Pineapple Candies

****

    "We were in the same department at Flanders & Brown, so a lot of our accounts and a good portion of our projects overlapped. We'd wind up in the same meetings, be on the same presentation teams having to pull all-nighters, you know, that sort of thing.  We had a lot of similar tastes so we tended to be on the same page most of the time.  We worked really well together - there was kind of a natural synergy between us. Plus we shared the same dry, oddball sense of humour so we'd get each other's jokes when everyone else was oblivious.  

    I  remember the first big meeting she attended after she was hired on. We wound up sitting across from each other and at one point she made this smart-ass comment under her breath.  On the surface it sounded perfectly innocuous and the people sitting next to her just nodded in silent agreement.   I, on the other hand, actually picked up her reference and burst out laughing right in the middle of the presentation.  She just looked over at me smiled." 

    I still smile when I think about it, although that wasn't my reaction at the time.

    "Did you go out?" Dean asks after a minute.

    I take a deep breath and shake my head. I release it then pick up my drink and finish it. I look over at him.  "Why?" I ask for him.

    He shrugs. "Or why not."

    I shake my head again. "I don't know, I really don't.  A lot of little things, a lot of big things. Bad relationships in the past that effectively made us both swear them off for the future. We were happy with the way our lives were. 

Or thought we were. 

Or pretended we were.  Maybe we just didn't want to risk disappointing each other." 

    I refill my glass.

    "So she had been there about a year when one afternoon she came by my office and leaned in the door.

    'Hey Geoff, if you're not busy later do you want to grab a coffee with me after work?'.

    I probably hesitated for a second because it was so completely out of the blue. 'Sure. You want to meet somewhere or do you want to leave from here?'

    'Hmm, we can just leave from here - if that's alright.'

    'Yeah,that's fine.'

    'Great!'  She got this brilliant smile on her face then she left. I sat there staring at the doorway for another minute then went back to work and about twenty minutes later she's back in my doorway again.

    'Hey Geoff, sorry to bug you again. Can I see you phone a sec?'  

    She walked into the room, came over and stood next to my desk. I picked up my phone and handed it to her. She had it for a few seconds, keyed something in then handed it back.

    'There you go. If you're running late, or change your mind or something, send me a text, okay?' She punctuated it with that smile again. 'Otherwise I'll just wait for you downstairs about six.' She turned and walked out of the office again, then leaned her head back in at the last minute.  'Thanks.' She smiled and started off down the hall. 

    I'm left sitting there, deer in the headlights kind of thing, staring at her after image and thinking how completely random it was. It was the first time she had ever stopped by my office for anything non-business related and suddenly she turned up twice in the same day. I had no idea what to make of it but I knew I was going to be down in the lobby at six. Obviously it wasn't work related or she could have just discussed it in my office, and she wouldn't be asking me out -"