Post 245: Flirting at the Office

“Hellloooo…good morning,” she sang, hands over my eyes as I stood at the counter in the breakroom, buttering a muffin left over from the staff meeting earlier. Like most days recently I wasn’t very hungry this early (or ever, really) but knew I needed to choke down something. “Guess whooooo….!”

It was, of course, Melissa. I chuckled and, as she released me, turned around. I tried to keep my heart in my chest, my eyes in my skull, my gasp in my throat as - this just never got less surprising - I came to grips as to just how much taller she was than me.

“Haha wearing my power heels today, for the meeting,” she laughed, biting her lower lip at my reaction and looking down on me. Christ I was eye-level to her gigantic bust, packed tightly in her black, off-the-shoulder dress. Her hair was done big and soft, her eyes glimmered with merriment.

“I, um…yeah…” I stammered, immediately lost for words. My heart had quickened, and I took a breath of air filled with her perfume. It was gentler, today, than usual; I was more used to an assault of her floral scent but ahh today she just smelled…nice. Though I’d been feeling anxious this morning - what had happened in that meeting? what was going on with my health? - with her sudden presence my negative thoughts immediately evaporated, replaced by an excitement that I have to admit, dear reader, was a bit giddy. I was single - newly divorced! - and standing here, talking to this beautiful woman…I realized that I, maybe, didn’t need to feel guilty anymore. She was my employee, yes, and I knew I had to keep my wits about me…but dammit it felt kinda good.

Melissa, for her part, seemed brightly excited too. We’d shared a kiss, our first one, just two days ago. It had been cut short but no doubt there was the memory of it, here today, in the air between us. I wanted to…I wanted to kiss her, again. Real bad. And if I was reading things right I think she felt the same. But we were here, in the breakroom, at work. Anyone could walk in.

We smiled at one another, though, a warm moment that gradually began to feel…oh boy…a bit more heated. There was tension, so much unspoken, in the lock of our gazes.

She was the first to speak. She asked me about my morning, how I’d slept. We’d had a text conversation the night before that lingered in my dreams - so many of those little red kisses! - but of course I couldn’t say that. I thanked her haha for the warm milk I’d found on my desk after my first patient. I’m chagrined to admit it, but it tasted nice, now. I really didn’t need coffee.

“I think you weaned me off it,” I joked, which brought a sparkle to her eye.

“Excuse me but I have to do this,” she said to that, abruptly but gently taking my right hand, to hold it clasped between her two, up between us. Her smile crooked, and she began tenderly stroking it, holding it like treasure. “You are…you are just too adorable…” she purred, her bosom rising and falling with deeper breaths.

“Th-thank you, I do my best,” I managed, fighting back a smile which I knew would be too broad, too open. My skin was tingling, my blood was bubbling. My face felt warm. What was this? It had been so long since I’d…flirted with anyone, for real. With someone I…I liked. With someone I could honestly, yes, see…liking. Maybe more? Is this what it felt like?

Melissa had giggled at my little joke, sounding surprisingly girlish for someone so obviously a woman. She held my right hand, still; my left lay clenched at my side, wanting to reach out and…maybe put a hand on her hip, her waist?

“Hey so sooorrrrry for all the big boobie posts this morning, mentioning you in them…” she said, calling up the several new Instagrams where she’d tagged me, earlier. Her eyes sparkled as she watched me remember them: woof. “…unless you liked them? <giggle!>.”

Like I said,: woof. A teenage Melissa, in her Hooters uniform, was the one that really stuck with me, and yes she had named me in it. Just three days ago, for sure, that would have made me squirm: more fuel for Sheryl, another nail in the coffin in which she intended to bury me. But now? The marriage was dead and gone, so…

“You looked super pretty…” I admitted, speaking without thinking but heart cranking up into another gear as I saw her shiver. She giggled again, and pressed my right hand to her, to her trim, fit abdomen.

It was my turn, now, to shiver, my hand now on her, innocent but intimate. We were more-than-obviously alone, still, and the electricity in the air between us seemed to crackle.

“Say that again…” she said, her voice dropping an octave, her eyes boring down into mine. She inched a breadth closer.

“You l-looked gorgeous,” I admitted, “in all of them…”

“Oh my god…” she groaned, and backed me up into the counter behind me; I felt it in my lower back. Her voice dropped further and though now a whisper, she sounded half-overcome. “I can send more…”

Oh Jesus. Oh Jesus Jesus Jesus.

I broke her gaze, looked to my left. The door to the hallway, where outside the practice buzzed with people, was wide open. We can’t do this, here…

“M-M-Melissa?” I stammered, gathering every kernel of strength I had rattling around in my bones as I looked back up at her, my free hand now on the counter behind me for support, gripping it white-knuckled. “L-let’s keep it…professional?”

I saw it, in her eyes: it was hard for her, too. But she knew it - this was the right thing to do, here in the office. She removed my hand from her midsection and - in a sudden show of sentiment - brought it to her lips, kissed the back of my fingers. She watched my eyes flutter, seeing my reaction to her affection and - patting it with demure  tenderness  - gave my hand back to me. “Sure, yes, of course, professional,” she smiled, voice warm, “we both have work to do. I’ve got piles of paperwork, you have patients. And don’t forget your videochat with Gianna, about the study, in an hour…”

Did I know about that? I was a little confused, obviously, too caught up in the moment to remember anything like my schedule. “Fine fine okay…”

“But professional, yes - until Friday?” she asked, eyes sparkling with anticipation that we now both, too obviously, shared: what could happen between us, on Friday, away at last from everything that had been obstacles?

“Y-y-yeah….” I agreed, the hours that separated this moment from our date - dinner at the end of the week - now seeming endless, like there were too many of them, “…f-friday.”

“Friday it is,” she echoed, biting her lip, tucking a thick lock of her long, dark hair behind her left ear. She reached down, straightened my collar. “Then I can be gorgeous for you,” she continued, her voice thick with promise, adding, “…and I’ll have you all to myself...”

from the corner of an upper cabinet, hidden from view, a small red light blinked…

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