by Hazel Keys
~
The day passed quickly with surprisingly little interaction with Rachel. He tried twice to talk to her at lunch, but each time she made an excuse to leave, and walked away quickly before he could negate her. Afterwards he had to go back up to Ryan’s floor and discuss new accounts with the telecommuting team.
It was after six before they finally wrapped up the meeting he was able to get back down to Rachel’s floor. He was happily surprised when he saw that Rachel was still at her desk, putting the finishing touches on the new proofs that he had edited the night before.
“Hey you,” he said, knocking on her door jam. “Mind if I come in?”
Rachel looked up him, her eyes full of what seemed to be guilt. “If you like,” she said at last. As soon as he sat down she handed him the proofs. “Here are the adjustments you asked me to make. They should be up to your stipulations.”
“Perfect,” Brad said, taking them and placing them neatly on the floor. “I’ll take a look at them first thing Monday morning. For now though I think that we should talk about last night.”
Her eyes darted around the office. “Why?” She asked. “You asked me a question. I said no. That’s that.”
Brad shook his no. “No. That’s not just that. I want to know why you shut down as soon as I told you I loved you. Do you…do you not love me back?”
Rachel’s eyes welled up with tears and he felt a glimmer of hope. She wasn’t the type of girl to cry at the drop of a hat.
“It’s not that,” she whispered, finally coming clean. “It’s the exact opposite actually. I do love you. Things are going great right now, perfect even. We’ve figured out this great balance between work and dating, and we’re both really good at it.”
Brad nodded his then, understanding. “And you think that if we make things anymore serious, we might not be able to keep this perfect balance.”
“Exactly,” Rachel whispered. A tear slipped down her cheek, and Brad couldn’t take it anymore. He rose from his chair and came around Rachel’s desk. He pulled her into his arms and to his relief she didn’t fight him. Instead, her arms wound around his shoulders and they leaned into another’s embrace.
“I get it,” he told her. “Really I do. But I think we have something real here, Rachel. Something that we can grow and nurture together.”
“But what if we go down this relationship road and find out that we don’t quite work? And we get to a point where a breakup isn’t easy? I like my job here, I don’t want to have to quit.”
Brad stepped back, looking hurt. “Why do you keep coming back to that? Do you not trust me? Even if we stopped dating one day I will always treat you with respect. I would never try to take your job from you.”
“It’s not about you,” she shot back. “It’s about how I would feel. I knew we already talked about this Brad, but it’s just really risky. I think…I think that we should keep things as they are, or we should break them off now.”
“That’s it? Those are our only options?” He shook his head. “No way. I refuse to believe that. There’s more than that.”
“What makes you think so?” Rachel argued.
“Because I love you!” He exclaimed. He stepped closer to her again, and put his hands gently on her face. “Because I love you and you love me, and I know that we owe it to one another to see if we can make this work. We’re going to have bad days, yes. All couples do. And some days it’s going to be harder to work with one another than others, but if you keep talking to me and I keep talking to you, then I think we can actually make this work.”
Rachel opened her mouth to protest, but he stopped her with a kiss. He felt her struggle against him, but he only held her tighter. She needed to know that he loved her. Within seconds she stopped trying to get out of his embrace, and instead leaned into it. They kissed for several moments, letting all of their fears and insecurities slide away.
When Brad finally broke the kiss, they were both dizzy from their passion and arousal.
“Please,” he begged. “You don’t have to move in yet if you don’t want to. Just- just don’t give up on us, okay?”
It seemed like an eternity before Rachel finally let out her breath, and smiled. “Yes,” she rasped, nodding her head. “Yes, okay, I do want to move in with you.”
Smiling, Brad pulled her into his arms and kissed her soundly. What had turned into an office romance flirtation was now his office love, and he was going to do everything he could to hold on to it.
***THE END***
FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS
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Secret Attractions At the Office
Chapter One
Tristan
Tristan Melbourne found his eyes being drawn open one morning by a few rogue sunbeams that had managed to peek in through a barely noticeable gap between his curtains that had been caused by him not pulling each side fully closed the night before. The light was almost blinding, the harsh white light dazzling with a pure white gleam that seemed to make everything around him glow with a similar white aura. He covered his eyes by drawing his right arm over his face, rolling slightly in the bed to try and escape the glaring light. His attempts proved ultimately unsuccessful, and after a few minutes lying in his bed trying to allow himself to fall back to sleep, he found himself kicking off his blankets.
He moved to sit up on his bed, turning his body so that his legs would hang off the edge of the king-sized Verlo mattress that took up a considerable portion of the floor space in his bedroom. He didn’t have to look at the display of his digital alarm clock to know that he had woken up ahead of time, his body’s internal clock having long since been in this sort of a habit, to the point that Tristan had gotten used to it. It would have been slightly embarrassing if anyone at the office ever found out that he had such a strange schedule because of his own insistence on allowing himself to go to bed at a reasonably early hour that always resulted in him waking up early the next day. He could just imagine Bradley taunting him for acting like an old man.
