Break Away

by Robin Edwards

  We decided to try out this new, outdoor café near the office that we heard had a fantastic menu and new takes on old classics, so we wanted to try it out. We also needed to talk about the campaign pitch that we were going to give the hotel. We needed the business and because their marketing budget was huge. If we landed the account, it would mean great things for the company.

  “How about we use more coupons or maybe we could organize a few focus groups to gauge interest?” I suggested as the angel from days before entered the cafe. She was accompanied by another female this time around who was also ravishing.

  I was immediately mesmerized by her beauty and I couldn’t help but think about how she was even more beautiful than I last remembered. Her friend wasn’t too bad to look at either.

  “There’s the angel again. I told you it was meant to be!” I pointed out to Patrick.

  The two beautiful women were instantly greeted by the hostess, “Hello Ladies. Welcome to Café’ Bien. Will it just be the two of you?”

  “Yes it is.” The mystery woman confirmed.

  “Just this way.” The hostess urged as the women followed her to the empty table behind me. I attempted another wave at the mystery woman as they passed by and she glanced in my direction and gave another heartwarming smile.

  “Do you remember what I said? I told you that I would meet her again.” I whispered to Patrick cautiously.

  “To meet her again, you would have to meet her for the first time.” Patrick shook his head in annoyance.

  “Did you not see the way she smiled at me? It was an even bigger smile than the first one!” I argued quietly.

  “She probably let one out.” Patrick chuckled to himself.

  “No. It meant something,” I said as I scooted my chair back to eavesdrop on the conversation the women were having. I was determined to find out any information that would help me get closer to this raving beauty.

  “What are you doing exactly?” Patrick question.

  “Shh.” I waved him off.

  “…yeah, sometimes you get free tickets to games and passes to all kinds of events. So far it has been a fun and cool job. I’m enrolled in their training program, if I do well I could get promoted to a marketing coordinator.” The mystery woman gushed.

  “Wow, you are so lucky.” Her friend said in amazement.

  “Before I forget, you should take down my work email address.” The mystery woman said as I quickly pulled out my pen.

  “Ready? It is bjohnsen@nsk101...”

  “Oh, my god, what are you doing?” Patrick asked as he watched me frantically scribble onto a napkin.

  “Shh, I am writing it down,” I said as I continued to eavesdrop while writing ‘bjohnson@nsk101.com’.

  A waitress arrived with our order as I strained to hear the rest of the mystery woman’s conversation but it was hard to do so with both the waitress and Patrick talking near me.

  “I hope you men are hungry.” The waitress said as she set our plates with a half sandwich and small order of fries.

  “Oh yea, I am starving.” Patrick rubbed his stomach and eyed the plates.

  “Enjoy.” The waitress said as she walked away to check on the other seated patrons.

  “This is what you would call fate.” I said holding up the napkin with a scribble of the mystery woman’s email address. Based on the prefix of her email address I assumed it was an amalgamation of her first name initial and her last name. If I was correct, she was “B” Johnson, but unfortunately I did not know what B meant. For all I knew, it could have stood for Barbara, Brittany or even Betty.

  “Man, I am starved too.” I said as I bit into my BLT sandwich.

  “Why don’t you just go talk to her? She is sitting right behind you.” Patrick whispered before I did something stupid and absurd, like always.

  “What am I supposed to say? ‘My name is Sean and you are the woman I’ve been looking for my entire life. Will you marry me?” I suggested.

  “I think, ‘Hi, I am Sean.’ is simple enough.”

  “No. This email address here is fate. This is how it is supposed to happen.” I exclaimed waving the napkin around as Patrick laughed at the absurdity.

  “Whatever you say, man. If you want to waste time taking the long route and email her instead of just talking to her at the table behind you, then be my guest. Either way, you need to start the process of going back to the old you. Otherwise, why would you have bought those new clothes if you weren’t going to wear them?”

  “I know. I will if this whole situation with her progresses.”

  “The old you needs to start now and it needs to start with the first email you send her. You need to come off as charming not romantic or emotional. You need to come off as witty and playful.”

  “Okay, I get it. Can we just eat now?”

  Later that night, I sat at my drafting table sketching designs for hours at home in preparation for an upcoming promotional campaign but I could not focus because I was exhausted and I continued to obsessively think about whether or not I wanted to take a chance and email the mystery woman, B. I was ready for bed but I had to do something about her before it was too late.

  As I reached into the front pocket of my jeans, I pulled out the folded napkin with B’s email address scribbled on it. I was still hesitant on whether or not I wanted to take the chance and email a woman who didn’t even know who I was let alone ever met.

  I spent the past few hours going back and forth with an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. As the night and my exhaustion wore on, the devil won.

  “To hell with it,” I muttered to myself and rushed over to my computer and waited anxiously for it to turn on. Once on, I opened my email account and started a new correspondence with my new ‘persona’ in mind.

  “Got to be witty and charming.” I said to myself as I begun typing.

  SUBJECT: The Biggest Reason Why I am Your Secret Admirer

  BODY: For starters, I am writing to you in the middle of the night because it is the PERFECT time to do something that scares me shitless.

