Followed by an Angel

Have you ever had something happen to you that made you think, "These things happen to other people not me!"? I have, in fact until recently, nothing ever seemed too happened to me, until I met her. It was a cold, rainy afternoon in New York City. I was walking down the street, hoping to catch a cab so I wouldn't have to listen to my boss' persistent yelling. "Johnson! You're 4 minutes late, again! If this keeps up, we'll be looking at LETTING YOU GO!" Mr. Gorder, my boss, was the type of person who needed everything to be just so. He was not a perfectionist, he was an extreme perfectionist. You got to the office at 9:00, not 9:01, not 8:59, 9:00. If something was wrong, then he would begin to yell until he turned an odd shade of purple and stopped to breath, or if saw something else wrong.

So, back to the streets of New York, caching a cab any day is hard. On a rainy day, you need "Matrix" like skills to avoid either being soaked by a cab speeding through a puddle, or to avoid a cab pulling up next to you, in a puddle. Six or seven cabs had ignored me, thus far, and I was getting a little annoyed. On the plus side though, I hadn't gotten wet at all…yet. Finally a cab pulled up to the curb, didn't soak me, and it looked like it was in service as well. I reached for the door handle, but before I could even touch it, a woman grabbed the handle and jumped inside. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you need a cab too?" the woman asked politely.

"Uh, yea, but that's ok, I can wait"

"I know, lets just share this cab, you wouldn't happen to be headed to central Manhattan, would you?"

"Actually I am."
"Then hop in!"

I got in, a little surprised at this woman's generosity. I had never met anyone who did that in New York during rush hour. "33 Central Ave, the Finnius Inc. complex please, and you?"

"Actually, that's where I'm going as well."

"What a coincidence! I'm Sarah, It's my first day at Finnius Inc. I just moved here from London." That explained her accent.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Dan."

Our cab ride to Finc. (A nickname my coworkers and I had given our office) was virtually silent from there. It was strange, Sarah seemed to have a sort of aura of friendliness and joy around her. I took a good look at her. Her red hair was tied neatly in a bun with two chopsticks in it. She was wearing a tan suit with a tan skirt and looked very professional, but at the same time she looked friendly. When we finally arrived, we both found out we were in the same department and on the same floor, I volunteered to show her around for the first few days. "Just a few words of warning, watch out for Mr. Gorder, he's our boss and the resident hyper-perfectionist." Sarah merely smiled and said "Oh people tend to warm up to me right away."

Sarah was right, Mr. Gorder not only talked in a normal voice, but he smiled too. As we got off the elevator, I looked at my watch and groaned. 9:05. Mr. Gorder was going to be turning many different shades of purple today. We rounded the corner that led to our cubicles and stopped. "JOHNSON!" yelled an all too familiar voice. "YOU…..you…you…are the most gorgeous human ever to walk this earth."

"Excuse me?" I said, more then a little surprised.

"Not you, her…" Mr. Gorder's eyes were nearly popping out of his head. He was drooling while staring at Sarah.

"I'm Sarah Torris, I transferred here from the London branch." She said, extending her hand with a forced smile.

"Well…..I'm sure you'll fit in nicely. JOHNSON! What are you doing still here! GET TO WORK!" Mr. Gorder really should have been a prison guard, but that's just my opinion and that of just about every one of his employees. As Sarah and I began to walk to our cubicles, I noticed Mr. Gorder still drooling. I chuckled to my self and went into my cubicle to waste even more of my life pushing paper.

I found myself looking at the wall that separated my cubical from Sarah's every five minutes. Little did I know that there was some one watching me. "Hey there lover-boy" I jumped and turned to see who it was. "Jesus Christ! Will, you scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry, it's a habit. No rehab for it, what's a guy to do?" Will was the kind of guy who you would expect to be ex-KGB or something. He always snuck up on you, not intentionally, but managed to scare you every day. He was always watching, not anything or anyone in particular, but just taking everything in. He was an easy going, blend in with the shadows, observer kind of person. Not to mention he had a slightly twisted sense of humor. "You've been making eyes at the girl since you two walked in to gather. I think someone's got a crush."

"Jeez, is it that obvious?" At that moment, Harmony came over. Harmony describes herself as a walking paradox, and I am forced to agree with her. She is the polar opposite of the corporate image, hair a different color each week, so many earrings that she looked like she got into a fight with a nail gun, and an odd hippie-Goth wardrobe. She strives to be the opposite of her name. "Hey guys! Wasup?"

"Oh nothing, except Dan's falling in love."

"What? Are you kidding? Who is she? Or he?"

"Funny Harmony, SHE just transferred here from the London Branch, we shared a cab on the way here this morning. Her name's Sarah and-"

"And I can hear ever word of you conversation." Came a British voice from the cubicle next to mine. Harmony and Will burst out laughing and didn't stop for about 5 or so minutes. "Now th-that's good!" Harmony managed to get out in between laughs.

"Well Dan, since you're in love with me, let's go get some coffee." Said Sarah as she stood up from her cubicle.

"Hah! At this rate, they'll be sleeping with each other by noon!" Will also liked to make snide comments, Sarah's response was to walk up to him, and tighten his tie, a lot.

"Ooo. He's gonna need some stitches for his dignity." Harmony said with a chuckle as Will gasped for breath.