The Official Office Games

Cole's Pov

Immediately the mood changed. Sharply, she turned my head towards the direction of the intruder; I felt my lips graze her cheek.

"Victoria-" I started.

She shushed me as the clack of the high-heels got louder while the person advanced up the stairway.

“Hide,” she hissed and tore herself away from me. Without warning, she leaped behind her desk and crouched as if she was nine years old all over again. I remained rooted to my spot, blinking in surprise. Peeking behind her computer monitor, Victoria watched as the woman appeared at the top of the stairs.

Claire. There was no mistaking her smugness filling the room (along with her perfume); her feline-like face; and, admittedly, her curves. All thoughts of Victoria vanished from my mind.

Her face lit up as she saw me standing there. “Cole,” she gushed in her British accent as if she hadn’t seen me for years, “How are you, love?” From the corner of my eye I saw Victoria glared from her hiding spot as Claire rubbed my cheek with the side of her thumb. If Claire was in the Webster Dictionary, her definition would be, lewd, deceiving, supposedly British female, who had unexplainably received a job in the product design branch of a Dove company in Manhattan, New York; smutty bitch. Though I felt no spite against her; it amused me how she tried to win me over with her flirting. Victoria was the one who hated her with a passion.

“I’m well, Ms Bennett,” I replied politely.

“Oh, but Cole,” she coed, lightly rubbing my tie with her pinkie finger, “You know you can call me Claire,”

“I know,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper so Victoria wouldn’t be able to hear us. I put a hand on the small of her back. “It’s just not professional, and I wouldn’t want Victoria thinking there was anything more between us.” I was playing her like a song- this was way too easy. I suppressed a wicked grin as I watched Victoria give Claire the evil eye. And too much fun, I thought.

Claire frowned. “Victoria? What does Victoria have to do with us?”

Without warning, she leaped up from behind her desk.

"Uh-um- SURPRISE!" she decided to say, throwing her hands up limply, and then pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Claire gave a little jump in response. "Vicky, dear, you gave me a fright!"

She clenched my teeth. "It's Victoria," she spat out, "Dear."

Claire paid no attention to her suddenly hostile mood. “Why is she here?” she muttered distastefully.

“It’s her thirtieth birthday,” I whispered back.

“Oh,” she mumbled, “Poor girl is getting quite old.”

“But aren’t you like, thirty-two?”

She pinched her lips in response, but something told me I was right. She began walking away stiffly to her desk. I followed her and gently caught her by the elbow. “Have I upset you?” I asked. “I didn’t mean to ask, it just came out.”

“It’s not about that, not really,” she whimpered pitifully. “I’m worried that I’m getting too old and that you’ll loose interest in me.”

“You know I only have eyes for you,” I lied skillfully.

She looked up earnestly. “Really?”

“Of course.”

Claire wrapped her arms around me dramatically. “Cole, you are just the most wonderful man I’ve ever met.” I almost felt bad about being misleading to both women, but I didn’t like being predictable and easy to read as if I were a book. And I wasn’t really sure who I liked, anyway. Victoria was nice and all, but Claire… was Claire, if you catch my drift.

Victoria’s Pov

I felt… so ignored. To be the center of attention for once, and then have my fifteen seconds of fame ripped away by that... that… skank. I glared at them from my desk, but they took no notice. Quietly, I walked away from the two and back to my desk, slumping down into the chair and turning the computer on. Times like this when I suddenly got a sad feeling, I wanted to be as miserable as possible to make Cole see how badly he had hurt my feelings.

After about ten minutes, the other employees came. I continued working without a sound, my anger flaring quietly like a flame.