Co-Workers

My fingers drummed across the tabletop impatiently. I snuck a peek at my watch and saw the time was fast approaching. If I had it my way, we would've been out of here by now. Of course, if I really had my way, I wouldn't be in the position in the first place. I looked at my glass: empty. As for his glass; let's just say he'd been nursing his beer for half an hour.

My fingers continued to drum impatiently when suddenly I felt her hand on mine. Her slender fingers holding mine still, the touch of her cool skin calming me down. I turned to look at Michaela who looked back at me as if to say, "I know, just a few more minutes". What she actually said was directed at the man opposite us.

"We're so glad it worked out so well Mr Hume," Michaela said.

"Matt, please. And it did didn't it? All thanks to you," he responded.

"Both of us actually," she said, turning to me. "Nate did a lot of work on this."

"Hmm," he said barely sparing me a glance.

Nevertheless, the client seemed ready to eat her up. Michaela was a beautiful girl already but for this particular meeting, she also chose to wear an eye-catching and tight-fitting red dress. It was relatively modest in some ways, knee length with just a hint of cleavage, but it still turned more than a few heads. Michaela always made sure to dress well for the clients.

We'd come on this trip together to finalise the contract. The contract had since been struck; signed, sealed and delivered. But as is often the case with this business, the schmoozing never stops. It's not always so bad. Some of the clients were a lot of fun. This guy on the other hand was more interested in mentally undressing Michaela than anything else.

"You're a lucky man Nate," he said to me.

"How do you mean Matt?" I replied.

"Fancy job, beautiful girl; you could be doing a lot worse in life."

Michaela and I exchanged looks before laughing.

"We're not a couple. I'm married," Michaela said, flashing her wedding ring.

"And not to me," I quickly added.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I just assumed from watching you guys this past week. You two have been inseparable. And all the shared looks, shared food. I even saw you fixing his collar earlier Michaela."

"Just gotta keep my co-worker looking sharp for our most important client," Michaela laughed.

"If I were your husband, I'd be jealous of this one," he said pointing at me, before adding: "Or is it the other way around?"

He gave a full throttled laugh as Michaela and I feigned smiles. That last joke hit a little too close to home for me. Glancing at Michaela sitting next to me, sipping on the last of her wine and looking as classy as she did, and smelling as great as she always did, it was hard not to fall for her. And after the last couple of years working with her, I had.

This was our first interstate business trip together. And though we spent most of our time buried in paperwork and sucking up to the Matt Hume's of the world, I had to admit there was something very alluring about spending a whole week together, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner together, spending hours on end in each other's company and on more than one occasion, staying out late and having a few drinks. The illusion was only broken when we returned to the hotel and went into our separate rooms.

"I've been married for a year," I heard Michaela say when I finally snapped out of my daydreaming.

"What about you Nate? Married?" Matt asked me.

"No. But if you get down on one knee Matt, I'll consider it," I joked.

Matt chortled again with laughter. Once again, I felt Michaela's hand on mine, but this time, she turned my wrist so she could see my watch. Her eyes widened momentarily before resuming her "client face", as she calls it, for Matt.

"Well Matt, it's been a blast. But if Michaela and I want to catch our flight, we best hurry," I said.

"Nonsense. You'll stay for another bottle," Matt said, slapping the table.

"That's generous Matt, but the office will go apeshit if we make them book us-"

"I'm the client, and the client is always right. Bill it to me."

"What?" I asked.

"You'll get on a flight tomorrow. Bill it to me; I'll cover the cost."

"I think that's even more frowned upon," Michaela chuckled nervously.

"I'll message your boss right now," Matt said pulling out his phone.

Michaela looked at me with pleading eyes. She didn't want to be here anymore than I did. I knew there was an option available to me, but I didn't know if I wanted to take it. But as I looked at her and she at me, with those eyes of hers, I was unable to resist.

"Well Matt, I'm more than happy to stay here and drink you under the table but, it'll just be you and me I'm afraid. Michaela won't be able to join us."

If Michaela was confused she hid it well. As for Matt, he barely hid his disappointment.

"She's rushing back for her dad's 60th birthday party," I explained.

