It wasn't until Wednesday that things hit the fan in the office.
"And this is one of our newest members, Stephanie Halder." She heard her manager say. Turning from her computer screen, her jaw almost hit the floor when she saw the man standing behind her, a delighted smirk on his face.
"David! What the fu-" Catching herself just in time to stay professional, "I mean, what are you doing here?"
Her boss mistook her tone for one of happy surprise. "Oh, you two already know each other! How magnificent!"
David wasted no time agreeing, "That's exactly the term I would use! Absolutely magnificent!" Stephanie noticed the big smile plastered on his face, the same one he used to pick up women, but noticed a more feral glint in his eye.
Picking her jaw up off of the floor, she looked at her boss and said "Yes, I have met David a few times before. Such a coincidence he's here." Turning to look David straight in the eyes, she continued "are you going to be visiting us often like this?"
"As often as I'm needed. Or wanted. I'm just getting to know how your company operates so I can serve you best." he added with a wink. Stephanie fought the urge to cringe.
Her manager stepped in "Well, we should continue on our tour, hopefully you will have the chance to catch up soon. Come along David, here we have Andrea's desk, she is one of our junior consultants, but she is in a meeting right now I'm afraid. You'll have to meet her another time..."
She drawled on, and David turned back to look at Stephanie as they moved further from her desk. Stephanie glared back at him until he turned away, and then she quickly crept away from her desk, and took her phone out into the elevator corridor to call Kevin.
It went straight to voicemail. She hung up and texted him instead.
Stephanie: David is in my office. My boss is giving him a tour right now. He knows exactly where my desk is.
Panicking, she called Denise.
"Stephanie? What's up?"
"David is in my office right now."
"How the hell did he get in there?"
"We are now his clients apparently. We have hired him to do whatever the hell he says he does."
"Damn. Can you tell anyone you can't work with him?"
"My boss is super jazzed that we already know each other! She hopes we will get the chance to catch up soon. In manager talk that's like, oh good, I'll get her to take over, keep him happy so we get what we want."
"I'm sure she won't. Explain to her and he'll put on that charm to any woman and get what he needs."
"I don't know, all I know is this is going to end badly. I'm going to see him all the time. He works in this building. He's supposed to be here. I can't keep asking why he is where I am when he is legitimately supposed to be here!"
"Deep breaths Stephie. In for four, out for four. In for four, out for four."
Stephanie focused on her breathing for 2 minutes and felt better.
"Thanks Denny. I should probably go back to my desk."
"Go to the bathroom and compose yourself. If he is still there you cannot let him see you frazzled. That's what he wants. Keep breathing, think happy thoughts, and call me from your work phone so I can pretend to be a client if you need me to."
"What did I ever do to deserve you? I'll talk to you soon."
"Be strong Stephie. You got this." The phone disconnected.
Stephanie realized Denise had called her Stephie twice, a nickname she rarely used now but started when they were kids. No one else was allowed to call her Stephie, and Denise only got away with it in times of crisis. She was shocked it happened without her noticing.
Taking five minutes to compose herself in the bathroom, she returned to her desk with no sign of David. Except for the pink sticky note on her computer screen:
Can't wait to catch up some more. I want to hear all about what you're working on these days. Coffee soon?
-David
He'd put a little heart next to his name, and she almost lost her lunch.
*
The girls from work wanted to go out again, and Denise wanted to have another game night. Stephanie planned to go to both.
They left the office at 5:00 and went to the bar. Stephanie was halfway through her first drink when Melissa said David would be there soon. Stephanie spluttered her drink and everyone looked at her.
"David?" she tried to mop up her mess with a napkin, and felt her cheeks warming.
"Yeah, the new ad guy. We were talking about this during lunch and he came over, so we told him he should join us. He's part of the team now." Melissa explained.
Charlotte interrupted, "Wait, you're blushing. Do you like him, Stephanie?"
"What, no. No. No. Definitely not."
"Okay good, because I called first dibs!' Charlotte squealed. Stephanie took a long drink.
"When's he going to get here?" She tried to sound nonchalant. Melissa glanced at her phone and answered, "Like, fifteen minutes?" Stephanie nodded at her response.
Stacy leaned over from the other end of the table, "Wait, don't you know him? I thought I heard him say he already knew you when he first came."
Stephanie was torn between telling them everything or keeping it simple. "Yeah, I've known him for a few years. He was best friends with my ex. I think he just moved here from Ottawa."
Charlotte jumped all over that "Oh, new in town! Yay!"
Stephanie looked at her phone and finished her drink. Standing up, she said goodbye to the other girls and paid her bill. Her momentum was already leaning to push open the door to the bar when it opened from the outside. Startled, she yelped and lost her balance, almost crashing right into David.
"Whoa. Watch where you're going." His sneer dropped as soon as she met his eyes. "Oh Stephanie, its you. Are you alright? What happened to your arm?"
Stephanie grimaced and rubbed the arm in the sling where she had bumped the door frame. "I'm fine, just need to get out of here."
