Monday came and Clarke was up before her alarm could even bother. She was full of energy and she couldn't understand why, but she didn't fight it. She took the morning head-on and breezed off to work after completing her daily routine.
As she took her daily path from the lobby to her office, she was all smiles and bubbles until the elevator door dinged open. Bellamy stepped into the elevator and her detective work over the weekend hit her full-stop. Her face probably deceived her because she could swear he was smirking when he turned away from her. They stood in the elevator together quietly for a moment before Bellamy broke that silence.
"Morning." His voice registered with her completely different than normal. It hit her deeper than she could remember ever feeling and it made her uncomfortable.
"Good morning." Her own tone of voice was strange as if someone else had said it but it was her.
"If you haven't heard yet, the flooring company will be here an hour earlier than planned. They had to bump us up for whatever reason, so at ten they want to come to do the measurements. They also said they had just got in a new commercial carpet line we could look at, blues." He specified the color, knowing it would pique her interest and his eyes searching for her reaction further cemented that.
"Oh, okay. Blue huh? Might look nice." She was cold and looked away from those freckles, so her eyes locked onto the seam between the doors. It felt like a million years before they would open with a ding but they finally did and she awkwardly pushed forward off of the lift.
"See you there." He called out, and she just shot him a weird smile. Once again, he was smirking. It tormented her to see that damn lip curl. It betrayed him but he planned that. As for her, it tormented her. What was he thinking that he had those perfectly drawn lips curled into a devious smirk? The thought drove her nuts and she scurried off to her office as if her inner thoughts and feelings were somehow on display while she walked through the offices.
Inside the sanctuary of her office, behind a closed door, she plopped down into her chair and huffed out of frustration. Logically, she had nothing to be frustrated for but something about that short exchange with Bellamy had her all sorts of flustered. Naturally, seeing his dumb freckled face made her think about the weekend and the puzzle that plagued her. What was she missing, what pieces had she forgotten in their story? She knew the details, but couldn't remember the feelings around them so it felt like a void or like pieces were missing. Really, it couldn't have mattered much, right? So she told herself. Clarke dove into emails to distract herself.
Ten rolled around very quickly and she almost didn't remember what he said. Jolting out of her seat, she quickly paced to the elevator to meet the flooring team. When the lift opened and let her out on the main floor of the project, she saw Bellamy smiling firmly at a trio of people, two men, and one woman. They seemed to be enjoying casual banter and she suddenly felt late.
"Here she is." Bellamy gestured and waved Clarke over.
"Miss Griffin, it's nice to meet you." An older, silver-haired man greeted her with a firm handshake. She smiled and matched his grip as he introduced the other two next to him, younger, mid-forties man and woman.
"Paul here will take the measurements, and Lisa here can answer anything and everything about financing. What I'm sure you're most interested in at the moment is our catalog." He tabbed a thick metal binder in his arms. "We've set up a display so you can see what we have to offer in terms of texture, pile, durability." He moved aside a bit and let Clarke see what she somehow missed. It was a tri-fold display with a dozen or more swatches on it of various kinds of flooring.
Lisa stepped up to it and pointed. "With the intended use of your space here, we put together some popular choices for clinical settings. I can go over them with you folks now if you'd like."
Bellamy looked to her for approval and she gave a soft smile and nod. "Of course." Just like that, they dove into all of the information while one of the men floated around the space taking measurements. They went over every option and a large catalog of colors and finishes. It was almost overwhelming, but Bellamy seemed to take the lead and guide them toward blues and greys. By the end of the meeting, they had rough measurements for all three floors which allowed them to give an estimation on how much they could spend, at maximum, per material chosen. This was all very preliminary, as the three floors hadn't been sectioned off and built up yet. It was to secure the contract with the company and secure the product they would choose. At the moment, Bellamy and Clarke were sat side by side at a pop-up table, scrolling through their options. They had really fallen into a comfortable lull doing this together and had agreed almost too easily on the perfect light grey and blue speckled linoleum for the clinical areas with a charcoal grey trim. A blue almost striped but more speckled commercial carpet tile for the reception area among others. It looked so sleek. They also pulled together some options for the housing units, a thicker more plush neutral grey carpet with even lighter soft marbled white looking tile for the kitchen and bathrooms. Decisions made, the group convened at the table.
"When you get the layout built, we'll come back in and get your final measurements and get your order set up. Until then, with today's information, we'll secure your chosen materials so that nothing can go awry with your project." The silver-haired man spoke, who Clarke learned had the name of Morris.
"Sounds great, we look forward to working more with you." Clarke smiled and they shook hands again before the trio was seen to the elevator and sent off without them. Bellamy and Clarke stood alone, Clarke beaming and Bellamy enjoying it. She realized he was looking at her.
"What?" She felt self-conscious.
"Happy looks good on you, that's all."
"Shut up." She nearly scoffed, moving back to the table.
He raised his hands in defeat, but the smirk on his lips betrayed him.
"So you like what we picked?" She asked while shuffling through some of the paper they had just accumulated.
"I do." He said simply.
"I'm glad." Her voice was quiet.
Bellamy lifted his arm and checked the apple watch sitting on his wrist. "Hmm, a bit early but do you want to go grab lunch?" He asked casually. Clarke's innards flipped and her face got warm. She quickly scrambled together an excuse.
"I have a lot of work to get done today." It was dry and characterless. She was clearly feeling awkward but she could only hope he didn't see it as much as she felt it.
"Alright, well have a good day." He sounded ever so slightly disappointed and disappeared into the elevator.
"Idiot." She cursed herself when she knew she was alone. Her mind rolled through so many thoughts and regrets. She chastised herself for being weird with him and furthermore for not asking him questions that burned through her mind. Part of her wanted so very much to pick his brain about their supposed friendship when they were younger but no matter how many scenarios she tried to come up with she could not think of a comfortable way to approach it. Granted, part of her was also nervous about what he could possibly say. What was she forgetting?
In frustration, she slapped her hands down on the table to pull herself out of the cloud in her own mind. The foldaway table protested the act but withstood it gracefully, some of the papers on the other hand flew off. Annoyed, she collected everything and cleaned up because retreating to the elevator herself. As the doors closed her in, she was hit with the subtle smell of cologne that was so glaringly familiar. The same smell from their youth, a musky but sweet scent made perfect by his own chemistry. The odor triggered feelings in her she couldn't understand and it wasn't soon enough that the doors would ding open and let her free.
In her office, she got busy with the work she actually did have to get done today but more than anything to distract herself from her overactive thoughts. At this rate, she would be done for the day early just by how focused she was. Clarke couldn't complain though, going home to solitude where she could comfortably confront or ignore her thoughts was better than them screaming at her while at work. Honed in and focused, Clarke worked her ass off.