The Next Day

It felt weird returning to work after that dramatic almost-exit of mine; and to think I had nearly left without even bothering to show up for my own promotion. Wouldn't that have been funny? At least on some level.

I had spent the night wondering about Nadine's actions, she had covered for me despite my ****. Hell, she seemed like an almost... normal, pliable woman down in the lobby, what with that demure body language and her inability to hold eye contact for longer than a few moments. Had she really wanted this, this whole time? It was like a total 180 of her personality - from this bratty confrontation boss; to some doe eyed doormat.

Walking through the lobby and into the elevator I was treated to the usual stares from the female employees, their longing looks that they thought went unnoticed but nevertheless I had detected, each and every day being exactly the same. However; this time their stares seemed a little more... Intense? Looking their way they would immediately look elsewhere all at the same time. Something was off, but what?

Getting into the elevator; Nadine rounded the corner almost conveniently timed and entered along with me. Seeing her my heart skipped a beat a little, although I was unsure exactly why. Was it guilt I felt? Excitement? Perhaps a little of both; though that only provided more questions than answers.

"G-Good morning Richard." Nadine flustered out her greeting, which in the past year of working here I hadn't received once. Feeling like I was in some bizzaro world, I merely mirrored her greeting back to her as the doors closed and we began to ascend.

"Listen Nadine, about the other day" I began to say, feeling like not addressing the elephant in the room might lead to further conflict, however Nadine turned to look up at me, her once again buttoned down shirt giving me a flattering view of her ample cleavage, grabbing my arm... comfortingly?

"It was my fault! You did... Nothing wrong, after all." Red faced and flustered, Nadine wasn't making a good case to dispel my growing suspicions that the old Nadine had been replaced by some body double that looked and sounded like her; but acted like a nervous, shy and apologetic person which the Nadine that I knew would NEVER have behaved like. Still, how could I doubt what my own eyes were seeing? Here she was, Nadine of all people, admitting to fault and apologizing.

"Nothing wrong? I did hit you, you know." Looking at her cheek now you couldn't see the bruise any longer, but you could tell that a lot of makeup had been used to achieve that effect.

"Yes, but I d-did deserve it." A shade of red coated her cheeks as she said this, looking away from me in hopes of hiding her growing blush, and all of a sudden finding the elevator controls to be very interesting. If my brows weren't raised before, they were now. The ding of the elevator brought me out of my thoughts, and with a clearing of her throat Nadine motioned for me to follow her with a shy smile.

Taking me past my old desk and further on down through several doors and across from meeting rooms and other spaces - we finally arrived at Nadine's office. Opening the door for me I walked inside to see her spacious desk at the rooms center, with two chairs side by side with one another. Was I going to be working next to her, then? That seemed rather... peculiar, didn't it?

"Would you like a tea? Or a coffee, Richard?" Nadine asked with a warm smile on her face.

"Coffee." Was my curt response, walking around her office and admiring the furnishings.

"Right, I w-won't be long.... Sir." And with that she disappeared out of her office and made towards the communal kitchen area. Sir? Had she really just called me sir? As if the day couldn't get any stranger. I'd been putting off from thinking such thoughts; but wasn't this change in behaviour a little too self serving? It was like she was rewarding me for hitting her, no matter how I looked at it that must be the case.

Opening up my laptop I went over my emails, one of them was the password to my new login details; gone was the need for me to process low level accounts or new applicants; I was rolling with the big boys now. Some seriously affluent accounts here, big tech industries and financiers of the political sector too. Real hot shit, but more importantly; less work intensity for me.

With an opening of the door, Nadine arrived with my coffee. Smiling she walked over to me and then as if in slow motion I watched as her face dropped in surprise as she tripped over something, the mug landed on her desk and the contents of cup poured out on my pant legs. The coffee was scalding so I scooted back and cursed, Nadine looked at me in horror and blurted out rapid apologies. Looking at her my anger flared, this fucking bitch! She did it on purpose!