Last night my wife L., out of the blue, suggested that I take to work for my co-workers the orange cake with orange butter icing we'd baked the night before. It is a very nice surprisingly light and moist cake. This is something I do extemporaneously about once a year or so, even though it is something I really enjoy when I get around to doing it.
Well, this morning, just after I've set the cake down and am in the process of removing my jacket, Marcus Aurelius walks into my pod, which, even at 6:30am, is not unusual. "What's this?" he asks, and thumbs the plastic cake container. "Wouldn't you like to know," I rejoined. "Hrrmph," he grunted.
"I've got something urgent for you to look at," he said.
"This is the telco," I said, "we don't have anything that is urgent!"
"Yes. I do."
"No, you don't. Is it okay if I come down after I've put my lunch in the fridge?"
"Of course!"
I wander down, expecting him to be struggling with some kind of computer issue, which, for some reason, the nature of his nature seems to invite from his PCs.
After a short conversation, I asked him what he'd like me to look at, and he said "This," and passed a rather large and heavy plastic bag to me.
"What's this?"
"Brownies."
"Brownies? What do you mean, brownies?" I was truly shocked.
"Eos, [his wife], wanted to thank you for all the help you've been to me," he said with a big smile.
I was stunned. "You're serious, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am."
"But..."
"I tell her everything. And she wanted to thank you for all that you have done. And, furthermore, what you don't know, of course, is that she actually baked brownies two nights ago, but they didn't turn out, so she made another batch last night for you."
And so it came to pass, that on the rare day that I bring in a cake to share with my friends and co-workers, out of the blue I am given a batch of brownies.
"And another thing," M.A. added, "E. knows how much I love them, and so she gave them to me uncut."
"I see."
I then suggested to M.A. that it would be great to surprise E.
We went back to my desk, and I pulled out a plate. M.A. put a few pieces of cake on it, and then we covered it in paper. I just happened to have a plastic bag similar to the one the brownies were packed in, and so M.A. went home bearing a return gift.
A short while later I called E. at her office, to express my delight and gratitude for thinking of me. We have only ever met once before, at last year's Bard-on-the-Beach, and I barely had time to talk with her then.
"Well," she said, "it is quite evident that your company is not going to thank you for all the work you do, so I felt it important that someone did."
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