Aloha

People buzzed around her. They were corporate moths to an evening-drinks flame, drawn more by the promise of free nibbles and spiked Hawaiian punch than they were by the fact that Ryan was leaving them for good. Not Kylie. She had been making a cup of tea when Amelia from HR had given her the news on the sly, watching viciously to see whether she crumbled or not. Thankfully she’d managed to keep it together until she’d reached the office supplies store room and set her delicate, girly cup on the shelf next to the obscenely yellow post-its.

She’d had a thing for Ryan ever since his first day, when he’d been ironically introduced at his predecessor’s farewell morning tea. He’d sheepishly smiled and then remained modestly uncomfortable. Even though he had warmed to the place in the weeks after, he still carried an air of quiet intelligence that she found intriguing. It was doubtful that he found her intriguing in return. She always managed to somehow only speak in single syllables and then desperately make a break for it whenever they had spent more than two seconds in company together.

Kylie always felt happier admiring him from afar, and this evening was no different. He moved through the group of gathered office friends, his shy smile and dark eyes still commanding her attention from where she stood by the table where the iPod dock was. Some genius – Amelia, probably – had made a playlist that included an inexhaustible list of songs with a Hawaiian theme. Kylie found herself wondering whether he would enjoy Honolulu. In the suitably dimmed lighting of the conference room, it was easier to imagine what his complexion would look like through the glazing of a tropical sunset.

Of course, there would also be plenty of scantily-clad, exotic women there with him to drink in the sight.

Just as Kokomo began to hula across the air waves, Kylie knew she had to get out of there. It was only a matter of time before Amelia forced everyone into grass skirts, and then made some kind of back-handed compliment about how fitting they were for her curves. The corridor was blissfully empty as Kylie headed for the one place she was sure to get a moment’s solitude before she could sneak out early. Familiarity was as much a comfort to her as the smell of new notepads as she closed the door behind her, relaxing against the one shelf of the store room that was just the right height.

In her head, she had imagined and reimagined confessing her feelings to him. It always ended the same way; with her saying a multitude of things that made her sound pathetic, desperate, infatuated or a combination of all of those embarrassments and more besides. Kylie pressed her forehead to her arms and leaned more heavily on the shelf, giving in to the sensation of the boozy punch she had already drank and closing her eyes. Tomorrow was a new day, she reminded herself. And for the first time in six years, she wouldn’t be able to use the possibility of seeing him as a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

The sound of the door opening drew her attention immediately. Kylie straightened, shocked that she would be disturbed in her sanctuary when there was a party going on in another part of the building. Her eyes widened once she realised there was no mistaking the person who entered, his perfectly straight nose illuminated by the bright fluorescents in the corridor as he watched over his shoulder to apparently make sure that he wasn’t being followed. It wasn’t until he closed the door behind himself and turned to face the vague light of the store room that he noticed he wasn’t actually alone.

“Oh—hi,” he blurted, his usually steady gaze skipping across her face even as a bemused smirk hitched one corner of his mouth. If it hadn’t been for the fact that his mere arrival had made her heart skip a beat, Kylie was sure she would have been experiencing palpitations. How many times had she daydreamed about this exact scenario – and how many times had her fantasy ended well, her sarcastic inner-Amelia reminded her. For a moment she simply gaped at him, managing valiantly to ignore the ridiculous, cheap fabric flower necklace draped around his neck.