Life Is Long for Those Who Have to Wait

"You okay, Mels?"

"Hmmm?" Melody asked, looking up from the computer screen.

"You've been starring at the same paragraph for ten minutes." Darren smiled, "So either there is a serious problem with the computers or you just aren't here all the way."

Melody sighed and removed her white rimmed glasses and rubbed her eyes. "I'm just tired, I didn't sleep well at the airport. You know how uncomfortable those cots are."

"So who was that William guy?" Darren asked, sitting on the edge of the desk.

Melody stared off into the distance for a moment, tapping the stylets for her work tablet on the desk. She placed her glasses back on her face and sighed. "No one really."

Darren smiled "Well, no one really, has called for you three times."

Melody frowned and took the sticky notes with messages written across them from Darren.

"Basically he is sorry about the phone number joke and wants to know if you are free for dinner." Darren grinned. "So if he is nobody, Mels, then why is he so worried about upsetting you and wants to take you to dinner?"

Melody let out another sighed, but couldn't help aiming at the notes. "I was having a heart attack on the plane when they said we had to make an emergency landing because of the storm. William held on to me whie I freaked out and helped me calm down until we could land."

"You mean he held your hand or what?" Darren asked eyebrow raised.

"No..." Melody answered, after a moment "more like I had my face buried in his chest sand my was clinging to his shirt for dear life."

"But you hate touching other people." Darren answered slowly.

"Apparently I'm scared of planes even more." Melody shrugged. "I guess we really hit it off because he hung out with me when were stuck at the airport in Denver overnight."

"What does hung out include?" Darren asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her. "From how desperate he is to get a hold of you, you must have had a lot of fun."

"Don't be such a pervert." Melody laughed, pushing his shoulder lightly. "We talked and I tried to convince him to escape the airport on a quest for Taco Bell."

"And?"

"And we slid around in our socks playing twenty questions." She smiled weakly.

"Oh dear," Darren rolled his eyes "Whatever are we going to do with a wild child like you. I don't think the company can handle the scandal."

"No one asked for you to write your comments in box below, Mr. Peanut Gallery."

Darren grinned "Are you going to call him back?"

Melody shrugged "I don't know, I'm still a little mad about the 'I don't want your number' joke."

"He apologized in all of his messages." Darren shrugged. "I say you give the poor guy a break."

Melody rolled her eyes. "Even of I wanted to, there is too much around here to get done. we are a day behind and network is still down in parts of New York. If I can't get it back up and working, they are probably going to ship me over there next."

"I thought you liked New York." Darren frowned.

"I did until Michael started following me demanding a date." Melody sighed, turning her eyes back to the computer.

"Michael isn't in the New York office anymore."

Melody frowned "Did he quit? Despite being a little creepy he was great with computers."

"No," Darren answered, slowly moving away from Melody's desk. "He switched offices."

"Oh." she answered, eyebrows knitting together. "Where did he transfer to? Lucky bastard probably got sent to the Hawaii office."

"No one can get transferred there." Darren laughed, "Not even you and you are head of the network systems."

"Then where and why are you being so around the bush about it?"

"Melody babe!"

Melody's eyes got wide as she looked at Darren, her gaze slowly turning to anger. She turned and saw Michael standing in the doorway. "Michael," she forced a smiled "What on earth are you doing in Chicago?"

"I got transferred over here." he smiled.

"This is the network office." Melody answered, "You don't work in the networking department, someone would have told me. I do the interview process."

"Oh," Michael chuckled "No, I'm still in marketing. I just heard you were back in town and thought I would ask if you wanted to go out to lunch."

Melody forced another smile "That is very sweet but I have a lot of work to get done. I probably will just be eating at my desk today."

"I could pick up something and bring it back. What is that fast food you are crazy about. McDonalds right?"

Melody frowned. "I don't eat burgers, but really. I am way too busy for lunch company today. I will probably just ignore you and stare at my computer."

"That's alright." Michael smiled "I don't mind, I'll be back around lunch time."

Melody let out a loud groan and banged her forehead against the table as soon as she was sure Michael was gone. "Why can't he take a hint?"

"Stop being so sexy and maybe he will." Darren snickered.

"I haven't showered in two days and I have bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. How on earth do i look sexy?" Melody growled.

"It's the heels and glasses." Darren smirked, "Reminds guys of the whole sexy librarian thing."

"Boys are stupid." Melody sighed.

"Indeed we are." Darren smiled, typing away at his laptop "but girls are crazy. I would rather be stupid than crazy."

"Speak for yourself." Melody rolled her eyes.

"I'll answer that." Darren announced as the phone in the other room went off. "I'll bring you some coffee on my way back."

"You don't have to get me coffee Darren," she called after him. "I've told you a million times."

"You need coffee!" he shouted back.

Melody sighed and looked down at her watch as her stomach growled. Michael had been right about one thing, Melody needed to eat. "What sounds good for lunch?" she called, as Darren came back into the room. "Well I guess it is more like dinner at this point."

