A Penny's Worth (Completed)

Monday: One Cent

             Norah pressed herself into the corner of the elevator as the usual crowd shoved their way inside. Like automatons, they mumbled out which floor to push so the person closest to the buttons could select it. She stood on her tip-toes, just waiting for that moment when Cole Collins would step inside. Seeing him always started her morning right. Not seeing him would offset the balance of her day. Things like spilling coffee on her blouse, having food stuck in her teeth, or worse, leaving the bathroom with half of her skirt tucked into her undies, was likely to occur. The doors started closing, and her hope began shrinking right along with the closing gap.

Then a hand sliced through, bouncing the doors open again and in squeezed Cole Collins. Norah's legs gave from balancing on her tip-toes for too long, but with it came relief. His smile as he begged pardons from the people he accidentally bumped was enough to make her sigh. She stared at the back of his head with the faded sides that gradually worked into a trendy pompadour. Usually, it was gelled and quaffed to perfection, but this time, pieces of hair slanted sideways like stems of wilting flowers.

It was Monday after all, and sometimes he looked a little rugged after a weekend. Norah sighed again. If only she could be part of his weekend. She was barely five feet and two inches. With high heels, she was a whopping five-five compared to the leggy bombshells she worked with. She doubted Cole even noticed her, and she convinced herself that he was too tall to see her from his eye level.

The doors opened on the sixth floor and out flocked a few people along with Cole. Norah held her breath while a chunk of her left with him. On good days, there were chances she might see him on the way to lunch or leaving work for the day. Those were the best days, but Norah kept the crush to herself because she couldn't bear the embarrassment if her coworkers ever found out. The women in her office were bold go-getters, not only in their work but in dating too. Just the year before, at a social event the building held, she watched in complete awe as her newly divorced boss close a business deal and then charm her way into a dinner date.

The doors opened again, but this time on the eighth floor where Norah worked. It was a small advertising company made of less than twenty people, but she liked it that way. She was able to make it to a copy editor in a short while working for them. She could never have accomplished that back home or with a bigger company. She loved her job, and her coworkers were pleasant, but they weren't close enough to call friends, which added to her lonesomeness at times. The office temp seemed to be the only one giving her the time of day when it came to socializing.

Trixy was a couple of years younger than Norah and was filling in for a coworker on maternity leave. She was the kind of person that did horribly at reading people. Someone could be in a crabby mood, yet Trixy would chat their ear off, completely oblivious to their clipped remarks. When she entered the breakroom, others would slip on their earbuds or leave so they could avoid the word vomit she was about to spew. However, Norah felt rude ignoring her, so she always tried her best to be polite.

"Hey!" Trixy leaned into the doorframe of Norah's corner office and began chirping away. "Why didn't you tell me about the hunk over in the art department!"

"There's a hunk over there?" Norah chuckled.

"Duh, Barrett! He's tall, lean, and has this dark hair I want to mess up. Plus, he says he prefers to be called Bear. How cute is that?"

"I refuse to call him an animal," Norah replied while reading through emails.

"Is he single? If he is, then everyone move out of the way because that tall hunk of a man is mine."

"I don't think anyone will really fight you on it, so he's all yours." Norah glanced up from the computer to stare at Trixy, who laid across the small grey sofa against the wall—like a patient ready for a session with a shrink.