Short story: Time for a Coffee

Gemma’s feelings for her boss had been simmering for too long – it was time to take action

He was an eligible bachelor, ripe for the picking

Richard Abbott pulled my ponytail at school and made me cry. When we were at secondary school, he kissed me, and I blushed.

Many years later, when he became my boss, I realised he had forgotten our schooldays. I mean, he obviously knew we had been to school together, but his expression had been vague when I mentioned in my interview how awful Mr Jenkins had been as a geography teacher.

I got the job as his personal assistant and hoped it might lead to something more. I know it isn’t professional to mix business with pleasure, but Richard Abbott was every girl’s dream. Tall, with cool blue eyes and a mysterious air about him, he walked around the building as if he owned it (well, he did own it), and he wasn’t married. He was an eligible bachelor, ripe for the picking.

The only problem was, he never saw me in that light. Despite that, after two years of working for him, it became my goal to grab his attention in a romantic way. Surely at some point, when I gave him his early morning black coffee, he would suddenly realise that his PA had qualities beyond typing and administration? Our eyes would meet, and the earth would move and… ‘Dreaming again?’

Joe slipped a couple of folders onto my desk and fixed me with an intense stare. I flushed and looked away. If only Richard would gaze at me like that. But so far, all I’d had were a few cursory glances and polite thank yous for my work. I was his personal assistant, but it seemed to be in name only. He liked to do most important tasks himself.

‘He’s a control freak,’ Joe, who worked in the financial department, was fond of saying. He had a degree in psychology and was forever psychoanalysing people. Myself included.

‘How long have you been working here now?’

Joe’s soft voice shook me from my reverie. ‘Um, two years.’

‘And what exactly have you been doing in that time?’ I looked at Joe perplexed. ‘You know what I’ve been doing. Working and…’

‘Waiting,’ Joe finished for me. ‘Waiting for Rich to notice you.’

‘Don’t call him that!’ my voice lowered to a whisper. ‘You know he doesn’t like it.’ Joe laughed and leaned nonchalantly against my desk, crossing his arms.

‘Seriously, Gem, you need to loosen up. He can’t hear us, and even if he could, why would it really matter? He’s not a god. Come out for a drink tonight.’

‘He’s our employer,’ I retorted, trying to peer at my computer screen with a concentrated expression. ‘We have to show him some respect. Who is going for a drink tonight?’

Joe cleared his throat nervously and I looked up at him.

‘Are you asking me out on a date? Again?’

It was Joe’s turn to look embarrassed.

‘Why do you keep asking me?’ I sighed, shuffling papers around on my desk for something to do. ‘You know what I am going to say. And my heart…’

‘Is taken,’ Joe finished for me. ‘When are you going to realise the most important fact of this case?’

I looked up at Joe and just for a moment our gaze held. I felt my heart bump uncomfortably in my chest.

‘That Richard Abbott is unobtainable? That it’s wrong to harbour such feelings for my boss?’ I attempted.

Joe leaned closer, and I caught a waft of his aftershave.

‘That he’s just simply not for you…’

And he waltzed off, humming an unrecognisable tune, glancing back at me with a smile.

I couldn’t help but smile back. I liked Joe – but not in that way. We’d been friends ever since I’d joined the firm. He’d helped me settle in.

I could still recall my first day at Walters & Son. My new employer had asked me to bring in the Sullivan file, with my laptop for notetaking, and a cup of coffee.

I was so nervous that, by the time I’d got myself together, the coffee was cold, and I even managed to spill

it all over Richard Abbott’s shiny desk. He had peered at me with disapproval.

I couldn’t concentrate then to take notes, and when I’d typed them up and emailed them to him, he came to my desk and shouted at me.

‘What do you call these?’ he yelled. His eyebrows furrowed so much he almost didn’t look handsome any more.

‘Err…’ was all I could manage.

‘I needed these an hour ago and they are a mess. Do them again immediately. For your first day, Gemma, you are not doing well!’

As soon as he’d swept back into his office and slammed the door, I burst into tears.

Joe appeared with a box of tissues and lots of sympathy, explaining to me how our employer liked his notes laid out, and he basically held my hand, metaphorically speaking, as I rewrote them.

