Just Friends

Chapter 36

Colm's POV

Colm sat in his car watching as Keith and Maria stood at the bus stop. He knew she was starting work today and he had come early so he could give her a lift but he wasn't early enough. They were laughing and chatting. Colm felt a surge of jealousy. He had to stop though, Maria wasn't with him. If she wanted to talk to Keith again that was her choice. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach as he watched Maria look down the road and then at her watch. Moments later they walked off towards Keiths house. 

He sat and tried to decide whether he should follow and just pretend to be driving past so he could stop to say hello or if he should just leave. He looked down the road in the direction they had gone and saw Keiths car pulling out of the little side road. Maria was in the front seat. 

Before he knew what he was really doing he had pulled out into the traffic and followed them, he was behind them for about 20 minutes before he realised he was being a bit creepy so he turned off and went back towards the house to see James. 

When he pulled up outside the house he took his phone out. 

Good luck today, you'll do great.

He pressed send and put the phone away again. Taking a deep breath he got out of his car and went to the house. 

Maria's POV

Maria had just walked in through the doors of the big glass building that she was now working in when her phone beeped again. She took it from her bag and was surprised to see a message from Colm

Good luck today, you'll do great.

She smiled to herself, he remembered. She was just typing back when the manager she had the meeting with walked into the lobby and greeted her. She quickly locked her phone and put it back into her bag. She'd reply later. 

She followed the manager into the lift. This was the first time she had been in this building so everything was new to her. She watched as he pressed 6 on the lift then stood back. 

"So, I'm really glad you took this job with us Maria. We were all very impressed with your interviews and your professor had very high praise for you. She doesn't usually praise anybody so we obviously had to see why you were so different. We're really glad you decided to come work with us and be a part of our team. 

Maria smiled, she hadn't known that her professor gave her such high praise. She never really treated her any differently than the other kids in her class. 

"Thank you Mr Smith for giving me this opportunity, I'll do my best." 

The doors dinged open and they stepped out into the most amazing office space she had ever seen. The floors and walls were white with random splashes of colour throughout. The work space dividers were mostly black. Some of them had been decorated to their occupants tastes. Mr Smith led her over to a cubicle at the window. 

"This is your cubicle, everything that you need should be here but if there's something missing don't hesitate to ask for it." 

Maria put her stuff down just as Mr Smith called someone over. 

"Declan, this is our new intern Maria Stevens. Can you show her around please, make sure she gets settled."

Maria smiled shyly at Declan as he stuck his hand towards her to shake.  Mr Smith smiled at them both, said goodbye and walked away.

"Hi, I'm Declan. I'm the head of this floor so if there's anything you need just let me know. When you're ready I'll show you around."

Maria shook his hand and smiled, he seemed so young to be head of the floor. She moved her bag into the locker under the desk and switched the pc on to give it time to start up, then she turned back to Declan. 

"Ok, I'm ready when you are" 

She followed behind as he showed her around the office. The kitchen was fully stocked with fruit, biscuits, tea and coffee. They even had cans of coke of 7up in the fridge and he said she could help herself to anything in there. Everyone he introduced her to seemed lovely and friendly. She got back to her cubicle and sat at her desk. So far, so good. She had a feeling she was going to enjoy working here. 

The day soon filled with meetings, more introductions and more meetings. She had a quick break and sat down to eat something. She pulled her phone from her bag and saw she had some messages. Two from her parents asking how she was getting on, one from Vicky wishing her luck, one from Keith and one from Colm asking if everything is ok. Shit! Colm, she hadn't replied back to his first message yet.

She opened his and hit reply, quickly typing out her message as she sipped on her coffee. 

"Hey Colm, thanks so much for the text this morning. Sorry, I've been so busy setting up and in and out of meetings I completely forgot to reply."

She pressed send then quickly replied to her other texts. Just as she was putting the phone away it beeped. She opened the message

"No worries, glad you're having a good day...can we talk later?" 

Maria chewed on her lip, what would he want to talk about? as she was contemplating what to write back Declan popped his head over her cubicle wall. 

"Hey Maria, we're heading out after work for a drink. It's Mr Smiths birthday. Do you want to join us? It can be a welcome drink for you too if you do."

She thought about it for a moment, she couldn't really say no to celebrating the bosses birthday on her first day. 

"Yeah, that would be great..thanks" 

"Brilliant, we're all finished at 5 so we'll go straight from here. It's only around the corner so we'll walk." 

He walked away talking to someone else in one of the other cubicles. 

She hit reply on the message

It's my bosses birthday today so I've been invited for a drink after work. Would it be too late to talk after that?

A reply beeped through seconds later 

No, just message me when you're done and I'll pick you up x

She was surprised at the x at the end of his message then laughed to herself when she imagined him panicking after he accidentally sent it. Today was turning out to be a very good day.