Michaela, whose father turned 60 over 3 months ago, turned and stared at me. I ignored her and kept my eye fixed on Matt.

"Aww, you're a good girl. Well I can't stand between a daughter and her old man's birthday," he said.

I turned to Michaela and said, "I'll see back at work on Monday."

Michaela smiled widely and placed a hand on my forearm with affection, before grabbing her purse and standing up. I turned back to Matt and prepared to settle in for what could potentially be a long night, unless of course my gamble paid off. I eyed Matt carefully and could almost see the cogs moving in his head. Suddenly he shook his head and said,

"Ah, you better go with her Nate. You're a good man offering to keep me company, but you have a more important role as the young lady's escort."

Inwardly, I sighed with relief. Outwardly I said, "you sure? It's Friday after all. I'm always up for a drink."

"Hah! I like you Nate, but next time. Don't wait for me to finish, you best hurry."

We quickly bid our goodbyes before bolting for the door. I didn't realise it, but Michaela had been staring at me the whole time. I hadn't noticed until we were almost outside and waving down a taxi.

"What?" I asked.

"You're a really good friend Nate."

"What are you talking about?" I said, but all but encouraging her to continue.

"You were really going to let me go and stay here with him?"

"I knew you wanted to go home."

"Yeah, but that was really sweet of you. Thank you," she said, looking at me square in the eyes. I almost went weak at the knees just from the way she looked at me.

"It's alright," I replied casually before finally successfully waving down a taxi.

"Are we really late?"

"Not if we hurry. We'll go back to the hotel, get our bags, check out, and then make a dash for the airport."

"Right. Sounds good. Think we'll make it?"

"Yeah, don't worry, we'll make it."

***

"We didn't make it."

"What?!" Michaela exclaimed. "I can literally see the plane from here."

"They won't let us on though. Doors are shut, we missed it."

"No! What do we do?"

"The lady at the desk is checking to see when the next available flight is?"

"You're kidding me!"

"You have a better idea."

"No, I'm just frustrated. The plane is right there!"

"Aaaand there is goes," I said as we watched the plane back away from the terminal.

Frustrated, Michaela slumped down on a chair in the departure lounge. I looked at my watch; it was late. I looked outside and saw only darkness; the sun had long since set. It seemed almost impossible for us to get on another flight tonight. As I often did in these circumstances, I began pacing.

"What are you doing? Sit down," Michaela said.

"I don't want to."

"Why not?"

"Because I've spent enough time with you this week to know to give you space when you're like this."

Michaela chuckled in spite of everything. "Sit down," she said in a gentler tone.

I smiled, slung the my bag off my shoulders and sat down beside her. Michaela said:

"I should've listened to you. We should never have had lunch with Matt."

"Nah, you were right. He is the client after all."

"No, you wanted to just have a quiet drink with just the two of us. That would've been so much better than lunch with him. I thought he was quite rude to you."

"Of course he was," I replied, chuckling to myself.

"What does that mean?"

"It means: you drinking in that dress? He got ideas."

"What's wrong with my dress?" she said, smoothing out the crinkles in the thin crimson fabric.

"You look really nice," I said, choosing my words carefully.

"And?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you? He's a horny old man and you're an attractive twenty-something girl."

"Ew. He's married."

"That wouldn't stop him."

"I'm married," she said indignantly.

"And I'm guessing that's one of many reasons you wouldn't sleep with him."

"One of many," Michaela laughed in agreement.

"Your hubby can rest assured then."

"Trust me, he's not resting assured."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. Michaela noticed the silence and turned to see my expression. She let out a long sigh before chuckling to herself and saying,

"I've mentioned you to him more than once."

"What, in general or just this week?"

"Both. I mean, we hang out a lot at work anyway so naturally you come up in conversation. But you've popped up a lot more this week because of this trip. I think he's getting a bit jealous."

"Why? It's not like we're sharing a hotel room or anything?"

"No, I know. But I said to him on the phone yesterday how we'd had dinner every night and how we were almost at the stage of finishing each other's sentences. He literally responded by asking if you had a girlfriend."

"Well, you won't catch me feeling sorry for your husband."

Michaela chuckled before pausing to reflect on my answer. "What do you mean?"

