by Mia Archer
And right now she was screaming at me. Her messages asked me where the hell I was. Getting increasingly frantic. I glanced up at the time on my phone and very nearly pissed myself. There were even a couple of messages from Amber in there sounding increasingly worried and spelling out in gruesome detail just how furious Christine was. Damn.
I was late. Very late. It was at least two hours after I was supposed to be at work.
A firing offense if there ever was one. I might've been cavalier with Erica the night before about my chances of getting fired, but I knew heads had rolled for far less than this.
I shot off a quick message, though it was difficult because my fumbling fingers refused to cooperate long enough to get anything down in the text box. I texted that I’d be there shortly, no excuses offered, and then I was off to shower and get ready for work in record time.
I just hoped I’d still have a job when I got there. Damn it. What the hell was I thinking last night? Going out partying with my new intern? Some boss I was turning out to be!
I actually did get to work in record time. A half hour later I was running through the door after a very brisk walk from my apartment. I had an increasingly sinking feeling as I stepped off the elevator. Christine stood by my cubicle, her foot tapping. Her arms crossed. I wondered if she'd been waiting there since she sent me the first text message. It wouldn’t surprise me.
I was in deep shit.
"And just where were you?" Christine asked.
I swallowed. She didn't sound angry. She was cool and collected, but that was even more unsettling. It was the quiet anger you really had to worry about.
"I…"
"She was with me," a voice called out from behind me.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Damn it. Of all the times for Erica to arrive late. That could only make things even worse.
Erica breezed past us with a cheery smile on her face and a coffee carrier balanced in one hand. There were three coffees there. As she passed Christine she plucked one out and handed it to her.
"My treat!" she said with an oblivious smile. Then she turned and winked at me, the smile never leaving her face. Okay, maybe she wasn’t quite as oblivious as I thought.
Christine looked at her in astonishment, her mouth working but nothing coming out. I braced for the inevitable. She was just an intern. No matter how weird Christine had been acting yesterday, there was no way she was going to let Erica get away with something like this. There was no excuse, in her mind at least, for somebody being even a little bit late. Ever.
Hell, there'd been a guy who got reamed because he'd been hit by a car and was late. Never mind that he was late because he’d been at the hospital all day. Of course he'd kept his job. Barely. Even Christine was smart enough to avoid that sort of lawsuit.
There was no chance Erica was going to get away with this, though. She didn’t look like she’d been hit by a car.
"And why are you so late?" Christine asked, but it was clear the wind had been taken out of her sails. What the hell was going on here?
Erica stuck her head out from the cubicle. Looked at Christine and then over to me. "Is something wrong?"
"I…" Christine started, then stopped. "I was just wondering why the two of you were running so late today. You know I like to run a tight ship here on the seventh floor!"
"Oh that? We were working so late last night that we both decided to come in a little late this morning. You don't mind, do you? After all, it clearly states in the company handbook that flex time is cool, right?"
My mouth hung open. It was a wonder a fly didn't go ahead and take the invitation. Christine was also staring, but her expression was unreadable. There was just no way this could possibly work. There was no way that Christine, the dragon lady of the seventh floor, was possibly going to let a lowly intern get away with dictating company policy to her.
She sniffed. "Well then. I’ll just be sure and get confirmation you were in the system working late."
"Go ahead," Erica said. "Check the logs! I’m sure there won’t be any irregularities with any of them for this floor, right?"
"Yes, well…" Christine said, then she whirled around and stalked back to her office. If she was a cat her tail would be twitching.
I turned to Erica who was beaming at me. Who was this girl, and how the hell did she do that?
Then again, she had convinced me to go out rather than staying late and working the night before. She definitely seemed to have the ability to charm people when she wanted to. Though there had to be more than the ability to charm going on with Christine.
Shit. Working the night before. I scrambled into the cubicle.
"What were you thinking, telling her there’s nothing wrong with the logs?"
Erica shrugged and smiled. "What's she going to do if she makes a big stink about the logs? Anyone higher up who goes in and investigates is going to see that you're working on a lot of projects dragon lady in there should be doing. If she rats you out then she rats herself out."
"That's… Fucking genius!"
"I knew you'd think so," she said. "Now how about your coffee? I made sure to bring a little extra to go with yours."
She slid a bottle of ibuprofen my way. I grinned and we held our coffees up in salute as we downed some sorely needed medication. It was going to be difficult getting through this day, but the medicine would help. I looked at Erica and grinned. I couldn't help but be in awe of the way she'd handled Christine. I'd definitely have to figure out how that worked before she finished her internship.
"Right," I said. "Well now that we’re both in here, I might as well show you how to get started on some of our work."
We spent the rest of the morning exploring the exciting tedium of spreadsheets interrupted by the occasional message from Amber, though she kept things more tame than our usual conversation. Probably because she knew I had Erica in here with me.
