Early Morning

Gen saw men watch her as she walked down the street and rolled her eyes inwardly, not wanting to be seen. She had to get to work early that morning, and who knew how late she would be there that night? But when she got there, she was not expecting to see Kent. The sound of her heels slowed as she walked into her office and saw him working on her computer.

“Hey,” he said, and she smiled as she threw her things down on her couch.

“Isn’t it kind of early for you?” she said as she put down her cup of coffee and wrapped savory pastry.

She looked at him, and he nodded.

“I just did not want to have to bother you later in the day because you seem so busy lately.”

His words hurt her because it was true. She had deleted her dating apps because she had not wanted to see anyone since Kevin ghosted her so she was working all of the time. In the office, her door was always closed, and she was monosyllabic for messages that were not work-related.

“Yeah, I have been really busy as you can see, I am already here, and the sun is not even up yet!” she smiled nervously.

The tension between them was different than it had been months ago. This was not the easy camaraderie they had had as co-workers topped with the undercurrent of something more between them. This tension was her having isolated him and him not knowing how to be around her anymore.

“Yeah, you have made it clear that you have a lot of work to do and you want to be left alone,” he said, walking past her and she touched his arm. He tensed like she was hot oil touching his skin but stopped in his tracks.

“I am sorry,” she said. “I just have been through a lot and I needed time to just be.” “I thought we were friends,” he said not turning to face her. “I thought I was your friend.” “You are, I’m sorry. But there was that…I just did not want you to listen to me talking about what happened with me and someone else after…”

Kent touched her shoulders and looked at her.

“Gen, I am your friend, I want to be your friend, and that is it. Let’s have dinner tonight — I will bring takeout here because I have been working a ton too, and you can tell me everything that is going on. I’ve been worried about you.”

“Thank you, sure. I’ll be here, let’s have dinner.”

Read all of my stories and many more. Become a Medium member and support the writers you love — I’m a member!

This is the twenty-third story in a series. You can read the first one here and the last one here.