D just got back from a skiing trip to France. Earlier this year, her grandmother died. When she went skiing with her cousins, she collided with her little cousin’s ski boot and ended up with a huge red mark on her face that took awhile to disappear. She has a sister, and she talks to her dad a lot. Someone keeps calling her to ask about a position that hasn’t yet been filled. And she’s buying a condo in Maine.

I know all this about her. And yet D and I have never spoken a word to each other.

No, I’m not a stalker. I just work in an office.

D and I work for the same company, but not on the same projects. Her cube is near mine, and while she seems like a very nice person, she is incredibly loud on the phone. And she makes and receives a lot of personal calls during work.

Everyone, I guess, has to make personal calls sometimes. If you’re at work, chances are, if you need someone to do a job for you, they’re at work when you are. Some people give out their work phone numbers, but most people get calls on their cells. And at this point, I can identify everyone’s cell phone ring. There was one woman, who has since left the company, who had this cool, Egyptian-esque ring, and I’d hear it every day at 3:00 when her son called her to tell her that he’d gotten home from school. The guy who took her place has the Mission: Impossible theme as his ringtone. D keeps hers on vibrate, so every day I hear this buzz buzz buzz, buzz buzz buzz.

I don’t get too many calls during work, and I step outside if I have to make one. But I do wonder what my coworkers have learned about me the few times I have gotten calls during work. Mostly, I’m just fighting with my dermatologist’s office, trying to figure out why they’re having so many issues with my insurance. Or I’m getting random calls like this one:

Me: (seeing from the caller ID that it’s Christina) Hey, what’s up?

Christina: Hey, what was that restaurant we ate at before we saw Phantom of the Opera?

Me: Uh, Bennigan’s. Why?

Christina: Because I couldn’t remember and it was pissing me off!

And there was that one time my mom called me to tell me about the Great Cartoon Bombing of Boston. But for the most part, the only calls I get are from sales reps and my boss, when she’s traveling.

D and I sometimes give each other a smile of acknowledgment when we pass each other around the office, but like I said, we’ve never spoken. I wonder if she realizes that I could tell her the story of her life. Maybe before she moves to Maine, from where she’ll telecommute, I’ll go up to her and say, “Hope you enjoy Portland!”