The Taste of You and Me

My third day at work began uneventfully: Leah had left me list of things to do while she was out of town doing interviews with instructions to call her if there was a disaster in the office. I had finished almost everything by half eleven, when I had gotten waylaid by Lilly, who told me I was too efficient for my own good.
Right now, she had unleashed her inquisition on me, demanding to know whether her shorts revealed too much of her lovely long legs.

“No, you look great, Lilly!” I insisted, seating myself on the edge of her desk. “If I had legs like that, I’d always wear shorts.”
We both giggled, and it felt good; it was nice to finally have another girl around who I could talk about nonsensical stuff like this to.

“Yeah, but there’s that fucking perv who keeps staring at my ass.” she groaned, rolling her eyes and placing her hands on her hips.
“Oh, Rory!” She leapt over to a passerby and dragged him over. “Let me introduce you - Rory, this is Leah’s newest victim, Maya. Maya, this is our journalism genius, Rory.”
I smiled and extended a hand for him to shake, taking in his round, smiley face and shampoo-bouncy quiff of chocolate curls.

“Hi.” I said.

“Well, hi. I love your hair.” he replied, touching the uneven streaks of blue running through my ponytail.

“Oh, thanks.” I chuckled.

“Hate to break up the love fest,” Lilly piped, “but I thought we should give Maya the survival one-oh-one over lunch. Come to Giovanni’s with us?” She directed the question at me.

“Hmm, I have a really busy schedule - I’m not sure if I could fit it in.” I joked, pretending to look thoughtful. Lilly pushed me off her desk.

“Yeah, yeah, I know how busy you are.” she replied, gathering her belongings and shoving them into her bag. “A little Italian food won’t take up too much of your precious time.”

“Oh, fine,” I sighed dramatically, making her grin in victory. Rory laughed, shoving his hands in his pockets as he watched us.

“Lunch with two gorgeous girls - what more could I ask for?” he said, winking at us.

“A pair of balls?” Lilly and I replied simultaneously; we both looked at each other and burst into laughter, whilst Rory looked at us dubiously, nursing his wounded ego.

“I think I’ve created a monster.”

“Come, on, I’m starving.” Lilly whined, pulling on a hoody and pushing me to the door.

“Alright, hang on!” I insisted, pulling back. “Are you sure nothing bad’ll happen while we’re out?”

“Everything runs about a million times more smoothly when Lilly’s out of the office, trust me - everything will be fine.” Rory assured, earning a punch in the stomach from Lilly.

“OK, let me grab my bag.” I laughed, seeing Rory stumble back from her hit. I threw my phone and notebook into my bag and rejoined them as they headed towards the stairs.

“Hurry the fuck up!” Lilly cried, taking both our arms and pulling us along to move faster.

“She’s pissy because her girlfriend works at the restaurant and she doesn’t want to be late.” Rory explained. I mock-gasped as we stepping into the street and she led us along.

“You’re cheating on me?” I demanded. “I thought we were soulmates!”

“We are, honey,” she replied, leaning in to kiss my cheek, “I just needed a little bit on the side.” I chuckled as she waltzed off down the street again, and Rory pointed out she’d left her hot pink lipstick on my face. I pulled a face, sticking my tongue and and rubbed vigorously at my cheek, making him laugh.
“Hurry up!” Lilly yelled from halfway down the street, before pushing the door open to a suave looking restaurant. As we began to jog down the street, Rory asked,

“How have your first few days been?”

“Pretty boring,” I admitted as we entered the restaurant, “I thought it might be a little more challenging than just photocopying shit, you know?” Rory chuckled as we headed to the table Lilly had already claimed.

“Yeah, I get what you mean.” he agreed. “It’s got its perks, though, I got to say.”

“Such as?” I asked, seating myself besides Lilly.

“Well, it’s not as difficult as an editor’s job, but as an assistant, you still get a lot of invites to parties. Plus, you get to work in support of all the different fields because you’re helping Leah keep the whole thing together - I mean, she’s an evil witch, but she’s good at what she does.” Rory explained. “And you get loads of free swag from all the people that come through here, and make a fuckload of contacts.”

“Leah doesn’t normally let it get that far, though.” Lilly interrupted. “She’ll find some excuse to label her assistants as incompetent, and out they go.” I raised my eyebrows, and she shook her head at me. “I wouldn’t worry about it though - this is one of the little tests she does, leaving you alone in the office to see if you can survive or not. Evidently, you can.”

“Lillith, babe!” A slender woman wearing a black apron with distinctively ginger hair came over, brandishing a notepad and pen. “How are you?” Lilly leaned forward to kiss her with her bright pink lips.

