"I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, Elizabeth. I love you and I can't just be friends with you anymore." Mathew's green eyes were looking deeply into my dark brown eyes.
Knowing that my best friend is also in love with me is something I've secretly desired ever since I first laid my eyes on him. I may have only met him three months ago, but Mathew and I have been inseparable ever since.
"Mathew, I'm so glad to hear you say that", I said as I leaned into his arms."I couldn't stand only being your friend." Mathew drew my face closer to his. I felt his hot breath on my lips. He tugged on my lower lip gently. He was going to kiss me. He was finally going to kiss me.
"You'll have to redo this draft, you incompetent idiot!"Jerry, my boss, was shouting at one of my colleagues again. His screams snapped me out of my very inappropriate day dream.
"Jerry, I...I-". The poor man was struggling to string a sentence together and it looked like it was making Jerry even angrier.
Jerry raised one of his stumpy hands and prepared to smack the man in the face.
I ran to the two of them and stood between the two men before Jerry could land a blow.
"It was me, Jerry!", I shouted while standing between the two of them. "I wrote that draft so it's my fault, not his." I was staring at Jerry defiantly, but my confidence was already fading away. He knew I was lying and was just trying to protect a member of our team like I usually do.
Jerry's lips curled into a sly smile and before I knew it, he slapped me across the face.
SMACK!
I held my burning cheeck and looked down to hide the tears that had formed in my eyes. The force of the slap was strong enough to slap the tears right out of me.
This was just another Tuesday.
"Fix it, or you're not going home tonight!" He sneered at me before turning on his stumpy legs and walking back to his office.
As soon as Jerry was gone, everyone gathered around me to inspect my cheeck. "That's definitely gonna leave a mark", I heard one colleague say. "Can someone get us some ice?", I heard another colleague yell.
I took a deep breath before plastering the best fake smile I could muster.
"You guys are so dramatic." I tried to sound as convincing as possible. "I'm fine! Jerry hits like a toddler so I honestly didn't even feel it."
I was lying.
Despite being a news editor, Jerry has the roughest hands in the world. His palms are huge. His hands are calloused and are filled with cuts and scars like he does manual labour. A slap from him is the equivalent of sand paper scraping against sunburnt skin.
My colleagues were looking at me with concerned faces. They know how painful Jerry's slaps are. I've tried to prevent his tirades and protect them where I could, but I haven't always been successful.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Elizabeth. I really thought that draft was okay." The man I just took a slap for was now handing me an ice pack.
"Don't worry about it", I said walking back to my desk. "How about you send me that draft and I'll help you with it."
The man gave a hopeful smile and ran back to his computer.
I pulled out my chair and sat back at my desk. I still can't believe that this was what my life has turned into. A few months ago I was working as one of the up-and-coming young lawyers in New York and now I work for a crappy newspaper with the world's most abusive boss. My life feels like it has come to an end and I'm only 23 years old.
I slumped into my chair and tried to focus on amending the draft story that was just sent to me. At first glance, it didn't look like it was the best of stories. I would have to rewrite the whole thing.
A few minutes into writing, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw Mathew's name. My heart started beating quicker and I felt blood rushing to my face. I only met this man 3 months ago, but I couldn't stand the idea of not being close to him.
"Hey, Mathew." I tried not to sound like a girl who is hopelessly in love, but I think the tone of my voice gave me away.
"Hey, you". I heard him say on the other line. He sounded upset.
"Are you okay?" I tried to hide my concern, careful not to cross the line between friends and girl who is hopelessly devoted to you.
"Yea, of course I am." I could tell that he was hiding something.
"No, you're not. Come on, out with it!"
He hesitated for a moment before responding. "It's Meg...Look, I don't want to talk about her right now."
Judging by the tone of his voice, he was still angry about whatever had happened with his fiancé. I decided to leave it for now and interrogate him next time I see him.
"Well, just know I'm here for you when you're ready to talk."
His mood seems to have gotten slightly better after hearing this. "Thanks. I know I can always count on you. I honestly don't know how I'll ever be able to show you just how much you mean to me."
I just gulped. Hearing Mathew say things like this always makes me think perhaps he feels the same way. It stirs emotions I shouldn't be feeling; inappropriate feelings that only a homewrecker would have, and that's just not who I am.
After a brief momentary silence, Mathew finally said his reason for the call.
"I just wanted to remind you about tonight. I wish I didn't have to ask this of you, but…"
"Mathew", I interrupted him hastily. "You can ask me anything. I haven't forgotten about tonight. I'll be there before the full moon appears. I'll be there by 6pm. I promise."
I heard him release a sigh of relief on the phone. "Thank you, Elizabeth. You're the best friend a guy could ask for, you know that?"
"Well that's what best friends are for", I said with an awkward chuckle.
"I should let you get back to work. I'll see you tonight then", he said.
"Okay, I'll see you tonight."
I met Mathew 3 months ago. When we met, I was working at one of the top law firms in the country. Mathew was working as an engineer at a leading engineering firm in New York. The moment we locked eyes, we became best friends. We couldn't explain it, we just understood each other and wanted to spend almost all of our time together. The moment we met, I realised I was inlove with him, but he has a fiancé so I have been trying to remove any romantic feelings I have for him.
His fiancé, Megan, hates me. She and I are practically opposites. She's a glamorous IT girl who's always in magazines, and I'm the kind of girl who always has her nose buried in research. Mathew wants Megan and I to get along, and I've tried to get along with her but she just hates me.
