"Morning, Sunshine," my too chipper cube mate greeted me in the morning.
"Hi there. What's up this fine morning?" I asked. I figured we were still playing by the 'what happens at stays at home' rules.
You see, I discovered my neighbor Danni, who had an exhibitionist streak a mile wide, was my new coworker. So, while we might hang out naked and talk about sex in her house, while we were at work, it was very strictly work.
All things being equal, I preferred the naked part quite a bit more.
Danni looked over at me with her blue eyes. It looked like the only makeup she wore was a little eye shadow, nothing too severe. When she turned her head, her pony tail swished behind. She still had enough of her hair down that a few strands of her light brown highlighted hair were in her eyes. I'd love to grab that pony tail like the reins of a horse, but I digress.
"I'm having an issue with trying to get one of the databases to spit out the information I want. This new system is a serious pain in my ass," she said.
"Sorry to hear that, I can try to play around with it if you'd like. I'm not all that up on the tools you're using, but I can give it a whirl" I offered.
Let's be honest. I'd help this chick paint her house right now. Do her taxes, hide a dead body, whatever. I was seriously attracted to her by this point. She was the right combination of serious and fun, girl next door and sexpot, smart and funny. You toss all of that together in a wrapper that includes a room brightening smile and D cups, and I was hooked.
"Well, I've got this guy from IT coming over to mess with it. If he can't get it to work, I'll let you bang away on it with a hammer," Danni replied.
A little while later, the IT guy showed up. He seemed nice, and didn't strike me as the typical tech guy, mainly because he was well dressed and didn't seem too over the top nerdy. I know, I'm playing a stereotype here, but you get my point.
Three people in our cube was a little bit tight. Besides, I found working near Danni seriously distracting. Although the cube was set up so each of us was pretty much in a corner, I found myself looking over at her constantly. Every time she moved, it caught my attention. I couldn't get any work done while I was here.
This could turn in to a problem pretty quickly. It also was the reason why Danni didn't want to date people she worked around. Yet, somehow, hanging out tipsy and naked in her living room and later watching each other engage in a round of self-pleasure was OK. Didn't make sense to me, but, it sure beat a sharp stick in the eye.
So to make some space, both physical and mental, I grabbed my laptop and headed down to our office's cafeteria. The company had finally installed a wireless network throughout the building, so I opted to go hide somewhere to work on my presentation. I wondered if this was going to be the case from here on out.
Around 3 o'clock I went back upstairs to find Danni still at her desk.
"Where've you been all day?" she asked. "I was going to see if you wanted to grab some lunch earlier."
"Sorry, wrapped up in trying to get this project nailed down. If I don't start crossing things off of the to-do list, I'll get too backed up to function." I offered. It sounded better than 'I can't work with your tits going so horrifically unmolested right next to me...' which was the real reason.
One of the things I've discovered about Danni in the last few days since we've started talking is that she seems unaware of the impact she has on guys. She was certainly no supermodel. But a really mind-achingly cute girl who is predisposed to smiling is wonderful to be around. Put that face and charming personality with a five and half foot tall body with generous curves, and it was magic. Unfortunately for me, the magic trick was working on me, and she made it difficult to think straight.
"Well, the cute IT guy hooked me up with what I needed. This shit rocks now that I know how to use it." She seemed pretty excited about being able to generate reports. I mean, data tables are what every girl wants, right?
"Of course the IT dude went out of his way to help you, he got to look down your shirt while he was leaning over working on your computer," I explained. Being a guy, it was pretty easy to spot motive in this case.
She looked down and saw that she had just a bit of cleavage peeking out from the top of her shirt. She looked at me like the cat that got the canary, but didn't she disagree with my statement.
"Hey, will you be around tonight?" I asked her. "I've got nothing going on, wanted to know if you wanted to come over and watch some TV. It's Thursday, which means "Friends" is on." (This was 2002, remember...) I figured every chick loved "Friends," right?
"Can't, I've got my bowling league tonight. Sorry," was all Danni offered. That's fine, I can let her determine when and where and how much we hang out. Christ, I'm way over thinking everything.
Good job, self, not getting obsessed.
About 4 hours later I was sitting at home by myself watching Ross and Rachel flirting with each other while eating leftover pizza. Boy, that was the best part about being a bachelor. The freedom...
Next morning, I got in to the office before Danni. We should seriously think about car pooling it occurred to me. I'd bring it up to her later.
Danni came in around 9 am. She was moving slowly and stiffly. She gingerly sat down in her chair.
"Hey Skippy, you OK?" I asked her, knowing the answer had to be some variation of "no".
She turned to look at me. She had to move her whole body to do it. She was moving like a mannequin wearing a well-starched suit. It was kind of humorous, despite the fact that she was obviously in pain.
"I popped something in my back bowling last night. I don't know what happened, but I went to roll, and all of sudden I had spasms in my back. Today I am completely stiff. I could barely drive in this morning because it hurts like a mofo to turn my head. This sucks."
"It certainly sounds like it. Anything I can do to help you out? I'm fresh out of muscle relaxants, unfortunately. I can at least give you a ride home tonight, it isn't as if it is out of the way. Leaving your car here shouldn't be a problem," I offered.
"Oh God, that would be wonderful. I feel like if I could just recline the seat and lay flat I'd be perfect."
"OK, when's your last meeting today? We could leave after that. I've got a, let me check, a status update on a project that goes until 3:30, I could sneak out after that," I mentioned, checking my schedule.
"I'll be ready to bolt at about 4. Do you just want to meet here at the cube or at your car?" she asked.