Smiling, Faith flipped the lid back on her L&Ms and held it out to Karen. With her own cigarette dangling, Faith watched as her work colleague took the offered cigarette in between her fingers, her eyes fixated on the foreign object.
"Want a light?" Faith exhaled, as she readied her lighter.
After a moment of reflection, Faith put the filter between her lips, as her eyes focussed on the dancing flame approaching. Karen sucked gently as the tip began to burn in earnest. Karen's cheeks caved in, as her body welcomed the toxic smoke. After a few moments, Karen exhaled a small stream of smoke overhead. A smile soon formed, and Karen sighed as nicotine surged through her mature body. Taking a deeper second drag, Karen sat beside her younger work colleague.
For a minute, they smoked in silence, but their focus was on the new addition to the bike shed. Karen's posture relaxed with each puff, while Faith read through the app. There was an option to Quick Load, where she could see Karen's profile. An option to Update appeared at the bottom left corner, which she pressed whilst her colleague inhaled, lost in her own smoky thoughts. Once the update completed, the attributes slightly changed, with recent changes in orange, including her new Smoking addiction. Karen's smoky silence gave her an opportunity to browse all the other categories for her spellbound colleague. Scrolling through Karen's hobbies and interests, Faith found there were areas of common ground, such as favourite TV shows and movies like Pirates of the Caribbean.
"Didn't know you smoked." Faith quipped as she inhaled sharply.
"I don't." Karen replied, her mind still trying to process the image of a smouldering cigarette between her fingers. Karen took another deep drag on the cigarette, driven on by the new cravings.
"I've never smoked before, this is my first time, always hated anyone who does this. I see this as a weakness in people." Karen exhaled.
Faith realised the app may be reality changing, but it didn't rewrite history. Anyone affected appeared to retain full memory before adjustments were made.
'For all the crap I've taken for years from antis, maybe grappling with their conscience is fully deserved.' Faith thought, as she inhaled again.
"I dunno why I am doing this, how am I gonna explain it?" Karen thought out loud, while taking a penultimate puff.
"I wouldn't worry. Smoking is a choice people make. It clearly suits you, you seem more chilled. I note this is the longest we've sat together since I started to work here." Faith noted.
"Maybe so." Karen dragged down to the filter, before grinding it beneath her feet and standing up.
"Please don't tell anyone. Maybe this is a one time thing. Something came over me." Karen pleaded, as she stuck gum in her mouth in a vain bid to hide her behaviour.
"You know, if you need a couple for the road, I got a few to spare." Faith teased, as she took out a couple of cigarettes from her dwindling pack.
"I dunno, you're a bad influence. I should know better." Karen replied, her eyes drawn to the cork filters.
"If you change your mind, email me later. We can rendezvous when it's quiet." Faith offered, putting the cigarettes back in her jacket.
As Faith exhaled the last cloud of smoke, they returned back inside to their respective jobs, with no spoken word of their shared activity to colleagues.