It was close to the end of the workday before Bethany returned to her cubicle. Someone had left another flower, a wild daisy this time, on her chair. She tossed it aside. Her empty stomach grumbled loud enough to make others turn to her. Embarrassed, she ducked down behind her computer screen. She saw Joel had left her several messages on the company's internal messenger.

No sooner did she send him her response did the phone on her desk ring. "Hey, don't let Brooke get to you," Joel said. "Things are a little crazy around here but you're doing great work."

Bethany smiled as she rubbed her grumbling belly. "Well, she has a way of making me doubt if I can write my name."

"That bad, huh?" Joel sounded sympathetic. "Well, she probably feels threatened by you."

"What? Why?"

"Well, some girls can't stand other girls who are prettier and younger. And you're both. Honestly, she's being stupid about this whole thing. Gabe's going to be pissed that his friend is being bullied by his assistant."

"Why would that matter to Gabriel?" Bethany wondered, taken aback.

"Wait. You haven't told him?" Joel sounded surprised. "You should tell him."

"I'm not going to him over something this trivial."

"Well, be careful. She's known to do this sort of thing. There was a girl last year who straight-up quit in the middle of the day when Brooke wouldn't stop berating the poor girl. I don't remember what happened exactly but I know HR had to get involved. But anyway," He paused for a moment. "Rain check on our lunch date, then. They pulled onto a project for the next two days and it'll be hard to get away myself."

Lunch date, he said.

Those two simple words stayed with Bethany long after she left work. It stayed with her when she went for her usual evening jog. And she was still thinking about it when she made herself a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for dinner. Yes, Joel was a very good-looking guy. His affable manner set her at ease. It would be nice to make a friend, at the very least. But she reminded herself that friendship with a colleague who was obviously interested in her romantically came with complications. Then she glanced around her shabby apartment.

Being alone had been her choice these last several years. Don't make waves. Don't attract attention. And above all, don't let anyone get close enough to ask too many questions or reason to look too deep. And a simple lunch date with Joel might lead him to ask questions... He might search for her online... Could she risk it? She was still wrangling with this after she put away her sandwich and crawled into bed.

The next day, Christine once again sent her up to Gabriel's office. This time she was to assist Tina, the older assistant, with drafting some memos. Even so, Bethany felt the heat from Brooke's sharp glare on her, watching her every move. Once, she passed Gabriel's office on her way to the restroom and she took a peek in. The computer monitors were dark, and it didn't appear anyone had been in that office.

When she came back to her temporary desk, her chair, and her notebook were mysteriously gone. It took her a while to track down the chair, shoved behind a large fern with her notebook on the seat. It was covered in something damp and grimy. She quietly brought the chair back and covered it with a few sheets of paper to sit on. Then, when she stepped away to get another cup of coffee, she returned to find all her files erased. Again she said nothing. Instead, she did the best she could to rewrite those memos. As calm as she appeared on the outside, sweat trickled down her back and made her blouse cling to her back. When Tina asked for them, she had no choice but to submit them riddled with errors. Tina read them over with her usual stoicism. She simply told Bethany to work on them again the following day.

The next day when Bethany arrived, she could hear Brooke complaining loudly to Tina, "Why is she here again? She's a ditzy idiot! All she does is flirt when we're in the middle of a crisis. You don't think she's going to replace Tim do you? Because that would be a joke and I will tell Gabe that myself. "

Tina remained stone-faced. "Not our call."

Bethany kept her head down and tried to make herself as small as possible. It took her until mid-morning the following day to finish those memos. During that time she didn't step away for even a second. She made sure to hand them directly to Tina once she finished. By the time she left the executive floor and returned to her own little cubicle, she felt almost lightheaded with relief. But that relief was short-lived. Christine had left her another task with instructions. Replace the second and fifth pages of each with a corrected list of figures for one pile. The second pile needed a different diagram. Easy enough if she didn't have Keith hovered over her shoulder.

Bethany dreaded those moments Keith stopped by to "check up on her." Under the pretense of offering her his help, he always lingered far too long. He usually brought her some absurd coffee drink. No matter how many times she tried to tell him she preferred to get her own coffee; he insisted on bringing her one. It was always some elaborate oat milk, low-fat, syrupy concoction that she threw away when his back was turned. Several times, she had to tell him she was on a deadline to get her work finished. He apologized, and let her be for the rest of the day. But that tingling sensation on the back of her head told her he was watching her over his cubicle partition a few yards away.

"Let's take a break. I'll help you get that done after we get back," he was saying now.

Bethany recognized Keith as the type who didn't take well to being slighted or rejected. So she treated him as she would a scorpion. Cautiously. Expecting him to strike at any moment. Was he the one leaving her flowers and occasionally, printed out poems? She thought about asking him as he perched on top of a low filing cabinet in her cubicle.

"I have too much to do," she replied even as her empty stomach rumbled loud enough that they both heard.

Just then, her smartphone buzzed with an incoming text message. She felt an instant rush to see Gabriel's name appear on her screen. He wanted to know if she was free for coffee. And suddenly her hunger faded and her energy returned.

"There's a great seafood restaurant that opened up on the corner," Keith was saying. "They have this amazing clam chowder. Back when I was at Harvard —"

She quickly tapped out a reply to ask Gabriel where and when to meet him, even as she mumbled out loud. "Sorry. I can't."

Keith persisted. "Oh come on! You have to —"

"This guy bothering you?" came a smooth male voice over Bethany's shoulder.

She spun around to see Joel's brilliant white smile as he stood with his arms draped over the low partition of her cubicle wall.

"Hi Joel!" she called out. Her excitement from Gabriel's message made her own smile wider and her tone more eager than she had intended.

Joel winked at her. "Told you I'd stop by."

On the other side of her, she felt Keith tense. "Hey, Joel. Did you need something? The IT guys are still combing through my hard drive so I can't get to any of my files —"

"Oh, take your time," Joel replied without taking his sparkling green eyes from Bethany's large gray ones. "I'm taking Bethany to lunch. Ready to go?"

She looked around at the stack of papers around her again, then darted a quick glance at Keith. "I was just telling Keith that I should finish all this first —" Her phone buzzed with another text message interrupting her. It was Gabriel again. He was sorry, but something came up. Another time, perhaps? Bethany swallowed back her disappointment. So much for his promise to always have time for her.

As she stared at her phone, Joel was saying. "Come on! I'm starving, and I have no idea how late I'll be working tonight."

When she didn't answer, he tapped her arm lightly. "I know of a great burger joint. They have the best onion rings."

Somewhere in the background, forgotten, Keith mumbled, "Girls don't like greasy foods."

Irked, Bethany pulled her tote bag out from under her desk. "Let's go," she told Joel as she brushed past Keith. "I'm buying."

Joel jogged a few steps to catch up to her. "Hey, if you're buying, then we should have lunch every day!"

"I usually pack mine," she answered, suddenly regretting her decision.

That made his grin widen. "You cook too? What's your specialty? I might have to invite myself over for dinner."

"Whatever's cheap and easy."

Bethany could feel all the eyes on her and Joel as they walked toward the elevator bank. She glanced up as the doors slid shut and caught a glimpse of Keith's stormy face glaring back at her. 

********************************

Dear Reader:

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Enjoy!

-CK