Another day, another chance for me to come up with something amazing. Today might even be the day I make Vice President. Tristan chuckled at his own joke as he slowly rose to his feet, his hands moving to stretch up above his head in order to pop his joints. His shoulder-length dreadlocks slowly swayed back and forth with each step he took towards his bathroom, his handsome dark brown eyes glittering with their usual, slightly mischievous look. He took a moment to admire himself in the bathroom mirror, indulging in one of his few moments of personal vanity.
Tristan was quite proud of the way he looked, being of the opinion that he had inherited some really great genes from his father. Not only had he inherited the luscious coffee-toned skin of his familial line, but he had also inherited the slim but muscular frame that his father had prided himself on as well. Tristan had a respectable beard as well, though he always kept it trimmed and never allowed it to grow out too long. He had a basketball player’s build, and with him standing at 6’2” he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy who could go somewhere without standing out.
That was why his time working at RushIt had been so refreshing. His co-workers never made him feel like he was out of place. He was sure in the back of their minds that they might have held reservations about him at first, but the fact that he had managed to work his way to becoming the manager of Marketing had to serve as a testament to the effort he had put in. It also helped that he had really attractive coworkers. Not when it came to the men, mind you, but the women whom he shared the office with were all the kinds that he would have honestly given a try dating if ever he was offered the opportunity
. Especially Isabella Perez, the Puerto Rican beauty who served as a Customer Service Representative and whom Tristan had once spent a lot of time talking to when they had first started together at the company.
He had developed what could be considered a bit of a crush on Isabella, but she never really seemed to have expressed an interest back at him. She had been polite enough to engage him in conversation at times, but any attempts he had made to try and drop subtle hints to her about his desire for them to pursue any kind of relationship seemed to be entirely fruitless. Even when he and his fellow co-workers would go out for drinks after work, Isabella’s attention would always be quickly taken over by his friend Amun. It was frustrating, to say the least, but at the same time, he was genuinely happy that his friend had managed to attract the attention of so beautiful a woman.
Tristan let out a sigh of contentment as he stepped beneath the warm spray of the shower, the practically scalding water running over his skin and quickly eliminating any traces of the smell of sleep that he may have had on him. He wasted no time cleaning himself, whistling a tune from a song that was definitively not in English as he wiped down his body with soap before allowing the suds to be quickly washed away. When he was fully clean he turned the shower nozzles off and stepped out, grabbing the freshly laundered white towel that he had hung in his bathroom the night before and gently dabbing the water off of his body. He took a moment to admire the sight of his firmly toned chest, silently thanking himself for having dedicated all of that time to his workout regimen to keep himself in good shape.
What time is it even? Tristan wondered as he was walking nude back into his bedroom, taking a glance at his alarm clock once again. It was only just now turning a quarter to six in the morning, and he made a noise of incredulity as his right eyebrow raised up slightly in mild disbelief as he double-checked the time just to be sure. He didn’t have to make his way into work for another couple of hours, which meant that he had really woken up early today. Sighing mildly to himself at having woken up so far ahead of time, he decided instead to make the most of his extra time by getting his morning routine out of the way.
After turning on his coffee maker in order to prepare his first cup of coffee for the day, Tristan popped in one of the Tai Chi instructional DVDs that Bella Chan, another one of his female coworkers, had gotten him for Christmas the year before. He hadn’t originally been intending to use them, but after having given a few of the lessons a try he had found himself rather enjoying it. It was relaxing to do early in the morning, and as he slowly moved his body into each of the different poses that the on-screen instructor demonstrated he felt the few mingling feelings of tiredness leaving his body. He stopped when his coffeemaker went off, the male unable to hold back the noise of pleasure that escaped his lips when he took the first sip of his morning coffee, the bitter flavor rolling over his palate.
Despite himself he had a few pieces of buttered toast to start his morning, crunching on the rich golden brown toast as he used his free hand to scroll through the Facebook page for RushIt so that he could take a look at some of the feedback that had been left for them in the last couple of days. As head of Marketing, he was also responsible for their social media presence, so he was expected to keep on top of that in addition to the rest of his other work. Any other person might have thought that such a position would be a drag to work, but he was pretty much being paid to use Facebook and Twitter to promote the business. It wasn’t honestly that hard, and the work felt incredibly rewarding to him, at least as far as his 40k salary was concerned. He popped the last morsel of toast into his mouth and chewed on it deliberately before washing it down with the rest of his cup of coffee, smacking his lips in a satisfied manner once he had finished.
He filled his coffee thermos before preparing to head out of his house, grabbing his keys and wallet before heading out of the door, dressed professionally in a brown business suit. He wore a pure white dress shirt beneath it that only seemed to accentuate the dark tone of his skin as well as the whiteness of his teeth when he smiled. His dress shoes, which were the same brown as his suit, tapped gently on the front porch before he descended the front steps to head towards his garage. He had his laptop bag held tightly in his left hand, the handle and strap of the bag both clenched in his fist as he made his way around the side of his 2005 BMW 325 Coupe, his key dangling in his right hand along with his coffee thermos. A single press of the unlock button allowed him to get himself inside, and once everything was situated and his seatbelt was clicked into place he headed off to work.
