Nothing Out of the Ordinary

She had been assigned to keep watch on the recording of the evening news program. It was past 7, and the staff who was supposed to do the task had already gone home. Miss Emily, the head of the Department, had asked Lia to sit in the desk of the monitor where the program was being recorded. Apparently, that was all she had to do-just wait until it finished. Even so, she wasn't allowed to leave the recording unattended. The setup would be a nuisance if she had planned to go home early, but she needed to work overtime to render more of her remaining internship hours. So, Lia sat before the monitor, both hands in her cardigan pockets as she rotated her swivel chair from left to right then back again.

Lia was only an intern, and being one meant she was half invisible. The employees were pleasant towards her, but they also kept a professional distance between them and Lia, which was understandable. They would have a chitchat with her if they happened to bump into her in the restroom, but in the office they left her on her own, unless they had a task for her.

Instead of watching the news on the monitor, Lia was focused on Alex who was doing the graphics for the network's social media sites. At the moment, he and Allana, an another employee, were the only two left of the fifteen workers of the department. The others had already gone home. Lia noticed that Alex always went home late, but also came to work late-which actually made sense to Lia. The guy chose to not suffer the struggle of waking early in the morning and made the choice to just work overtime. Lia was impressed he could get away with it.

The desk Lia was occupying for the time being was perpendicular to the door, the only one there, and was facing the whole office from the corner; while the other monitors were parallel to the door, so Alex had his back on her. This gave Lia the opportunity to observe him without him noticing and getting the creeps. Alex looked like he was in his mid-twenties, he was small for a man, around five feet and three or four inches tall. He was always in his blue sweater which he always left in the office before going home. He wasn't really handsome, but he was cute and charming-and Lia liked him. He was more friendly than the others too, and was always smiling. He didn't have a perfect smile, but he had dimples-deep dimples, which reminded Lia of her cat's whiskers.

The office was quiet, the only noise was the news on the monitor, but it was set in low volume, and Lia could barely hear it. Alex seemed finished with his graphics, and moved on to his favorite thing to do after work-sketch random people or celebrities on his post-it notes.

The program was on its final segment when Lia finally decided to pay attention on it, a person she knew from the News Department was the reporter for the celebrity news, so that made Lia forget about Alex and his little quirks. As Lia watched the segment, she was appreciating the way her acquaintance deliver the news so clearly and confidently, when a post-it note suddenly blocked her view from the screen. She looked up and saw Alex with his backpack, and was offering her a sketch of who knows who. He was smiling, but Lia was just confused, so she just stared at him, then at the paper he was holding, then back at him, "Sir? Are you giving me this?"

He chuckled, "Yes, it's for you."

Lia, in a very reluctant manner, took the small paper. When she looked at it, she couldn't figure out who the drawing was. The girl in the paper was facing sideways, her hair in a loose ponytail, and her eyes were focused on something that wasn't included in the drawing; she was looking bored. It was a quick sketch without shadows and details.

She looked up at Alex when she heard him laugh, "It's you." Then he bid her goodbye and left her in the office with Allana who was busy watching a science documentary film on Youtube. She looked at the drawing once again, and as she examined it harder, she realized that the girl actually did resemble her. The news program was over, and so the office should be in complete silence, but Lia could hear the quiet sound of her fast heartbeat, despite knowing that Alex's action was nothing out of the ordinary.