Of course, I tried ending my friendship with Mathew after I realised my feelings wouldn't go away, but he practically stalked me until I agreed to be friends again. After that, I stopped trying to stay away from him.
I heard the office elevator door ding open while I was rewriting the story. Megan stepped out of the door. She was wearing a short black leather skirt with a pink crop top and pink heels. Her long blonde hair was hanging around her shoulders and her green eyes were staring daggers into me.
She walked up to me and slammed her pink handbag on my desk.
"I don't want him anymore!" She was snarling at me.
I rolled my eyes as the realisation hit me. Megan must have dumped Mathew again. This was her third time dumping him in just three months, and it was always over a minor inconvenience. This was another reason why I tried ending my friendship with Mathew. I always found myself helping them make amends. It can be exhausting.
"What is it now, Megan?" I was rubbing my temples out of sheer annoyance.
"Don't act stupid! I'm obviously talking about Mathew!" She was screaming at me, not caring that all my colleagues were staring at us. "He's angry just because I slept with my ex-boyfriend ONCE when he and I started dating."
My mouth just hung open. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Trying to get them back together after a whole cheating scandal would be nearly impossible. Nevertheless, I would do it. I would always do it.
"Mathew should be grateful that I haven't left him. Ever since he met you, he lost his job and his life has just turned into crap! The fact that I slept with an ex years ago shouldn't matter! A girl like me deserves better than him!"
Outbursts like this were actually very common for Megan. Everytime she has a problem with Mathew, she takes it out on me. It's like she's venting, but I can also tell she secretly wants me to try and fix it.
Last time she burst into my office, she was complaining that Mathew didn't like her partying so much. I spoke to him and reminded him that when he met Megan she was partying so it was a bit unfair of him to ask her to change. They patched things right up after that.
"Megan, don't you think you should be more supportive towards Mathew precisely because so many things in his life seem to going wrong right now? Look, instead of roping me into your fight, maybe calm down and try talking to him again." I wasn't even looking at her at this point. I had work to do and would have to play cupid another time.
She picked up my coffee cup and poured coffee all over my desk. People were gasping and staring at us.
"Mam, you need to leave", a colleague of mine said to Megan. When I looked up, I saw Audrey standing inches away from Megan, ready to put her in her place. The rest of the office was standing around my desk and glaring at her.
Megan looked scared, but she still mustered enough courage to turn back and look at me one more time.
"When Mathew comes crying to you, I want you tell him that he shouldn't care about a mistake I made a long time ago. He's lucky I'm still with him!" She turned on her heels and walked out of the office.
I was mortified, but also grateful that I had my team's support.
"Thanks, guys! I'm sorry about that." I was trying to find some napkins to clean up the mess Megan had made on my desk.
Audrey winked at me as she walked back to her desk. "We'll always have your back, Elizabeth."
I ran to the bathroom to clean the coffee stains on my white blouse.
When I came out of the bathroom, I went back to my desk. Everyone was working like nothing had happened. I knew they were trying to shield me from utter embarrassment, and it made me appreciate them even more as my colleagues.
Megan wasn't wrong about Mathew's life falling apart.
A few days after he and I met, we both lost our jobs and essentially got blacklisted in our industries. My family also just started picking fights with me out of the blue. It started with small things, but grew into massive disagreements that ended with me getting cut off by every single relative. Not a single member of my family has tried to help me, despite coming from a long legacy of renowned lawyers. Working for Jerry is the only thing keeping me afloat.
Mathew was forced to try and revive his parents' restaurant that was on the brink of bankruptcy. His reputation has been squandered in the engineering field. Needless to say, we have both had a tough time since we met.
"Okay Jerry. I think you'll be happy with this draft", I said as I put the new story on Jerry's desk.
"I better be!" He was glaring at me. "If not, I'll get that hot blonde to teach you a lesson", he said while laughing at me.
I rolled my eyes and ignored his insult. "Do you think you'll be done looking at it by 5pm? I have to get home soon."
"Sweetheart, if you told me your mom was dying and you needed to leave by 5pm I'd tell you no. You'll stay here until morning if I want you to. It's called work, you lazy piece of shit!"
Jerry was, as always, being completely unreasonable. Despite 5pm being our closing time, I stay late almost every night because I want every edition to be the best one we put out there. He knows that I only leave the office at 5pm once a month, and yet he was still acting like this.
I was still trying to recover from my embarrassing encounter with Megan, so dealing with Jerry's tirade was sending me over the edge.
I was boiling with anger; quite literally boiling. It felt like my body was about to catch on fire. I could feel beads of sweat increasing on my face and could have sworn I was even starting to smell smoke.
I started taking deep breaths to calm myself down.
"Why the hell are you sweating so much?" Jerry was looking at me with a confused face.
I couldn't answer him. I had to try to calm down. I started thinking about Mathew. I thought about his deep baritone voice, his dark green eyes and his dark wavy hair. Then I started thinking about how tall he is. The man towers over most people. And his broad shoulders, his six pack and muscles that encased every part of his body... no person on earth could ever be as attractive as Mathew.
I could feel my body cooling down. I was getting calmer. I felt guilty for thinking about Mathew this way; and yet, everytime I had one of these episodes, only thoughts of him could help me calm down.
"It was just getting hot in here", I finally said to Jerry.
He narrowed his eyes at me. "I don't like you, Elizabeth. There's something about you that just makes me want to make you suffer." He stood up from desk, and his stumpy legs slowly made their way to me.
I took a step back, but he kept walking until my back hit the wall.