Vice

42: Disney Weekend

Spending the entire weekend drowning in ice cream and crying at Disney films works wonders for Natara's mood. If she could have spent an eternity doing it she would have, but ice cream containers run dry and eventually the Disney film binge and the weekend come to an end. 

Even her thoughts of Mr. Vice have come to an end.

That is, until she walks into work on Monday morning and sees a single white rose sitting on her desk. She freezes in the doorway and cautiously approaches it, circling around it like a rabbit might walk around a fallen predator. Whatever intent this flower is here for - good or bad - it's dangerous.

To her surprise, there is no note accompanying the flower. There is also no signature. There is nothing to tell her that it's from Mr. Vice or anything to shed light on what the flower means. She wonders if it might be an apology.

The last thing she wants to do is see him to find out. Even though she's his secretary she's never really had to see him that much, anyway, so avoiding him should be easy. As long as she just goes along with her typical routine there is no reason for the two of them to interact at all.

Avoiding the thoughts of him stirring in her head and heart, though, was a much more difficult task. She does her best to stay distracted, drowning her attention in tidying up her desk and then heading downstairs to prepare Mr. Vice's coffee.

"Hey, sunshine." As Natara brews the drink, a voice greets her from behind. She turns around and locks eyes with Jace. He's wearing a different tie than usual, decorated with shamrocks, and her gaze moves downward to it. He notices her noticing it and grins.

"Today is Saint Patty's. That's why. Don't worry. I've already been told by six people that it's an ugly tie. I definitely won't wear it next year," he laughs. Natara laughs, too, tapping her fingers anxiously on the counter.

"It's not that bad. It's festive," she replies. Regardless of her intention to console him, it is a very ugly tie and she doesn't have enough bluntness in her body to tell him it's anything worse than "not that bad."

"You're a sweetheart. It's bad." He grins. He grabs a coffee cup for himself and then leans back, waiting for her cup to finish brewing. "Do you want me to make you one while you go deliver that?" He asks, motioning to the coffee, and his eyes trace her frame. "That's a pretty dress, by the way."

"Oh, thanks," Natara says, raising her eyebrows. She was surprised how nice this particular pink dress looked on her this morning but it also felt a little too snug for comfort on her frame. It would be a pain to wear all day long, but she was almost getting used to wearing uncomfortably tight dresses for long periods of time. "And it's nice of you to offer but I don't need any coffee. Plus I could make it myself, anyway."

"I know you could, but you should let me spoil you every so often. I enjoy doing it, you know," he says, giving her a wink. Her heart skips a beat and she has to turn her head back to face the coffee machine so she doesn't give away the blush creeping across her cheeks. The words "spoil you" bring to mind the other night in the hotel. Natara's thoughts shamelessly return back to the things Mr. Vice did to her. She blinks and shakes her head, trying to shake them away.

"No, no. I don't need any spoiling," she quickly exclaims, perhaps a little too forcefully. "I definitely don't need any spoiling."

"No?" Jace asks, taking a step toward her to move Mr. Vice's coffee cup off of the machine and put his own in its place. He hands the cup to Natara, letting his fingers brush across hers a few seconds longer than necessary. "But I'd love to spoil you sometimes. You should let me."

For Natara, this is all too much. Her face is as red as a beet and she can feel it. She takes a few steps back, almost spilling the coffee, and then gets the creamer and whipped cream in the glass as fast as she can. When she's done she mutters a quick goodbye and hurries down the halls toward Mr. Vice's office.

Why did he have to say that, of all things? She shudders as she heads down the hall. Jace's word choice teased images and feelings at the back of her brain that she was trying to keep at bay. She had been doing a good job of keeping distracted, too, but now all she can think about is the night in the hotel.

She groans, taking a handful of her curls in one hand and tugging on it. A few seconds into her internal meltdown, a coworker passes her in the hall and gives her an odd look. She quickly releases her curls and they bounce back up to their normal position.

Natara feels like this whole situation is making her insane. The graduation, the new job, Jace, and Mr. Vice. 

Maybe she isn't cut out to be an adult at all. It's just way too hard to make sense of everything. How do adults do it all? How can they just get fresh out of high school and college and feel like everything is perfectly fine and normal? 

What was normal was going to school every day, doing classwork, doing homework, and not having to worry about anything else. Maybe that still felt hard at times but life in the adult world felt like another monster entirely.

When she reaches the door to Mr. Vice's office, she sighs and leans up against the wall outside of it. Working at this company is going to be the death of her. 

She opens the compartment she usually places Mr. Vice's coffee in and then freezes, remembering that Mr. Vice told her to knock on his door.