank you", I quickly responded.

"Do you have any more question?", she asked again.

"You're still the same - authoritative", I said, not actually thinking what might happen.

"What? I'm sorry?", she asked. Her voice cracked as she said the words.

"No, nothing, thank you. Nice meeting you Miss Zoe Andrenada", I replied, emphasizing on her name and then hung-up.

After that phone call, I dialled my secretary's phone number and he answered on the first ring.

"Get me Simon. I need him to find someone for me."