THREE
Emma picked at her food, not really getting involved in the chatter of the other three. She caught the odd word; eyes, bum, voice, tan, but the rest washed over her as she relived the electric contact earlier, together with his request for her to show him around.
The thing was, as single girls, Elaine, Jane and Maggie were far more eligible than she to go out with him; yet as it was her who had yearned for this moment, or for a chance at it, and she felt she deserved him more. She knew she was kidding herself and acting stupidly but she couldn’t help it.
Think about it Emma, she told herself, I mean here is a man that is totally fanciable, with whom you could indulge your one fantasy but who’s to say he’d be up for it? She listed the reasons why not:
1. He may already have a girlfriend.
2. He might not be up for an affair and even if you lied it wouldn’t take long for him to find out you were married.
3. (Important, this one) Who’s to say he fancies you..?
Yes but he asked me to show him around! she argued with the voice of Miss Sensible in her head.
So? The other three had already gone back to their desks, hadn’t they? Forget it!
She stabbed at a chip rather too viciously and the plate squeaked.
‘What’s eating you Em?’ Jane cut into her thoughts.
‘I know who I’d like to eat me..’ Elaine whispered hoarsely.
They went it fits of raucous giggles and Maggie nearly choked on her Bacardi. ‘You are awful Lainey!’
‘Awful and hardly ever lawful’ chimed in Jane. More giggles.
‘Come on Emma, you’ve hardly said a word since this morning. What’s up?’ Jane probed again.
‘I’m not feeling too well, I suppose’ she lied. ‘I’ve had a headache since the bus journey this morning’.
‘Why didn’t you say then, you daft head?’ soothed Maggie, stroking her arm’. I've got some paracetamol here. ‘She started to rummage in her handbag. ‘We thought you had something against Mr Wonderful.’
‘No, not at all, why would I? I mean I don’t know him. He's nice though’ she babbled. ‘Which one of you is going to make the first move, then?’
‘Me!’ they all chorused.
She laughed, despite her feelings, determined not to let this happen again – unless she got a grip on this situation she wouldn’t be able to pass it off as headaches for ever. But, as interesting as Lewis was, the conversation soon rambled onto other things and Emma felt a lot easier talking about last night’s Eastenders and ebaying for shoes.
* * *
Back at her desk, the afternoon seemed to drag by. Emma was sure the clock had stopped twice. The rain had let up as they were coming back from the pub, but the sickly yellow fluorescent light over her pen still made the inside of the office dreary. She was glad of her window though; it let her have a good nose at the comings and goings in the management car park. She frowned as she realised the visitor's slots were still empty. Maybe Lewis didn't drive, she thought, or (she brightened) caught the bus like her. She couldn’t quite see him on the top deck of the No.127 though somehow. Especially with all those boxes. She realised he must have travelled here in someone else's car. Royle probably. Picked up his new boy no doubt and..
Her heart lurched and she gave a little gasp. Lewis had just come out of the office block opposite and was on his mobile. He started to pace the car park as he talked - a habit she shared. Her cubicle was on the corner of the building and was the only one, besides Royle who had a window. On dismal days like today and especially when she was on the lookout for fit men, it was the only plus she could think of. She was about to shout the others over but the light showed that Royle was in his office. Instead she clicked open the messenger on her PC and typed:
QUICK!! Lewis is in the car park!!
Her hand hovered over the Return key. She didn't know why she hesitated, but she realised the longer she did, the longer he was hers and only hers. Her little secret. Maybe to make up for not being in the welcoming party this morning, or to further fulfil her fantasy. Whatever it was, she stared down at him as her hand hung over her keyboard. Then, slowly it moved over to the mouse and closed the messenger window down. Her words disappeared with it.
She checked the whereabouts of her boss again before devoting her full attention to the man on the ground floor. She was two floors up but still was close enough to reaffirm her earlier thought of how well he filled his suit. The jacket flapped in the wind revealing a well-toned torso tight against his shirt. She imagined lying with her head on his chest and felt a flush rising from her jaw to her cheekbones. This is crazy, she told herself. How can I possibly feel like this about someone I've only just seen? She shook her head, but her eyes never left Lewis.
