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I am a little bit nervous about what they’ll have to say, but I’m mostly excited. There might be some minor tweaks, but I really think that overall, they are happy and are going to approve our design.
It is five to five when the light tap finally comes on my door. This is it I think to myself.
“Come in,” I call.
The door opens as I stand up. Tyler comes in and steps towards me and I step around my desk. He looks at me and I feel the familiar buzzing in my body but this time I ignore it completely, focused only on the project for the minute. Tyler is wearing a total poker face and he’s giving nothing away. We meet in the center of my office, out of the line of sight of the ajar door.
“Oh my God, tell me,” I blurt out. “Did they like it?”
“No,” Tyler says and my heart sinks. How could I have gotten this so wrong? His face melts into a smile and he goes on. “They didn’t just like it Summer, they absolutely loved it.”
Relief floods me followed by that pure euphoria I always feel when my designs are loved. Tyler grins at me and holds both hands in the air, palms outwards. I give him the double high five he’s looking for and then we stand and grin stupidly at each other for a moment.
Slowly, our grins fade but we don’t move away from each other. We stay in position, facing each other, our eyes locked on each other’s eyes, and I feel the atmosphere in the room shifting from one of celebration to one of sexual tension. I look into Tyler’s eyes, watching them flicker slightly from side to side as he looks into mine. He leans a tiny bit closer, and I know we’re going to kiss if I don’t move away. I stay in place. I’m hungry for the kiss that’s coming, but it never does reach me.
“Ah there you are,” Jack says from the doorway of my office.
Tyler and I jump apart. He quickly sits down on the visitor’s side of my desk, and I practically run back behind it and take my seat there. If Jack notices our behavior is pretty strange, he doesn’t ask any questions about it.
“What can I do for you Jack?” I ask.
He has crossed the floor and now sits beside Tyler at my desk.
“I was looking for Tyler to find out how we are on your big project. When he wasn’t in his office, I figured I’d find out in the morning brief, but then I saw your office door was open and so I thought I’d ask you Summer,” he says. “But it seems like I found my man. Come and update me when you have a moment, Tyler.”
Jack stands up, the last part of his sentence directed at Tyler who stands up too.
“I can come now,” he says. He glances at me. “You’re not rushing off, are you? There was something I wanted to ask you.”
“No, it’s fine, I can wait,” I say.
I feel like I’m holding my breath until Jack and Tyler leave the office and then I let my breath out in a long sigh. Would we have kissed if we hadn’t been interrupted? I really think we would have. I shudder at the thought of how embarrassed I would have been if Jack had appeared a moment later and caught Tyler and me mid kiss.
I think of what Rebecca said, about resisting Tyler at work because to do anything else is just unprofessional, but then to have a relationship with him outside of work. While I’m still not convinced her theory is fool proof or even really a good idea, I do know that it would have prevented what almost happened there. If I knew I could kiss Tyler the second we were out of the office, I wouldn’t have even let it get to the point where we almost kissed.
Could it work? Could we make it work?
I shake my head. It’s not so much a no as it is a don’t even think about it because it’s all too complicated right now.
To distract myself, I gather up my things. I decide to leave my laptop here; I have another for personal use at home and if I take this one home with me, I’ll only be tempted to do work over the weekend and I think, after the intensity of the project we’ve just finished, I deserve a weekend off.
I put my cell phone in my purse and grab my jacket, which I hang over my purse and then I put it down on my desk and sit down to wait for Tyler. If I was waiting for anyone but Tyler at five twenty on the one Friday I had promised myself I wasn’t staying late, I would be cursing both myself for agreeing to wait and them for not being quicker, but it’s Tyler. I don’t mind waiting for him. I kind of like the idea of getting one last look at him before we will be apart for two whole days.
I don’t have much longer to wait before Tyler reappears in my office door. He smiles at me as he comes back in.
“Right then. That’s Jack all up to speed,” he says. “That will save me a job Monday morning.”
“Is he happy?” I ask.
“He’s way beyond happy,” Tyler says. “He’s very impressed with your input on this one.”
I feel myself blush and look down at my knees.
“It was a team effort,” I say.
“And you were a big part of the team,” Tyler insists. “Don’t sell yourself short Summer. You did really well on that.”
I force myself to look up and smile at him even though I’m still blushing.
