It was her first day at work. The coffee machine was beeping relentlessly, giving the employees a dose of efficiency. The phones rang importantly. A group of women sat in the corner speaking in hushed tones. It was clearly a session of early morning gossip, just before the boss would enter. Or were they talking about her—the new girl? If only she had those extendable ears from Harry Potter! It would be interesting to know their first impressions about her. The catch was that she hated working with women. She found them to be jealous, over-competitive and just plain bitchy most times. But then, she was a woman herself—so she couldn’t say these words out aloud.

But she sat timidly in her place, not thinking about the gossip girls and smiled more often than not at everyone who gave her an inquisitive stare.

“Have you joined Friyana’s team?” She heard a loud voice boom right behind her right ear. Turning with a fright she responded, “Yes. As the new Content Writer!” To her surprise, the loud voice belonged to a frail little girl who looked like she was still in her teens. “Hi! I am Neha, I’m going to be your art partner. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Neha.” She sized up her art partner and thought, this place is full of women… How the hell was she going to manage?

“So have you brought lunch? Or would you like to go out?” Said Neha.

“I haven’t brought it, just moved into the city last week so I’m still setting up my house.”

“Done then. 12:45, okay?”

Time was ticking slowly and there was absolutely nothing to do. She felt out of place and homesick, in just a few hours. The gossip girls were still stealing glances at her and whispering to each other. Now, this was annoying. Why couldn’t they just mind their own business?

Finally, at 12:45, she picked up her wallet and met Neha by the lift. They decided to go to a beautiful cafe straight out of a Pinterest board, just under the office building. She was craving a juicy grilled chicken and apparently, they made a really good one.

As she entered the place, she saw the group of gossip girls right there. As their eyes interlocked, they screamed “Happy Women’s Day! Welcome to the team!”

The loud voice boomed right next to her, “You’re new but now you’re part of us. Welcome to the madness!”

She cut into a hot plate of grilled chicken peppered with condiments and mashed potatoes as they spent the afternoon getting to know each other. And it turned out to be the most heartwarming lunch she had had in a while.