"Smith! The new supply of pet food's come in. Go make sure everything I ordered came," Dr. Russo said, handing Cooper a copy of the receipt.
"On it, sir! And might I add that your sore throat makes your voice sound even sexier than usual!"
"You have the nerve to harass me even when I'm sick—" Dr. Russo went into a coughing frenzy. He was straining his voice too much shouting at his fool of a worker. He lowered the volume to that of a near whisper. "Just go do your job, Smith. I'll be in my office."
Cooper went straight to work, counting bags of kibble and crossing them off the receipt. In the midst of this, he took a brief look at his phone to check the time. It was five minutes after seven. Margaret should have come two hours ago.
"I guess she's busy today..." Cooper sighed, continuing his task.
However, he had spoken too soon. With his back to the open door, he had no idea about the curly-haired teen who was currently sneaking up on him.
"Surprise!" Margaret gave a playful shove on Cooper's back, but it was enough to make him lose his balance and fall forward.
"Holy Jesus Cat! You scared me," he said, placing a hand over his rushing heart. Being scared wasn't the only reason it was beating so fast, however. The girl in front of him never failed to take his breath away and even more so when she showed him why she ran so late that day.
Margaret crouched down to the floor to shorten the distance between her and Cooper's face. She then showed him a big smile, revealing her perfectly straight teeth. "I got my braces taken off today."
"Woah, you're hot—I-I mean like... You know what I mean..." Although his face was burning with embarrassment, he couldn't look away from her.
Margaret's confident smile quickly turned shy as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Cooper, there's something that I really wanted to do once I got my braces taken off."
"Y-You mean, like eat a bowl of noodles?"
"What?"
"You know, because they would get all tangled up in your braces before."
"Well, I guess that too..." Had it been under normal circumstances, Margaret would have laughed at this silly remark. But right now, she was too nervous to show much of any reaction. She'd been prepping herself for this one moment all week. There was no backing away now. "But there's something else... And I'm going to do it now!"
Margaret couldn't think of anything more to say. It was all action now. She moved even closer to Cooper until her lips were only a few inches away from his.
Cooper looked into her dark brown eyes which displayed nothing but utter conviction. For a brief second, he saw his boss in them. She'd definitely gotten that fiery spirit from her father. And just like with Dr. Russo, that spirit shot a wave of intimidation down his back.
In panic, Cooper stuttered, "W-Woah. Slow down there, Margaret. Despite what you may think, I-I'm still a virgin!"
***
We can only hope Jesus Cat came to Coops's rescue in the end... May his soul be cleansed.