She Keeps Me Warm

1

Another morning at the office. For the most part, it's an enjoyable experience. The work is challenging and time consuming, nothing she can't handle. Her office is pretty roomy; not large, but it's enough. The building is conveniently located near of the many Starbucks in town, but she much prefers the small coffee shop across the street. A 2-minute walk for her favorite beverage is hardly upsetting. The only thing that could possibly make her days unbearable is-.

"Hey there, gorgeous. How are you this morning?"

She rolled her eyes, holding her mug of office coffee to her lips to hide her annoyance. Theo had been harassing her since she started working at this building several months ago. He would make flirty comments towards her, which quickly escalated to not so office appropriate comments; at least those moments were rare. But are any flirty comments at work really appropriate? There are times when his phone number would mysteriously appear on her desk in the shape of paper at first, and then, business cards. Then, as if she didn't receive any of those, she began to receive pastries with the digits etched out in frosting; which she threw away just in case there was an extra ingredient inside.

Theo thoroughly creeped her out. The guy speaks as if everything was a business deal, his suits are personally tailored- even though his go-to attire is almost always slacks and a button down collared shirt- and there was no telling how much product was in his hair; or, how much AXE Apollo body spray he'd bathed in before coming to work every day. Why was he even working here in the first place?

Dude, you majored in Sports Management...

"Hello, Theodore. I'm well, thank you." She just sipped at her coffee, hoping he'd just go away.

"So, did you get my note?" He edged a little closer to where she was leaning against the break room counter.

Luck was clearly not in her favor today.

"Yes, I did. All 15 of them." She replied. She was never really very rude to him. She gave him respect. Maybe one day he could become a decent human being. But it wasn't always easy to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially when you enter your office to find a stack of letters designed as paperwork on your desk with Theodore Straka stamped on the bottom of every page with his number in bold. There was a photo of his boxers once. She didn't want to eat for days after that one.

"And the muffins? They're blueberry. I know you said you enjoyed them the last time. Unless you lied..." Theo gave her a devilish smile, folding his arms across his chest. As if she didn't know when she was being accused or interrogated.

"Oh, no. They were delicious." She reassured him. I'm sure the trash can thoroughly enjoyed them.

"Thank you. You know, I can make them from scratch. You should come over for dinner. I'll cook for you. We can eat some delicious food- my compliments to the chef- watch a movie, and, um, enjoy pleasant conversation next to a warm fire. I'll even throw in some white wine and pastries with truffle butter. The wine is hand crafted. My uncle owns a vineyard in..."

By this time, she had done her best to tune him out. How many times had she heard this same spiel? She knew how long it was going to go on for...at least another two minutes. Wonderful. She could just sit here and drink her coffee. It wasn't as delicious as the coffee at the dinner, but it was a nice substitute before the place opened.; and anything was a good substitute over Theo.

"Hey, Theo, come on. There's 3 assignments waiting for you." One of their coworkers came in, interrupting the part where Theo was going to suggest that she follow him to his king size bed with a beautiful view of the stars twinkling off the projection screen against the brick wall of his bedroom. How romantic. They were a 7th floor worker, so she'd never learn their name. Oh well. She would've loved to send a 'thank you' card.