Reflections of You

Kara wasn't distracted--she wasn't. In one hand, she held her lukewarm coffee, hardly touched since she bought it a half an hour ago. In her other, she pressed a pen to her lips. Every once and awhile she'd tap it and shift position, but she found no relief in it.

"--Kara?"

Kara awoke from her hazy thoughts. She'd been sleeping standing up, thinking about something totally different than the world around her. She blinked and focused to see a woman's face close to hers and covered with concern, looking into her eyes and standing extremely close to her in the CATCO elevator.

"You alright?" The woman asked.

"Oh--yes." Kara laughed nervously, straightening her glasses.

The woman nodded and face forward again.

"How are you?" the woman looked over her shoulder at Kara again.

"I'm good," Kara nodded, smiling again she made an excuse, "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Ah," the woman smiled, "stressed?"

" Oh yeah. Big time." Kara nodded vigorously, glancing down and touching her glasses again.

"I didn't get much sleep last night either," the woman said wistfully, "we got a newborn at home and the mrs. has the flu so I had to get up every time Jamie cried."

"Ooh," Kara grimaced, "sorry about that,"

The woman smiled over her shoulder, "He was particularly distressed last night."

"How's, uh, you're friend?" the woman asked and Kara tilted her head slightly, "Mike, was it? Has he found another calling?" she smirked, obviously trying to make a joke.

"Oh, yeah," Kara scratched the back of her head, "he's uh, he's good."

"Good," the woman smiled kindly.

The elevator landed and the woman smiled one last time, "Nice to see you Kara."

"You too!" Kara called as the woman walked out of the elevator, taking a sip of her coffee.

She felt as though her cheeks were burning. She was thinking about it again. Those few moments; the conversation she'd had the day before; the kind eyes she couldn't help but keep coming back to as they stared into hers; the touch she kept feeling. The thing that had kept her up so late last night. The guilt of keeping it to herself; her selfish and scared heart not sure how to deal with what she was feeling.

Something behind her eyes began to burn and she felt herself beginning to sweat. She needed to get out of this elevator and to her office. Needed to be alone where no one could say anything to her that would even make her think about anything remotely related to what she kept thinking and dreaming and imagining over and over and over again.

Two other women stepped onto the elevator, about her age. One was tall and broad with short bleached hair in a pixie haircut and the other was a brunette with piercing green eyes. They smiled cordially with Kara and stood in front of her, closest to the door.

The blonde one pulled out her phone, "Oh god."

"What?" The other one looked up.

"It's Eve again," she said, "I have to go back downstairs--it's my turn for coffee and I forgot."

"How is she doing?" The green-eyes girl asked in a concerned voice.

"Is something wrong with Eve?" Kara accidentally butted into their conversation before she could stop herself.

"Oh," the blonde woman shook her head, "no, she just had a breakup though and she's a bit upset."

"Overall though, she's doing much better than I expected." The other girl said, "Apparently he was really nice about it."