The Christmas Party

Sydney and I had had too many drinks the night before and I woke up on the 21st with a pounding headache and a bad attitude. I normally love the holidays, and I like to think I’m a pretty happy person, but hung over, I become a Grinch. I hate the world, and the world hates me. That doesn’t stop me, however, from having to go to work, and be pleasant. My job was long and tedious and involved entirely too much human contact.

“Hey baby girl,” my cube mate, Dana chirped early that morning and sloppily kissed my cheek. She messed with my light brown hair, which I took entirely too long to get straight this time around. Dana never had those problems. She slept well every night, because she never stayed out late drinking with her friends, and she woke up precisely on the first screech of her alarm clock. She showered quickly and pulled her perfect black hair into a long sleek ponytail, and left her face naked. She never needed make up, and her wardrobe was so expansive I swear I’ve never seen her wear the same thing twice. She was rail thin, with long legs and elegant hands. She could be a model, with her high cheekbones and wide, expressive blue eyes, but for some reason, she worked in an office. Not only was she gorgeous, this girl was unfairly smart and she wrote the most beautiful pieces of poetry for an online literary magazine. I hated her.

“I’m not your baby girl,” I growled, laying my cheek against the cool fake wood of my desk and let out a sigh. It felt nice on my skin.

“Oh, did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?” she cooed, poking playfully and annoyingly at my cheek. I took a snap at her finger and she pulled away with a huff. “No need to be like that!”

“I’m sorry; you didn’t end up drinking an entire bottle of wine and a shot of bourbon in a single night, and then function properly the next day. I’d like to see you try to be perky in the morning,” I snarled. She rolled her chair back to her own desk and went back to her work. I picked my heavy head up off the desk and, on shaky legs, headed to the break room where Miles had just brewed a fresh pot of the best, strongest coffee on the planet. “You are a godsend, Miles!”

He smiled sleepily and handed over my mug, filled nearly to the brim with steaming black coffee.

“Have a good day, Leyla,” he called as I headed back to my desk. I leaned against the door, looking over my shoulder at him.

“I’ll try. If you hear screaming, it’s because I’ve strangled Dana.”

He let out an honest, loud laugh as I wobbled back to my chair, setting my coffee on the coaster I’d brought in. I normally kept to myself for the most part, doing my job and getting all of my work done relatively quickly. Unfortunately, I was stuck with a cube mate like Dana, who was beautiful and smart and perfect and perky, and she was also nosy.

About 45 minutes until lunch, halfway through my day, Dana started to ask questions about Kellin, like she always did, and about the Christmas party.

“So, I just found this gorgeous dress to wear to the company party!” she gushed. Most of the time, I tune this bit out and I was successful as she went on and on about how it was cut and what it was made out of and how perfect it looked on her. It wasn’t until she said, “Poor Kellin,” that I actually tuned back in.

“Poor Kellin?” I snapped.

“Well, my dress is so finely made. It’s a shame he won’t get to see it.”

“Won’t get to see it?” I questioned with my eyebrow quirking up unintentionally. Ever since I’d moved here and got a job, and Kellin had dropped by to see me, she’d been trying to steal him from me.

“Well, he’s not going to be home in time, is he? Didn’t you say he was out of tour for most of December?”

“He’ll be here in time,” I replied.

“Are you sure? We wouldn’t want a repeat of last year, where you had to come all by your little self because Kellin got snowed in,” she shrugged, her voice innocent but her eyes malicious.

“He’ll be home, Dana, and besides, he won’t be looking at you anyway. He’ll be too busy looking at me, like he should,” I replied, swinging back about in my chair, facing my computer and successfully ending the conversation. Her comments had still gotten to me, just like she’d meant them to. My mind dwelled on them all day, picking them apart and exploring every scheme that Dana might plan to steal Kellin from me.

While Dana had one of her thousand “pee breaks,” I called Kellin, just to hear his voice. He didn’t answer though, which was typical, and it went straight through to voicemail.

“You’ve reached Kellin! Sorry, I couldn’t answer the phone. Leave a message and I’ll get back to YOU! Leyla! I’m going to get you!” his voicemail played. I smiled. I’d snuck up behind him after he got his new phone and waited while he recorded his playback. I’d tickled him in the sides and dashed away, laughing maniacally.

“Hey Kellin. It’s uh, it’s Leyla. I just, it’s been a rough day already, and I miss you, and I just wanted to hear your voice, I guess. You’re probably sleeping, huh? Yeah, well, call me back when you wake up. I just want to talk to you. Say hi to everyone for me. Love you, bye.”

I saved the message and hung up, just as Dana sashayed back to her desk.

“Oh, and just wait until you see the shoes I got to match my dress!”