  I started to yawn again as I tried to think of what else I would say but my eyes started to close on their own due to exhaustion. I decided to save the email as a draft and would continue it after I got some sleep, it was the middle of the night after all.

  ****

  BRIDGETTE

  I WOKE UP TO THE SOUND of my alarm clock blaring and fortunately I was in a good mood. I had a feeling that it was going to be a good day. I walked into the kitchen to make myself a cup of strong coffee and lunch for Kyle. To my dismay, I found him sitting at the dining room table playing with his cereal, contemplating something that must have bothered him.

  “Hey buddy, eat up. I want to try and get to the office early today. You are going to have your usual turkey and cheese sandwich, okay?”

  Kyle did not make an effort in responding to my comment and I sensed something was wrong, “Hey, what’s going on? Are you okay?”

  “Does Dad like turkey and cheese too?” Kyle finally asked.

  I brushed his soft, strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes and sighed, “Well, who doesn’t?”

  Not quite satisfied with my explanation, Kyle continued to ask me dozens of questions about his father until he shrugged and went back to eating his cereal. After we got ready for our respect days, I walked Kyle to his bus stop.

  It was my favorite time of the day and I enjoyed our short little walks to the bus stop as I stood there and watched him climb aboard the bus and drive away.

  “Okay, here you go,” I said as I tried to kiss Kyle on the cheek after I handed his backpack over.

  “No, mom. You can’t do that. It’s not the cool thing to do anymore.” Kyle whispered as he glanced over at the other kids that were already waiting at the bus stop.

  “Okay, big guy. What is cool then?” I asked as Kyle used the opportunity to give me a fist bump and teach me a new handshake he must have learned from his peers.

  The sc
hool bus pulled up several minutes later as I started to get the hang of his newly discovered greeting. Kyle whispered ‘I Love You’ into my ear and quickly ran up the steps of the school bus so he could nab his preferred seat in the back.

  Although I started my day early, by the time I got onto the freeway and suffered through the bumper-to-bumper traffic, I was already late for work. It was the lengthy conversation I had in the kitchen with Kyle when he brought up his father again that did it.

  Vince, the CEO and Founder of NSK101 did not like tardiness and constantly preached about it daily and the importance of having time management skills and good work ethic. He was a minute-to-minute individual and it did not matter if you were a minute or ten minutes late, it was all the same to him. He was a nice guy, of course, but everyone had a flaw and that was his.

  “Hey Beth!” I said quickly as I rushed into the building past her desk. Beth was the semi-new receptionist for NSK101 and fielded all of the incoming calls. She was also often seen as Vince’s favorite, which wasn’t true of course but she seemed to get away with everything and it didn’t have to do with her being new. We were all new once and we never got the same preferential treatment. More than likely it was her sunny disposition that made you like her.

  Beth Johnsen was blonde, fit and beautiful and I could see why people radiated to her like moths to a flame. She was bubbly and intelligent too. She was a triple threat and I knew that was what men liked – someone they could have a conversation with but also someone positive that turned them on as well.

  “Morning!” Beth responded cheerfully.

  “It’s a very late morning. Is Vince in yet?” I asked her as Vince coincidentally walked into the lobby.

  “We start at 9:00 am, Bridgette. Not 9:30 a.m.”

  “I am so sorry, Vince. The freeway had bumper-to-bumper traffic and then there was that accident…” I apologized profusely.

  “Vince, the freeway was totally backed up. It took me thirty minutes just to get here when it usually took me only fifteen.” Beth said in agreement.

  “Well, I guess I can understand those circumstances. Just remember girls, if all of our team members aren’t present then there is no team. If there’s no team, then we aren’t operating at 100% capacity. We might as well shut it down at that point.” Vince huffed as he headed down the hall towards his office.

  “Okay!” Beth and I agreed.

  “Thank you for that,” I said gratefully once Vince was out of earshot.

  “Oh, don’t mind him. Vince is just a big ol’ teddy bear.” Beth said. It was like Beth to see the best in people. It’s what made her so likeable.

  “How is the leadership training going for you?” I asked.

  “Everyone has been really nice. Vince said it was the first step to climbing the corporate ladder here.” Beth giggled.

  Luke, the company sleaze ball, ran into the room panicking, “Bridgette! Bridgette! Where are the Summer Music Award reports?”

  “Um, I put them on your desk in a file called, Summer Music Award Report, like you asked me to do.” I said sarcastically.

  “Ok, cool.” Luke cleared his throat and adjusted his tie in an effort to not look humiliated.

  “By the way Luke, I also did you a favor and edited your grammar and fixed all of your typos.” I rolled my eyes at him as I walked away.

  “That’s my little editor!” Luke shouted after me and I decided to flash him the finger before I disappeared down the hall.

  “I am so sorry for being late, Monica.” I apologized as I walked down the hall to her office. Monica was the Director of Marketing for the company and my immediate supervisor. Despite being my boss, we had become close friends.

