A/N: I love how much you all love this story. Thank you for the lovely reviews - they make me all sorts of smiley and gleeful. Writing this story has a similar effect. Is good times. Hope you enjoy this next chapter!
Eric POV
If my brains had been at all in my head that day, I would have stopped those elevator doors from closing.
I would have gotten her name. Hell, I would have at least poked my head out to see which office she'd gone into.
The interview that I'd been there for had gone well. So well, in fact, that I was now employed in the same building where that woman worked. I'd almost taken it as a sign.
The first time I'd seen her was, unfortunately, the only time. I'd been too lost in my own head to properly respond outside of it.
I could still remember every last detail of what she'd looked like: long blonde hair that curled past her shoulders, blue eyes that sparkled mischievously, and curves that most women would have tried to stifle with salads and diet sodas. No, this woman sipped a chai latte; it was written on the side of the cup, and I could recall the distinct smell of it. She was almost a full foot shorter than I was, but at over six feet, I was used to that.
It made me cringe to think about how awkward I'd felt, especially after hearing her speak. I'd been so distracted by the job interview that I was headed for, I'd probably come off as rude. I had a tendency to get lost in my own head whenever I was focused on something.
After getting the position in the IT department of DeCastro Technologies, I looked forward to being able to see that woman again. It wasn't until almost a week later that I'd realized it might never happen. Based on the way she'd been dressed, it was possible she didn't even work here. No matter the company, almost everyone in the building wore suits to work. Aside from what I figured were visiting girlfriends, the most casual folks I saw were fellow techies; we tended to stick with button-down shirts and khakis.
She'd been wearing a pair of blue and green plaid flannel pants and a black t-shirt, like a college co-ed on laundry day. Add a pair of fuzzy slippers, and she would have been the ultimate snuggle-magnet.
Shit. Knowing my luck, she was probably only here to visit her boyfriend. If she'd been wearing any kind of employee badge, I hadn't seen it.
I had no problems attracting women. Keeping them was another matter entirely. With the way I looked, the smart girls always figured I'd think myself too good for them. I couldn't stand the ones with empty heads. I liked my women with meat on their bones and brains between their ears.
In the few spare moments I had at work, I checked to see what other companies were in the building. My focus was on the third floor: that was where she'd gotten off the elevator. There were four different companies there: a dentist, some accountants, a small trading company, some generic sounding place whose purpose was unclear.
She couldn't have been going to the dentist, not after drinking something sugary from Starbucks. She didn't dress like an accountant or stock broker. Unfortunately, I couldn't find much about Ravenscroft Industries; it was a parent company, and the way it was organized, the people working there could have been anything from IT consultants to chicken farmers.
As much as I wanted to see her again, I couldn't exactly go knocking on random doors trying to find her. Not when I was so new at my own job, so easily replaceable.
No, I'd have to just keep hoping to catch sight of her in the lobby or the elevators.
In the meantime, my job went quite well. DeCastro Technologies had hired me to be their primary VoIP tech. Voice over IP phone technology wasn't new, but a lot of companies still thought of it as such. Niall, the man who they'd brought me into replace, was retiring soon. While he was supposed to be the one training me, he told me right up front that he figured I'd know all of that "phone stuff" better than he did. Since I'd been working with VoIP a year or two longer than he had, he was right; it meant that most our conversations tended toward the casual.
I liked it well enough, but all tech jobs tended to blend together after a while. The people, places and network names might vary, but the technologies were the same. I made sure the phone system was running smoothly, and aside from the occasional project, that was the extent of it.
It gave me far too much time to think about the beautiful woman with the amazing voice. The more I didn't see her, the more I wanted to; after several weeks of nothing, I was starting to give up hope.
Every day at lunch, I went to the little trio of shops just across the street. There was an Italian place with great pizza, a Subway, and the Starbucks where my mystery woman must have gotten her beverage. Every day, I went back to my desk without having seen her. With each day that passed, I wondered more and more if I was starting to get obsessed. Wanting to see an attractive woman was one thing; haunting all of the places where she might be...
Well, that was another thing entirely. I sighed over my slice of pizza and figured perhaps next week I would start bringing my lunch. Or maybe I'd find another set of restaurants. This couldn't possibly be healthy. After finishing my food, I walked in daze back to the building.
And then I saw her again.
Sookie POV
It was my first day back on a daytime shift, and I was having the hardest time keeping my eyes open. For the past month, I had been temporarily covering one of the night shift positions. One of the long-term girls was on family leave, something about a sick relative. Since she hadn't left the company altogether, Pam decided to pull one of us from the day shift instead of bringing in someone entirely new. I had volunteered, just for a chance of pace.
Pam had been itching to get me working a later shift, saying it would be good for business, but after a month of it I decided Never Again. I was relieved when she didn't pressure me about it; she said she would rather have me there during the day than have me not there at all.
The day shift was easier, since we took fewer calls. Most of them came through in the evening and at night. Since we didn't work on commission, I preferred the day shift. Most of us did, even though there was a pay differential for the later shifts.
When I was getting ready for work that morning, I'd just grabbed whatever was clean; it wasn't until I got to work that I realized none of it matched. Pam had called out to me as I'd passed her office door. I went back and leaned against the door frame to see her gaping at me.
"Morning, Pam. What's up?"
