Short Stories/Romance Concepts

Zahra & Finn pt. 1

"Thank you again," Zahra said, apologetically. The repairman nodded at her, got up from the floor, closed the printer drawer, and left. With a heaving sigh, Zahra threw herself back onto her desk chair. Finn walked in right after, glancing behind him at the man leaving. He snorted. "What?" she groaned, pressing her thumbs into her temples.

"Did you have to explain how you broke the printer?" he chuckled, dropping his briefcase and pulling his chair up to his desk.

"No, I did not," Zahra snapped, exasperated. She'd heard enough of this from Finn this week already. "He kind of figured it out."

"What gave it away? The ass-shaped dent? Or was there a photo jammed in there?"

Zahra leaned down, hiding behind her computer screen. "I'm ignoring you now." She was sick of thinking about last week's Halloween office party. Somewhere along the smuggled-in martinis, she had managed to hoist herself atop the ancient industrial printer, and another coworker, also drunk, had hit the "scan" button. Luckily, Finn got ahold of the only picture of her ass that had been printed before the printer broke down.

Zahra made sure she watched him shred it. The humor of the situation may have been lost on her, but not Finn. He refused to let it go. Thankfully, their shared office was silent, save for the clicking of keyboards and ringing of phones right outside the door. Zahra was stuck playing email volleyball with a client. After about twenty minutes, she gave up and dropped her head on her desk with a thud.

Finn peeked around his screen at her. "You okay?" Zahra grunted. "Mrs. Green again?" Zahra grunted. Finn shrugged. "That's the thing with whales. They bring in a load of money, but God, they're stupid."

"Is it too early to take lunch?" she asked without lifting her head.

"It's nine forty-five."

"Fuck." Zahra heaved herself up and off of her chair, reaching for the door. "What do you want in your coffee?"

"Nothing, just black. Thank you." Finn smiled. The second the door closed behind her, Finn swiped his hands over his face and rubbed his eyes. It took all of his energy not to glance at her ass when she walked out. The office crush had been manageable until the party. He had been able to compose himself. He kept it professional. He kept his gaze friendly. He kept her at arm's distance.

And then he helped her down from the printer, grabbed the one sheet sitting in the tray, and saw a full-blown photo of everything she had hidden underneath her little pencil skirts. Finn could barely keep it together anymore. Taking care of Zahra after the party was almost even worse. She held onto him for stability while making him shred the printout. She fell asleep on him in the cab back to her apartment. She tried to pull him inside her apartment by his tie.

But she didn't remember a minute of it. And it was killing him.

The handle turned, and Finn shot back up straight. Zahra pushed the door open with her back, walking in with a steaming mug in each hand. "It's hot." She handed Finn his mug slowly, trying to keep it from spilling. Their fingers brushed over each other. Zahra caught his gaze, which was locked on her deep brown eyes, and faltered, nearly dropping the mug completely. "Shit, sorry..."

Zahra swiped up the drop that had spilled with her sleeve before rushing back to her seat. Finn hid behind the lip of his coffee cup and swallowed hard. Once he heard the typing resume from Zahra's end of the office, Finn got back to work and let his shoulders relax.

***

"Lunch?" Zahra asked, grabbing her purse and locking her desk drawers. Finn nodded, tossing his phone, wallet, and keys into his pockets. Making their way down to the parking garage, they complained about Mrs. Green and the other frustrating clients. "... and I know for a fact she uses dictation to write her stupid emails because she's old and blind and dumb...." Zahra grumbled on and on, much to Finn's delight, as he was finding it remarkably difficult to say very much to her since the coffee spill.