Talk with Gemma over lunch

You went over to Gemma’s desk and saw her poring over her emails.You knocked on the wall to get her attention.

“Hey…” you greeted when she turned around.

“Hey…” she responded, mirroring your uneasiness.

“Can we talk? About last night?” you asked in a low tone so others couldn’t hear.

“Yeah… but probably not here…” she replied, looking around, also wary of eavesdroppers. “How about lunch?”

“Sure!” You nodded and turned to leave her space.

“Is it lunch already?” Andy asked, poking his head into your conversation.

You stepped back and looked at Gemma awkwardly, then turned back to Andy. “Uh… still morning, pal…” you told him. “We… were just discussing lunch plans… like to pick up lunch… for the crew… us interns!” you made up. “I saw a new burrito place open up and wanted to try it…”

“Sounds cool, I’m in! I could probably use a break by lunch time…” Andy replied. You and Gemma stole another worrisome glance.

“Uh… you sure, buddy?” Gemma asked. “It’s a beater outside, you’ll practically melt.”

“Yeah… how about we pick something up for you? Then you could stay in here with all the cool, comfortable air, away from the sun!” you suggested.

Andy looked at Gemma, then at you, then he slowly squinted his eyes. “Do you two have something on your faces or something? You keep staring at each other…” You **** yourself not to glance over at Gemma this time, instead, staring a hole through Andy’s eyes and looking even more conspicuous. It took a moment, but finally something clicked in his head. “I see what’s going on here…” he nodded, “You two are trying to sneak some alone time together!”

“No, it’s not…!”

“We really don’t need three people...”

“... hot out…”

“... have sunscreen...”

You both stumbled over each other’s words which only cemented Andy’s opinions of you. He nodded knowingly and walked away. “Remember to make my burrito extra spicy!” he added.

You both sighed and shook your heads.

A harrowing morning later, you and Gemma exited the building to pick up lunch. Thankfully the burrito joint was not made up and was a few blocks away from the office. You could feel a weight lift from your shoulders now that you could finally talk freely with Gemma. Still, it was a tricky subject to broach. Through the elevator ride down and the walk out the building, you were trying to come up with a casual way to approach the issue. Finally, after walking in uncomfortable silence, you just came out with it.

“So… about last night…” you could sense the platinum blonde tense up at the mention. You spoke slowly, bracing yourself for a possible blow up. “...thanks for not reporting it to HR…”

Gemma sighed. “I… I’m sorry I reacted the way I did. It just caught me off guard…”

“As it would anyone!” you assured her.

“... actually, there was more to it than that…” Gemma said. She took a moment to collect herself, then revealed, “You see, I told Sabrina that I had a crush on you!”

You stopped in your tracks. It wasn’t a surprise since you overheard their conversation in the ladies room, but you didn’t want Gemma to know that, so you acted appropriately shocked. “Gemma… I…”

“I know, you didn’t know! How could you know? I never gave you any hints,” Gemma said. She looked timid and shy, a sharp contrast to her usual behavior.

“Well, why didn’t you? I mean, I would have for sure gone out with you!” you told her.

“I don’t know… I guess I was afraid of what you’d say,” she admitted. “It’s silly, yeah? I bet you’re thinking, “That’s crazy, Gemma! You always speak your mind!” Well, it’s easy when you don’t care what other people think…” she smiled shyly, “When it does matter… well.. I guess it’s too late for that now, huh?” Gemma gave a small chuckle.

You wondered if it really was, though. Sabrina did outline your relationship with her as ‘no strings attached’. She could have said that because that’s what she wanted or what she thought you wanted to hear, but the real question was; what did you want?