He finished his phone call and checked his watch. He glanced at the door that he'd come from, scratched his cheek then looked up to her and waved.
Emma felt a jolt of something like electricity as his eyes shone at her from the car park. She jumped back from the window into her chair like she'd been caught spying. Which she had of course, but she felt like a little kid with a telescope on next door's bathroom window. She leaned forward again and Lewis was punching buttons on his mobile. As he put it to his ear again he looked up at her and smiled the big broad grin that had given her jelly legs earlier on.
God what a prat she thought, why didn't I just smile and wave back? The phone on her desk rang and she leapt again with a little cry.
‘S-Syntex’ she stammered when she put the phone to her ear.
‘Hi there Emma’ said a voice like dark oil, ‘Sorry to make you jump!’
Emma looked down to the car park and saw Lewis waving at her. Her numb and emotionally wobbly brain finally connected the voice in her ear and the man in the car park.
‘Hi’ she breathed back and raised a shaky hand to wave back.
‘This is like video conferencing, eh?’ he laughed’. She laughed back, unsure if she was capable of speech just yet. ‘I wonder if you'd do me a favour?’ Lewis continued.
She bit her tongue and stopped short of gasping ‘Anything!’. Instead, surprising herself she took a deep breath, exhaled through pursed lips (away from the receiver - don't want him to think I'm breathless) and said ‘Sure what is it?’
‘I need to go to lunch with you tomorrow’ he said.
She froze and her fingers tingled as she tightened her grip on the receiver. She felt all swimmy as she stared down at her fantasy man, not quite able to believe what she had just heard. ‘.. and the papers are in the box on my desk’. He was still talking.
‘Sorry..?’ she said absently, in the same breathy voice.
‘My fault’ he replied, turning away from the wind. ‘It's blowing a gale down here. I said I need to go to a launch meeting with Royle tomorrow but I've left a few files in the boxes on my desk. I’ll need them replicating in the print room’
She breathed away from the mouthpiece again as these new words replaced what she thought (hoped) she'd heard. The tingling continued as if she was joined to an electric fence not a phone line.
‘I don't suppose you could pop down with them. I need to find the car admin place too. Could you show me where it is? I erm, thought you might want an excuse to, erm, have a break.’
Emma was dumbfounded. Her mind had been to heaven and back in the space of a few seconds but she had to reply. He could see her, she couldn't just sit there like a dummy and pretend the line had gone dead. Thinking quickly she gave the thumbs up sign to him and said ‘No worries, I need some fresh air.’
‘You're a star!’ he exclaimed, returning her gesture from the car park. ‘It's the green ring binder in the biggest box. See you down here in a minute.’
He hung up, waved and then started on another phone call.
She replaced the receiver, took a last look through the window then rolled her chair back and stood up. A thought hit her as she replayed back the last few minutes.
He had paused. He’d said erm. Twice. Is he telling the truth? Or making an excuse to get me down there? She shook here head, banishing the thought of the lottery lines. Forget it Emma, don't let this get to you!
She picked up some envelopes and stepped out of her cubicle.
‘I'm just going down to the mail room, Maggie’ she called as she headed for the door. She too was on the telephone and she nodded vigorously. Is Lewis ringing us all? Emma wondered, randomly.
‘Do you need anything dropping at the mail room, Mr Royle?’ she called, popping her head round the door of her boss's pen.
‘Yes please, Emma’ he replied, indicating a stack of jiffy bags in the out tray on his side desk, ‘I was just going to ask one of you to run along there myself!’. He smiled his lecherous smile, showing his wet lips and yellowed teeth – the smile he reserved for one of the girls when he was alone with her. They also got the Christian name treatment, too she’d noticed.
‘No worries’ she replied smiling back, her face dropping as she turned away. Disgusting, lazy old perv.
With a quick glance around the office she casually skirted Lewis's desk and spotted the folder on top of the biggest box. Tucking it under her arm with the envelopes, she grabbed her coat and was outside the office not daring to look back.
Chapter 4
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