His message puzzledme most of the morning, until I opened my bottom drawer to grab a new pen and found it stacked full of Coke cans. I couldn’t help but glance behind me toward his office and was startled to see him leaning against the doorframe, taking a swig of his Coke. He lifted the can to me in a cheers before slipping back into his office.
That dirty, rotten flirt.
* * *
Over the past few days,the pile of work on my desk had grown taller as Tenisha slowly became more comfortable giving me assignments. Anita and I had settled into a one-sided relationship where she would sit at my desk and talkatme throughout the day before Shawn would say or do something to run her off in a huff. I almost started to enjoy our daily chats, as long as Shawn was nearby.
I had also been denying myself the drink and resisting the man who had the audacity to sit on my desk and proceed to tell Anita over the partition how much he loved a cold Coke on a hot day.
To my surprise, rather than berate him for his unhealthy habits, Anita smiled coyly and agreed that she’d occasionally allow herself a Diet Coke as a little treat.
“What about you, Nora? I always see you with a cold drink on your desk. What’s your favorite?” Duke kept his face earnest as I shot him an exasperated look.
“I’m actually trying to cut back.”
“How noble of you.”
“That’scutting back?!”Anita scoffed from her desk.
Before I could respond, we were interrupted by an arrival in the office.
“Duke!”
Duke’s head shot up, and I thought I saw his shoulders droop slightly as he took in his guests. The expression on his face was unreadable but he stood, moving around our desks to greet an older couple striding into the office.
“Hey, Mom. Dad.” His jaw twitched the tiniest bit. “What are you guys doing here?”
The layout of the main office was open, with cubicles in the middle, so it wasn’t exactly eavesdropping when they were literally stepping into everybody’s office.
“Just thought we’d drop in and say hi.” His mom wore light-colored jeans over her slender figure and a relaxed white button-down shirt with sunglasses hanging on the top button. Her light-brown hair touched the tops of her shoulders. Bright red, perfectly pedicured toes peeked out of gold sandals.She had a mega-watt smile that seemed instantly charming.
“Looks like you’ve hired on a few more people,” his dad said, looking around, his perceptive eyes taking in every detail. With the exception of a few wrinkles lining his face and his salt-and-pepper hair, he was the spitting image of his son, down to the suit and tie.
“How long have you been back?” Duke asked as he led them toward his office.
Their replies were muffled as the door closed.
Sometime later, I was working on a logo when the door to Duke’s office burst open, and he stormed out, yanking open Ryan’s office door.
“Meet me in Mike’s office,” he said. “Now.”
A moment later, the three owners were holed up in Mike’s office, and Duke’s parents wandered out, with his dad looking annoyed as the two of them left the office.
The rest of the day, things seemed tense. The camaraderie between Duke, Ryan, and Mike felt off, though the other two tried to put up a good front. Duke mainly kept to himself, but in the few glances I snuck, he seemed to be in a different world. The teasing glances had stopped.
None of what was happening was any of my business, and I didn’t want to flirt with him. That was not why I did what I did. It was the look of defeat on his face that pushed me over the edge. He’d been hurt by something, and that knowledge weighed on me. I hadn’t realized how much fun he brought into the office until it was gone—his sunshine hidden away by clouds.
There was a perfect storm later that day, when Duke was in the boardroom with clients and Anita was in the bathroom, so I took the opportunity to sneak a Coke into his office. To cheer up a friend, nothing more. With shaking fingers, I placed it on his desk, tucking the note underneath.
It’s no Dr. Pepper, but I’ll bet even a can of Coke can help a day go better.
I didn’t seehim again that day, but the next morning, a fresh Dr. Pepper sat glistening on my desk.
The Coke was just okay. But your note worked wonders.
Throughout the nextcouple of weeks, I broke.
I started small, allowing myself to give him ONE Coke a week. That wasn’t much of a breach. One day in five. But then slowly (i.e. two days later) that turned into twice a week. Okay, it was three. I almost couldn’t keep up. To be honest, I wasn’t much of a soda person. It had always been more of a treat for me. An every-once-in-a-while thing. But the amount of sugared liquid filtering on and out of my desk the next few weeks could have set a world record.
