I Know You

On Friday night, Ella invited April, me and David to dinner with her friends and their friends and friends of their friends... It was a pretty big group.

I sat next to one of Ella's good friends (who I met briefly once before). We chatted the way you do with someone you just met. She told me about her job, I told her about mine, discussed the menu and smiled a lot.

At the end of the night, she went to talk to another lady who sat at the end of our table. All of a sudden they called me and asked whether I used to work at some company. I told them I didn't. The lady next to her kept staring at me and said to Ella's friend, "I am sure you worked there. I know you!"

I looked closely at her face and she didn't look familiar at all. I also couldn't remember working for that company so I just laughed and said to Ella and April, "Isn't it scary that there is someone who looks so much like me out there". I also heard Ella's friend say to the other woman, "I told you she never worked with us!" The woman didn't seem convinced. She just kept staring at me.

Ella's friend told me the suburb of their company and I remembered that I did work in that suburb (the first first temp job I ever had, stapling all day). I told them that I thought I did work there after all and this woman started smiling while April rolled her eyes that I forgot where I used to work. (When you did as many temp jobs as I have, you might forget the one where you were only for a few weeks!)

The woman then excitedly said, "Remember we used to go for walks and you told me you did graphic design and played piano?!" Then it all dawned on me. This woman was the one who asked whether I had a boyfriend and got offended when I asked her whether she had kids. She told me she had a baby recently. No wonder I couldn't recognise her. She looked very different.

What was even more amazing than seeing her was that Ella's friend also worked there and she had lunch with us a couple of times. So we've actually met two years ago, way before I knew Ella.

Isn't it amazing how small the world is?