Chapter Two
Bella
It took a moment for Bella to realize that the irritating beeping noise that had infiltrated her dream was actually coming from her alarm clock, the petite Chinese woman slowly opening her eyes. She winced at the bright morning sunshine that was currently streaming through her window, a faint throbbing sensation pulsing in the front of her head as she forced herself into a sitting position. She was really starting to regret letting Isabella and Rachel, her roommates, convince her to drink with them the night before. It had only been a few glasses of wine, but thanks to how small she was, Bella was a terrible lightweight when it came to alcohol.
She winced at the brightness of the light, the early morning never exactly having been her favorite time of day. She yawned gently as she flung the blankets off of her body, her hand moving to slide down along her body gently. The feeling of her slim stomach beneath her fingertips, the smoothness of her skin, caused a small smile to spread slowly across her lips. That natural lotion that she had bought on a whim from one of the boutiques downtown was really paying off for her.
She turned her face towards the direction of her alarm clock, her hand slowly moving to rub the sleep from her eyes. It was days like this that she almost regretted living with two obvious party girls, but on the other hand, it helped to make her life far more interesting than it would have been on her own. Besides, Rachel and Bradley had already started the process of having Rachel move in with him, which helped limit the number of days that she had to suffer from hangovers during the week. She was the kind of woman who would spend all of her time out of work hanging out at home watching anime or whatever new television caught her fancy on Netflix. She had just taken a look at A Series of Unfortunate Events, which she thought was pretty good, and was experiencing the kind of loss that could only come from one who had found a good show to watch that had ended far too soon.
After slowly pushing herself out of bed and stretching until she could feel each of the vertebrae in her back pop in rapid succession, Bella grabbed a change of clothes and made her way to the door of her bedroom. She poked her head out into the hall, wincing slightly as she caught sight of her tousled hair in the mirror directly across from her bedroom. She hated the way she always looked so messy when she first got up. Honestly, it was one of the big reasons why she had never really had the courage to move any of her previous relationships to further stages. She didn’t think she was quite ready to have someone see her like that.
After brushing her teeth and using mouthwash that left her mouth tasting of citrus she hopped into the shower, sliding the shower curtain closed behind her before tugging on the handle of the bathtub. Water immediately began to thunder down into the large basin, and Bella had to bite back a gentle squeal at how cold the water was. She felt goosebumps rise up along her arms even as her whole body shuddered in response, her hand quickly moving to turn the knob towards the hot water setting. The almost inaudible sigh of relief that came out of her as the frigid water began to warm was one filled with nothing but absolute relief.
As she scrubbed her body gently with her favorite body wash she smiled, the feeling of the soapy bubbles foaming up on her skin one that was rather soothing. She closed her eyes as she used a little bit to wash her face. She had avoided having any pimples this long through extra careful hygiene, something that she was quite proud of and was in no hurry to change. Her shampoo smelled of tropical fruits, her mind
flashing back to the brief two-week vacation she had spent in Hawaii for the New Year a few months ago. It had been part of the Christmas bonus that Ryan had gifted her with in response to the company finishing out the year with far stronger sales numbers in the aftermath of Rachel’s new interactive catalog, which had proven to be a really big hit with their customers.
She dried herself off with one of the fluffiest blue towels that you could have ever seen, her skin tingling slightly in the aftermath of her time beneath the hot spray of the shower. She pulled the pair of black lace panties that she had brought into the bathroom with her onto her lower body before busying herself with putting her bra in place. She strode quickly out of the bathroom back to her bedroom to grab her work clothes, slipping them on slowly and making sure that everything was in place.
She took a sip of water from the glass that she kept next to the sink near the bathroom, letting out a gentle sigh as the cool liquid flowed over her parched tongue. She tilted the glass further and drank more deeply, her throat moving multiple times as she gulped down the contents of the glass before letting out a content sigh when she was done. She set the glass back down on the sink and chose to move over to the kitchen in order to figure out what she was going to eat for breakfast. There was no reason for her to go out to eat for breakfast when she had plenty of time to prepare something there at home, and she knew that her roommates would be grateful for a hot breakfast as well.
She pulled out the wok that her mother had given her as a congratulatory gift when she had first started working at RushIt. It had been her mother’s way of congratulating her daughter on having taken the first step after college to strike out on her own, and Bella couldn’t say that she wasn’t filled with the smallest amount of pride each time that she glanced down at the well-used pan. She cracked open the door of the refrigerator and pulled out the large carton of eggs that sat on the bottom shelf, setting it on the counter gently before pulling the lid open. She was happy to see that there were no cracks in any of the shells, the superstitious side of her managing to worry about that no matter how many times she told herself that she was being foolish.