Office Mates

Opposites Attract

Marian and Robin were not the only ones working overtime that week. Later that week, Jace walked into Kris's office. Krist stands around waiting for him to say hello. He never does. She starts to feel annoyed at this. How could he not have the simple courtesy to greet her before he starts barking commands at her? She sighs.

He eventually gets ready to speak, "Kris. I need you to stay tonight to work on a project for a customer. They need a line-by-line breakdown of the costs of the recent report they received." This is nothing huge. It would only take maybe four hours to get it done. She plans the changes in her schedule. Her only complaint is that she sucks at accounting, so she will be moving more slowly than normal. She hates feeling inadequate in her job. She gives Jace a "You got it."

At this, Jace is about to walk out before he turns around. He remembered something else. "I think this would go quicker if you had Graham's help." Kris audibly shivers. If Jace were aware of others, he might have noticed it. Instead, Kris had to make known her concerns verbally. "Graham? I can ask someone else. I know Tristan in accounting. I will ask him instead."

Jace's eyes narrow on Kris. He states loudly, "We spoke last week about doing overtime, and I believe you vouched for the whole time. Including Graham. He is the one I want on this job." Kris flinches. She regrets her past self immensely. She makes a note to herself to be more careful with her words in staff meetings in the future. Jace has left the office after delivering the room. Again, with no goodbye. 

Kris starts to feel annoyed, and she is not sure if it is because of Jace or knowing that she has to spend an entire night with just Graham. He is probably going to talk about his sex life the whole time. Kris hates working with men. She sits down at her computer and starts prepping for her next assignment. She hopes to get it done as quickly as possible.

Half an hour later, Graham strolls into her office. He has the biggest smile on his face. He slides up next to Kris and says, "Did Jace tell you that we are staying late?" Kris nods, "Yes. Some itemized budget request." Graham then does a little shimmy, "Overtime! I love overtime. I get paid time and a half for overtime." He smiles at Kris, waiting for her to share in the excitement. She doesn't. Kris clarifies to him, "You do. But I am a salaried employee, so that doesn't help me."

Graham's smile fades from his face. "Really? Then why did you say yes?" She looks annoyed and explains, "It's just part of my job. I am a supervisor." Graham says slightly under his breath, but still loud enough for Kris to hear, "Well, your job sucks." Kris looks appalled. She can't believe she has to work with him tonight. Graham sees the immediate change in Kris's face and instantly says, "No offense."

Normally, Kris would just move on from this whole conversation. She would shove her sassy reply down because she is at work and a supervisor, and has to set a good example for a good work environment. But today she couldn't help herself. She has to work with just Graham for the rest of the night. She must draw clear boundaries with him, or he will be doing stuff like this all night. She says, "I think there was some offense meant." She folds her arms.

Graham stops looking out the window and looks at Kris in the eyes. "What?" Kris continues, "You said no offense right after you told me that my job sucked. Which I think was meant to offend me. So which one is it?" Graham thinks for a second and then says, "I am sorry. I think it's just habit when I say no offense when people give me the look you just gave me." He shrugs his shoulders. Kris puts her hand up to her head and says, "This is going to be a long night." Graham is not deterred by this at all. He starts smiling again as he thinks about the overtime and how big his paycheck will be. He even starts to sing a song about money to himself.

Later, Kris and Graham are working on the computer in her room. Kris is going over what they have been working on, and a puzzled look comes across her face. She puts her hand up to her lips, "I think we are forgetting something." She continues to search through the document until she has a moment of clarity. She finds the thing they missed. "This one!" She says all excitedly. "We need to include this cost as well," She folds her arms in a power move.

Graham leans over and says quickly, "Actually, I already attached expenditure to this grouping back here. I thought it made more sense. But I can move it to here if you think that would be better." Kris pauses and thinks to herself. The grouping Graham had it under made better sense. He clearly knew what he was doing. She didn't realize he was this good. He did the work in half the time expected, and it's taken her longer to review it than it took for Graham to complete it. She felt slightly impressed.

A change passes over Kris's face. She starts to look over at Graham. She has this look that Graham gets from time to time. He immediately recognizes it. "Stop looking so surprised!" She laughs. Her face must be an open book. She says, "Sorry. I wasn't expecting you to be so good at this." Graham looks puzzled, "You didn't expect me to be good at the job I do every day?" Kris stumbles for a comeback. He is right. He has been doing this for years. Probably this well. And she has never acknowledged that. She finally folds her hands and says, "No offense."

Graham starts laughing hard. She got him. Finally, Kris says, "Honestly, you give off some pretty intense bro vibes." Graham smiles, "What's wrong with that? I like to work out and take good care of my body. Does that mean I also can't be a good accountant?" Kris ponders this for a minute. She hates being put in boxes as well. She had been doing that to Graham this whole time. She relaxes a bit more around him. Kris thinks it's time for an apology: "I am sorry that I thought you were just worried about your pretty face and body and not your job."

Graham says, "I am glad people at least notice my body. Do you want to feel my muscles? I am proud of them, too." He flexes in front of Kris. Kris erupts into giggles, "Do I want to sexually harass you while at work? I'll pass." Graham and Kris are looking at each other very playfully. Graham says, "People always assume I am dumb, but I did get a master's in accounting. I am only dumb when it comes to people." And Kris responds, "At least you know where you can improve."

Before things get any further, they are interrupted by a person who walks into the office. He is a guy with a big bag of food. "I am looking for Graham? I have your order." Graham stands up and walks over to grab the food. He comes back with it and starts opening the bag. Kris asks, "Did you order yourself something healthy?" Graham smiles back, "I ordered both of us something healthy for dinner. I figured since only one of us is getting paid overtime, it was only fair I pay for your food."

He puts a box with a big fancy salad in front of Kris. He smiles, "I hope I ordered something you like." She looks inside and sees that it is something she would have ordered for herself. "Good job, Sellers. This was very thoughtful of you." Graham looks at Kris and says, "Don't worry about it, boss. Consider this my apology for that quip about your job."

The two eat in silence, but the air between them has changed. Just as they are about to get back to work, Graham asks, "Who is taking care of Olive tonight?" Kris's face goes white. Her cat! She forgot about her. This is why she shouldn't have gotten a pet in the first place. Graham sees her face go white and asks, "What happened?" Kris starts frantically gathering up her stuff, "I forgot about Olive." Graham gasps, "How could you?" Kris starts feeling worse. 

She looks at Graham and their assignment on the computer and gets super overwhelmed. Graham, "Don't worry about this, I can finish it and send it off to Jace when I am done. Go home and feed that kitty of yours." Kris looks at Graham thankfully as she is about to rush out of the office. She says, "Thank YOU!!!" as she runs out of her office and into the night.