Erica, in the meantime, was being very forward. She scooted in close to me, and I tried my best to ignore how close she was. The way she always leaned in. Hell, on one occasion I found myself glancing over and realized she'd leaned over far enough that I could catch the barest glimpse of her cleavage, and for the first time in my life I found myself actually enjoying what I was seeing. Like, I'm talking really enjoying it. Not just glancing and thinking "oh, I wish I had that!"
I shook my head when I realized what I was doing. What the hell was I thinking? I quickly looked up to her face, and from the way she'd locked eyes with me and smiled it seemed like she'd definitely noticed me looking. Shit. I was crossing all sorts of forbidden barriers here with my intern, and we'd only known each other for barely a day!
I tried to be strictly business after that. We eventually settled into a routine, but I couldn't help but notice the way she looked at me occasionally, and it had me wondering.
Only every time they came up I stomped down on those thoughts. I was the boss, she was the intern, and that's all there was to it. Anything else would be very unprofessional and inappropriate.
All that tension made the conversation we had at the end of that first full day just a little uncomfortable.
"So I was thinking of going out somewhere again. What do you think?" Erica asked.
I turned and smiled at her. Tried my best to hide how excited I felt about the idea of going out with her again. It wouldn't do to seem excited considering it wasn't going to happen.
"I'd love to Erica…"
It was amazing how she managed to keep her face under control. She slipped for just a moment. A frown was there for just the barest fraction of a second. Which just made me feel all the more terrible about turning her down.
Particularly considering the combination of all the fun we'd had the night before and how she'd miraculously managed to keep me from getting yelled at by Christine the dragon lady today.
"I have a feeling there's a “but” somewhere in there?" Erica asked.
"Unfortunately yeah," I said with a sigh. "Listen, last night
was fun and all. I had a great time. Probably the most fun I've had since I started working at this place. But it's not appropriate…"
Erica sighed and smiled. Her smile was radiant. It was so welcoming. I found myself wondering what it would feel like to lean forward. To maybe press my lips against that smile and…
Whoa. Now where the hell had that thought come from? I shook my head to try and clear it. Going out with her the night before was bad enough. Starting to have those sorts of thoughts, though? That was definitely something that would be frowned on by the organization. Not to mention that I’d never had those sorts of thoughts about a woman before!
"It's okay," Erica said. "I understand entirely. My dad is always going on about how you shouldn’t mix business and pleasure. Not that he's very good about following his own advice."
I shook my head. "It's been my experience that men aren't very good at following their own advice when it comes to that sort of thing."
Erica giggled. "Well I understand why you're doing this," she said. "But don't think this lets you off the hook. I'm not going to give up that easily!"
A thrill ran through me at those words. Suddenly I very much wanted her to not give up. I very much wanted her to keep trying to get me to go out with her. Wait, go out with her? Did I really just think of it as going out with her? Like a date? What was coming over me?
This was dangerous. So very dangerous.
"I think you should go and have your fun though. Enjoy being young and out there. I'll be here working like the old spinster I am!"
Erica leaned forward. Put her hand on my own. I felt a thrill run through me at that touch and then I immediately schooled myself to an impassive face. It wouldn't do to show her how giddy I felt at that touch. Then again there was no way to hide the goosebumps that rose around that spot where she was brushing my arm.
"You're definitely not an old spinster. Trust me on that."
I looked away. Partly because I was blushing, but mostly because I didn't think I was going to be able to stand the burning intensity in her eyes. Damn it. It wasn't fair for someone to be able to look at me with that much intensity! Her eyes were pure sex sending a thrill running through me. My body was betraying me. It was making me think thoughts that were totally inappropriate for a boss to her intern. And yet they were so delicious precisely because they were so forbidden. I needed to get control of this, and I needed to get control of it now!
"Go on Erica," I said. "That's an order. And make sure to tell me about all the fun you had tomorrow. Living vicariously through you will give me a welcome distraction while I'm working on dragon lady’s boring spreadsheets."
Erica sighed. "Well if you're not going to be satisfied until you’re rid of me…"
Being rid of her was the last thing I wanted, but at the same time it didn't seem like a good idea to go telling her that. That would just needlessly complicate an already complicated situation. I shooed her out of the cubicle even as I hated myself for doing it.
"Go. Have fun!"
And with that Erica stood and made her way out. Only I found myself leaning out of the cubicle as she left. I found myself looking her up and down in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with assessing her professional qualities and everything to do with assessing how good she looked in that button up shirt and the tight skirt that molded to her body just low enough to get past company policy. It was definitely on the line, though. A very fun line that I was suddenly very much enjoying.
As she reached the elevator she turned and caught me looking. Fixed me with a grin and another one of those steamy looks. At least I thought it was a steamy look. Maybe that was wishful thinking? I'd never gotten a look like that from a woman before, after all, and so I had no idea how the hell this was supposed to work. What the hell "this" even was.
