The Interning Assistant

Forgetting and Moving On

Stuart's POV

The weekend was torture. I spent all weekend trying to think of what I would say to Liz. Then I would start to think about Liz. How funny, amazing, sweet, beautiful she is. Then I would think of that night. What it felt like sitting in a bar, drinking with her, dancing with her. Kissing her.

I walked into work Monday eager to see Liz, but not eager to have the conversation we needed to have. I took a deep breath before walking into her office. My breath immediately got caught in my throat when I saw her sitting at her desk, sketching something in a notebook. She had a blue pencil behind her ear while she was sketching with a black one.

Her hair was moved to flow down one shoulder. She bit her lip as she fixed her glasses that had begun to fall down her nose. I'm not sure where it was coming from, but there was a breeze blowing her bangs out of her face.

She looked up, her eyes widening slightly when she noticed me standing in the doorway. "Morning," she said before going back to her sketch.

"Really?" I scoffed, before I could stop myself. The tone of my voice made her look up at me. "You're just going to act like nothing happened?"

"Because nothing did," she said slowly like she was making sure I heard her correctly.

I slid my backpack off my shoulder and put it on my chair as I walked into the room, not looking away from Liz. "Both you and I know that's not true. Now I know we already "talked" about this briefly before you ran out of my apartment."

"Stuart," she tried to interrupt.

"No," I said, shaking my head as I walked closer to her desk. "We have to talk about this."

"What is there to talk about, Stuart? It was just one night. We need to forget it ever happened," she said, avoiding my gaze.

"Is that what you want?" I asked probably a little too harshly. She quickly looked up at me and studied my face.

"It doesn't matter what I want," she stuttered.

"That's the thing, Liz. It does matter. We can't. . ." I was interrupted when their was a soft knock at the door.

We turned to see Chetty walking into the office. "Hey Liz," he greeted. I saw a brief moment of fear cross Liz's face, but she quickly recovered.

"I had a question," he stopped talking when he noticed me standing in front of her desk. "Is there a problem?" He asked adjusting his glasses.

"No sir," Liz said, looking at me before turning her attention back to him. "What did you need?"

Chetty looked between us before shrugging. "The digital programers are having a difficult time programing your design. Would you mind coming with me and helping them?"

"Not at all," she said already gathering a few things.

"Great," he said, leading her out of the room. I held my breath unable to look away from her.

She stopped in the doorway and slowly turned to me. "Can you go down to Communications and ask for the results on the survey?"

I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off. "I'll be back in a few minutes," she said, sending me a look saying we were finished with our previous conversation.

"I'll head down right now." I said. After a second of us staring at each other, I added, "Ms. Martin."

Calling Liz "Ms. Martin" felt wrong. It was almost like I had accidentally called her by the wrong name or like I was talking to a completely different person.

It was just one night. We need to forget it ever happened.

Her words echoed in my mind as I walked to the Communications office. Normally I could forget a one night stand, but this wasn't that.

At least I didn't want it to be.