A New Story

Julie glanced up from her salad to the computer monitor.  Still shoving forkfuls into her mouth she calculated she had 3 minutes until Marcus would arrive.  Of course, she could stop eating and slip away to see him but she was starving.  Why did she start the diet this week?  She could be eating the lasagna Judy brought in today.  Still, trimming up a little more to impress the new guy couldn’t hurt.


Marcus was a new employee working in the department across the hall.  She happened to see him the week before during a stop in the common break room.  Julie started talking with Marsha, who works in Marcus’s department, when he walked in.  If love at first sight exists, Julie experienced it.  Marsha saw the look in Julie’s eye and considered not introducing Julie to Marcus but when he greeted Marsha by name as he approached a vending machine, she felt the situation required her to offer an introduction.  Smiling, Marcus stuck out his hand to Julie as she introduced him.  Julie felt a tingle of electricity in her hand the moment she clasped his.  His smile was infectious.  Her hand felt his the remainder of the day.

Marcus seemed to go to the break room at the same time each day, and Julie wanted to be there before he arrived and make it seem as though she was leaving.  She already had seen him the previous two days but she didn’t want to appear obvious.  Stuffing in one last fork full of limp romaine and arugula, Julie locked her computer and headed for the break room.  She chewed as she walked.  Her heart rate increased and her face flushed ever so slightly at the thought of being close to Marcus.  She was about to swallow when she turned the corner and saw Marcus walking toward her with a Snickers bar in his hand.

Julie gasped at their near collision causing the greens she planned to swallow to get stuck in her voice box.  Immediately, her body reacted by coughing up the foreign objects.  Her face reddened as the coughing intensified.  Julie bent over and jerked violently as she hacked away.  Since this was clearly no minor tickle in her throat, Marcus placed a hand on her shoulder and asked, “Are you ok?”

Somewhat embarrassed but more concerned with exhuming the remaining bits of salad, Julie nodded in affirmation and gave a thumbs up.  A coworker, Kathy, walked over with a cone shaped paper cup filled with water.  Julie grasped it in both hand and tilted her head back and let a mouthful cascade in.  Slowly, she swallowed and rinsed the remnants away.  A few more coughs came from deep within her chest as Julie walked toward the water cooler and refilled the cup.  Once she believed the emergency was over, she looked at Marcus and Kathy and croaked, “Thank you.”

Kathy asked, “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll survive the choking, maybe not the embarrassment.” 

Marcus and Kathy looked at one another and smiled.  Marcus added, “Well, you’ve given us our excitement for the day.  It will be hard to go back to boring numbers now.”  With that, he patted her shoulder and added as he walked away.  “I’m glad you’re ok.” 

Then Julie returned to her desk.  She felt like a total idiot.  Her mind raced with thoughts:  You want to impress the handsome new guy?  Oh, you impressed him alright.  He’ll never forget you.  You’re the one who hacked and coughed up a lung in front of him.  He’s probably laughing his ass off right now. 

Dejected, Julie unlocked her computer and saw she had 4 new emails.  She opened Outlook and at that instant, she received another one.  It was from Marcus.  The subject line was titled, “I really am glad your ok”  A smile broke out on her face.  She clicked on the email but there was no content, only the subject line.  She felt a little better.  He didn’t say he thought she was beautiful but at least he cared.  That should mean something, shouldn’t it?