Chapter 7 #3
‘Good morning, Cassandra!’ Jeff practically shouted across the staffroom, drawing the attention of nearly everyone – much to my embarrassment, especially since I was a good ten feet or so away from him.
I shifted onto my other foot clumsily as I gave a slight head nod and waved.
There was something about the impeccably dressed Jeff Paulson that gave off ‘Golden Retriever’ vibes – a term I’d recently become acquainted with via TikTok – which described a man who had energetic, wholesome and affectionate energy.
He seemed a little dorky, but it suited him.
Jeff scooted through a row of plastic chairs, mug of coffee in hand as he made his way to me.
I could already smell his Hugo Boss cologne as he edged nearer.
On closer inspection, I noticed how incredibly tight-fitting his suit was against his torso and thighs, not that I was intentionally looking or anything.
He must have noticed me staring, as he looked down at his torso, then back at me, confused.
‘Oh, hey Je-I mean – Mr Paulson, how are you doing today?’ I replied sheepishly, turning my attention again to my coffee, which had suddenly taken an age to brew.
‘I’m doing well, thanks! Just wanted to let you know that I’ve received my email address from HR and they’ve sent me the other handbooks from the department, so I think I’m all moved in now. Did you receive my calendar request?’
A weird thing to ask, seeing as I sent him a thank-you email in response to it this morning.
‘I did. I’ve added your calendar to my schedule. Now, whenever you want to pop anything in by way of meetings or anything like that, you can just ping me an email and I’ll organise it on my side.’ I grabbed my coffee and looked up at him, only to see him already staring at me.
‘Amazing, thank you, Cassandra. I trust I’ll be seeing you this evening? You and the rest of the team I mean, of course …?’ he quickly added in, looking flustered. It could have been the lighting of the staffroom, but he almost looked as if he was blushing.
Even though Jeff sorta, kinda, was attractive in his own way – his piercing, brown eyes, full, thick lips, and his neat, trimmed moustache – I told myself that I wasn’t even going to entertain the thought of developing a crush on him.
I had enough on my plate as it was with my little Jericho-shaped side project.
Besides, there was something that seemed …
off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, it was more of a gut feeling.
‘Yes, I’m looking forward to it, it should be a great night!’ I lied, already wanting to go home.
‘Yes, me too! Thank you for organising it. I guess I’ll catch you later?
’ he replied as he took a sip of his drink, which appeared to scald his tongue as he cried out in agony, causing heads to turn towards us in the staffroom again.
Ick. ‘Shit! Oh – I’m so sorry, Cassandra – just burnt my tongue there haha!
I’ll, erm, I’ll catch you later!’ And with that, Jeff and his scalding coffee took off in a power walk towards his office.
I picked up my cup of coffee and sauntered off towards the office, confused, yet annoyingly intrigued.
I arrived back at the office to find Kofi in the corner with his back turned against me, shoulders moving jauntily up and down as he tried to stifle a giggle while looking at his phone.
I took my seat, watching him silently, smiling.
‘Ah, I’ll talk to you later, yeah? Cassie’s back in the office. Speak tonight,’ Kofi announced, pocketing his phone and turning around to face me. He had the goofiest grin on his face, with his rectangular glasses perched halfway down his nose. Had I interrupted a moment?
‘Hey, Cassie,’ he continued, after clocking my knowing smile. ‘What, so you couldn’t even bring me a coffee too, yeah? I see how it is!’ He laughed as he took his seat, sliding on his headset.
‘OK, so I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume you were voice-noting Sade?
We’re on the voice notes already? I must say, if that’s the case, I’m absolutely loving this progress!
’ I laughed, beaming. My plan was coming together smoothly.
With Kofi now focused on someone else, I could finally shake that anxiety-ridden monkey off my back.
‘Ha! Yeah, we’ve been voice-noting back and forth all day, to be honest,’ said Kofi, grinning his ears off.
I’d never seen him this animated over a woman before.
Could this potentially be a match made in heaven?
But also, he’d been able to get over me that quickly?
Hmm. Slightly wounded ego aside, I was happy for him.
‘She’s a great girl; you didn’t tell me how funny she was!’ he continued.
‘I did. Yesterday!’ I replied, kissing my teeth in the process. ‘You were too busy staring at her nyash to listen to anything I had to say though, innit?’ I lightly patted my bum, by way of explanation.
‘First of all, I wasn’t staring at her nyash!’ Kofi replied quickly, almost tripping over his words in the process. ‘I was admiring her … voluptuous beauty!’
‘Voluptuous beauty, my ass. Or should I say, my nyash?’ I scoffed. ‘C’mon – let’s try and finish out the rest of the day so we can get this damn work drinks thing over and done with.’