Philip Johnson
Chapter One
When he entered the room, it was the same assembly of faces, the same conference room, the same wishes of good morning as he sat in his usual place. The only thing different this morning, was somebody was out of place, somebody was forcing change. As a consequence, Nina had to sit next to him. "Morning, Phil" she said.
"Morning, Nina." They opened their laptops and went about opening their appropriate files for the meeting. That long, boring meeting that required a lot of coffee and effort just to stay awake.
As the meeting droned on and on, Phil's eyes were wandering over the top of his computer. There was Max the alcoholic with permanently bloodshot eyes, then on to Wilma, stocky and matronly and really nice. Phil's eyes continued around the table from person to person until they settled on Nina sitting next to him. Bashful, cute in a way, dressed nicely and possibly a nice shape, but dressed so conservatively, that it was hard to tell. When his eyes slid past her laptop, he noticed she was reading a poem. At least she had something to occupy her mind to help her stay awake. Phil allowed his eyes to stay on her screen in an attempt to share her poem and he read,
One soft kiss
a gentle caress
slow dancing on the living room floor.
I close my eyes
and hold you close
yet still I ache for more.
Holding hands
down the hall
anticipating the...
and that was as far as he could read, quickly looking away when Nina's eyes glanced his way. He sat there smiling to himself thinking, well now isn't this a surprise. That more than gave him something to think about for the remainder of the meeting. Had she been reading this kind of material for a long time, or was this something new for her?
With the meeting finally over, everybody returned to their offices or cubicles, and the day continued. Over the next few days, Phil found his mind going back to the erotic poem on Nina's computer. That whole idea was incongruous to him. She wasn't a prude as far as he could tell, but her mannerisms and dress were so inconsistent with that poem, that he couldn't help, but watch her more closely. Phil had never seen or heard of Nina being involved with anybody. He had to admit he was intrigued by the whole idea.
One day, without conscious thought, he realized he was making more of an effort to say hi to her, or have a brief conversation with her in the coffee shop on the first floor. Also, without conscious thought, he was working on an idea to entertain himself and hopefully her too. On one of his many trips past her office, he stuck his head in and said, "Give me your email address and I'll send you a cute joke." Once he had that, he smiled at her, waved, and headed back to his office to forward his message to her, receiving a quick message in return saying he was right, it was cute.
He set up a separate email account and waited a full week before sending her his first message from an admirer. It was innocent enough and just said, "I've had the good fortune of seeing you on a regular basis. You, your looks, and especially your eyes, have always impressed me. I'm not a nut or somebody that would ever hurt you physically or emotionally, I'm just...an admirer." It was short, flattering, non threatening and hopefully, she would enjoy getting it. After waiting several days and not receiving a negative reply from her he sent another one saying, "I heard you talking to someone the other day, and to me your voice sounded so gentle and sensitive. Are you gentle and sensitive? Do you enjoy sharing soft music and wine? Your admirer." It had been Phil's intent just to be nice to Nina and have some innocent fun. What he didn't expect was to discover, he didn't have to invent these things to say. By paying more attention to her, he was noticing that she did indeed have nice eyes and a soft voice. He felt better about it knowing all he had to do was tell the truth.
He sent his next email the day of their next meeting in the conference room and he wrote, "I was glad to see you wear that blouse today. It's tasteful, flattering, and yet...sexy. I'm a big believer in auras, and I have no doubt that were I allowed to stand close to you and experience yours, I would be an even bigger admirer of you." At the meeting, Nina sat next to Phil again. "Are you ready for another of these meetings, Nina?"