It was know as an ‘inner realm.’ As the name implied, it was a world within the world, existing with in my head. As well as those of anyone else able to access it. A knew and abiding calm settled onto my body and mind. One deeper than could ever be achieved by the stress-ball alone. Though it had helped to loosen me up to get there. I tended to use them together. My dad’s preferred method of stress management, followed immediately by that most commonly used by by my mom. Though hears also used tended to use homemade herbal tea I wasn’t able to get within five feet of without getting dizzy. Still, it seemed like a nice way to honor both sides of my lineage. The yuppie combined with the hippie.
I was returned gently onto my chair in the more agreed on reality, The gift still ion the desk in front of me. Punching up the camera feeds, I saw the cubicle farm standing empty a s a ghost town, Inga reading at her desk, eating her brown bagged lunch. There were times I seriously wondered if she ever actually left or if it was maybe a Bartleby situation.
Cradling the gift tenderly, I headed out into the open armed beyond my little cloisters, and set the gift on the desk. Angling it several times until it was perfect. The gift sitting on the desktop just so, the letter easily visible from the doorway. I’d though about brining in a measuring tape but decided that would be going a bit too far.
The leather creaked quietly as I sat back down. Waiting for the moment to come. The anticipation at least part of the thrill. I looked at my watch. Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes I would be closer to knowing how Skye felt about me. More specifically if she might be interested in me the same way I was interested in her. I had to be sure. I did have the ability to fire her and hadn’t to make sure she wouldn’t just be complying out of fear. It just wouldn’t be ethical.
I sat up straight when I saw her enter her cubicle. She stopped cold seeing the gift. Her expression looked basically confused. She looked all around, pourable to see if anyone was hiding to jump out and yell surprise. It wouldn’t be a very good practical joke but that didn’t mean no one would try it.
Satisfied nothing was going to be attacking her, Skye approached the gift that had appeared on her desk, as though by magick, taking the note from the top. Even from that angle, I could see the ghost of a smile haunting the corners of her sweet lips as she read the note. Okay, good sign.
Meticulously unwrapping the long, with box, she lifted off the lid revealing the lingerie. There it was. The moment of truth, the reaction, natural and raw that would give me a true indication of what was on her mind. She was adorable. The expression that settled on her gentle features an arousing combination of arousal and exhilaration with a dash of embarrassment for flavor.Chapter Eleven - SkyeI didn’t really have the money for restaurants. At least not the ones in that area. The bakery was expensive enough and I considered it more of a business expense. I also didn’t want anyone to know that particularly or be left out. Rather than brown bagging, which had no real shame attached to it as far as I was concerned, I went across to the café, got a hot chocolate and small sandwich and tried to look as much like a writer as I could. It wasn’t entirely a con. True, it was a sort of silent justification for why I was eating lunch along, though I did actually try to get some writing done while I was there. It could turn out to be a pretty good situation actually. Particularly after I started getting paid on the regular. If I was ever really in need of money, I could always try and sell the earrings online. The perfume I was keeping no matter what.
Belly full of sweetness and two whole paragraphs finished to the point of polished, I ventured back across the dangerous street. Traffic lights apparently more of a suggestion in New York, with taxis being above the law entirely. One thing from the movies that had proved to be absolutely true. Even if the C.H.U.D.s were entirely fiction and the pizza rather overblown.
I hadn’t gotten a new assignment yet, butt I was still on the clock, so I returned to my cubicle to look busy until the end of the day. The last thing I expected to find as I went to sit down at the desk was another gift. I froze for a second. More out of surprise than fear. I had to make sure the whole thing wasn’t a dream Or a practical joke. Either one was possible. Deciding it was all really and probably safe, I approached the desk. The excitement growing. Was I really getting two gifts in one day? I could hardly believe it. Whoever my Santa was really generous, as well as being really rich. That eliminated any of the other emergency hires. Maybe I had an admirer/friend on the permanent staff. It wasn’t P.C. but I’d already taken to thinking of my Secret Santa as a ‘he.’ There was something about the impracticality of the gift of ludicrously expensive earrings and hard-to-find perfume that smacked, in my young mind, of a guy trying to impress a girl. The gift I opened next would only confirm this hypothesis.