Eugene looked Zach up and down as he waltzed into the office a few weeks later. He had a thick scarf bundled around his neck and a large hood covering his forehead.
Zach shook himself, almost like a dog, to rid himself of any snowflakes that had infiltrated his many layers.
"So?" Eugene asked Zach, a smirk on his face.
Zach paused for a minute, confused, then realised what Eugene was asking about. After their chat at the office party, Eugene had played matchmaker with Zach and a mutual friend.
"Mel is lovely." Zach admitted, continuing to take off his various coats and jumpers.
"But?" Eugene asked.
"What do you mean, 'but'?' Zach puzzled, draping his scarf on a radiator.
"Nobody just says their date was lovely, Zach. What was wrong?" Eugene laughed.
Before Zach could reply, Keith and Ned entered the room with armfuls of paperwork to complete. They were wrapped up in their work own chat until they spotted Zach and Eugene gossiping.
"Guys we have so much to do today! Your mother's meeting will have to wait, we need all hands on deck." Ned exclaimed, throwing different tasks on the desks.
Zach sighed, paperwork day always appeared once a fortnight and today there was a backlog due to everything that came through during the Christmas break. He picked up his pen and began signing different documents without really reading them through.
He'd only been working for an hour when he felt a sharp prick on the back of his neck. He turned round to see everyone hard at work, but a paper airplane lying on the floor.
Zach picked it up and quickly smoothed the paper. In a smudged blue ink, he saw Eugene's neat writing: 'So what was wrong with Mel?'.
Zach turned around once more, but could only see Eugene tapping away at his computer, with a blue pen sitting beside his mouse.
Zach grabbed a post-it note and began to write in his scratchy handwriting: 'Nothing wrong, per say, but I just didn't feel a spark. We didn't have much in common and the conversation ran dry after a while. Thanks for trying though'.
He put his pen down and thought for a moment. Then, he smiled and stuck the post-it note to the stack of documents he had just signed. Quickly, he got up and placed it all on Eugene's desk.
"Could you quickly read through these Eugene?" Zach announced loudly, to the approval of Ned and Keith.
Eugene tried not to laugh at Zach's little display, and watched him run back to his desk. He kept looking in his direction, waiting for him to turn around.
Finally, they made made eye contact. Eugene began to mouth slowly and obviously.
"We'll talk after work. Come to mine at seven. Bring food. I'll get drinks."
Zach gave him a quick thumbs up and began to race through the rest of his work, finding sudden motivation in his new evening plans. He knew he would need to finish all his work before he could even think about leaving - paperwork day always ran late.
He felt his phone buzz in his pocket, and reached to checked it. Surprising, it was Eugene.
'Stop checking your phone and work, idiot.' Eugene had messaged.
Zach laughed and shook his head.
