All By Design

Chapter 1 - The Epiphany

Don't fall in love with your boss.

Samira says to herself the first time Thomas makes her laugh.

Do not fall in love with your boss.

Samira thinks to herself one-night while getting drinks with the team. His eyes were extra green that day.

Fuck.

Samira sighs to herself today. Sitting across from him in a meeting room, as he speaks, she can't take her eyes off of him. He sits directly in front of her, their laptop screens touching. He can feel her staring, but she isn't aware of the fact - yet.

He goes to gesture with his hand but hits the laptop screen in front of him, moving Samira's laptop as well. It grabs everyone's attention in the meeting room.

"Thomas, you okay?" she whispers to him.

He sends her a smile that makes her heart race, "I'm okay" he whispers back.

Fuck, his eyes are so green.

Samira isn't sure what this meeting is about anymore. But, she knows she needs to stop staring. To seem busy, she clicks away on her laptop, opening and closing different windows.

I'm screwed.

As the minutes go by, Samira can feel the heat in her cheeks rise and knows she's closer to an embarrassing shade of tomato than her actual fair complexion—problems of being a pale anaemic brown girl.

The meeting ends soon after, with to-dos for Samira that she will have to ask Phoebe for later.

Like the rest of her team, Samira gathers her things - her company-issued brick of a laptop (Thinkpad obviously), her cute dollar store notebook (girl is on a budget), and her Starbucks Grande Caramel Macchiato (she's not on THAT much of a budget).

Strategically, she takes her time in gathering her things making sure to match Thomas' pace. She cringes internally at her middle-school-girl-with-a-crush behaviour. But, what else can she do, this is what she knows best.

"Samira, did Joey ever get back to you about the fee letter?" he asks.

"Uh no, I've sent him a few follow-ups but nothing yet" Samira replies hesitantly. She's good at her job. She is. But, sometimes there are hiccups.

"Did you CC me on the emails?" Thomas starts to walk towards his office, giving enough time for Samira to realize she should follow him out.

"Uh no, I didn't want to spam your inbox.." Samira says picking up her pace.

"Send another follow-up and CC me this time."

"Yeah of course I'll do that as soon as I get to my desk" Samira jogs a little to catch up with how fast Thomas is walking - it's his long legs.

Samira doesn't know exactly how tall he is, maybe 6'1" or 6'2". But, his lean frame makes him look even taller.

"Was there anything else?" Thomas asks slowing down as they approach his office door.

"Um no, I don't think so. I'll send that email now!"

She blushes. Hard. Why would you follow him all the way to his office? You're literally so embarrassing. Get the fuck out of here.

Without sparing him another look, she turns on her heels and makes her way back to her desk.

I can't do this anymore. I need to get ahold of myself. This literally started as a joke between me and Sof, how did it get so far?

She's talking to herself in her head, although Samira fails to realize she's emoting out to the rest of the world as her eyebrows furrow together and she's got a frown on her face, with a little shaking of her head.

This is her piecing together that her small little fun office crush has suddenly turned into something more.

What started off innocently as a way to make life more interesting, turned into Samira wanting to see Thomas happy, curious, confused, sad, excited and all the emotions you get to see in a friend, and maybe someone more.

Samira places her things on her desk and sits with a soft thump as her office chair catches her. She writes down a bunch of To-Dos and makes sure to write Thomas' name extra carefully, blushing with every letter she writes, as her delusions dig a deeper hole in her head.

She's falling for Thomas.