"Yeah Charlie, I'll catch up with you guys at the bar later. I left one of my PS4 games in the break room. I'm gonna go get it real quick," Evan said to a group of his coworkers before he ran back up the stairs. It was late on a Friday night and everyone else had already left for the day. He ran into the huge third floor break room and was about to go search for his game disc when he suddenly had to go take a leak instead. Evan rushed towards the men's restroom located in the corner of the break room first, content that if his game was still in the machine now, it would still be there in another minute or two.
As Evan exited the wash closet, he came nearly face to face with another one of his coworkers. Rena, a Tuluva Indian woman with gray eyes that he thought was one of the loveliest creatures he'd ever seen in his life. Evan was surprised to see her here still, but was even more taken aback by how Rena was looking so frustrated and irritated right now.
Even still, Evan was so mesmerized by her smooth creamy skin, her long, dark, rich, coffee colored wavy hair, and luscious, ripe, full jewel-toned lips that all he could do was stand there and gawk. Yet even with all her dazzling sensuality, she still managed to look uptight as always. Her hair was fixed in a bun and she was wearing smart, sensible work shoes and clothes, despite their casual work environment. Though she was still simply stunning to Evan, as usual. When she finally noticed him in the room too and staring at her, however, she scowled at him and the spell that had held him transfixed was now broken.
"Do you think you could come over here and help me get this door open please? I think it's stuck." Rena's words had sounded much more like an order than a request. Evan wondered again why she was always so mean to him. When she dealt with almost everyone else in the company, she was at least civil towards them. With Evan though, she always had a serious attitude.
However, being the gentleman he was, Evan simply nodded and graciously acquiesced. As he went over to tug on the door, however, what he discovered was that it wouldn't budge. At all.
It appeared the door wasn't just stuck. In the couple of minutes that Evan had been in here, the cleaning crew had managed to lock the door from the outside. The cleaners had utilized the double enforced steel bar locks the company mandated in order to keep people from helping themselves to the extra snack stashes and break room equipment after hours. So basically, they were both trapped in their company's break room.
When Evan relayed this information to her, Rena's frown broadened. "You have got to be kidding me," she mumbled. Evan was none too pleased about this situation either. He had just wanted to spend his Friday night forgetting about this über long, stressful work week by relaxing with his boys. He should already be drinking some beer at one of the local downtown dive bars, and then eventually playing video games on his big screen TV at home until he passed out later tonight.
Instead, he was trapped at work with a woman who seemed to hate his guts, though he truthfully had no idea why. Maybe some people just didn't click? Evan didn't really think that oversimplified answer was it though. He was thirty years old and had had his fair share of lovers in the past, so he recognized chemistry developing between a man and woman when he saw it. Yet when he was around Rena, he usually felt confused, unbalanced, and unsure of himself with the way she affected him like no other woman ever had before in his life. She did something to his biochemistry, right down to his cellular level their attraction was so strong, and he knew she had to feel it too.
Just then, as if on cue, her body unconsciously seemed to be swaying her to move closer to him, almost like some unseen force likened to a gravitational pull was causing her to do so. When she became cognizant of the mini movement, her scowling only increased and she purposefully moved herself away from him to go sit down at one of the nearby table and chair sets. Interesting. So it wasn't just Evan's imagination. That super strong, gut wrenching, soul-searing attraction was mutual. Yet it was like Rena didn't want to want him, so she was going out of her way to dislike him, despite the fact that she didn't even know him. He understood not wanting to get involved with a coworker because that could make things unnecessarily complicated and uncomfortable in the workplace.
Though the way in which Rena was treating him seemed to have a lot more to do with something deeply personal than anything professional anyway. No, this pseudo drama between them wasn't about some random, petty personality conflict. Plus, the way Rena's arm had ever so slightly brushed against his as she rushed for the safety of the chair she was now seated in, made him once again rethink his own policy of never dating any colleagues. If they could each give into their mutual desire and act on the lust brewing between the two of them, Evan had an inkling that it would be worth it for him to simply find a new job.
Evan debated for a moment. Should he use this opportunity to try and find out what Rena's problem with him was? Or should he simply ignore her? After all, she was behaving rather childishly... Ah to hell with it. Evan didn't have anything better to do right now anyway, and who knew how long it would be before Security made their rounds again. It could be close to another two hours before the guard returned to check out this floor so Evan and Rena could be released. Or even longer if the on duty guard fell asleep, as he was rumored to be prone to do.
Evan sat across from Rena and rested his arms on his legs, his hands clasped together in front of him as he leaned forward towards her. Though she was clearly uncomfortable at how his current position put him in close proximity to her, about a foot away from her, Rena didn't even flinch. She didn't look away either; she simply held her ground and now seemed to be staring him down. Even more interesting. Apparently, they were going to have a staring contest. This was definitely going to be a more exciting night than Evan had originally anticipated...
~
Rena couldn't believe it. A little while ago, she had ducked into the break room for just a few minutes to grab her makeup bag she'd inadvertently left in the women's restroom in here earlier in the day. She'd decided to freshen up her makeup while she was at it, and then she was supposed to be on her way to her favorite restaurant to grab a drink and some food before going home to enjoy a nice, quiet evening. It had been a long, exhausting week.
She hadn't been at work until 9:00 pm on a Friday in a while and she hoped like hell she wouldn't need to do it again for a long while to come. Her job as a Senior Finance Manager meant that month end was often a busy time. However, Rena was normally able to manage it so that she didn't have to stay too late.
Unfortunately, one of her team's Accountants had been out sick this week, so she'd pulled double duty taking care of both her and Stacey's responsibilities. Rena hadn't expected to be here past 7:00, maybe 7:30 tonight, but some unexpected delays had kept her here later that she'd wanted to be. She also certainly hadn't expected to run into the infuriatingly annoying man who was now sitting across from her like he owned the whole damn place, and was even now trying to intimidate her. Rena had worked in the male-dominated world of the video game industry for nearly a decade now, so at twenty-eight, she definitely knew not to make any more concessions in this situation.