  “You look like you had a rough night, did anything special happen that I should know about?” Monica inquired suggestively.

  “No, a rough morning actually.” I sighed, “Kyle must be officially a man now because he would not let me kiss and hug him goodbye this morning before he got on the school bus. He acted like he had an image to protect.” I laughed at the thought.

  “Prepare yourself then, honey. It’s going to be downhill from there.” Monica laughed.

  “Don’t I know it? Then there’s the other thing.”

  “What other thing?” Monica asked.

  “He’s been asking about his father a lot lately and I’m starting to run out of ways to distract him. Today he asked me over a dozen questions and I didn’t really know what to say.”

  “You are going to have to have a heart to heart talk with Kyle. He has a right to know what happened with his father. He’s old enough to handle the information.”

  “What if he starts feeling that it was his fault?”

  “He might or he might not that’s something you are going to have to navigate. That’s what being a parent is about.”

  “You said it.” I agreed as I left Monica’s office feeling somewhat better. It was our quick chats every morning that perked me right up.

  As I headed to my cubicle that was located adjacent to Monica’s, I went about my morning routine of turning on my computer first. The wallpaper on my computer screen was one of my favorite pictures of Kyle. It was of his school photo where he posed in front of a tree backdrop.

  After I turned on my computer, the first thing I always did was open up my email account and scan the subject lines that filled the inbox. Every email I received usually were emphasized and overly exaggerated requests for help. As I scrolled down the list of subject lines, I noticed one that I didn’t exactly see every day. It read:

  Subject: The Biggest Reason Why I am Your Secret Admirer

  Hesitant to open the email, I quickly scanned the room to see if I was a victim of an interoffice prank but no one was looking my way. Everyone was either steadily typing away or very active in a phone conversation. It was just like my coworkers to do something like that. Despite her dedication and hard work, I was not taken seriously and was always taken advantage of. I opened the email after much duress, it said:

  For starters, I am writing to you in the middle of the night because it is the PERFECT time to do something that scares me shitless.

  Secondly, I interact with strangers every day but it wasn’t until I saw you that I realized I was alone. I see the beauty and goodness in your soul and you take my breath away.

  When I originally started this email, out of habit I was going to write something a little more romantic and elaborate but I was told recently that wasn’t a good thing and it was less offensive if I was witty and charming so I’m hoping this accomplished both.

  I was also told brevity was the soul of wit, so here’s me being brief…

  “This has got to be a prank.” I muttered to myself. It just had to be. Who was crazy enough to send me something as outrageous as a secret admirer email? It had to be someone in the company, otherwise how would they have gotten my email. “This has got to be a mistake.”

  Convinced it was, I went about my work day. I had a lot of requests from coworkers that needed my help including still having to do my own projects.

  Chapter Four

  SEAN

  “LET ME TAKE A WILD GUESS, you bared your soul to the mystery girl and you got nothing back.” Patrick teased me.

  “Well considering I sent the email last night and it was very late when I sent it, I figured I wouldn’t get a response so soon.”

  “Whatever, if you do not hear from her by tomorrow lunchtime, you should think about moving on.” Patrick urged.

  “Alright.” I agreed.

  “Now can you stop checking your email so we can discuss the upcoming campaign?”

  At first when I didn’t get a response, I was slightly disappointed. I wanted things to work out for me. After thinking about it, I quickly assumed that she was busy and hadn’t checked her email yet. It was her work email after all or she could have thought it was junk mail and deleted it right away. I hoped that wasn’t the case and that it was due to the fact that not everyone looked at eve
ry single piece of work email they received right away.

  Unfortunately, email doesn’t have the technology unless you clicked the right settings, to alert me when she opened the email and just chose not to respond. Since I couldn’t tell either way, I decided that I was going to email her again when I got home with something wittier in hopes that it would draw her attention to it.

  When I finally got home that evening, I immediately went to my computer and opened up a new email correspondence:

  SUBJECT: Some Things You Should Know About Me

  BODY: I am old-fashioned and this is the first time I’ve ever done something like this but I think that you are worth it. By the way, I am a great cook if I do say so myself. I can make a delicious plate of Chicken Alfredo. I also believe in true love.

  ****

  BRIDGETTE

  THE NEXT MORNING, I opened up my email the exact second I got to my and turned on my computer. As always it was full of requests from my colleagues begging for my assistance. It wasn’t even in my job description to help them but somehow I became the company ‘guru’ and the go to person for anything work related. Normally I would take it as a compliment but I don’t think everyone appreciated as much as they should be. I was starting to think I was being taken advantage of.

  As soon as I opened up my email, I noticed that my secret admirer sent me a second email before I had even considered responding to the first one. I had to get Monica’s opinion on the matter.

  “Thank you for showing these emails to me.”

  “I wasn’t really planning on showing these to anyone, let alone mentioning them. What do you think of all this? Do you think these are legitimate secret admirer emails or a prank?” I asked.

  “I think he’s either the greatest man on the planet or he’s bad news. That’s if he is even male, for all you know it could be a woman.”