Since we had gotten into work Natasha had been strange. Her sentences to me were short and though her calendar was clear she would find a reason to stay in her office.
We hadn't seen or talked to each other since she left my house until we came to work. I had texted her, double-texted her so I could laugh about my terrible experience at Thanksgiving but I hadn't gotten a response.
"Good Morning," I say cheerfully, walking into her office.
"Morning," She said, looking up briefly before resuming her typing.
"I have a couple of updates, San Fran has hired a new person they want you to confirm before making it official. HR has fired the guy who came in intoxicated, and some guy named James Barnes has left a couple of messages wanting to talk to you, he sounds desperate," I joke.
"Oh," She says, but sounding a bit uninterested, "Send me his number, I should probably call him back."
"Sure," I say, waiting for her to say something else, "want to come over tonight? I wanted to rent that new Sofia Coppola movie."
"About that," She pauses, " I don't think it's a good idea for us to keep being friends in that manner."
For a second I thought I misheard and then I thought that maybe she was telling some kind of joke. Her straight face, unchanging told me that it was neither, she meant what she said.
"Why?" I ask.
"It's distracting, for both of us, I already told my sister that if she's going to keep seeing Harper to keep you out of it."
"Im not allowed to even talk to Yelena now?"
"You can talk to her, I just don't want her to bother you by going to your house or whatever else she might do."
"Im not understanding this decision."
"You are distracting, I am distracting you. This is my company and although your kindness has been nice I can't slack off on my work, so we'll go back to a professional relationship from now on," She says.
"Fine," I say softly, trying to hide just how hurt I was, and walk back to my desk.
I would argue that her breaking off our friendship so early in the morning was more distracting than actually being friends.
I would start typing an email and then start going down a rabbit hole of things that might have caused this reaction. Our work had been fine, if anything it took less time to complete when we did things together.
"Excuse me," A man said, startling my attention to him.
"Hello," I smile, "Those are wonderful," I say seeing the roses in his hands.
"I hope so, Is Natasha in?"
"What is your name? Do you have an appointment?" I ask, wondering if I should be calling security.
"James Buchanan Barnes, but she just knows me as Bucky," He smiles. He was handsome, older than I thought Natasha would ever be interested in though it didn't take away from anything.
"Right, I've gotten your emails. Let me just call her," I say, picking up the phone.
As soon as I mentioned his name, she opened her door. She smiled widely at him and even more when she saw the flowers and without any words said she kissed him, really kissed him.
I felt my heart sink for some reason, she deserved this romantic gesture, this handsome man but I didn't like looking at it.
"I missed you," She whispered. Maybe she wanted to dismantle the rumors with me before she went into a real relationship. This man looked like a real relationship man. She deserved this man.
