Part 1
I walk in the door at Boyrdon Pharmaceuticals, leaving behind the slightly chilly outside spring air and traverse the huge lobby in direction of the check gates to the office area. I feel good and refreshed, squeaky clean, well made-up and elegantly dressed as I walk along, collecting a few short, hidden glimpses from a couple of delivery guys over at the reception desk as I pass by.
Yes, I feel good; I feel great, in fact. I wear my favorite executive suit, a grey jacket with a white blouse, with a knee-long skirt, a pair of ultra-thin cooly comfortable stockings and medium high stilettos. An elegant white scarf with blue dots caresses my neck as I walk, and my handbag match my bracelet and my light brown belt, making me feel even better because I know just how very well the colors match. Under my thin blouse my bra feels light and almost airy, lightly caressing my nipples as I draw my card at the gate and get welcomed in by a short 'donnnng' and a shift from red to green on the index panel. The glass gate slides open with a mechanical sigh and I step up to the escalator that will take me to my well- known collegial department at the seventh floor for another exciting day of demanding, but very enjoyable project work.
Actually I don't know why I feel so well this particular morning. Maybe it has something to do with the weather? The temperature has been perfect for several days, leaving me the feeling of freshness all the way from my home and most of the day at work. I can never have enough of this feeling of freshness from coming directly from the shower, with well-shampooed and wonderfully smelling hair, discretely laid make-up and cool and clean underwear that simply caress and adore my body as I move out to the car and then from the garage and up to the corporate building down town. Or maybe there's a sixth sense hinting to me that this day will be special.... That it in fact will change my life forever?
I practically sing my 'good mornings' at the young lady at the seventh floor reception, and sprays equally joyous 'hello's' all over my colleagues on the way to my office. Yes, this is going to be a nice day indeed, I can feel it in every nerve of my body.
I work with a new corporate presentation for a few hours, until Selma sticks her head in and wonders if I'd like to join her for lunch out, across the street at Preben's. Why not, I think, looking at my watch and discovering that regular lunch is almost overdue already. Actually she saved me from a starving afternoon -- again.
We go down and out into the street. We wait at the red light to cross as I suddenly notice someone about 20 yards higher up the sidewalk. It's a girl, and I wouldn't have noticed at all hadn't it been for the peculiar stare I feel almost like a glow in my neck. I look her direction out of the corner of my eyes, and then stiffen. Suddenly I turn and meet her eyes. My jaw drops and I get completely pale.
"Lana..."
I look at her like she should be a ghost. She looks back at me... smile a little sheepishly, like she is sorry to bother me simply by being looked at. Yes, there's no doubt whatsoever! Who can forget that dark hair, those wonderful eyes, those red lips and almost glistening white teeth? She's even smaller than I imagined, but still she's filling my entire vision, and I don't even recognize that the lights turn green, and that all the people, including Selma, start crossing. I come to myself and pick up the cell phone from the bag. As Celma turns to see why I'm not coming, I fake a call and just wave her on, indicating that I'll be along in a moment. Then I start to move in the direction of the revelation from a different world that all of a sudden had materialized at my side, here, right in front of my company's main building.
I walk up to her, blinks at her and grab her arm. I guide her with me as we continue some thirty yards further up, until we're round a corner and are away from any prying eyes of colleagues or friends.
"Lana," I whisper, holding her shoulders against the wall with both hands, "what on earth are you doing here?"
"I -- I just wanted to see you. I just had to see you."
"Really.... Um... but I..."
Then it strikes me. Torben and the boys are away for another day, so that actually isn't a problem. But I have an arrangement with Brita this evening, we are going to --
I have to smile. And I bend down and kiss Lana on the mouth. The hell with Brita!! I have no one else but
LANA
right here in front of me. Brita can wait till the end of days. She's so incredibly boring anyway.
Lana blinks her eyes. Looks up at me. Still almost staring. I realize this is the first time she actually sees me for real, up close, and I try to look beautiful for her... flash my best smile possible, but feels it stiffen like a piece of dry wood, growing completely unnatural and embarrassing. I let go of her shoulders, realizing I'm almost pushing her against the wall, she straightens a little and reaches up to stroke my cheeks with both her hands.
"Tantala, I --" her lower lips shake, and a shiny tear appears in her right eye and runs wetly down her cheek. I bend down and kiss her again. Fetches my hankie from my purse, and tap the tear away just before it reaches her upper lip. Then I look around with a snug smile before I again take her by the arm and set course for a different restaurant, at the Excelsior, a place I know none of my colleagues will ever go for a regular lunch break. On the way I call Selma, excusing myself that there was an emergency call for a client meeting, and that I would just have to skip lunch today.
Me and Lana sit down in the elegant restaurant and talk for a long time. We drink coffee and she orders a big ice cream, one of her favorites, as I try to settle with a small plate of mixed fruit. I drown in her eyes as we talk, immerse in their mysterious blackness, dive into her soul and bath in her beautiful interior as I admire her accordingly stunning exterior. She's just as beautiful as I imagined her to be from the pictures, even wearing the same make-up she had at the first picture she sent me. I just can't leave her alone. I touch her cheeks, her shoulder, play with her dark hair as she talks, and follow each spoon of ice cream as it disappears between those full, red lips. Those delightful lips that have already promised themselves to me a million times in her over-heated emails. I remember, all of a sudden, and feel myself getting moist down there... almost immediately. And then getting ashamed... almost immediately.
She keeps talking. Telling me why she came here, how she came her. How she found me. It was easier than I could imagine, and I decide I have to be much more careful with my personal information in the future. What if this kind of information, about Tantala Ray's real identity, should get into the wrong hands? What if
THAT
should be known by my colleagues in the corporate office? I'd be dead and buried, that's for sure, right away, no question about that!
She tells me how much she loves me, and I grab her hands and tells her my feelings for her. Her hands are small, warm and gentle, almost like angel hands. And her eyes... with those long, black eyelashes... well that's a pair of angel's eyes too, for sure. I just can't get over those eyes...