Sophie,
My head is killing me. Nothing as bad as the time you had acute sinusitis, and I realize this was my own fault and not caused by a bacterial infection like yours. Nonetheless, I’m very sensitive to light and sound. I’d love to stay in bed all day, but I start working with Val today.
I’m sure you’ll be happy to know my dad has demanded I work with anyone other than Dane. You weren’t the one who told him I’d gotten that internship I hope. No, of course you wouldn’t do that. I might decide to change rooms in the fall if that were the case.
What’s worse, my dad’s now apparently going to call me every day to ask me everything that goes on here.
Anyway, I have other reasons to want to avoid Dane. I may have come on to him last night, and I’m mortified. It’s kind of a blur.
Selena
Dane exited the stairwell on the fourth floor. He entered the breakroom and grabbed a packet of coffee without looking. After his Styrofoam cup filled, he walked slowly out, focused on his stir stick.
He rarely came up to this floor, and everything looked foreign. He scanned the people with their cheery plants and festive lights draping cube walls, like they were at home instead of the office. He sensed Rosamund’s influence in the relaxed atmosphere. His eyes skated along the cubes until he located her, squinting at her monitor. He considered stopping over to chat, but that wasn’t his primary mission. He could make a social call another time. Rosamund began to cough heavily, making up his mind. He didn’t need to be picking up any kind of summer illness.
Nobody else seemed particularly interested in his presence. He blew on the hot liquid and proceeded toward his ultimate destination.
Morty sat in a large corner cube. It was open to the whole floor, so Dane had no intention of talking frankly to him here. He sauntered over and put his elbow up on the low cube wall. “Hi, Morty.”
Morty’s arms jerked. If he’d been holding his own cup of coffee, it would have ended up in his lap. “D-Dane. Hello. You don’t usually grace us. What can I do for you?”
Dane glanced around his desk. A tower of Styrofoam cups leaned against the far wall. Various stacks of paper merged into one another. Brown rings covered any visible counter space. How had this slovenly man ended up in this position? He had a suspicion competence played a very small role in his hiring. He could smell Val’s influence in this. “I just stopped by to ask you if you’d ever been to Miller’s bar on Sixth.”
“No. I can’t say that I ever have.” Morty attempted a smile, but it looked more like a cringe. He only managed to show his stained teeth.
“Well, that’s a pity. I plan to go there tonight after work. I hear they have a great happy hour special. Well, I guess I’ll see you around.”
Dane put his hand in his pocket, and a twenty dislodged itself and dropped to the floor. Dane pretended not to have seen it and turned to walk away.
“Just a minute.” Morty’s head peered around the cube wall. Dane closed his eyes, hoping this imbecile wouldn’t say anything stupid. Morty scratched his head and white flakes floated to the floor. “Do you want to meet me for drinks?”
“Well, Morty. Now that you mention it. We should do that. I’ll be there around five-thirty.”
Morty wrinkled his nose. “You know I’m married, right?”
Seriously?Dane bit back his honest reaction. “Of course. Just a couple of guys getting a beer after work. Sound good?”
Morty’s yellow teeth made another appearance. “Yeah.” He smiled a little wider. “Yeah. Why not? I’ll see you there.”
Dane held his composure until he’d entered the stairwell and then heaved in a huge breath and started laughing.
When he got back to his desk, he found a yellow sticky stuck to his laptop. It read:Coffeein perfect penmanship. He closed his door behind him as he headed back out.Good thing nobody expects me to work.
Val’s coffee had grown cold, and she was about to abandon her post at the back of the café. She decided to check her phone one more time to read through any emails or messages that might have come during the last thirty seconds. Since she received roughly one thousand emails a day, she wasn’t surprised to discover three more. But they were all the sort of crap she usually filtered out. She’d need to create more rules to get rid of the new influx of emails congratulating Alanna on her five years of service. That chain could go on all day. But she created a reminder to add her own saccharine response to the rest of the voices.
The chair across from her moved against her foot, and she glanced up to see Dane pulling it out to sit. “You might as well meet in the lobby as here. I thought we agreed to stop coming here.” He scooted toward the table with a glance around at the other patrons.
“I couldn’t think of any other place that we could get to quickly. I didn’t expect you to take so long. Where were you, anyway?”
“Working?”
Val snorted. “Oh, right.”
“You know, sometimes I do.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Did you invite me over here to insult me? I could go read the last letter my dad wrote me if I wanted to be abused.”
