The other party was a lady from another division on the same floor as I was. I usually kept my distance and only said hi and bye to her or at the most "the weather's hot these days". While I knew she had a penchant for gossip and constantly had her radar up for more news and rumors, I didn't know that she also had a manipulative and slightly malicious streak in her.
At least not till that day when she "cornered" me into the conversation. She must have been desperate to find someone to listen to her. Either that or she was eager to share with the world her findings on a pair of colleagues from the same floor as us who were supposedly having an affair. Both are married.
I have been pretty "anti-social" in recent years. I keep in my corner in the office and don't engage in deeper conversations with others. Unless I manage to find someone I am really comfortable with and whom I trust. This has turned out to be only about 3-4 people out of 100-odd folks on my floor.
I digressed. So anyway, Because I stay in my own corner of the office, I had not even heard about the supposed affair till she mentioned it to me.
She was speaking in a pretty self-righteous manner and maintained her position that those two colleagues were immoral and bad and yada yada...she must have expected me to concur with her. She looked at me expectantly through her babbling monologue. I refused to be goaded into any sort of position or comment which took sides and chose to remain neutral.
She tried to bait me into taking a stand and offered more details like how she stalked the couple together with a few other colleagues from her division. Inwardly, I rolled my eyes at this. Like wtf? If they want to be in an affair, it's their business. Nothing gives you the right to do such sleuthing!
I was exasperated at this point and felt like giving her a slap. It's one thing that you are excitedly and passionately spreading news about this couple, it's another thing altogether to poke your nose into their privacy. Whether they are right or wrong it's not up to us to judge. You don't know the full background to the whole situation as well so don't go standing on high moral ground and preaching about morality when you have been doing not-so-right things too.
Of course, I didn't voice out the above thoughts to her. 多一事不如少一事. I just maintained my neutral position and did not proffer much else. I guess that's the best way to deal with gossipmongers.
She eventually ended the conversation. She must have been disappointed that she did not get much concurrence or reaction from me.
I just hope that I don't bump into her anytime soon again. A wide berth I will give her.
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