Authors Note: This is my twenty-eighth story. It was written upon request by a very good friend and co-worker of mine about her work heartthrob when he left the company. Enjoy and please remember that all feedback is greatly appreciated!
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It had been a very long day to end a very long week and Kahlen was relieved to finally be heading home.
She had worked the past ten hours straight so that come Monday when Will, the company's top employee, was gone things would still run smoothly.
Thinking about Will as she locked up her office Kahlen felt the sadness at losing him as a co-worker as well as the flutter in her stomach she always got when she thought about his tall, thin, but muscular body in his fashionable slacks and dress shirts that showed off his incredibly strong and broad shoulders.
Will was the office heartthrob and had been Kahlen's number one crush for the past three years, not to mention being the leading man in her fantasy life.
Now waiting for the elevator, Kahlen could swear she got a whiff of Will's intoxicating cologne. She turned and there he was, in all his masculine glory, making her heart lurch and her body tighten.
"You stayed awfully late on your last night," she said as they moved onto the elevator.
"Just wanted to tie up as many lose ends as possible before I left," he said as he smiled at her. Oh that smile! It made her knees weak!!!
"That was nice of you," she replied as calmly as she could. "We're all going to miss you ya know," she added as her pulse quickened.
Before Will could respond the elevator jerked to a stop and the lights blinked out as the dim emergency lights came on.
"Damn elevators! I swear they're possessed!" Kahlen moaned in frustration as she pushed the emergency button.
Will sighed, "It's after 8:00...maintenance will probably take a while getting here...hope you didn't have any plans tonight."
He laid his jacket on the floor of the elevator and sat down with a zen look of calm on his face in the midst of the quasi-emergency.
"Me? Plans on a Friday night? Don't be absurd!" Kahlen said somewhat bitterly as she followed his lead and sad down beside him.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I hope your plans don't fall through because of this," Will said somewhat sheepishly. Kahlen realized he'd misunderstood her sarcasm for an offensive comeback.
"Don't be sorry. I meant it sarcastically, I have absolutely no life besides working and sleeping and eating so someone thinking I would have plans on a Friday night just makes me laugh...though somewhat bitterly," Kahlen explained as she leaned her head back against the wall of the elevator and sighed as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.
"I find that hard to believe. A beautiful girl like you whose smart, funny and nice. I figured you had a serious boyfriend and if not then you were probably beating the men off with a stick!"
Inside Kahlen's heart lurched, her body tingled all over and she caught her breath before she took control of her voice, "I haven't had a boyfriend in over two years and I haven't even been on a date in seven months!"
"Really!?" The surprise in his voice made Kahlen life her head from the wall and look at Will. He was staring at her with a strange look on his face that she couldn't read.
Feeling somewhat pathetic for having confessed her lack of a love life or social life to the biggest crush of her life, Kahlen said with a hint of hostility in her voice, "Yes really! Is that so hard to believe!? Did you think I just went around dating random men!?"
Will laughed slightly before saying, "No! God no! I just figured you were taken that's all. Since I technically no longer work here and therefore you can't charge me with sexual harassment, I'll confess I kinda had a bit of a thing for you but never did or said anything about it because I figured you had a boyfriend."
Now Kahlen's heart was more than lurching, it felt like it was bursting! Her body wasn't just tingling she felt hot all over! Her face flushed and she put her head in her hands in an effort to hide this from Will.
Silently cursing herself for how she was handling this situation, Kahlen felt Will move slightly away from her on the floor. She looked over to see him edging away from her slowly. He noticed that she had looked up and sheepishly said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I'm just going to go sit in the corner over here and not say anything till the emergency guys get here."
Kahlen smiled, thinking to herself how sweet and gallant he was, "You didn't make me feel uncomfortable, I made myself feel that way. Confessing my pathetic love life to a guy I've worked with, and admittedly had a crush on as well, since I started working here is embarrassing."
Will's shoulders relaxed and he smiled back at her, "Well it's nice to know I didn't make you uncomfortable. It's also nice to know I wasn't the only one with a crush."
Kahlen laughed warmly, "I find it hard to believe you were completely unaware of the fact that not just me, but about at least half the women in the office at any given time have a huge crush on you."
Will inched slightly closer to Kahlen, "To tell you the truth, there have been some women in the office I knew had crushes on me. Mainly one's like Laurali who come on WAY too strong. Though I never knew you had a crush on me, which is a big part of why I never acted on my crush on you. I figured if you were single you weren't interested, and having my only work crush shoot me down would be too big a blow to my fragile male ego."
A warm blush crept over Kahlen's face, "Your 'only work crush'?" she said softly, not having the courage to look Will in the eye as she asked it so she busied herself with focusing very hard on the impeccable stitching on the hem of his slacks.
"Yes. You're the only woman from work I've ever had a crush on. Most of the others are too trashy or too forward or too stupid. You're classy, subtle and intelligent. Not to mention beautiful."
Now Will was the one studying the hem of his pants. His sudden shyness at making his feelings known gave Kahlen courage, "Funny, I never acted on my crush towards you because I figured you wouldn't go for someone like me. That's not to say I can't be forward. Once I set my mind on something, or someone, nothing can stand in my way. I just never figured I could set my mind on you."