Forty Three

She glanced at me as soon as I made the casual instinct to arrive at her desk the moment I stepped into her personal space. She didn't move for a second. Even her mouth was a straight line that I would often compare to a ruler.

"Hi, Victoria," I greeted her. My voice was struggling at best, but that's all I could muster. "Any updates?"

"Sir Ray," her voice was so fragile to the point of it slowly breaking to pieces. "I'm sorry I didn't inform you about this." She pulled out her phone and I had to lean in to be able to see the screen.

"Shit. Project meeting got canceled again?" I sighed. "Looks like we had to arrange a meeting with other departments in regards to this matter. What the fuck's been going on, that's what I would like to know."

"Sir Ray, don't you think that's too much?" she pondered. She sat motionless on her spinning chair and began typing something on her keyboard. "What's that you're doing?" I happened to ask her. Victoria's eyes remained glued to her computer screen. I knew that something bad must have occurred judging by the slight shift to her facial expression.

"Oh, fuck. Computer virus again." This time she didn't look up to meet my eyes. She's always struggled with maintaining eye contact ever since she was accepted for the position and started working as if there's multiple deadlines needed to be met. She started scribbling something onto her notepad, which had me drawn to her for just a millisecond of a time.