The elevator doors opened and she stepped out into the setting sunlight. It was another closing shift at her job and she didn't particularly look forward to going to work — especially on a Friday night. She took a deep breath and walked into the big sliding doors; saying one last goodbye to the fresh, salty air outside.
Immediately she regretted being at work. The customers, the coworkers, having to do the same old routine that's required of the closing shift. She resigned herself to the feeling of misery when she looked up and saw him. What was he doing here so late? He usually only works in the mornings. She asked her friend and found out that he was going to be the closing manager tonight. A smile gleamed across her face and in that moment she knew tonight would not be filled with the same old usual routine.
First things first, she had to fix her makeup. She had no idea that she would be needing to look cute for anyone tonight but now that was suddenly her priority. She threw caution to the wind and decided to unbutton all of the buttons on her polo shirt tonight and pulled her hair out of the ponytail it had been in and gave it a good tousle.
She went causally about her business doing the usual things her job required of her. She kept seeing him out of the corner of her eye walking around the building, talking to customers and employees. Was he looking at her out of the corner of his eye? It was hard to tell. He was really a strikingly gorgeous man. He had the type of smile that was both warm and friendly and sly and sexy all at the same time. He started to walk over to her to say hi. Her job required her to interact closely with the closing manager so she told herself that he was only coming over to check in for professional reasons.
He asked how she was doing and she smiled and said, "pretty good!" He smiled at her, put his hand on her shoulder and said jokingly, "You ready to have fun tonight?" She giggled — work was never fun. His hand stayed on her shoulder for longer than it had before. For a minute their eyes just locked and it seemed like they were completely unaware of the fact that they were standing in the middle of the sales floor filled with people. She got butterflies in her stomach but she told herself that she was reading too much into it and there was no interest coming from his end.
It was about an hour before closing time. This was the time of night where the click seemingly stopped moving. It was a slow night and most of the employees were just messing around instead of being busy helping customers. The phone rang in the office where she was counting money. It was him. He asked if she could come to the training room.
This is the room where bad things typically happen. This is where the difficult conversations go down; people get fired. It's not the best place to get called to, for sure. She made the walk back to the back of the store and into the training room. He was sitting in a chair at the head of a long conference table. He asked if she could shut the door and she hesitantly obliged.
He said, "Come here, I want to show you something." She came over and looked at the paper he had lying on the table. "We are nowhere close to hitting budget so I figured I would just take the loss and hide out in here for the rest of the night."
"Oh, okay. Did you want me to keep an eye on things for you then?" She asked.
"No, no, stay." He replied.
He lifted one hand up and brushed a strand of blonde hair out of her face. "Have I ever told you that you have the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen?"
Her heart started pounding inside her chest. There was no way she could be misinterpreting this now. There was definitely something coming from his side. She felt herself start to panic and blush. Her cheeks were turning bright red and she laughed out of nervousness.
"Um, thank you" she replied quietly.
She was breathing heavier than she should. She had never been this close to him and definitely never felt this much tension between them.
Wanting to reciprocate a compliment she cleared her throat and said, "You have a beautiful smile."
This made him smile, of course, which made her melt, of course.
"Thank you" he said back to her.
He took both his hands and reached out for hers. All in one move he moved her hands to his shoulders before putting his hands around her waist. He pulled her down until she was sitting on his lap.
"What if someone comes in?" she asked nervously.