I took the stairs back down to my office, and found a long cord hidden in the back of our poorly organized stock room. I stopped by my boss's office on the way back out.
"Sam," I declared, walking into his office. "I owe you big time. BIG. TIME."
Sam laughed as he finished packing up his things.
"Yeah, I just knew you had to meet Jenny when she got in. She's crazy hot, crazy smart."
"Oh, you and Jenny know each other?" I casually mentioned as I strolled around the room.
"Yeah, we worked together before. She's tough, but smart. And has a great instinct for how to get things done where it makes the most people happy. But the chapstick man..."
"I know!!" I enthusiastically replied. "It's like...they have a relationship."
"God help the man who tries to get between the two," Sam answered solemnly, pausing to remember the chaotic scene that developed when housekeeping once cleaned her desk and moved her "favorite" chapstick. They avoided her office as much as possible after that. And they NEVER touched her desk again.
I ran back up the stairs to take Jenny her new longer cord, one worthy of twirling and pacing, and paused to look at her before I walked in.
She had that forced polite look on her face again, and she was absentmindedly stroking her chapstick. She looked up and smiled at me, and waved me into her office. Her eyes lit up and she did a silent happy dance when she saw the cord in my hand. I laid it on the desk, and backed up. She held up one finger as she tried to cut off the person on the other end of the call. Unsuccessful, she sighed and looked at me. She wrote something on a sticky note and slid it over to me.
The Rusty Tavern-5 pm
I nodded my head and turned to leave as she tried to interject once again in the conversation. I heard a bang and turned around. She held up six fingers. Apparently, this conversation was going to take longer than she thought. I nodded again and mouthed, "I'll see you then!"
6pm
I didn't see her immediately when I entered the bar. It was Friday night and the crowd was in full effect. 90's alternative music blared through the speakers and the noise and laughter were hard to hear over it. I scanned the bar, looking for her. And then I saw that hair. That wild, crazy blonde hair that fell in disarray around her face.
She seemed to be concentrating hard on something on her phone. Her hand held the device, glaring at it, as she squinted and took a drag off of her cigarette. She had an array of items around her: a drink, ashtray, cigarette pack, lighter, and that chapstick again. As if she heard me, I watched her put down the cigarette and pick up the chapstick. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and applied a new coat. She kept switching items around, all the while focusing on her phone. If there was ever a woman who had ADHD, Jenny had to be it. She had not stilled once since I walked into the bar. It was like she was in her own little world.
I walked to the back of the bar and slid into the chair across from her. Her eyes lifted from the screen and flashed with recognition.