Before I could respond, we were interrupted by airport staff.

"Sir, I'm sorry, there are no more flights tonight on that route."

"Fuck," Michaela muttered beside me.

"When's the next flight?" I asked, standing up.

"Tomorrow afternoon. Shall we book you two seats?"

I turned to Michaela who sat there, arms crossed and fuming silently. The momentary cheer I had managed to enliven had disappeared and she was back to that sulking mood I hated so much.

"Michaela?" I asked cautiously.

She gave the slightest of nods. I turned back to the staff member who promptly went off to organise everything.

I sat back down next to Michaela but didn't say a word. I certainly didn't take it personally that she was so angry about the whole situation. Fun and games aside, it had been a very long and hard week. And while I might've been able to find joy in being able to spend so much time with a girl whom I had harboured such a huge crush on for a couple of years, I suspect that wasn't true for Michaela. To her, this had simply been a long week made a little better by the presence of a good colleague.

"Should we go back to the hotel?" I asked eventually.

"We can't do that!" she said, more out of frustration than anything else.

"What, you wanna sleep at the airport tonight?"

"We've already checked out."

"They'll let us have the rooms again. We only checked out a couple of hours ago."

Michaela huffed audibly and crossed her arms. Given my feelings for her, I'd be lying if I said the idea of spending more time with her didn't excite me. Though for obvious reasons, I kept my enthusiasm hidden.

"Fine, we'll go back," Michaela groaned.

***

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Michaela blurted out.

She rarely swore, but then she'd been in a foul mood since the airport. She refused to look at the concierge or me, which was probably for the best because a smile had crept across my face.

"We only just checked out. Surely the rooms can't have been filled already."

"These rooms were booked weeks in advance," the concierge explained. "You're room is still free but hers isn't."

I turned to Michaela and asked slowly, "I mean, we could-"

"I'm not sharing a room with you. Let's go to another hotel," she interrupted.

"What, you wanna go from hotel to hotel until we find a place?

"What do you want to do?"

"Michaela, it's almost midnight. I want to go upstairs and sleep."

Michaela gave me a scornful look prompting me to add, "On the floor! I'll sleep on the floor! You can take the bed."

"That's really sweet," she said with a weak smile, as she softened ever so slightly. "But I just don't think it's a good idea."

"Listen, whatever you want to do, we'll do it. You want to go find another hotel with two rooms available, lets do it. Otherwise, just give me a pillow and I'll make myself comfortable on the floor."

She stared at me for what seemed like an eternity before finally nodding silently. I smiled inwardly before turning back to the concierge. By the time I took the access card, Michaela was already marching towards the elevator.

***

We stood in silence in the elevator.

Walked down the hallway in silence.

Entered the room in silence.

It was nearing midnight and we were both exhausted. I at least still found some amusement in the current situation, but it was obvious though that this feeling wasn't shared. Michaela still hadn't said a word, even as she was pulling back the sheets on the bed, opening her suitcase and retrieving her sleepwear.

I sheepishly walked over to the bed and grabbed one of the four pillows silently and stared down at the floor. Michaela, perhaps finally acknowledging it was a less than ideal arrangement for me too, mumbled:

"You want the blanket? Or maybe we can ask them to send up another one."

"Nah, it's really humid tonight. I'll be alright."

"Alright, well, I'm gonna have a shower. Do you want to hop in the bathroom first?"

"No, you go ahead. I'm just gonna crash."

She nodded, bundled her clothes and a towel in her arms and walked to the bathroom. As she did so, I mumbled:

"Crash on the floor of MY hotel room."

Michaela could only muster a weak chuckle in response before adding,

"Thanks Nate. You're a good friend."

She disappeared into the bathroom after saying that. Probably for the best because if she stayed to look at my response, she wouldn't have seen my smile curl upside down into a bitter expression. Anyone else said that I might be thrilled. Coming from the girl I liked (loved?), it just reinforced how far out of reach she was for me.

The fact that I then heard the shower start and began imagining her stripping naked and stepping into the hot stream of water as it cascaded down her smooth, pale skin didn't help. There was naught but a rather flimsy, sliding door separating me from a very naked and presumably very sexy Michaela. Alas, I stood there dumbly in the middle of the room and felt the onset of a very hard erection. I also dare not rub one out in case she for any reason came back out, and the other tactic in these circumstances, that is, taking a cold shower was also (a) impossible and (b) simply brought my mind back to the fact Michaela was inside of said shower.

