Baby Steps ✔ (Under Construction)

FIVE

A fever.

Zara couldn't believe her luck. Two days before she's meant to go to Manchester for a weekend with her best friends, she get's sick. She had been having a bad week before she got sick. On Monday, she snapped at their IT guy, Marv for not being able to fix her computer in under ten minutes. On Tuesday, the cafeteria had run out of tuna salad sandwiches and it really was the end of the world, and then later in the afternoon, she went to fill her water bottle only to find out the water cooler was empty. On Wednesday, her laptop broke yet again, and after a very heated phone call with Marv, she hung up and made her way down to the IT department, demanding he gave her a backup one for the day.

Thursday was when she started to feel like crap. Her hands were clammy and her head was stuffy. She spent most of the morning dry heaving in the ladies, and then by the time lunch time rolled around, she was sweating like a hooker in a church. Angela had insisted she go home, and she did exactly that.

It was now Friday and she still hasn't moved from her cocoon on her bed. Leanne and Bea have been messaging her in their group chat and she received a text message from Angela an hour or so ago asking if she was feeling any better.

Zara talks on the phone with her mother as she eats a dry slice of toast; the only thing she's able to keep down at the moment.

"No mum, don't come over." She groans. "I'm not good company right now."

"Darling, I'm your mother," Vivienne replies, "I know what's best for you, and right now it's my split pea and ham soup."

Zara sighs. "You're going to come regardless of what I want, aren't you?"

"See you shortly." Her mother says as she hangs up.

The twenty-four-year-old drops her phone on her bed as an unattractive groan falls from her lips. She loved her mother, she really did, but she couldn't stand it when she made a fuss over her. As the youngest, she was often smothered to death by her mother, and while occasionally it worked in her favour when she wanted something, most of the time, it was just one big annoyance.

Since Jude started working with her four weeks ago, things have been weird. If they pass each other in the hall, she smiles and he smiles back, but its awkward, to say the least. She wants him to look at her, and by look at her, she wants him to undress her with his eyes, but he never does.

He's good at pretending he doesn't know whats hidden beneath the pencil skirt she often wears to work. She wish she could say the same for herself. Every time she sees him, her animalistic urges come out to play and she fights against every one of her urges to just stalk over to him and rip his clothes off.

Dominate him, like a predator to it's prey.

It had been a lot worse recently, especially over the last week or so. On Monday, after her laptop nightmare, Jude had walked past her desk and the mere smell of him had her wetter than the Indian Ocean. Leanne had noticed her flustered state and refrained from commenting, even though a snarky remark had to have been on the tip of her tongue.

Occasionally, the two of them would be in the staff room at the same time and he would ask her how her day was going, and she would reply, telling him it was good, and asked about his. Jude's response was the same as hers and after that, they would stop exchanging pleasantries, and go about their day.

Just the thought of him set butterflies off in her stomach.

Oh, wait. Not butterflies.

Zara just about makes it into the bathroom before she empties her stomach in the toilet. Something wasn't right. Something felt out of sync. Zara lowers herself onto the tiled floor and leans against her tub as she lets out a tired sigh. Her legs ache as she stretches them, and every one of her limbs feel heavy.