Resist Me Not

28

By the time the taxi dropped me off outside my office building, my mascara and the rest of my make up had melted, smeared, or disappeared entirely. I had left in such a hurry from the apartment that I forgot to grab my coffee and makeup bag. I would usually throw it into my purse, before leaving, for touch-ups throughout the day.

I paid the cab driver who had initially started trying to console me while he drove me to work, but realized it was no use. So he just turned up his Latin Pop music and drove through the city. Even looking up at the skyscrapers that passed by didn't soothe me, as seeing them usually distracted me from most things. But not this.

I was grateful it was Saturday, so I wouldn't have to see anyone but Adam. I hoped I would be able to collect myself enough and resemble some sort of normalcy before he arrived.

When I got up to construction and design floor at the office, it was quiet, and the only soul in sight was the elderly janitor, I'd seen every other Saturday I'd worked there. He was making his way from one end of the floor to the other emptying trashcans that were stowed beneath the desks and wiping down everything with a dust cloth. He spotted me, gave me a slight wave, and frowned when he saw what my face looked like.

Just as he was coming over to greet me, the elevator dinged behind me. I turned to see Adam stepping out. I glanced back at the janitor, who smiled knowingly and returned to his work.

"Good Morn-. Vicky! What happened? Are you okay? Did someone die?" Adam rushed over to my side and placed a caring hand on my arm.

From his words and touch, I broke down again. Adam instantly moved to comfort me in the folds of his arms. He let me cry for at least a solid minute. Then, he pulled me back at an arm's length and looked at me as I wiped my eyes with any dry part of my hands or fingers.

I started laughing lightly at the state I was in. "I'm sorry," I said with shortness of breath. "Can we just focus on work right now?"

"Of course." Adam nodded and dropped his grasp of me. "Why don't you go freshen up a little, while I get the project pulled up in the conference room. We can practice the parts of the presentation we have so far."

I nodded and agreed that his plan was a great idea.

After washing away all my makeup in the bathroom, I stared at my plain face in the mirror. I cursed at myself. Telling myself, I deserved what happened. What did I think was going to be the outcome of cheating? This time as tears streamed from my eyes and down my cheeks, there was nothing left to take with them. After one more tear shed, I told myself to suck it up and that I didn't deserve to be the one to cry.

I took some extra deep breaths and a few extra tissues from the box at the end of the sink. I gave myself a shameful look once more before making my way out the door and back down the hall to the conference room.

Adam had the PowerPoint up on the lowered screen at the end of the room. He had closed the mechanical blinds, so the light from the wall of windows didn't make it hard to see the screen. He smiled gently as I entered and ushered me to take any seat that was stationed around the table. He said he wanted me to take notes on his presentation part, so we'd know what to edit or move around.

I couldn't help but think of Eric and what happened, during Adam's presentation. Luckily, he kept wanting to recite several slides more than once, so I didn't really need to pay complete attention to him every time. After an hour of working on it, most of the kinks were corrected. We were both happy with our end result, and I was grateful to have returned to a somewhat normal state of mind by the end.

"Well, I think that's all we really needed to work on today. I appreciate you coming in." Adam closed down his laptop that he had plugged into the projection dock.