I sighed and rolled my chair back as the elevator doors closed. This was crazy. It was time to focus on spreadsheets and the real world for a little while. Before I let my fantasy life get away from me entirely.
I looked down to a blinking notification in the corner of my screen. Messages from Amber asking where the heck I’d been, and then one final question.
“Something going on? Haven’t heard from you in awhile.”
Was something going on? I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like it. It was a good thing she’d logged of for the day, because talk about a conversation I didn’t want to have. I sighed, clicked out of my messages, and tried to concentrate on spreadsheets. Tried being the operative word as thoughts of Erica kept intruding on my work.
6: New Feelings
This was crazy. I was letting my fantasy life get away from me entirely.
Arrive in the morning. Usually I tried to bring coffee of some sort. Through a little bit of trial and error I'd figured out exactly what Nicole liked. It was silly, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy to hand her a hot cup. I'm sure she thought I was kissing her ass, but I just wanted to help.
Besides, I didn't know anybody in the company who needed to kiss their boss’s ass less than I did.
Sitting in a cubicle with her all day long was pure torture. It was like that first day when I saw her as the elevator doors closed, only now those feelings hit me every time I turned my desk around. Talk about making it difficult to get any real work done! I felt like I was going to explode. Like I had a fever, and the only cure was more Nicole.
In short, I had one hell of an inconvenient girl crush, and it was driving me to distraction.
"Are you having some trouble there?"
I very nearly jumped out of my skin. I turned and Nicole was smiling at me. She was always so easy-going. The exact opposite of how stressed out everybody else was on this floor. I wondered if that was because she was trying to put on a brave face for me, or if she was really able to let her troubles roll off her so easily. If it was the latter I really needed to learn her tricks.
"Nothing like that," I said. "Just a little distracted, is all."
"I can understand why," she said. "Those spreadsheets can get pretty boring. Sometimes I think part of the reason why I spend so much time working on them is because I spend half my time daydreaming to get away from the dull monotony."
"Really?" I said with a grin. "I thought the reason you spent so much time on all the spreadsheets was because Christine was always giving you more and more of her work."
Nicole stuck her tongue out at me. I'm sure she only meant it as a playful gesture, but I couldn't help but shiver as I thought of some of the other far more interesting things she could do with that tongue.
And there I went again. Getting distracted.
"You've got that look on your face again," Nicole said.
I schooled my face to passiveness. Shit. She could tell when I was mooning over her? Damn it.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"That faraway look in your eyes. Like you're a million miles from here."
I'd hardly say I was a million miles from the cubicle. The problem was I was right here in the cubicle. Right next to her. That was enough to make my mind wander to some very interesting places. I never thought I'd find someone as interesting as Nicole in the office, but now that she was right here in front of me I had to have her.
Which made it all the more disappointing that she seemed completely uninterested in what I was offering.
I sighed.
"Seriously Erica," Nicole said. A worried expression on her face all of a sudden. "What's bothering you? Did Christine say something? If she bothered you…"
She looked through her cubicle wall towards where Christine would be sitting in that massive glass office that always showed her busy not doing her job at pretty much all hours of the day. That was definitely going in my report when I talked about my experience here on the seventh floor.
"I guess I won't do much of anything," Nicole said. "Except maybe bitch about her. That's always fun!"
"Tell me about it!" I said, suddenly seeing an opportunity to change the subject and seizing
on it. "I'm pretty sure I saw her playing solitaire for a solid half hour yesterday. I didn't know they even still installed solitaire on computers these days!"
Nicole rolled her eyes. "She probably convinced somebody in IT to help her out with that."
"You mean she browbeat someone until they gave her what she wanted?"
Nicole giggled. "That does sound like Christine's management strategy, but in this case I’m pretty sure she was banging one of the IT guys at some point."
“Poor bastard,” I said.
Nicole sighed again. Usually we could giggle about that sort of thing, but not for long. It was always funny for a little while, but then it inevitably turned to the depressing reality that was working on the seventh floor. A depressing reality that I fully intended to change as soon as I had an opportunity. Not that I had any idea when exactly that opportunity was going to be, which drove me crazy.
Almost as crazy as I was going wondering when I was going to get another chance with Nicole. If I'd known that first night out at the bar was going to be the only night we enjoyed together then I would have tried to make more of it. At least I thought I would’ve tried to make more of it. It's difficult to tell.
Sure I'd thought she was hot back then, but at the same time it's not like I'd spent enough time with her to really get to know her. To see her humorous personality and how scary smart she was. Too smart for the job she was doing, but then again I figured underemployment was just kind of a thing since the economy had been put into the tank while I was still in high school.
Now I was left with a conundrum. How did I break through that barrier of professional propriety that made her unwilling to go out with me after work? I'd asked almost every day when we got to the end of the day, and every day she always had an excuse. Usually that she had too much work to do and couldn't possibly think of going out, but I think we both knew that was just a polite fiction.
