Baby Makes Three

“Just asking,” Tobias said. “She’s new here. I can tell she’s a little nervous. She could use a friendly face. So help her out and be nice, all right?”

“Oh…Um… Sure. Yeah, I can do that… I mean, I’ll try…”

Tobias narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you sure you’re okay, man? You seem weird. Weirder than normal, I mean.”

I laughed. “How so?”

“I don’t know. Oh…wait a second…”

“Huh? What?” I said, my heart hammering again.

Tobias folded his arms. “How are things going with the new project?”

“Fine.”

“Yeah right. That’s what you’re hiding, isn’t it? You can’t get those numbers together.”

Having a serious concentration problems, I just stared at him for a moment. My thoughts were so preoccupied with Joanna that I couldn’t even remember what project he was even talking about, let alone what numbers I needed to get together.

Tobias sighed. “All right. Just come on. Get to the meeting. We’ll discuss it more there.”

“Yeah. Okay. I’ll be there in a second,” I said.

I darted from my office and headed to the men’s room, where I splashed my face with cold water from the sink and took a moment to stare at my reflection. “Seriously, get it together, man,” I said to myself. It was unsettling to suddenly feel like a hormonal adolescent boy so painfully attracted to a girl that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was too old to feel that way, and needed to snap out of it immediately.

I reached for some paper towels, dried my face, took a deep breath, and then headed to the meeting.

Yet as fate would have it, Joanna was there. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that she’d be at the meeting. She was a new employee, after all…

I hated the way my eyes instinctively zoomed in on her as I entered the room. I felt like everyone noticed. She caught my gaze and gave a slight smile that sent adrenaline coursing through my body.

“Care to join us, Anderson?” Tobias said from the head of the table.

“Sorry,” I muttered. I closed the door and took a seat several chairs away from Joanna, ensuring others were between us so that I could attempt to stay focused.

“All right. Now that we’re all here, let’s get started,” Tobias said. “First though, I want you all to welcome the newest member to our team.” He motioned toward his sister, asking her to stand up.

She glanced around sheepishly for a second and then stood. Subconsciously, I leaned back in my seat to get a better view of her.

“Everyone, this is Joanna. Joanna, this is the team.”

“Hi Joanna,” people muttered and she waved to the room at large before retaking her seat.

“Now, let’s begin,” Tobias said.

Whatever he said after that was completely lost on me, I spent the rest of my time glancing in Joanna’s direction, at least until the coworker beside me gave a rather loud and fake-sounding cough, which I felt certain was aimed at me.

“Any questions?” Tobias asked at the meeting’s close. “Excellent. Well, I wish you all a productive remainder of your day. You’re dismissed.”

Chairs began to slide and shuffle across the wooden floor as fellow co-workers got up.

Keeping watch of Joanna in my periphery, I lingered behind, a shameful plot brewing in my head that I had no hope of stopping.

Tobias nodded goodbye to me on his way out the door and not before long, Joanna was about to follow him.

“Joanna,” I said. My heart pounded as she turned around and eyed me with those hypnotic gray eyes of hers. She raised her eyebrows, as if uncertain of what was about to transpire. I easily got the impression that she was still feeling leery around me due to the coffee spill from earlier, and I wanted nothing more than to put her at ease. She and I hadn’t gotten along well when she was a kid, but I desperately wanted to turn over a new leaf with her now…

“Yes?” she said, drawing attention to the fact that I had called her and then failed to say anything.