In Matters Of Business Pt 01

The room is packed with dress shirts and badges - departments, managers, employees, caterers. Hours and hours go by as graphs and tables slide left and right on the giant screen, which makes it is not easy to keep my eyes open as the monotone speeches accumulate, as time passes as slow as honey dripping from a comb. I inevitably try my best to stay awake and watch the speakers as if I were interested, which works up to a certain extent - I survived one hour and a half like this but a break becomes increasingly needed.

From my chair, I move swiftly among the people to reach for the door and finally have a breath of fresh air. Our office for this meeting is a huge building away from the city with emerald green lawns outside, which heals my blue-light hurt eyes as I lean on the wall on one side of the corridor, watching the view the glass wall gives me, before reaching the bathroom. As I am taking some deep breaths and stretching, I hear some noise coming from the stairs: two people are coming up holding cups of coffee, surely in an attempt like mine to stay awake. As I find myself with both my arms up stretching, a strange sensation invades me as I notice the people coming upstairs: one of them is a mysterious man who was once in my office in passing. I do not know his name and his eyes left a mark for the few seconds that they held contact with me in the past.

On that day a few weeks ago, I was carefully minding my own business typing an e-mail in the office and, as if some animal instinct in me had been activated, something told me I was being observed. Still focused, I raised my eyes to look around and was instantly shot by a pair of blue eyes peering into me as if stripping me from my shell: unwavering, direct he smirked as he walked by and held it until it was no longer physically feasible to do so. His gaze was sharp and his entire face was of someone who was ready to poke me from a distance and send me a clear message without a single word, one that was received immediately: my heart was racing and I felt my blood rushing everywhere in my body. For my dismay, he never passed by me again - I continue to look for him with in mute hope every time I was at the office again, expecting to feel those eyes peeling me once more -- now, the day seemed to have come.

As he came upstairs, our eyes instantly locked: me with my arms raised in this stretch, and him holding a coffee mug, going towards the meeting room again. I was suspended in space and time and that familiar blood rush took over - there was something about his gaze, a hidden playfulness and a depth that made me want to simply strip and go swimming in his waters... However, I did not even know his name and me standing there to stretch wasn't exactly the most fitting time to make a new acquaintance. He gave me a smirk, that seemed to have lasted for hours but was a mere few seconds before he headed back to the room.

Unfortunately, this was enough to completely derail me. My heart seemed to be pushing the fabric of my shirt with each violent pump, like a caged animal begging to be released, though I was aware that this situation was not exactly matters of the heart as this is not the part that yearned to be touched: once I was able to regain some sense of reality and finally went to the bathroom, the evidence of my agitation and cravings was quite visible and tangible... it was shocking to me how my body could react so strongly when we had never even exchanged the word - and me out of all people, always being picky!

I was never someone who does not listen to reason and intellect, but this time I decided to follow these primal instincts that for once kicked in, and would try my best to do some networking in order to discover what kind of... connections I could create.

After adjusting my outfit and putting some cold water on my forehead to cool myself down, I return to the room where my colleagues are. I can now easily spot the troublemaker among the crowd and inevitably peek as I move towards my seat. He seems to be paying attention to the speaker, like a good employee should, so I simply sit down and adjust myself to continue my team building day. As I am fixing my posture, I move my hair to one side, giving my neck some more room to breathe considering the recent blood rush. In this sequence, I turn slightly to catch a glance of the left side of the room where he is and, yes - the same jolt of electricity as our eyes briefly meet before I pretend I was simply moving my head to adjust myself.

It is going to be an interesting week.