The Official Office Games

Victoria's Pov

I gripped the warm coffee mug and let the steam rise up and fog my glasses. Another average Tuesday... It’s the kind that's not worth bothering telling people about if they ask how your day has been.

I looked out the window, the early rays of the sun peeking from the clouds, coating them in shades of pink and yellow. I could faintly hear the birds twittering and every now and then cars rushed by, several stories below. No telephone rang; no one tapped the keys, no shifting of paper. Just me.

I was always the first person to work. I glanced at the clock hanging to the far right wall; 6:55 AM. I took a delicate sip and quietly waited for the morning rush to start.

---

After about a half hour of letting my mind wander as I waited, I heard someone climb up the last of the concrete stairs to the large office area. I stared until I saw Cole appear at the top, swaggering comically towards his area. He raised his blonde head slightly towards me in greeting and spun around on his wheely chair. I gave him my unalterably goofy smile. "Morning, sunshine."

He scoffed mockingly and put a hand on his hip. "The only sunshine I see here is you."

"Anyway, Colleen," I taunted playfully, "Did you finish that report Boss wants done today?"

He snorted and grabbed my cup of coffee, draining the last of it and grimacing at its coldness. "Nope. You finish your graphic designs?"

"Hell yeah I did! I stayed up until 2 working on it," I said stressfully, surprised that I was even on my feet after the small amount of rest.

He tweaked my nose like an annoying older brother. "That's what you get for procrastinating."

"I didn't procrastinate!" I said objectively. "I have a lot of crap I have to do!"

"I bet you do spend an awful lot of your time wasting your life away behind a desk."

"I do not. I have a life."

"Which involves...?"

"A lot of things," I sniffed.

"When was the last time you went skydiving?" he asked suddenly. I gave him a sideways look. "My point exactly." I started to say something, but Cole raised a hand to silence me. "I can't sit here any longer and watch you work your life away. You have potential to be somewhere else, doing something you actually enjoy," he said, "But you choose to waste your precious time here and stress about a career you don't even want." He sounded so much like an older sister or a camp councilor that I was starting to think that maybe he was gay. I wanted to smile at the thought, but Cole was being as serious as a heart attack.

"You're turning 30 today, and I advise you strongly to look back in your life and see if you're honestly happy with it."

I was shocked, partially because of how serious he was being, and partially because I had forgotten that today was my birthday. I guess that's what happens when you turn into a workaholic; everything else just melts away and becomes insignificant to you.

Cole held my face in his hands to emphasize his words. "Do you hear me out?"

No.

I was distractedly staring at his beautiful face, lost in the brown swirls and hazel flecks in his eyes, suddenly aware of how close or noses were. But instead I nodded slowly with a blank expression on my face.

"Good." he had dropped his voice to a murmur. "Because it ends today." And he leaned in for the kill.

Butterflies swarmed in a fury inside my stomach.

And then, as all good things do, the illusion shattered like a dream as soon as I heard the click-click of high-heels at the top of the concrete stairs.