one another. I try to remind myself not to be too bothered by his blatant disregard, because I know deep down, I was the one who purposely blew him off.
But there was a moment last Wednesday, when he strolled into the office around two in the afternoon that I finally thought about approaching him. I watched him greet everyone with his gorgeous white smile as he cascaded down the rows of cubicles and I hated him for looking so good. He wore a charcoal grey suit with a crisp white shirt and paisley print baby blue tie with flecks of grey. He passed by my desk, and I locked eyes with him, just to see if maybe he would give me some sort of sign that things could potentially ease up between us. He uncomfortably shifted his eyes and forced them down to the papers fumbled in his hands. I watched him glance down at his cell phone and slide into his chair before I looked away. I felt stupid for momentarily letting my guard down and letting Ben catch my stare. I went back to work and buried my head into the paper work piled up on my desk.
Today, the Ben drama only continues when Emily points out she noticed Ben and I weren’t showing up together at the office in the morning.
I give her a quizzical stare, “So, what’s the big deal?”
Emily raises her eyebrows, “Well I happened to overhear a few of our co-workers talking about how they noticed Ben was acting strange whenever you were around.”
“Define strange.” I say, not at all impressed by this sudden inquisition.
“Well if you must know, someone said that earlier this week they saw a note from Ben asking you to call him. And then apparently he came into the office and you tried to run away from him?” Emily smiles at me, and I am not sure what to make of it. Is she curious? Or is she on to me?
“You know, people around our office really need to mind their own business. Reitman Realty is worse for gossip than a high school full of teenage girls.” I snap, and scan my papers through the photocopier; “Just because Ben and I don’t grab a coffee together in the morning, and he asks me to call him on a post-it note doesn’t mean anything weird is going on between us.”
Emily stands there, skeptically nodding and listening to me ramble on, “If you say so.”
I let out an awkward chuckle, “Actually, you will be happy to know ever since Ben and I have discontinued our usual routine, I have made great use of the Keurig Clint bought everyone last year for Christmas.”
Unfortunately, Emily doesn’t share a laugh like I had anticipated. I thought for sure she would see the humor of my saying so, because when Clint dressed as Santa Claus last year and handed out a Keurig to everyone, Emily, Ben and I quietly joked around the dessert table that buying a bunch of realtor’s one cup coffee machines, was like giving drug addicts their drug of choice for Christmas. Because one thing was sure around Reitman Realty LLC, no one needed any more coffee to feed his/her already prominent addiction.
I nervously giggle and tap my papers with a pen.
Emily narrows her eyes, “You know. I have to admit. I didn’t notice the weird behavior at first. It wasn’t until Ben strolled into the office without you this morning and asked me if I had seen you lately that I couldn’t help but question if something was up.”
I gulp and look away. For some reason I am feeling guilty about hiding everything from Emily.
“I am just trying to stay focused that’s all. Ben and I are just on different schedules right now.” I lie, but quickly add to change the subject, “So, do you have any good plans this weekend?”
Emily furrows her brow and leans down on the photocopier, “Well tonight I am going down to Weed Street to meet my girlfriends for drinks at Sangria. Would you like to come?” Before I can answer, she straightens up with a smirk, “Or do you already have plans with Ben? Don’t you two have some sort of television series marathons on Friday nights?”
“No not tonight.” I blush, and think that is exactly what I would be doing if I hadn’t agreed to that goddamn coin toss. But I refuse to dwell on Ben, and I definitely don’t want Emily to notice my