For the Love of Triton

3. First Impressions

The daily buzzing of New York City taxi cabs brought calmness to Sophie's mind. Armed and ready to march into the fifty floor office building as if her co-workers didn't see her butt naked two days ago washed up on the beach, she took a sip of her coffee. Her cheeks turned bright red just even thinking about the situation. All she remembered was a cave, the turquoise-eyed naked man, and then..

Sophie was about to hurl her breakfast back up.

His fin. The man had a freaking tail, like a fish. That all had to be a dream. A very realistic dream that somehow made her take all her clothes off and lay on the sand until sunrise.

Sophie sighed. There was seriously no explanation for what happened two days ago. Well, at least her co-workers (mostly Brad) came up with a plausible reason for Sophie's situation. She slept with some guy, and then he ditched her. Sophie's blood boiled just thinking about Brad schmoozing with all of upper management during the corporate dinner yesterday while she was stuck in the cave.  Then again, she would rather let that rumor go around than tell everyone about the mermaid—er, merman.

At 25, Sophie was quite proud of the life she made for herself. She graduated from one of the top universities in England at 21, moved to the United States, and immediately received job offers. After working at the firm for four years, a job promotion was right around the corner, she could smell it.

Until now.

Sophie cringed when the elevator dinged. She strode into the office with her back straight and her head held high. She was Sophia Christos, no one could bring her down.

Sophie's shoulder slumped the second she made her way to her own cubicle. She could hear the snickers pervading throughout the office. Burying her face into her palms, Sophie took a deep breath before getting ready for her first meeting.

Her job wasn't exactly the most exciting job in the world. But it did pay for her two-bedroom apartment in Midtown Manhattan she shared with her best friend from college. As her best friend made the most money out of the two of them with her fancy graduate degree from Harvard, she ended up with the bigger room and paid a tid-bit more rent which also helped Sophie out. 

In addition, she was closer to her family. Her mother wasn't exactly ecstatic when Sophie announced that she was going off to college in London, England at the tender age of eighteen for four years. Instead of being happy for Sophie, she begged her to pick another country—like their homeland, Greece. Her grandfather wasn't exactly happy either. As much as she loved her grandfather, Sophie needed to take a breather every time she spoke to him. Never a conversation had passed without the mentioning of some Greek deity. She wished her grandmother didn't have to part with her at the age of five so she could speak some sense into him.

Four hours later, Sophie sighed in relief. It was lunchtime, and no one had mentioned the situation to her.

"So, I heard you went commando two days ago. Had a little too much fun?" Brad leaned on the side of Sophie's cubical entrance and smirked.

Sophie tried her hardest not to sock Brad square on the nose. How did he end up in one of the top financial firms in the nation, Sophie will never know. Maybe that rumor going around about Brad's dad bribing our CEO for his son to get a spot in the company was true after all. Sophie glared at Brad whose mouth kept flapping. Sophie hoped the coffee in his hand would magically spill onto that crisp white button-up of his.

And then it did.

Hot brown liquid defied gravity and poured itself all over Brad's shirt. Horrified, Brad looked at Sophie then back at his button-up shirt. He let out a  shriek loud enough for the whole office to hear before pointing his stubby finger at Sophie, accusing her of pouring the coffee on him.