The girl with the shoulder tattoo

You always run the risk when working in a female dominant office of experiencing bitchy crabby women who are over working and have been in their position for 10 years too long, but on the other hand you run the risk of getting along so well with a co-worker you miss going to work every day because it is now too long between visits.

I worked at my last job for 4 and a half years before resigning and taking up a better paying job however less exciting one. I stuck that out for 2 years where I earned good money and gained better experience, until I finally agreed to return to my old job after my boss had called me about 5 times begging me to return. It would be the same amount of money but working 5 days/wk instead of 4 but it would also mean working with a great group of women and also paid maternity leave. BOOYAH!

I re-commenced in my old hood in January 2010. I settled back in with a few new faces, some the same and it felt like home. A month later another position opened up. I remember the girls who came in for their interviews and each of us judged them by appearance, yep us women can be catty like that. One girl came in wearing a top which showed her tattoo on her shoulder, I remember thinking ‘why would she do that for an interview? Surely she should have covered that up.’

I never thought I would see that girl again.

A week later she returned, she was now the new girl.

We were less than a year apart in age, we were both brunettes, we had partners who seemed identical and we just got each other.

We would chat non-stop all day about … well … everything.

If either of us were sick, we would text.

Bitch sessions about the time it takes for the men in our lives to make a decision occurred on a daily basis. The purchases of a giant freddo in the afternoons would also be a daily occurrence.

We delved into each other’s personal lives, we were there for each other through terrible times, we organised a hens night together, we drank together, we watched the same crappy American reality shows because secretly we love them and she was one of the first people I told that I was pregnant.

Her parents’ names are Rob and Jane … of course we were going to get along.

I knew when I finished up to commence my maternity leave that she wasn’t going to be a work colleague that remained just that … a work colleague. 

I had coffee with her on Saturday and it was so nice to catch up with her. The lucky thing has just spent 6 weeks in Europe and Miami … jealous much … who me?!

I am so glad that my boss hired the girl showing her tattoo during an interview because without her we would never have met. I gained a friend, an amazing friend and one who I hope to always have in mine and Sophie’s lives.

She knows too much about me for her to not be in my life.