This story is loosely based on a true story provided me by a Lit reader. He told me to do with the information what I wanted and to write a story about it. It's a romance and I will provide it in five parts.
Main Cast
Dennis, 25 years old, 5' 11", 175 lbs, brown hair, blue eyes.
Jill, 30 years old, 5' 7", 120 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes.
Gina, 30 years old, 5'6", 140 pounds, auburn hair, green eyes, Jill's best friend.
Denise, 25 years old, 5'1", 105 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes, Dennis' friend and works with Dennis.
Mike, 27 years old, 5'10", 190 pounds, black hair, brown eyes, Denise's boyfriend.
Jeff, 33 years old, 6', 190 lbs, brown hair, brown eyes, Dennis' brother.
Chapter 1. Infatuation
September 16th, 2011
I had been working at Robert Trask, Inc. for about 3 years. It was my first job out of college and I liked working there. I had graduated with a degree in Computer Science in 2008 and had been hired into a junior database engineer position. They trained me to be a database administrator and then a PL/SQL Programmer, which means writing code to update data, views, and tables received and used by several databases.
I worked in a nice, but small cubicle. The cubicles were about 8 foot square, which was pretty generous in the world of saving overhead for companies. There were about 60 cubes and 10 offices on my floor and this meant that there were about 5 small projects belonging to two different divisions in my company. My company had several floors of this office building and I was on the 5th floor.
In the cube next to me was a woman named Denise. She was on the same project and we got jokes about being Dennis and Denise right next to each other and sometimes our neighbors delighted in switching our interoffice mail. Denise and I had become very good friends. She was living with her boyfriend in an apartment not far from me and I got together with them to watch sports that we both liked. I knew her and her boyfriend, Mike, pretty well. But Denise and I talked about everything. She had become my best friend even though she was a woman, which was a first for me.
One of the projects at the other end of the building had a manager, Jill, who was 30. She was fairly pretty and slim, about 5'7", with just enough curves to be attractive. I had been in a couple of meetings where the different projects shared their lessons learned and discussed ways to improve. I had come away impressed with Jill. When asked to present something she was always extremely professional, very knowledgeable, and completely prepared.
This Friday evening, we had a very large group that had gathered at a local watering hole for the "obligatory" monthly gathering and happy hour. At least all the single people felt it was an obligatory affair. If you didn't show up, drink, and have fun, you could end up the butt of several jokes over the next few weeks. Of course, that was only if someone didn't make a bigger fool of themselves at the bar. I, of course, never, ever did so -- I swear!
We were gathered around laughing and drinking, some people flirting with others when Jill showed up. She had only shown up once before that I could remember and that had been about a year before. As a manager, I think she tried to maintain a little separation from the rest of us and I had not had a chance to talk to her that previous time. We had a large gathering of tables scrambled together and the drinks were flowing. When she showed up she took the only vacant chair that was on the very end of the formed line of tables, right next to me. The later you showed up the more likely it was that you wouldn't get a place to sit and have to congregate behind people or sit on the end, kind of out of the mainstream of the merriment. I was at the end of the table near where she sat down in that last empty chair, having shown up late myself. I was on my fourth beer already and knew I would have to get something to eat before driving home.
I turned to her when she sat down and put my hand out. "Hi, I'm Dennis Watson."
She smiled and took my hand to shake it. Hers was warm. She gave me a friendly smile. "Jill -- Jill Mathewson." She looked toward the center of the table at the pitchers of beer. "Can you reach the pitchers and empty mugs?"
"Sure." I reached over and was able to get a fresh mug and a pitcher and brought it down to our end. I poured her a beer.
She took it and picked it up. "Thanks, and cheers." I reciprocated and we each took a long drink. She leaned back. "Wow! After this week, I definitely needed that."
"Tough week?"
She was taking another large drink as I asked that. She finished drinking and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, trying to avoid doing it in a vulgar manner, but still not self conscious about it. "Oh yes." She took another quick drink and I liked the way she did it. She was not trying to be little miss manners, she was just drinking and showing that she was relaxed and having fun. "You know, we were introduced a long time ago not long after you started."
"Yeah? Do you remember that?" I wondered if she remembered me. She had made a good impression and I could remember everything about her from our first introduction, including the face that she was attractive. I remembered that she was in the middle of something very important for her team and seemed a little rushed when I was brought into her office to meet her. Her office was professional with little personal effects except for a diploma. I didn't have time to look at it because she immediately went into her spiel. She was also professional and courteous and took her time to look me in the eyes and talk to me for a couple of minutes. She didn't look at her computer, she didn't act fidgety, and she was calm and composed. Not something I saw in all the managers. She had been dressed in a woman's business suit with a nice jacket and skirt, all in grey with a peach blouse. I remember it because I saw her leave immediately after our meeting to gather her team. She had not shouted, just been very direct and courteous to them as well. She made an impression and I was reminded of it during the meetings we held. I just had never had a chance to talk to her.
"You were probably introduced to a lot of people when you were first starting, so maybe you don't remember."
"Well, ummm, I mean, yes, I remember and I know who you are." I realized that she was watching me carefully and smirking. "Okay, I admit that I remember the meeting and it's because I think you are very good at your job, you were very professional and courteous in our meeting, and well, you are also a good looking woman."
She arched her eyebrows. "You're saying that you remember me because I was professional and good at my job when we first met? Or is that last part the only reason you remember me? You noticed me for just my looks at first, didn't you?" She was grinning and I thought that she was teasing me.
"Well, you were dressed in a grey suit and peach blouse, but I mostly remember that you took the time to talk to me, not to your computer, not to the guy who brought me in, and you didn't act distracted. You were direct and nice, and I liked that."
She studied me for a minute with a small smile. "That's one of my favorite suits. I can't believe you remember that. Most people don't remember my outfits." She then studied my clothes and looks closely. I knew what she was doing and I grinned as she looked up at me and realized I was smirking. "What?"
"Are you studying me to see if I'm gay because the cliché is that a gay man would remember your clothes better than a straight man?"
