Jake Malloy was running late for his meeting. Very late. I wasn't quite his fault, though. His alarm clock didn't go off despite the fact he could have sworn he had turned it on the night before. After rushing to get dressed, Jake's car wouldn't start and it took him several tries to finally get the engine to work. At the stoplight, the car before him took too long to turn meaning that Jake had to wait another five minutes for the light to turn green again. On top of all that, the normal road that he took to work was closed forcing Jake to take an unexpected detour. By the time he got to the NSA office, his watch told him that it was eight minutes to nine. Jake figure if he hurried, he would have enough time to grab his files from his desk and make it to the meeting room on the other side of the building with a minute to spare. Jake had just snagged the files from his works space and was making his way to the staircase when he saw her.
She was sitting on the floor. Yes, the floor which Jake found perplexing considering all the empty desks that surrounded her. All of her work was splayed on the ground around her and she had earbuds in her ears. Her facial features were delicate, almost doll-like in a way. Her hair was the color of gold and it bounced around her face as she bobbed her head up and down to the music. Other people were staring at her as well, but she was either too engrossed in her work to notice them or she did notice them and just didn't care what they thought about her. Jake couldn't tell which response he admired more.
As Jake watched her, he could feel the time slipping past, yet he couldn't bring himself to look away. There was something about her that made him want to watch every little movement that she made and he didn't want to miss out on a single second. Suddenly, as if she sensed his eyes on her, the woman looked up. For some reason she didn't seem to be weirded out that he was staring at her. No, in fact she even smiled. A bright toothy smile that reached all the way up to her warm brown eyes. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make Jake's heart speed up all the same. As the two watched each other, Jake felt the files slip from his hand and he quickly scrambled to pick them up, dropping them a couple more times in the process. Jake could feel his face reddening and before he could embarrass himself any further, he turned on his heel and began making his way toward the stairs as fast as his legs could take him. Needless to say, Jake was late for that meeting.
This happened every day for the rest of the week. Jake tried to become better at hiding his observing. He would pretend to talk to a co-worker nearby her and he walked past the room several times a day, even if it was completely out of his way. A few times he sat at one of the empty desks and stole glances at her every so often as he did his work.
He began to notice things about her, such as she liked to eat food while she did her work. She would take a bite out of a candy bar or a sandwich or a potato chip and then close her eyes for a moment before picking up her pen and scribbling something down. He noticed that she listened to music constantly when she worked and sometimes she would mouth the words as she flipped through the pages of her files. He noticed that she smiled a lot, often flashing one at anyone who stopped to talked to her. A few times Jake caught her eye, but he quickly averted his gaze before she could say anything. It was the day that he was peering at her from behind a door that she finally spoke to him.
"I can see you, you know," she called out, taking out her earbuds. Jake froze, but she continued to speak. "If you want to talk to me you can just come over and say hi, you know. I promise I don't bite." Jake slipped out from his hiding place, a sheepish smile plastered on his face. He wiped his hands on the front of his pants before walking over to where the woman sat.
"Hi," he said when he reached her. "I'm Jacob Malloy. My friends call me Jake, though. And people who aren't really my friends too, I guess. And my parents. Not my grandmother though. She calls me Jacob. But you can call me Jake. Jake Malloy." The woman looked up at him with a raised eyebrow and Jake mentally kicked himself for being so lame. He could feel his face warm and his armpits begin to moisten with sweat and his heart was pounding so hard that for a moment he wondered if she could hear it. How could it be that he was an attorney for the National Security Agency, a man who thrived on speaking in front of people, yet the moment he tried to talk to a cute girl, all of that went out the window?
The woman didn't seem to mind, though. She reached her hand out and it took Jake a moment to realize that she wanted him to help her up. He did so and he immediately realized how soft and small her hand felt in his own. He hoped that his hands weren't too clammy. The moment she was standing, Jake let go of her hand and watched as it fell to her side.
"Well, I guess it's nice to finally have a name to the face that's been stalking me all week," she said.
"I-I...I wasn't...I didn't mean to…" Jake stopped stammering when he saw that her lips were turned up into a slight smirk. She was only teasing him. He let out a nervous chuckle and the woman reached out her hand again, only this time to shake Jake's.
"I'm Ellie. Ellie Bishop. It's nice to meet you, Jake Malloy."