"Sookie, tell me you didn't leave the house wearing... that."
I yawned as I looked down at my long pajama pants with the little rocket ships. "What? It's not that bad."
"Bless your heart, it's your first day back from third shift, isn't it? Poor thing. No worries: all is forgiven. And there's plenty of coffee in the break room."
I waved as I walked off and made sure to get a giant cup of coffee before going to my cubicle. It turned out to be a fairly quiet day; the calls just weren't coming in. As tired as I was, I would have preferred to keep busy. More calls would have made the hours go by faster.
During my lunch break, I stumbled into the break room and glared at the coffee maker. Realizing that I needed something stronger, I went back to my cube, grabbed some cash out of my purse and made my way to Starbucks.
As I was waiting at the counter, I turned around and looked outside. It was way too bright out there. I hadn't felt this bad since the morning after Amelia's twenty-first birthday. Just as I was about to turn around, I noticed a familiar face sitting at one of the tables. It took me a minute, in my sleepy state, to place where I'd seen him before.
It was the cute suit I'd teased in the elevator. Well, well. He wasn't wearing a suit today. His hair almost glowed in the sunlight. At one point he seemed to look at me, but then he looked back down at his food. With it being lighter outside than inside, he probably couldn't see this far into the store.
"Triple shot espresso!" called out the girl behind the counter. I turned around to grab my coffee, and turned back just in time to see the cute suit stand up to leave. He looked like he was having a bad day, just like last time. Either he was terminally grumpy, or the poor guy just couldn't get a break. Maybe I wouldn't tease him next time.
I left the cafe and started walking back towards the darker confines of the office building. The grumpy cute suit had a good head start on me, probably on account of his long legs, but he'd had to stop at the crosswalk to wait for the light to change. I caught up and stood next to him, about two feet away. He seemed lost in his own thoughts, so I sipped my coffee and waited for the little "WALK" sign to light up.
When the light changed, he zoomed on ahead of me. I started walking at my own pace; it would have taken way too much energy to keep pace with him. While I'd thought of him occasionally over the past month, it wasn't like I even knew his name. There was no logical reason for me to try to keep up, so I ambled along at a casual stroll.
It was really hard to keep myself from laughing; the poor guy just kept getting held up. First the traffic light, then a mild traffic jam at the revolving door at the front of the building. I got inside just in time to see him waiting at the back of a large crowd in front of the elevators.
I'd forgotten how busy it was during the lunch hour rush.
Having no desire to cram myself in a lift full of stuffy suits, I waited at the back, just behind everyone else. As luck would have it, the next elevator was able to fit everyone except me and the grumpy, golden-haired, cute suit fellow.
I almost hoped I didn't find out his name. It was kind of fun to see how many adjectives I could string together for him.
I took another sip of my coffee, and in my smoothest move ever, started choking. He turned to look at me, which of course made me feel that much more conspicuous about being one of Darwin's rejects. Naturally, the more I tried to stifle the coughing, the worse it got. My phone voice was going to be extra husky this afternoon, damn it.
"You!" he exclaimed, his eyes wide.
That stopped my coughing almost immediately. "Me?"
"You... I... um..." He frowned slightly before extending a hand. "Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Northman. Eric, I mean. I'm Eric Northman. Hi."
I cleared my throat and reached out to shake his hand. We each jumped slightly as we got a slight shock; the static electricity in this place could be fierce sometimes.
"Hi Eric, I'm Sookie."
"Nice to meet you, Sookie."
"Can I have my hand back?" I asked, trying not to giggle. He looked so flustered as he glanced down and saw that his huge hand was still engulfing my tiny one.
"Oh, sorry. I just... So, are you visiting someone here?"
"What? No, I work here." It was an odd question, but he was kind of an odd duck.
The elevator dinged; there was no one inside, but he stuck a hand in the doors to keep them open as I walked into the lift. He followed me in and hit the buttons for our respective floors. I was surprised that he remembered I was on the third floor.
We shared an awkward silence once the doors closed; that's what elevators are for, after all. Well, that and the occasional fantasy of the people I spoke to for a living. He was obviously trying not to stare, and I wondered how ridiculous my rocket ship pajama pants must have looked to him.
"I work for DeCastro Technologies," Eric said, breaking the silence. "Where do you work?"
"Oh, ah..." I hesitated, not keen on 'fessing up about what I did. "I work for Ravenscroft Industries. Phone stuff."
He inhaled sharply just as the damn lift dinged again. My stop.
"You work on phones?" he asked. For some reason, that seemed to set him at ease.
I paused before answering. "In a manner of speaking. No pun intended."
"Oh, but puns are always better when they're intended." He gave me a brilliant smile; it struck me how gorgeous he was when he did that. I'd seen that he was attractive, but that smile of his... it gave me an odd fluttery feeling in my belly.
Or maybe I'd had too much coffee. Yes, that had to be it.
The doors started to close. "See you around, Eric."
His smile grew brighter at that. "I look forward to it, Sookie."
I walked back to my cubicle feeling out of sorts, but not in any way that felt related to sleep deprivation. Frowning at my half-drunk cup of espresso, I chucked it into the bin under my desk. I'd rather struggle to stay awake than get sick from bad coffee.
Disclaimer: All of the characters contained in this story are property of Charlaine Harris. I don't own them; I just like to play with them a bit.
