A colleague of mine is a high-functioning narcissist and manipulator. She is magical at weaving sob stories and lies about her situation, in order to get what she wants, exactly how she wants it. I’ve suffered years of being forced to hand in my ideas, papers and work materials to her by my superior, who seems to be really charmed by her.

So anyway, our friend here loves new shiny things. She has to have the best and newest working materials in her possession. Whether she has to use them or not is another story altogether. She will create stories to get the materials from others, and sometimes steal the items when my colleagues are not around.

My superior once gave us both almost similar projects, and adequate materials to each of us, to be used for the project.

On Monday, the first day of the project, I went to retrieve a tube of chemicals among the materials provided to me. Everything was ready; I just needed the tube of chemicals to start my assay. Lo and behold, it was not there. Mysteriously disappeared. Mind you the tube was in the box when I did a final check on Friday the week before.

Naturally I called my colleague, as she has the same item, and I would like to borrow some of the chemical from her. She did not pick up her calls; in fact she did her best to stay out of my way on that particular day. I finally requested my superior to ask for the material on my behalf (it was urgent), and he said that she did not have the chemical anymore.

So I ordered a new tube of the chemical, and wasted two months of my life waiting for the item to arrive. My student, who was performing the project with me, was incensed at the whole situation, as she had to complete the project as soon as possible.

One fine day, the chemical arrived at the lab. Bright, shiny, and spanking new.

Within a few hours, my colleague approached me, looking all sweaty and pale, with my old chemical tube in her hand, and mentioned the following:

“Ranjetta, I accidentally found the old tube in the fridge as I was sorting out my things. Wouldn’t it be better if we store the new tube of chemical for safekeeping, and try to finish up the chemical in the old tube first?”

I said, “Thank you for your kind offer, but I think I’ll stick with the new tube.”

She left her work halfway and went back home early that day, with a pinched look on her face.