Karen
Having a crush on your boss is a completely stereotypical thing for a female assistant to do. And yet here I am with a crush on Mark, my boss. Fortunately for me he is not a balding, pudgy man in his mid 40's and it is not a crush of unmanageable size. Standing at a respectable five foot six height he towers over me with my diminutive height of four foot eleven. Physically fit, smart, and handsome I would have to have one foot in the grave not to notice him. Since the object of my affection is emotionally unavailable and too old for me besides, I have relegated my crush to an afterthought. Unfortunately for me that afterthought gives me rose colored glasses far too often, like now.
"So Karen, ya think we should invite Mark to come on the trip with us?" I grunted and leaned farther over my papers trying to ignore Liz who had a mischievous twinkle in her eye. "I mean he doesn't look like the outdoorsy type, but this is a trip for people from work so shouldn't we at least invite him?" Looking up from my papers I decided that ignoring her was probably futile. " Sure, but he might do better than you think and surprise you." Rolling her eyes Liz opened her mouth to comment but grabbed the pager that had just gone off instead and swore. "Shit!, Mr. Robinson has wondered out of his room again and is pitching a fit." Snatching her lunch tray off the table on her way out of the cafeteria she paused "I'll leave the inviting of Mark to you" With a grimace I said "Just what I wanted to hear." to her rapidly retreating form. Leaving me with a task like that is just asking my imagination to run away with it. Sliding out of my chair with a sigh I packed up and headed off to the infectious diseases section of the hospital.
Mark
Sighing I picked up my clipboard to reread the latest set of results that were once again not favorable. "Damn, I thought I had it that time." Over the past twenty years through medical school and high water the enigma of how to make a vaccine for the Ebola virus has been a pest. The results are never conclusive, the pathogen is deadly, and the funding for and legalities of researching it are under a pile of red tape that rivals most mountains. "Megaan, How am I going to prevent your future?" Karen walked in just in to ask "Who is Megaan?". "Nobody." I ran my fingers through my hair while trying to find my necktie, there was a board meeting in the hospital later that would hopefully bring more much needed doctors to our cause. Karen walked over to her desk and started shuffling papers.
"So any plans for the weekend Mark?"
"None why do you ask?"
"Well, I was asked to ask you on a hiking trip that most of the people who work for the lab are going on."
"Where to?"
"Just into the desert a ways to set up camp somewhere"
"Hmmm."
Karen started fidgeting and turned to face me and with an anxious expression on her face asked, "So you want to come or not?"
"Sure."
.
.
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-I haven't read the Transall Saga in years so any suggestions and comments are appreciated.