It was thanks to Joe that I hadn’t lost my job on my very first day. I was forever grateful to him.

Two years went by and I greatly improved, to such an extent that Richard Abbott hadn’t complained about my work for a very long time.

But he still hadn’t noticed me. ‘Have you tried ignoring him?’ asked my best friend Lucy, trying to be helpful. ‘They say that works.’

‘Who says that works?’ I asked grumpily, munching my way through a second doughnut at lunchtime.

‘I dunno, some famous psychologist, I think,’ she replied.

Lucy and I always met for lunch in the cafe opposite.

She worked for a building company in the next street. She was happily married with two children. I was sure she had forgotten what it was like to be single.

I watched my friend poke her spoon into her yogurt and turn it around and around. She was trying to lose a few pounds she’d gained after having her youngest. I felt guilty for stuffing my face in front of her.

She suddenly looked up at me and giggled.

‘What?’

I was trying in desperation not to take my mood out on her, but I could feel myself becoming more and more frustrated. No one seemed to understand what it was like for me. I wouldn’t wish unrequited love on my worst enemy.

‘Here’s an idea; why don’t you accidentallyon-purpose spill coffee, like you did on your first day at work, but this time actually on him. Then make a really big thing of trying to clean it off. He is bound to notice you then…’

Her voice trailed off as she looked at me. ‘OK, not a good idea, then…’

‘He’d probably sack me,’ I said sombrely. ‘He has a thing for looking really smart in his suits.’

There was a pause and I could tell my friend wanted to say something. And I somehow knew I wasn’t going to like it.

‘Gem, it has been a long time to hanker after someone who has shown no interest. There are so many other really nice men out there, you know.’

I slurped my coffee defiantly as she continued.

‘I think, because you have been so focused on your employer, you’ve lost sight of the fact that he might not be right for you.’

‘Now you sound like Joe,’ I sighed.

‘Well,’ Lucy put down her yogurt. ‘They say love is blind but really, I think it’s you that’s blind.’

‘Thanks,’ I chuckled. ‘I almost like your direct approach. I think…’

‘And I think,’ said Lucy, pinching the last doughnut from my plate. ‘That love is just waiting round the corner for you. When you decide to open your eyes, that is.’

Returning to work, I reflected on what she’d said. Maybe she was right. Perhaps it had been the case that I had become blinkered in my bid to win Richard Abbott’s attention. But he had all the qualities I wanted in a man – smart, thoughtful and caring.

Perhaps if I gave myself a deadline to getting his attention, or maybe even ask him out myself?

A crash made me jump as I entered the office.

It was coming from my boss’ room.

I glanced around to see

Joe coming towards me.

‘What’s happening?’ I whispered.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I think the new temp is in there with him…’

The next moment, a young woman emerged from

Richard Abbott’s room in floods of tears, and then the man I had been adoring for two years also appeared.

His face was red, his hair unkempt and there were several brown stains all over his once crisp, white shirt. ‘Oh…’ I said.

‘You’re sacked!’ Richard Abbott hollered to the temp. ‘Get out!’

As the girl rushed towards us, I gently propelled her away from everyone now watching the scene and into the bathroom.

‘He’s horrible,’ she said, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief I offered her. ‘All I did was give him his coffee and it slipped on that shiny desk of his and ended up all over him.’

Later, as I worked away, I glanced into Richard Abbott’s office. He was deep in conversation on the telephone. He’d changed his shirt and he looked different somehow.

Was it his change of clothing or something else that suddenly made him seem less attractive?

I looked down again at my work and then up to see Joe approaching, his ready smile creasing his handsome features. Handsome?

And inside I chuckled. Of course, I’d opened my eyes…

‘I was just wondering,’ began Joe.

‘Yes,’ I interrupted him. ‘Yes?’

‘I will go for a drink with you tonight.’

As Joe looked at me with hardly suppressed delight, I couldn’t resist saying, ‘But for now, how about a nice cup of coffee?’

THE END

Rebecca Mansell, 2021

I wouldn’t wish unrequited love on my worst enemy