“Lola, this is Maya. Maya, this is my girlfriend Lola.” Lilly said, giving me a quick grin. I waved at Lola and gave her a small smile and “Hello”, before Lilly launched into rant-mode. “Urgh, Jared Curtis has been staring at my ass all day.” she spat as Lola rolled her eyes. “That’s the perv I was telling you about.”

“He’ll perv on anything that breathes,” Rory piped, choosing a breadstick from the basket at the centre of the table. “Watch out for him.”

“If he gives you any trouble, tell me - I just need an excuse to kick the shite out of him.” Lilly grumbled.

“We know, babe, but order quick or my manager’s gonna fire my ass.” Lola encouraged, handing us menus.

“He can’t do shit to your ass, I own it.” Lilly replied with a filthy smirk. I stifled my laughter as Rory squirmed uncomfortably, watching the two girls make eyes at each other.

“Everything’s in Italian.” I stated, frowning at the laminate. “What are you having?” I said, turning to Rory.

“A fucking puke fest.” he mumbled as Lola leaned down to kiss Lilly again. I snickered as they pulled apart and Lilly grinned at Rory.

“You’re just jealous you can’t get any.” she remarked before turning to me. “I’m having this pasta in a vegetable sauce thing - do you want to try it?” I agreed easily (because I love pasta - it’s easily one of the most beautiful foods created) and Lola went away to get our food.

“You guys are so cute.” I said as Lilly checked her lipstick on the reflection of her phone’s screen.

“Those hunks of yours yesterday were cute - tell me about you and them.” she replied.

“What about me and them?” I said, suppressing a smirk.

“Which one’s keeping you on the straight path?” she replied, widening her eyes suggestively.

“None of the, just the thoughts of Jacoby Shaddix.” I chuckled.

“Ooh, I’d swing that way just once for him.” she sighed, all googly-eyed.

“So would I.” Rory added, taking another breadstick.

*

I tapped my yellow highlighter impatiently against my desk, watching the clock. Almost hometime and I was supposed to be proof-reading an article about the growing popularity of Jack White’s Third Man Records, but a pair of eyes had been set on me since I’d come back home from lunch with Rory and Lilly, driving me to distraction. Maybe I was just being paranoid - I mean, who’d want to stare at me?
But I was almost positive it was the gaze of the office’s reputed creepazoid Jared Curtis.

I shouldn’t judge a book by its’ cover, but his cold blue eyes made me feel extremely perved on. And it wasn’t just because I had caught him ogling Lilly’s arse earlier. Three times.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it turned five, and I quickly packed away the things littering my desk. Lilly had gone out around three for a shoot, and Rory was working with a few other journalists a piece the floor above mine.
Shrugging on a jacket, I picked up my bag and hone. Then he appeared by my side.

“Excuse me,” he said, “is this the Marmozets article you’re working on?” He leaned past me smoothly, brushing against my arms and pausing there to a second to seemingly look at a few loose papers on my desk. I jerked away and frowned at him as he looked at me with wide, innocent eyes.

“No.” I replied curtly, walking towards the door. “I should go.”

“Oh, right, time to get going. I should go too.” he replied; I didn’t see what he was doing because I had my back to him as I hurried down the stairs to sign out and get onto the street.
It wasn’t as sunny as yesterday, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me, feeling more at ease. He couldn’t randomly follow me down a street, could he?
I glanced over my shoulder and almost fell over my own feet in shock: he was following me!

He was perhaps twenty feet behind me, and for all I knew, he walked home this way everyday, but his eyes were dead set on me. I looked ahead sharply and slipped my phone out of my pocket, thinking I should call someone - but who would I call? I scrolled through my limited contacts, trying to appear bust. The temptation to glance over my shoulder was too much, and I did so again, realising he was closer now.

I spotted Inktense and darted over the road without thinking as he called, “Excuse me!”
I was almost at the door when he caught my arm, pulling me back firmly, his grip tight and eyes sparkling. “Don’t you think we should get a drink? Perhaps get to know each other, seeing as I expect we’ll be working quite closely -”

“Maya.” I felt a warm hand grasp my shoulder and turned to see Mike, making my heart rate quicken in relief. “You OK?” He could see quite clearly that I wasn’t, and the fact I could never hide my emotions didn’t help because I was fucking terrified, but he looked coldly at Jared.
“Excuse me,” he said quietly, pushing him away, “but I suggest you keep your hands to yourself.”

“Excuse me, but we were having a conversation.” Jared replied, voice spiking with temper as he took a step forward.
Mike looked at him long and hard, stepping between us like a shield.

“I don’t think so.” Mike said calmly and authoritatively, before pulling me into his side with an arm around my shoulders and guiding me away.
I didn’t look back this time.