Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Vanessa Cross had been eating lunch with me for weeks without paying.
Every time we reached the register, she had an excuse ready.
“My phone’s dead. I’ll Venmo you later.”
“I forgot to reload my cafeteria card. Next time, I promise.”
And every time, she slid smoothly into letting me cover not only her meal, but her coffee, her yogurt, and whatever little snack she decided she wanted on the way out.
I was done.
So that day, I tucked my cafeteria card deep into my bag and walked into the company cafeteria with empty hands.
At the entrance, Vanessa stopped me. “Alex, why aren’t you swiping for both of us today?”
“I forgot my card.” I smiled at her.
Her face stiffened. “Then what am I supposed to eat?”
“What does that have to do with me?” I asked. “Was I the one who forgot yours?”
The next day, Mrs. Miller from the cafeteria found me with a mysterious little wave and handed me a video file.
On the footage, Vanessa appeared again and again after lunch, standing beside my seat and leaning in at just the right angle. Each time, she slipped a hand toward my card sleeve, moved with practiced speed, and then returned to her own tray as if nothing had happened.
The camera hadn’t caught every detail clearly, but it caught enough.
Especially the last clip.
Vanessa stood by my usual table, glanced around, and swapped the cafeteria card in my card sleeve with another one. Her movements were so smooth they looked rehearsed.
Mrs. Miller clicked her tongue as she watched me watch it.
“That girl,” she muttered. “I knew something was off. She’s been hovering around your spot for days. I checked the card transaction logs too. Your card was being swiped whenever she was in line, and every time someone asked, she acted innocent and said you’d offered.”
I stared at the screen for a few seconds, then laughed.
So she really had been pretending.
I copied the video and the transaction logs onto a USB drive and thanked Mrs. Miller.
“Thank you, Mrs. Miller.”
She waved me off while shutting down the computer. “Be careful with people like that. They’re quick with their hands and quicker with their mouths.”
When I got back to my desk, I didn’t say a word.
I opened the company cafeteria system and checked my balance.
The month’s food stipend had already been almost cleaned out. After subtracting my own meals and the few times I’d knowingly covered Vanessa, the rest lined up perfectly with her extra swipes.
Lunch entrées. Coffee. Packaged snacks. Dessert cups.
All neat. All recorded.
I saved everything, backed it up, and poured myself a glass of water.
Chapter 2
Across the office, Vanessa’s voice floated over in that sweet, wounded tone she used whenever she wanted an audience.
“I honestly don’t know what I did wrong. We’re coworkers. Isn’t it normal to help each other out?”
Coworker A walked past my desk with a mug, glanced at me, and quickly looked away.
Coworker B came straight over and smiled like she was doing me a favor.
“Alex, don’t be so petty. Vanessa didn’t mean anything by it. If she was short on lunch money, why make it embarrassing?”
I looked up. “Did I ask you to pay for her?”
Coworker B froze. Then she changed her angle immediately. “That’s not what I mean. It’s just cafeteria money. Nobody’s asking you to spend a fortune.”
I didn’t argue.
There was no point.
One cafeteria swipe was small. A week of them was still small. A month of them, plus the expectation that I should shut up and keep smiling, was something else entirely.
The issue was never the money.
It was the assumption that my silence meant permission.
Before long, Vanessa posted in the Department Chat.
“Alex, I’m really hurt. If you didn’t want to help me, you could have just said so. Why make me look like some kind of thief?”
A few seconds later, she added a voice message.
Her voice came through thin and trembling, as if she had been crying.
“I just thought we were both girls and coworkers, so helping each other once in a while wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t know you hated me that much.”
At the end, she sniffled and added, “Fine. I won’t ask you for anything again.”
Coworker B jumped in immediately.
“Alex, it’s just lunch. Do you really have to make it this ugly?”
The chat went quiet, waiting for my response.
I typed one sentence.
“I won’t swipe my card for anyone again unless I choose to.”
For half a minute, no one said anything.
Then the chat exploded.
“Wow. That’s harsh.”
“No wonder the vibe in the department has been so tense lately.”
“Some people really do keep score over everything.”
I took screenshots of every message, saved them into my evidence folder, and closed the chat.
Before the end of the workday, Vanessa came over in her heels and stopped beside my desk. She placed one hand lightly on the edge of my cubicle wall, smiling like we were friends.
“Alex,” she said softly, “what are you trying to do? Who are you trying to embarrass?”
I didn’t look up. “The card transaction logs are public through the cafeteria office.”
Her face changed for a split second, then the smile came back even wider.
Chapter 3
“Come on. Why talk like that? If there was a misunderstanding, we could’ve discussed it privately. Did you really need to make me look bad in front of everyone? I only asked because I trusted you.”
“No, thanks,” I said. “I don’t need that kind of trust.”
Vanessa leaned closer and lowered her voice.
“Alex, don’t push this too far. I’m giving you a chance to let it go. If you keep this up, don’t blame me when things get ugly.”
Only then did I lift my head and meet her eyes.
“Sure. If you need to borrow money, write an IOU. If you want free food, go beg somewhere else. If you can’t afford lunch, go home.”
The smile finally slipped from Vanessa’s face.
Her eyes went cold.
“You really think that little video is enough to ruin me?” she said.
I glanced at the phone lying faceup beside my keyboard.
The recording timer was still running.
“You said ‘ruin me,’” I replied. “Not me.”
Vanessa’s expression froze.
I saved the audio recording and added it to the same folder as the security footage, screenshots, and card transaction logs.
If she wanted to put on a show, fine.
From now on, every scene would have evidence.
I kept my morning routine exactly the same.
Clock in. Work. Eat lunch. Go back to work.
Whatever anyone said, I acted like I hadn’t heard a word.
By Friday afternoon, I was revising a set of supplemental Bid Documents. They had to be finalized before close of business, and I only had the last section left to check.
The office was unusually quiet. Only a few people were around.
Then a heavy smell of coffee drifted over.
Vanessa Cross walked past my desk with a paper cup in her hand, heels clicking lightly against the floor.
She came a little too close.
The next second, she let out a sharp little gasp. Her wrist tipped, and the whole cup of hot coffee splashed across the documents in front of me.
Brown liquid spread fast, soaking through the pages. The paper warped almost instantly, and several lines of text blurred into one dark stain.
“Oh my God, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”
Vanessa snatched up a wad of tissues and leaned over to wipe it, but her eyes were already red.
The more she wiped, the worse the mess got.
Coworkers gathered around.
“Oh no. This has to be turned in today, doesn’t it?”
“Isn’t the Department Head waiting on it?”
Coworker B, who had always been close to Vanessa, spoke up at once.
“She already apologized. Alex, don’t be so harsh about it. Accidents happen.”
It sounded like she was defending Vanessa.
Really, she was reminding everyone to watch me.
I didn’t cry. I didn’t argue.