"Leaving so soon?"
She collected herself quickly. "Yeah, I'm heading to Denise's for game night."
"So early? Come back and join us for another drink. I'm buying a round for everyone."
"Uh, no, I really think I should go. Thanks though. Maybe next time the team goes out for drinks. You are part of the 'team', right?"
"Of course, I am." He took a step closer to her. "You know, since we work in the same building now, we should get lunch someday. How about Monday?"
"Sorry, David, I really think we should keep this strictly professional now, you know?"
"What, you don't think I can still be professional? I assure you it will not affect my performance at all."
She sidled past him into the street. "No, David. No lunch, no drinks, no dates. Now I have to go, and you better hurry up and join the rest of our team, they are anxious to get to know you."
She left and felt his eyes on her back all the way down the street, but she did not look back. At the corner, she pulled out her phone and called Kevin.
"Hey, I'm done with drinks, wanna hang out a bit before we go to Denise's?"
"Done already? That seems early. Everything okay?"
"Well, David was invited to drinks so I left. It seems his charms are working on the other girls. Charlotte is just about ready to throw herself at him."
"Okay, well I'm just finishing something up at the office, want to meet at my place in like, an hour?"
Her mood fell. "An hour? Can I come to your office instead?"
"Uh..." he paused for a moment, "yeah, sure if that's what you want."
"I'm just getting on the subway. I'll see you soon."
"Okay, see you soon."
When she reached his office, she was surprised to see that he worked in a loft. With a pang, she realized she knew very little about his company, other than the fact he worked with Jared, and was a programmer. When she got up to the office, she was met with an intercom instead of reception. Dialing 110 for Kevin, it rang once and he answered.
"Yeah?"
"Hey its me!"
"Okay, I'll be there in a minute." The line went dead.
Two minutes later he opened the door and gave her a quick kiss on the mouth, then led her by the hand back to his office. There were desks everywhere, computer monitors all over the place, a surprising number of toys, and quite a few people staring at her as she followed Kevin. It looked like one giant room, except for two conference rooms and a clump of four real offices at the back. He led her into one of the offices and closed the door.
"I've never been in an office like this." She looked around the room she was in, then gestured to the closed door. "Like that, I mean, all one room and toys and stuff out there. This particular office is pretty standard."
"Well, we like to do things a little bit differently. Cubicles aren't always the most conducive to creative thinking, which is what we need. Plus, they were expensive."
"Makes sense. Why do you get an office then?"
"That's because I am a big shot." He said with a wink, "and because I need somewhere to fix stuff, and can't always figure it out when I'm out there. Sometimes I'll work in the big room. Depends what I'm doing."
"Oh, cool."
"So, I just have to finish up one thing here quickly." He fiddled around with his computer for a moment and then the screens all went black. "And now I'm all yours!" He smiled brightly at Stephanie and she walked over to him.
"Finally!" she wrapped her good arm around him and kissed him, and he pushed her against the edge of the desk so she was just perching on it. He stayed standing so he was taller than her, and angled her face up to his, deepening the kiss. It reminded her of the first time he kissed her, and she groaned slightly.
He pulled back just a bit, "Everything alright?"
She opened her eyes to look at him. His face was so close it took her a moment to focus on him. His eyelids were heavy, and his lips slightly swollen. She swallowed. "Uh huh."
"Good." And he kissed her again, one arm around her waist, the other cradling her head, and she let her good hand run up and down his back, feeling the muscles under his shirt which rode up enough to expose just a tiny bit of the skin at his lower back. This time it was his turn to groan, and she could feel his hand tighten in her hair.
He broke their lips apart, but didn't move away. Resting his forehead on hers, he continued to hold her until their breathing returned to normal. Then he cleared his throat. "We should probably head out. I assume you need to grab something for Denise's?"
"Yep. But I almost don't want to go anymore." She added with a sly grin.
He bent down to kiss her again, "Don't tempt me, Steph." He straightened up and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, then grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the office with him.
When they got onto the street, she realized something, "Hey, you called me Steph!"
He looked surprised, and slightly guilty, "I did."
"No one calls me Steph."
"Oh. Sorry. If you don't like it, I won't."
"No, I actually like it when you say it. It makes me feel... treasured." She felt her face flush and she looked away. "I used to hate it, so I told people not to. I punched a boy in my class who wouldn't stop calling me Steph. Everyone else figured it out really quick after that."
He smiled at her and she could see humour dancing in his eyes. Wisely, he didn't comment on her temper, but he cocked his head to the side and peered at her.
"Wait, you played sports, there's no way your teammates said 'Stephanie' all the time, it's way too long."
"No, they called me Stephie when I was really young, but then there was always another Stephanie on my teams, so they started calling me Halder instead. My Mom always insisted on using the full 'Stephanie' though."
"Huh. But I can call you Steph?"
She smiled brilliantly at him, "I'd like that."
"Wow, I must be special or something!"
"Or something." She grinned, and planned to be late getting to Denise's house.