Faith thought about it for a few more moments before making up her mind to indeed change Karen's nicotine addiction level in the app. She justified her choice to herself by thinking "Ah what the hell, I can always undo this change later if I have to. Perhaps there's a chance she might like it after all."
Faith moved the slider to set Karen's addiction level at 50%. It wouldn't be as strong as Faith's 90% level, but she hoped that it would be strong enough that Karen would have to join her outside for a smoke break in the afternoon. Once the slider was set she tapped the "Save Changes" button and scrolled around the rest of Karen's profile to see what else she could find. There were so many options among interests and personality items that she was losing track of where things were. Faith thought about making some changes to Karen's personality but she decided not to at the moment, reasoning that she'd hopefully learn more from Karen during their smoke break and that any changes in personality would come naturally.
Faith then put her phone back in her pocket and went back to her own desk to get back to work. She briefly thought about adjusting everyone's personalities to accept her not having to do anything at work but she soon realized that she would have to adjust everyone in a slightly different way so they wouldn't notice the changes, and that would be way harder than just doing the boring office work.
Before long lunch time came around, and Faith made her way to the office fridge to pick up her sandwich that she brought for lunch. As she picked it up she thought that the weather was too nice to be inside and that she should eat outside today. Usually she'd eat first before going outside to smoke a couple cigarettes during her lunch break. Once she was outside she sat down at one of the picnic tables and began eating one of her sandwiches. As she ate she opened the app on her phone and decided to look at her own profile to see if anything changed. Sure enough, she saw in the personality section that the percentage for "Manipulative" had gone up to 45% from about 20% earlier. She chuckled and said "Figures." to herself before resuming eating her sandwich.
Soon she finished her first sandwich and felt the need to smoke a cigarette. She pulled a fresh one out of the pack and lit it up, smiling as she took a deep drag and letting the smoke fill her up inside. After her first exhale she thought about her likely encounter with Karen later today and how she should strike up conversation with her, since they barely talked to each other outside of work related topics. All of a sudden she heard a "Hi! Excuse me, do you think I could have one of those cigarettes?"
Faith turned around and was shocked to see Karen standing there with a look of need on her face. Usually Karen was inside during lunch, chatting with the other people at the office. Faith still had a shocked expression as Karen elaborated, saying "Look I know it's kind of embarrassing since I made fun of you for it but I've been really craving a cigarette this morning. Truth is I'm a social smoker and I usually have a cigarette or two with friends on the weekend but not at the office. Anyway do you think you could forgive me and give me a smoke?" Faith smiled and said "Of course, I can sympathize with getting cravings at the worst time." as she opened up her pack of cigarettes and handed Karen one.
As soon as Karen put it in her lips Faith was ready with a lighter to ignite the cigarette, and Karen gladly accepted the light which was soon followed by a puff of smoke of her own. She chuckled and said "Thanks for the light, although I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to guess that I don't have a lighter on me." Faith replied after another exhale of her own cigarette by saying "You're welcome. I was once like you, I only casually smoked at parties so I never had a lighter or had my own cigarettes and I was bumming smokes off everyone I knew at parties. Then college came around and I started smoking more and I'm now up to about a pack and a half a day. So I guess that's my smoking story." Faith finished speaking with a shrug before getting back to dragging on her cigarette, exhaling towards the bright blue sunny sky.
Karen also took a drag at about the same time before continuing the conversation. "You know, it's funny that you mentioned how you used to be like me when in fact I was more like you in the past. Now granted the most I smoked was half a pack a day but I still would smoke every day. Now it's an every few days thing for me, I only smoke when I get a craving which is usually when I'm out with friends. Sometimes I'll get a few cigarettes left from a pack a friend was about to finish and I'd take those home and smoke those over a few more days. But aside from that I don't really carry cigarettes." Faith looked on interested as ever to hear Karen talk about her smoking habit. It definitely seemed like a friendship was blossoming from this.
After taking a drag and tapping some ashes into the ashtray Faith asked Karen "So can we call a truce about the snide smoking remarks in the office? And maybe try to become friends?" Faith looked nervous as she asked for friendship from someone who hours ago she thought was her biggest office adversary, she hoped Karen wouldn't laugh in her face or talk bad about her behind her back.
Karen smiled back and relieved all of Faith's concerns by saying "Yeah sure, we can be friends. Especially since I know that if I get any more surprise cravings I can count on you to supply me in my time of need." Both ladies chuckled at her joke, and they soon finished smoking their cigarettes. Once Karen stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray she gave her phone number to Faith and said "Text me so I have your number, and maybe we can hang out sometime. My friends are nice but they mostly go to the wine bar to complain about their husbands, which is very boring for me as I've been divorced for 10 years now. You seem nice and fun in comparison. Also sorry for rambling, I'm probably a little more excited than I should be about this!"
Faith chuckled as she stubbed out her cigarette and said "No I totally understand, you gotta change things up from time to time." She then texted Karen back and as soon as she finished she grabbed another cigarette and lit it up, Karen then gave her a thumbs up and said "I got your text! Anyway I have to run, the other coworkers are probably going to send out a search party for me if I don't come back in 2 minutes. Nice talking to you Faith!" Faith smiled back and said "Same here Karen! See ya!"
Once Karen left Faith was relieved that things went so well with their conversation. She didn't expect to gain a friend at the office but was pleasantly surprised to have that happen today. Out of curiosity she re-opened the app and loaded Karen's profile to see what changed. Karen's judgemental score under the personality section had decreased quite a bit while her socializing score had gone up. Perhaps Karen also wasn't the biggest fan of the rest of the office but tolerated them to feel included. As Faith smoked, she wondered if Karen would come back out to join her for the afternoon smoke break or if Karen would try to push back on her nicotine cravings.