MONDAY

FADE IN:
INT: QUIET OFFICE – DAY

Group of 12 office workers sit silently at their computers, most with headphones in; One yawns loudly; One plays on their phone.

DISSOLVE TO:

INT: WORK KITCHEN SPACE – DAY

NARRATOR V.O
It’s Monday morning and the office, like its inhabitants, wake up to a brand new working week, still cold and creaky from the weekend just passed. In the small dimly lit work kitchen a Nespresso machine is hard at work. 

A thin stream of coffee is being extracted – splashing into a shallow bubbly pit at the bottom of a mug. 

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
J, part-time coffee connoisseur pretends to not be worried about the crema on her crappy Nespresso coffee as a figure walks into the otherwise deserted kitchen. 

Initially holding her coffee mug at a tilt under the coffee machine – embarrassed she hastily drops it to sit flat under the machine, as the unknown person enters.

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
MARVIN, English colleague who’s a lot more posh than he believes himself to be is suffering from Mondayitis. 

Sliding past behind J, he pays absolutely no attention to what he or J is doing.

[pause]

As he stands next to her, eye contact is made prompting a conversation.

J
Oh hey, how are you?

MARVIN
(huffy/exhausted) Yeah I’m right thanks. You right?

J
Yeah, I’m great 

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
Sensing Marvin’s tired state, J reverts to her own silent state of tiredness, not wanting to disturb the peace with small talk.

[silence]

Both J and Marvin continue with their morning coffee preparation. 

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
J glances in Marvin’s direction, trying to gauge if he’s willing to talk about his weekend. Marvin makes no action to chat until… he does —

MARVIN
(whilst opening a cupboard to grab a cup)
So I hear you’ve moved house?

J
(re-animated by the initiated conversation)
Oh yeah I did. Just last week actually.

MARVIN
Oh yeah? How are you finding it?

J
Yeah I’m really liking it. The area is pretty cool. Heaps of things to do

MARVIN
Yeah?! I actually used to live really close to there. Where about are you?

J
I live on Mill Lane (?). Do you know where that is?

MARVIN
Yeah, I literally used to drive up that road every day to school, for what (pauses to think) like 20 years (?)

J
Oh no way. Where abouts did you go to school?

MARVIN
In Hampstead, so you know on that road, if you keep driving down towards Hampstead, and then up the hill? There.

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
J has absolutely no idea

J
Ahh I see. Cool! Well yeah, I really like my new place too. It’s cool. It’s even got its own rooftop.

[beat]
MARVIN
Oh what? It’s got a —

J
Yeah it’s got a deck up on the roof that you can climb up to. So it’ll be perfect for when there’s sun. If there’s ever sun. *laughs*

[beat]
MARVIN
Oh no way. That’s awesome!

NARRATOR V.O (cont’d)
It dawns on J, that posh man Marvin may just be pretending to find her conversation about a crappy roof interesting. Who knows what kind of fancy living situation he’s got going on. He might even have a giant mansion all to himself. The conversation comes to a natural lull.

The milk frother machine which has been churning and steaming away this whole time with no milk coming out, starts to let off a serious amount of steam. 

NARRATOR V.O (cont’d)
Still no milk.

J
(gesturing at the milk frother machine)
What the hell is this thing doing? 

MARVIN
Oh do you know if there’s any milk in there?

J
Oh crap, I didn’t think to check. Ahhhhm.

MARVIN
(gesturing at the vat in the front of the machine)
The milk goes in this doesn’t it?

J
Yeah but it’d be really hot right now with all that steam. I’ll just use a bit of cold milk instead.

Marvin still goes to open up the steaming hot vat of milk. 

J
Nah don’t worry about it. It’ll be really hot. Don’t burn yourself.

J reaches down below the bench for the fridge door to grab some cold milk for her coffee. 

MARVIN
(stopping mid reach)
Oh yeah right. Well I guess I’ll just go with black coffee. Much safer. *laughs*

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
Marvin being the resident office health freak had in fact already planned to not have milk

J
Oh yeah *laughs*. Better than burning mysel–

Realising that Marvin has already scooted on out of the kitchen, J pours some cold milk into her coffee and puts the milk back in the fridge. She pauses.

NARRATOR V.O (Cont’d)
Another successful interaction with a man, J thinks to herself.

FADE TO: BLACK