There was an aggressive knock at my door almost the second that I shut it. I pulled it open and saw Trevor intently looking at me.
"Um, hi?" I said to him.
"Excuse me," he said as he stepped his way past me and into the apartment, "did I just see you out in the hallway playing tonsil hockey with Theo?!"
"What??" I said, starting to feel embarrassed, "how did you -?"
"Well, I open my door to leave, and there you two are just goin' at it!" Trevor said, "so I shut my door real fast."
"Oh my gosh," I said as I put my face in my hand, "so that's what I heard."
"Hey, good for you honestly," Trevor said.
"Yeah," I sighed, "I don't know about that...I didn't really plan on that happening."
"Madison, when you're in love...you're in love," Trevor said as he batted his eyelashes at me.
"Would you knock it off," I said with a laugh.
"I told you before, I call it like I see it," he said in response.
"Mhmm, totally just oh so in love," I said sarcastically, playing along.
"So when are you seeing him again?" Trevor asked.
"Tomorrow," I said plainly.
"Tomorrow already?!" Trevor said excitedly.
"Yes, I need coffee in the morning Trevor," I smirked at him as the realization came across his face.
"You're not very nice, you know?" He said in response.
"I don't know, I thought it was pretty funny," I grinned.
Trevor decided he had gotten enough information out of me a few minutes later and went back across the hall to his apartment. Shortly after he left, I settled into my bed for the night, and fell into one of the best sleeps I'd had for a while.
***
I woke up the next morning and hurriedly got ready so I could go and get coffee...and see Theo of course.
I walked into the shop and it was a little more crowded than it had been the past couple of days. I decided to sit down at a table and wait for the line to die down, I had plenty of time.
Once the crowd had cleared out some, I looked up and saw Theo approaching my table.
"Good morning," he said as he sat down next to me.
"Shouldn't you be working or something?" I asked him with a grin.
"Probably, but someone just came in that caught my eye, so I had to take a break," he said as he leaned over and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
"That was quite the line, does it usually work for you?" I asked him.
"I don't know," he contemplated, "did it work just now?"
"I guess it kind of did," I said as my face got warmer.
"See?" He grinned at me.
"Hey you know what I realized I didn't do last night?" Theo continued.
"What?" I asked him.
"Let me see your phone," he said as he held out his hand.
I pulled it out of my purse and handed it to him and watched as he saved his number.
"There," he said, "now stay right here and I'll go make your coffee."
I smiled to myself as I watched him walk away. If he was a fuck boy like Trevor said he had heard, he definitely wasn't showing it yet.
***
Theo had been a nice distraction from my issues at work, but it was unfortunately back to reality for the day.
Thankfully I was greeted by Ella that morning, and I didn't have to deal with Natalie just yet.
"Morning Madison!" She said as she walked into her office next to mine.
"Hey Ella," I responded as I stepped into her doorway, "how's it going?"
"Oh you know, living the dream," she said with a grin.
"Sure, something like that," I said, "hey can I ask you something though?"
"Sure, go for it," she said with a nod.
I stepped further into her office and lowered my voice, "is Natalie usually like this with all of the new hires? Or is it just me she's after?"
Ella leaned against her desk, contemplating whatever she was going to say.
"Between you and me?" She said, giving me a serious look.
I nodded and waited for her to continue.
"She's always a little...difficult, I guess you could say, but I definitely think she's been harder on you," she admitted.
"Yeah I kind of figured that," I said.
"I get the feeling that there's something you're not telling me about you two..." Ella said hesitantly.
I quickly looked down at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with her. I liked Ella, but I didn't think I was ready to tell her the whole truth just yet.
"Um, yeah there kind of is," I started hesitantly, "but it's uh - it's kind of hard to explain."
Ella raised an eyebrow at me, but she didn't push it, "alright, well you can tell me if you ever want to."
"Thanks," I said quietly.
We both looked up at the sound of footsteps coming towards us. Natalie walked by Ella's office and gave us both a quick glance.
"Morning Natalie," Ella said politely.
"Morning," I followed, maybe I could kill her with kindness. Or something like that.
"Morning ladies," she said in her usual businesslike tone as she walked by.
I stepped out of Ella's office and went to go back to my own, but I stopped for a minute to watch Natalie walk away. I wasn't totally mad about the view.
Nope, can't do that, I thought to myself.
I shook my head slightly and walked to my desk. I knew Natalie would be back by soon to train me on something else today, let's see how awkward she could make it this time.
I got on my computer and checked my email, and sure enough there she was a few minutes later.
"Madison," she said as she stopped in my doorway.
"Yes Natalie?" I said back as I plastered a smile on my face.
"Follow me so I can show you a few more things," she said.
I basically had to jump up from my desk chair to catch her and keep up. She walked down a long hallway, and my stomach began to feel nervous. Not that Natalie was dangerous or anything, but it was still giving me the creeps.
We reached a door that seemed to be the only one in the hallway. It had a keypad above the handle and she quickly punched in the code and it clicked open.
"This is essentially our IT control room," Natalie said as I stepped in behind her and leaned against the door.
"We have an IT department of course, but sometimes it's easier for us to just come in here and troubleshoot ourselves if it's an easy fix," she continued.
I nodded as I stepped away from the door and began to look around the small room.
"Wait don't let that -" Natalie started as she lunged towards the door, but she wasn't fast enough.
"Shit," she said under her breath.
"What?" I asked her.
"That door locks from the inside too, we're stuck."
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