When your coworker is also your best friend

I once read somewhere that to climb up the corporate ladder, you shouldn’t become close friends with coworkers in case you might have to fire them someday. I thought to myself “Isn’t that sad”. I have only had two significant work experiences but have met my best friends there.

During my summer internship at Goldman Sachs two years ago, I sat right behind another intern Mike, a very smart guy from Georgetown, half Lebanese-half Indian, fluent in French and Arabic. We had the same initials ML. We did everything together. Most days we would go to this food truck on the street to have Chicken and Rice for lunch for $5. He loves Vietnamese food so I once even made spring rolls for our group of interns at his apartment. He would actually confide with me all his love stories. Sometimes when we were talking, I would say “Wait, slow down. I’m getting confused. Which girl are we talking about? The Indian girl, the Chinese girl or the American girl?” Because we sat so close, he would tease me “I wanted to spy on your emails so bad but you’re always typing away in this weird Vietnamese that I can’t understand. Damn!”

After our last day of work for the summer internship, we went out for Vietnamese food, had a drink and bought the lottery, promising each other that if we win, we’d split the prize. Of course we didn’t win. We then sat in Union Square smoking (just for fun, please don’t scold me!) and played this really really stupid and silly game: Looking at the girls walking by and guessing which ones are still virgins! I have no idea how he determines this (by the way they walk, how they dress??!!) but I kind of go for the assumption of “Guilty until proven innocent”. Ha ha… It was a fun summer.

He was the only one I kept in touch with after the summer. Luckily, both of us moved to New York after graduation. Although we don’t work at GS anymore, we still meet regularly. Whenever I had a problem, I would email him “Mike, we need to meet ASAP”. And he would reply “OK, looks like someone has an emergency. How about getting a bowl of Pho tonight? Let me ask my girlfriend for permission to go see my confidant” And whenever we saw each other, I’d ask him about his girlfriend and yelled at him “Oops, you did it again! You’ve got to stop this or else you’ll be punished, he he…” (did it again meaning break up with the girl). Up to now I still can’t remember any of his girlfriends’ names. Oh God I’m going to miss him.

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Right now I have an amazing best friend at work, Sophia. She and I are like sisters. Everyday, the minute I got to the office and logged in, she would IM me “Where do you want to go to lunch today?” We plan our lunch even before we had breakfast. The problem is that she’s so picky so I let her decide everything! I’d just answer “I dunno. It’s up to you. Since when does it matter where I wanted to go?” But I would also add “Gosh, I really spoil you. It’s not so easy to find an easygoing one who’d go with you anywhere you wanted”

I don’t know what I will do without her at work to help me with all the Finance and Accounting stuff. In between our long work day, we’d IM each other random messages or “I’m sleepy. Let’s get coffee” We would share a beer at baseball games and even eat out of each others plate when we eat out. People probably think we’re lesbians. It’s also really scary that some day we’d show up at work wearing shirts of exactly the same color. The creepy thing is we seem to not have enough of each other even after 5 days a week. We’d go watch a movie at weekends together. Since we both share a love for food (it’s unfair she eats more than me but is skinnier), we would try different restaurants in the city. Right now our favorite place is Accademia di Vino on 3^rd Avenue at 63^rd. This place has the best pizza, tuna tartar and salad!

For my birthday she gave me a book called “Why men love bitches” and told me “You should stop being nice to guys”. I probably should have taken her advice. Since we are both foreigners, we both were praying for the H-1B visa. We’d threaten each other “I’ll kill you if you get the visa and I don’t” Maybe God didn’t want anyone of us to be murdered so he gave neither of us the visa. Right now we have the new hobby of sharing wedding pictures or websites of friends with each other and discussing weddings. We’d also threaten each other “I’ll kill you if you get married before me” I hope it’s not going to be the same case with the H-1B visa. Or else both of us will end up a spinster….

Disclaimer: My blog is for entertainment purposes only, please do not take it seriously or personally. Thank you! He he...