"I ordered something." Darren smiled, setting a coffee mug that read 'Talk Nerdy to Me.' across it.

Melody smiled at the mug. Darren had bought it for her for her birthday just the year before. "What did you order?"

"It's a surprise." he smirked "now get back to work or you will be stuck here over the weekend."

"Oh God." Melody sighed.

"You don't want to be here extra time with me?" Darren asked, hand on his chest in fake hurt. "You've broken my heart."

"It's not you and you know it." Melody sighed. "Now I have another reason to not want to be in Chicago."

"Look at the bright side." Darren grinned. "Now you can go to New York without fear."

"Har har har."

"Knock knock?"

Melody looked up to see a tall thin frame standing in the doorway, a goofy grin capturing his lips as he saw he surprise. His brown eyes meeting hers as he held up Taco Bell as if it was a white flag.

"Darren!" Melody yelled, turning to look at her assistant who had magically disappeared.

"Aren't you hungry?" William smiled. "Darren said you haven't eaten since the plane. You'll make yourself sick if you don't eat, Music."

Melody sighed with a smile. "You are lucky you have Taco Bell or this would be going differently."

William grinned.

Melody couldn't help but smile back at him. "Pull up a chair, I need to take a break from this computer screen before my brain catches fire."

"What is wrong with it?" William asked, looking at the computer screen as he pulled up one of the computer chairs and sat in it at the edge of Melody's desk.

"The network will not connect with the New York offices." Melody sighed, eying the Taco Bell bags. "It has been down for two days and everyone is going nuts."

"Shouldn't you be in New York to fix it?" William asked, setting a large drink in front of her.

"No," Melody sighed "It's not New York it is here somewhere. It will probably end up being something very simple that we are just overlooking."

"Well take a break and eat." William answered, pushing on of the bags towards her "I could hear your stomach rumbling out in the hall."

Melody smiled. "Thank you for dinner."

"Anytime."

"I see that Darren withheld no secrets. You knew not to put ice in my drink and ordered all my favorites." Melody said, giving William a knowing look.

"He said you were stressed out." William shrugged. "I wanted to help you relax, besides I need to get back in your good graces after that bad joke with the phone number."

"Stop bringing it up and I will probably forget it is your best option." Melody answered, taking everything out of the bags and setting the food on the desk away from her keyboard. "Until then, this is a very, very, very good start."

"You are easy to please."

"Sometimes."

"You wear glasses?" William asked, seeming to just notice the white glasses on her face. He reached forward and took them off her face, settling them on his own.

"Yes, I normally have contacts in, but wearing them all day and night hurt my eyes. I needed a break. You are going to ruin your eyes wearing glasses you don't need." Melody reached to take them back from him.

"I actually wear glasses too." William smiled, taking them from his face. "Your sight is just a little worse than mine." William leaned forward and placed Melody's glasses back on her face.

When Melody's vision cleared she could tell just how close William had brought his face to hers.

"Melody I got dinner."

Melody felt herself tense at the sound of Micheal's voice and without thinking, closed the distance between her lips and William's. William seemed surprised at first but kissed her back. Melody pulled away from the sound of someone clearing their throat.

"Oh hi." she smiled, turning to face where Micheal was standing by the door, a McDonald's bag in his hand. "What are you doing here?"

"Who is this?" Micheal asked, ignoring her question.

"My boyfriend." Melody answered quickly. "William this is Micheal he works in marketing for the same company."

"Nice to meet you." William answered, seeming very uncomfortable. He reached out his hand but Micheal just glared at him.

"William just brought me dinner." Melody smiled, "Since I haven't had time to see him with everything being crazy here."

"How long have you guys been together?" Micheal asked, eyebrow raised.

Melody's gaze shot to William's as if begging him to play along.

"About six months." William answered, easily. "We met on a plane from LA to here. Melody was flying out for work and I was coming home from some business in LA. We had seats next to each other and she was having a fit about the plane." he smiled. "There is nothing cuter than when she scrunches up her face, when she is scared."

Melody felt her face get red with a blush. "I do not scrunch up my face."

"Yes you do." William laughed. "You wrinkle your nose too."

"You two are quite the couple." Micheal answered, with a forced smile.

"I'm on my way out for the night." Darren told Melody, appearing out of nowhere. "Common Micheal," he added "I'll walk you out."

Melody let out a huge sigh once Darren and Micheal had disappeared. "I'm sorry about that-" she stopped when she saw the look on his face. "What?"

"I don't appreciate being used to make your ex jealous." William growled.

"He is not my ex." Melody answered frowning. "He is a guy who use to follow me around, basically stalk me, the New York office. He transferred here so he can follow me around more often no matter how many times I tell him I'm not interested. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag you into it. I just panicked."

William let out a sigh. "We are even now, don't ever be angry at me for the phone number thing again. Deal?"

Melody smiled weakly. "Deal."