Vince from Accounts Receivable stretched to the top shelf to retrieve his personally labelled jar of Vegemite. His friend Thomas from Accounts Payable, still bleary-eyed from his buck’s night, slathered Nutella from his personalised jar onto a piece of toast. Carolina opened her third pack of Tim Tams for the week, though it was just Wednesday. All the staff received customised Christmas presents. The fruit bowl remained untouched.
Vince felt honoured and excited when asked to be Thomas’s best man. Not only was it his first time in an important role, it would be the first wedding he would attend, despite being told he was at his parents’ wedding when just six months of age. His parents told him to ignore the ugly rumour and never mention it again.
Vince and Thomas did crosswords at lunchtimes and played cricket together on Saturday afternoons. Being tall and athletic Thomas was the best catcher in their team.
Thomas worked hard and became Senior Accounts Payable Clerk. He studied accounting part time. Regardless, his fiancée’s family were unimpressed by their daughter Laura’s choice of husband, though they did admit he was handsome. Thomas and Laura were introduced by a mutual friend and while Laura wasn’t the most exciting girl he’d met, she had a delicate face.
Thomas’s parents didn’t want to know Laura and feared a union with a girl from a better suburb was bound for disaster. Plus they were envious of Laura’s family. They had Sally-Anne in mind for their only son.
Despite his parent’s wishes, Thomas decided to pursue Laura, Sally-Anne was too young and giggly and still played with her 26 Barbie dolls. She idolised the handsome Thomas, which he found embarrassing. His pursuit of Laura was successful and they eventually fell into a comfortable pace. He proposed as he helped her out of the river while kayaking one afternoon. Fortunately she had learnt to swim at her private girls’ school and Thomas was able to steady the boat while she scrambled aboard. Even though his inadequate rowing skills led to her tipping overboard, Thomas felt heroic and believed it then timely to propose while at his intrepid and invulnerable best.