Perhaps this whole situation with the cancelled flight and hotel room might be more trouble than it's worth.

That feeling only increased once I threw my pillow onto the floor at the foot of the bed and tried to make myself comfortable on the hard, cold floor.

I lay there for awhile on the hard surface, listening to the shower running. My mind eventually went blank and I simply waited for her to exit. I knew she'd be fully clothed but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't waiting with bated breath to see what she wore to sleep.

I had my answer after what felt like 10 or 20 long minutes. She'd been in there quietly for a few minutes. The faucet would turn on occasionally, I'd hear her brush her teeth or make the slightest of noises, but otherwise, I just lay there and waited in silence. When she finally did leave, she came out wearing a tiny pair of shorts and a flimsy t-shirt. Both were well worn and faded with use. It was so pedestrian, so domesticated, and somehow turned me on more than lingerie would.

As she left the bathroom, she looked down at me and gave quick smile before climbing onto the bed and asking,

"Can I turn the light off?"

"Yep."

And with that, she turned off the bedside lamp and we were alone together in a room in darkness.

"Goodnight," she said with unexpectedly cheer.

"Night."

I listened silently for a second as I heard her shuffle in bed, trying to make herself comfortable. After several moments, the silence felt deafening. Not only because it was at night and we were about to go to sleep, but because it seemed to be as if we were both holding our breath and very aware of the other person. After a moment, I asked,

"Hey Michaela?"

"Yeah."

"Do you remember that time when we shared a hotel room together."

She groaned out loud, "I knew you were gonna make this weird!"

"Oh come on, that's funny."

"You just couldn't help yourself!"

"Relax, it's not like I'm live-tweeting this or anything. It can be our secret."

"It better be."

"Goodnight Michaela."

"Goodnight Nate."

It's hard to explain but this felt more final. As if we finally got to say our last words and could finally go to sleep.

I tossed and turned on the hard floor, trying to get comfortable. The thrill of the situation disappeared and now the thought of actually trying to sleep on a hard, unforgiving surface almost made me wish we had separate rooms. I shuffled into different positions and closed my eyes each time, only to shuffle uncomfortably five minutes later.

After what felt like an hour, I reached for my phone only to find less than 20 minutes had passed. This was gearing up to be a long night. I listened carefully for a second and heard Michaela breathing quietly. I dared to sit up briefly and try to glimpse her from the foot of the bed, but only succeeded in seeing her still form underneath the quilt.

I lay back down and signed heavily. I closed my eyes again, only to open them minutes, still no closer to falling asleep.

In that moment, I started thinking about Michaela and I and the long road that brought us here. We'd known each other for well over two years at this point. I remember the, at first, guarded but fun chats in the office as we first got to know each other. Then being put in the same working group we got to know each other a little better. And what followed was the slow realisation that with every new side of her that was revealed, every personality quirk, every hobby, the smallest of ticks; I realised that this girl was perfect for me. I still remember the crushing feeling when I found out she had a boyfriend. It was almost as bad as when I heard she got engaged not too long afterwards. There's nothing like that feeling of elation at having met someone who ticked so many boxes only to find she belonged to someone else. I wasn't invited to her wedding, which was probably for the best. But we've gotten to know each other a lot better since then. And though I wouldn't go so far as to call us inseparable nowadays, more than a couple of people have commented on how close we seem at work.

"Are you still awake?" she asked suddenly, breaking my train of thought.

"Yep," I replied with unintended eagerness

Suddenly the light switched on, causing me to shield my eyes from the blinding light.

"Fucking hell. Turn that off will you."

"I feel really bad."

Her voice sounded much more immediate, much closer. I allowed myself to open one eye to see her leaning off the end of the bed and looking down at me.

"Then take an antacid," I grumbled. "I told you not to eat that crap at the airport."

"No, that's not it," she chuckled. "Are you going to be able to sleep down there?"

"I was trying before you turned on the light," I said, trying to sound stoic for some reason.