The Five

Back at the Office

Back at the office Felicity barely had an hour to get back to her work when the leader of the harpies arrived at her desk.

Stifling her groan, she swiveled her chair over to Kelly hoping it would just be another stack of litigation to sort through. Unfortunately there was nothing in Kelly’s hands.

“Hey girly. I hope you had a nice lunch. I was so sad you couldn’t stay and eat with us. We never get to spend anytime out of the office together. Maybe we could go on a coffee run in a little bit”.

“Oh thank you for the offer Kelly,” Felicity smiled, using all her social graces to be polite despite not wanting to.

“I’ve actually got to file a lot of paperwork and can’t take another break today but maybe some other time when I’m less busy”.

“So I didn’t get a chance to get your friend’s name. I feel like I might have seen you two before but I usually don’t go to the Thompson center. Too many people and the food’s pretty shitty”. Yet another jab from Kelly.

“Oh I usually pack my own lunch and bring it there. I like… er…. Blending in and seeing all the different people from the area”.

“Right. Right. So what’s his name?”

“Oh Erik? Yeah I think he and I like that we can talk without being conscientious of the people around us since there’s a lot of noise”.

“Erik is such a great name! So are you dating or… just friends?” Kelly was searching for answers so she could form a game plan to steal him away.

“Oh we’re just close friends. We’ve actually never met up outside of lunch breaks so it’ll be fun to see him let loose a little bit,” Felicity half heartedly chuckled but she was curious. While she would never call their meetings formal they were certainly structured. She wondered if she’d get to see him outside of a suit and tie for once. Doubtful, but an interesting and, dare she think, tantalizing visual. He rarely wore the standard white shirt with weirdly patterned ties everyone else did but her mind couldn’t help but go to what was underneath his clothes.

Shaking herself out of her day dream she realized Kelly had asked her a question.

“I’m sorry what was that?”

“I asked if he was single. He dresses so well I was wondering if he might be gay!” she laughed as though that was somehow a bad thing. Felicity’s stomach churned with how judgmental Kelly could be. It was times like these she was almost glad she kept her personal business to herself. If Kelly came for her fluidity she might actually blow up, to the point of risking getting fired.

“I really don’t know. We never talk about that kind of thing,” Felicity said as she started to turn her chair back to her computer screen, tired of the bullshit.

“Well I can’t wait to find out!” Kelly said while almost sauntering away. She hadn’t quite gotten the hang of that yet.

Felicity couldn’t get focused on her work for the rest of the day. She was close enough to Kelly’s desk that the whispers and laughter could reach her. She usually was able to ignore it but today it got to her.

Then there was the subject of Erik. She couldn’t stop thinking about their date. He called it a date but was it really a date? What about the specifics of the date? She knew he had well developed tastes and was worried about how fancy the restaurant might be. She had fancy clothes but coming from work she wouldn’t be able to wear them and would be wearing business casual. She could wear her sexier ripped jeans with a tight long sleeve top but that could be completely unacceptable. Usually she wore a suit jacket and either a turtleneck or button down as it got cooler but she did want to look nice.

At the back of her mind was a constant visual of Erik. She truly hadn’t thought about him in a romantic way up until today. It wasn’t Kelly’s audacity that sparked those feelings. She’d worried about it before but realized that wasn’t it. It was his protectiveness and the way he knew her mind. He got her out of a sticky situation with Kelly so quickly like he could tell what she was thinking. It had to be because they were friends. She refused to acknowledge the way he stared at her. The way he sent a little shockwave through her. 

No, she sent the shockwave through herself. She must have taken what he’d said out of context. There was no way he was attracted to a mannish woman like her. Men like that want a trophy, a supermodel, someone… else.

Then there was that tantalizing visual she’d tempted herself with when speaking with Kelly. He was tall with just a wide enough frame that you knew he had muscles. ‘I wonder what he looks like working out’, she thought to herself. She stopped and almost violently shook her head just as she was imagining sweat dripping down from his perfect black wavy hair to his face. Down his strong jaw.

“Ahh enough of that,” she whispered to herself. She had to put it out of her mind and see what happened.