Matters of the Heart

One

The rain poured down around me and I glanced up from my shelter under and awning of a quiet coffee shop at the sky cracking with thunder, lighting up the dark clouds.

"Why, why, why?! Why today?" I yelled at no one in particular as I lifted my arm to glance at my watch. "I'm so dead." I sighed as I decided to just make a run for it. The traffic was busy and I needed to be at work like ten minutes ago. I saw people start crossing the street and the time limit kept decreasing. "Fuck it." I ran even faster my high heels loud against the ground as my pounding footsteps carried me closer and closer to my destination.

I was running so fast that I jostled some of the people around me and ran smack dab into a woman who sent me a dirty scowl as she stumbled and continued on her way. I however sent my coffee flying backwards behind me as I tried to balance myself and save my precious coffee. I failed to catch it and fell on my ass. Great soggy buns. I stood and rushed to grab the coffee cup. I mean hey, I'm not a litterer. I was distracted and didn't notice the street emptying of people and the countdown ending.

My head snapped to the side as I heard a car horn blaring at me. I bowed, not so sure they could even see me well in the pouring rain and quickly grabbed my empty cup and fled. When I made it to the sidewalk I rushed down to the big building on this busy street. I quickly ducked under the covers on the tall building and walked into the sliding glass doors.

     Wow.

     This place was nice.

     The white marble flooring shined as if it was just buffed and the chandelier in the main lobby gleamed brightly and illuminated the space nicely. There was even a sitting area in the front right next to an in house breakfast stand. Well I knew where I was getting my food from now on, it's nice they provided that for their employees.

     I smiled as I made my way over to the front desk. A large grey marble platform that housed two people; a small lady filing paperwork and a strong looking man who stared at me in an intimating way. I was now self conscious of the way I was dripping water all over their polished floors. I tucked some of the soaking strands behind my ear as I approached them.

"Um hi." I bowed and stood back up digging through my bag, sitting the coffee cup onto the counter. I kept shuffling as I finally found the ID I was looking for. I showed it to the man as I was told to do by the email I received this morning. I'm was thankful that the badge showed up in my mail box before I got here or this would be more difficult.

He glanced up from looking at my coffee cup and to my ID badge, not even trying to hide his sneer at me.

Know your audience, Y/N. I reminded myself as I lowered my badge and gave him a wide smile. "Am I good to go in?"

He nodded slightly with a quick tilt of his head and pointed to the coffee cup, "Be sure to take that with you." He turned away to lower himself back down to his work.

I grabbed the cup and hurried to the elevator once I made it in I dropped my smile and pushed the button the 27th floor. I stared at the changing number as it cycled though each floor and crushed the cup in my hand and breathed out a hard breath. "Today is already starting off great, I can't wait to see what will happen next." I uttered bitterly as the elevator dinged snapping me out of my trance and signaling me to exit. I did and found a trashcan close by and threw my cup away, holding back a tear as I realized I barely even drank a drop of it. RIP.

~-*-~

I slumped down in my new desk chair, letting out a huge sigh. That morning couldn't have gone any worse than it did.