Forbidden Fruit (gxg)

Part 5

The next day, I felt completely drained from my conversation with Gabby. I also still had lingering anger, which I knew I would likely have for a while.

I barely saw Kori, as she was in and out of meetings most of the day.

I wound up asking one woman on the team, Grace, questions.

Grace was very sweet and helpful, at one point she sat with me to help me answer an email.

After we finished up with the email, Grace smiled at me. She had to be around the same age as me, and she had curly auburn hair and green eyes behind the glasses she wore.

"I like having another woman here," she said, "Sometimes it can be annoying being the only woman in the department."

"What about Kori?" I asked her.

"I love having a female boss, but she is often in meetings and just overseeing us," Grace explained, "She's super busy. As far as day-to-day goes, I don't see her a lot. Honestly, I wish you and Cole could switch roles and you would be here in this department."

I chuckled, "Do you not like Cole?"

"Honestly...not really. He tries to be this alpha male, and it's annoying. The only person he doesn't act that way toward is Kori. You don't want to cross her."

"I hate alpha males," I rolled my eyes, "Who knows...maybe I'll wind up in this department."

"I'll mention it to Kori if you would be fine with that."

I nodded, "I'm fine with that."

Grace grinned at me and said, "Once a week, the team goes out for happy hour somewhere local, usually on Wednesdays. You're more than welcome to come with us tomorrow. It would be nice to have another woman there! It's rare that Kori joins us."

"Okay," I nodded, "Thanks for the invite. I'll join you all."

"Awesome!" Grace exclaimed, "I'll give you the details tomorrow."

At the end of the day, I stopped by Kori's office to tell her that I was leaving for the day. Her door was slightly open and she told me to "come in" after I knocked.

Kori looked stressed as she stared at her laptop, closed her eyes, and scrubbed her hand over her face.

"Sorry if now is a bad time," I said, "I just wanted to let you know I'm headed home."

Kori looked right at me, "Alright. I hope you have a good night."

"You too," I said to Kori, "See you tomorrow."

Kori simply nodded and looked back at her laptop, seemingly dismissing me.

As I walked out of her office, I felt myself yearning to talk to her more.

But I couldn't. She was obviously busy and didn't want to talk to me. I was just another employee.

That night, Rachel and Trey, my other roommate, were both off from work, and I relayed to them what happened with Gabby.

Trey looked at me, his light blue eyes wide, "She did what now?"

The three of us were standing in the kitchen together, eating pizza.

"You heard me," I said to Trey.

"Oh my god," Trey walked over and put his arm around me, "You deserve so much better than that, Ash. You know that, right?"

"I'd like to think so."

"No, don't give me that. You do!" Trey shook his head.

Trey Martin has been one of my best friends since I was 19. We met in nursing school, and we have been friends ever since. He is one of the main reasons I got through nursing school. Trey is an Oncology nurse, and he is amazing at his job. We met Rachel when we both started working at the hospital, the three of us all started on a med surg unit, and Trey and I became close with Rachel.