Esmerelda the Flower

Chapter 2: Esmerelda

My alarm went off and I opened my eyes, half
irritated and half thankful since without my alarm I'd be late to my job everyday.

Im a research scientist at MitoBeta, it's a well known pharmaceutical company that I dreamed of working at ever since I was a freshman over at UMich. After 4 years of studying for finals, internships, club leadership positions and lots of hard work I managed to land a spot as one of the many talented research scientists.

I loved my job, the pay was good, the hours flexible and the coworkers tolerable. Currently, I was working on a company-wide project in creating a healing flower. So far, the flower itself is done but there's still work to be done and I'm excited to tackle it. There's a gala in New York next year that will be displaying the flower and I wish I could go to see how people react to the hard work put into it but the invites were limited and only the higher ups from each company site were going.

But that didn't matter, I got up from bed in my cozy little apartment in Ann Arbor and headed towards the shower.

I made sure to cover up my boho braids as I slipped the shower cap over my head and stepped into the shower. I relaxed under the hot water, letting the heat release any tensions in my muscles as I lathered myself in my favorite coco butter soap with r&b playing softly in the background.

Out of the shower, I brushed, layered up with coco butter lotion, dressed and spritzed myself with some vanilla perfume.

I glanced at myself in the mirror, my braids tied back as according to company rules while in the research areas, my deep complexion looking shiny thanks to all the Vaseline I rubbed on myself and my lashes curled a bit by lazily pushing them up with my fingers.

"Well, this is as good a it gets," I said to myself while exiting the bathroom and putting my glasses on.

I grabbed my keys from the side table in the little corridor and I could see my roommates door was still closed and the sounds of her snoring leaking from the door.

"I can't believe that ho is still sleeping", I giggled to myself.

I arrived at work. It was mid-September and the trees were turning into their beautiful fall colors.  I smiled to myself, reminding myself that it was going to be a good day, a little thing I did to help with my anxieties.

"Morning Esmerelda!" Tammy, the receptionist said to me.

"Morning!"

Tammy was such a sweet woman, she was in here late 50s and has been working here forever. She was the first person to really talk to me and make me feel comfortable while I was working here. And she's such a gossip too! Last month she told me how one of the cafeteria workers was hooking up with the janitor in the walk-in fridge, I brought my own food in for a month after she told me that.

I keyed into the research wing, smiling as I loved this place. The equipment, the lighting, the white walls.

I walked through the buzz of researches walking all about, either working on the flower or doing other types of research, all to benefit the health of the community.

When I wasn't working on the flower project, I was doing community based research, especially on the water issues we had around some areas of Michigan. That's where I would be working today.

I got to my station after greeting my coworkers, getting my work ready when...

"Esmerelda! What took you so long!"

Cynthia.

For some reason Cynthia didn't like me. Among the small group of water quality researches including me, we all were supervised by Cynthia since she's done extensive work in the field, but gosh, she was such a bitch!

From the jump, she didn't like me. At first I thought it was because I was a smart, young, pretty girl working in such an established place but then it turns out that...well yeah I was right. I have a gut feeling Cynthia was jealous of me.

It was quite flattering though, I don't think much highly of myself but having an older woman jealous of you does wonders for your self-esteem. However, she's my boss so I still try to please her.

"What do you mean, I'm here on time like usual, we have to clock in by 8:00 and it's 7:40. Not all of us are even here yet..."

Cynthia sneered, "Gosh you are so naive, just because others come late doesn't give you an excuse to! Now hurry up and send me the data we collected last week."

I sighed, taking a deep breath in to calm my nerves, when really my patience with this woman was very thin because it was obvious she was just maltreating me. "Okay Cynthia, I'll send it right away."

My shift was like any other shift, at 1:00, we broke for lunch, I headed down to the cafeteria to get myself a tuna sandwich. And no, tuna isn't gross.

I had ordered and sat down, bringing my phone and my AirPods in to watch my show when someone tapped on my shoulder.

"Hey Esme, mind if I join you?"

Ugh, Nathan.

Recently, Nathan had been  trying to be more than coworkers. At first, the attention was nice when he'd compliment me or offer to buy me lunch. But now it was annoying and weird, he was way too touchy and sometimes his breath would stink and he started calling me a nickname only close relatives called me.

"Um..." I dragged out. I was confused as fuck, if someone had their AirPods in while intensely binging a show, why the fuck would you try to talk to them? Everything in me wanted to say no but my stupid people-pleaser self said "Yeah, sure."

Hell! What was I thinking? Now I couldn't watch my show and would be forced into awkward conversation.

It wasn't bad at first, we talked a little about work, and then our home lives, and then he somehow maneuvered our convo to be about relationships and that's when he started to be really obvious.

"You know, Esme, you're really pretty and recently I've felt this, you know, connection between us and I wonder if you'd like to go out with me this weekend?"

Oh my gosh.

When he asked my that my stomach turned and all of a sudden the tuna I was having wasn't such a good idea. But I knew it was best to shut whatever was going on down now instead of stringing him along.

"Nathan, um, I'm sorry but I'm just...not interested" I said while giving him a sorry smile.

"What do you mean?" He scoffed, "Not interested? Please, I can see the little looks you give me throughout the day, and the way you smile at me and hell, even how you dress ever since we started talking."

I looked at him in disbelief, "Okay Nathan, first of all, I don't look at you. I look at you when I feel you looking at me and I have to say it's weird. Second of all, I smile at everyone, cause I'm a nice person? And lastly, look around, we're all wearing lab coats you idiot.

Nathan's face twisted, obviously hurt by the rejection. "This always happens, all the time girls break my heart. Playing with my feelings then acting all innocent! You guys are all the same!" Nathan's voice was getting a little loud, drawing slight attention from others.

"Oh my gosh, Nathan calm down" I said, my face heating up as the littlest things could make me feel embarrassed, "You know what, I'm gonna go."

I got up quickly, taking my half eaten sandwich and quickly dashing off, checking my phone. I still had 10 minutes of break left so I decided to go to my little quiet place.

The company had lots of facilities for employees, but earlier in working here I found an empty office space where I would come whenever I needed quiet. It was a perfect spot, overlooking the  the city and the garden behind the company building.

As I got there I shut the door behind me and sat down to calm myself, the unpleasant interaction I had with Nathan threw me off  a bit and I sat on the ground of the office, calming myself and resuming to eat my sand-which.

As I was about take a bite a deep voice called out, "What's that smell and what are you doing in here?"

A/N: I just found out the majority of my readers are American, South African and from the UK so heyyy 👋 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇿🇦