today at work

i saw mr. perfect come in through the door. i have been used to seeing him now since he is a regular at the office. he shuttles himself back and forth, almost everyday from lucena to pick up supplies his store orders from us. i never really understood why he does this personally since our company offers delivery services, but he does. this just maybe is a perk he enjoys, driving long distances and running "errands for work" in places very far from home. he is considered a major customer since the goods he orders from us, in a month, can total to a lot... enough i have to say to make me swallow and be extra careful in doing the books when it comes to his account. since he is also a major customer, it's not really a surprise that my folks attend to him personally. his arrival today was no different.

it was around lunch time when he came. all the workers were now on lunch break as i could hear the pantry aloud with sounds of people chatting and flatware clanging. i was still sitting at my desk tallying the previous day's sales when my uncle came in from the warehouse, wearing his usual smile. he asked if i could join him inside to attend to mr. perfect since he was here to collect the goods he had ordered. not wanting to keep my uncle or this very important customer waiting, i carefully set aside the invoices i was calculating and followed my uncle into the store.

the noon time heat had made the temperature inside the warehouse almost unbearable. it was hot and the air was thick with humidity. you could throw boxes about and it would not disturb the dust that had accumulated inside due to the highly saturated air, heavy with moisture. my uncle, in mid chit-chat with mr. perfect and mid checking the list of items he had ordered asked me to seal up the boxes and load them into mr. perfect's car. i look around the floor and saw the boxes he was referring too. they were mid-sized, almost the size of a minibar ref and were still open. their contents were still strewn about the floor and still had to be packed into the boxes. my uncle asked that i hastefully move as the customer needed to leave soon.. so i did. i quickly picked up the remaining items on the floor and packed them in to their awaiting crates, sealing them up after for transport. all in all, there were 6 boxes and two bundles that were packed for pick-up. i found myself panting, woozy and dripping by the end of the task. the temperature nor the poor ventilation in the warehouse did little to comfort me. my uncle then asked me to fetch a kartilya, a cart, and load the boxes on and bring them to mr. perfects' car, which was parked outside in the street. i found the cart and loaded the boxes and followed mr. perfect to his vehicle. i wanted to stop for a bit to take my hanky out just to wipe my brow since sweat was already dripping into my eye, stinging it. but my hands were dirty from handling the boxes and i was also under time pressure. i forewent my little luxury of cleaning myself and just thought of doing it later instead. i passed the pantry pushing the cart as i went to his car and noticed that the noise emanating from within suddenly stopped as i passed. i went by the guard and he too acted strangely as i went down the ramp into the street, careful not to let go of the cart and its cargo. we finally reached mr. perfect's car and had his driver opened the back for us. i unloaded the boxes on to the street and was told that they can handle it from here. i then casually went back into the store with the cart and looked for my uncle to report.

by this time, my shirt was already tightly clinging onto me, drenched in sweat and my head, spinning from the noon time heat. the fatigue from the previous day's work was still upon me, and having missed breakfast and not having had lunch yet was taking it's tool. after confirming that all that i had needed to do was done, i slowly walked back to the office, washed up, wiped my brow and parked myself in front of the nearest fan i could find to dry.

in my efforts to rest and trying not to hyperventilate, i found myself asking.... why do i feel a slight tinge of embarrassment?