Stairwell Encounter

*You guys, I'm so sorry for not posting on Friday. My boyfriend has decided to take the remainder of the summer off (yay!!) and I was on holidays from my job, so we decided to go on an impromptu trip to spend some quality time together (he has been working away for the majority of the last year). That being said, inconsistency is one of my worst pet peeves and I am now back to being consistent. Thanks for reading!! Xo, S.*

Monday afternoon, after an uneventful day at work, Katie and I went shopping for Friday night's charity event. Clothes are really the only thing in my life that I always feel indecisive about, but thanks to Pinterest ideas and Katie's help we found something relatively quick. That something was a long, flow-y, royal blue dress that I would be wearing with nude heels and went perfectly with my blonde hair. Loved it! After our express shopping trip I took Katie out for sushi as a thanks for coming with me on such short notice. She offered to come over Friday to do my hair for the event and I gladly took her up on her offer (messy buns are apparently "not fancy enough" for these things).

On Wednesday, Kathy and I went for coffee. I asked her what she was wearing for Friday night's event and she gave me a quizzical look.

"I'm not going. Are you?"

"Um…yeah. Spencer said I was invited, so I assumed everyone else was too?" I said questioningly. This was weird.

Kathy shook her head. "No one in the HR department, other than Spencer, usually gets invited. That will be fun though. What are you wearing?"

I filled her in on my dress choice, but was kind of distracted trying to figure out how I had wrangled an invite. I was also a little bit worried about how the other employees in HR felt about me being invited and hoped that Spencer had kept it on the down low. Nathanial was the only I one I could think of who would have had Spencer extend the invitation to me, but I hadn't seen him since our awkward elevator run in last week. Just the thought of that made me cringe, so at lunch time I avoided the elevator and took the stairs. Let me tell you, taking the stairs in heels is literally the worst possible thing you can do to yourself.

Green tea in one hand and, by the third floor, my shoes in the other, I was making my way up the stairs when the door coming from some floor to the stairwell flew open. It was my lucky day. Nathanial stood in the doorway, looking so, so good,  with the most exasperated expression on his face.

"What are you doing?"

It took every ounce of patience I had not to roll my eyes at him. "What does it look like I'm doing? Taking the stairs."

He sighed and took a couple of steps towards me, the door slamming shut behind him. "Why?"

"I was actually trying to avoid you but that seems pointless now." I said honestly.

"Skye, I want to apologize for my behaviour the other night, it was completely inappropriate."

Ugh, yes thanks, you made that pretty clear that night. "Yup." Was all I said.

He raised his eyebrows (damn it that made him look even more hot). "These are not the kind of situations I usually get myself into."

"Nathanial, stop. I'm over this. I regret it as much as you do, and I don't even have a significant other that could get hurt in this." He stared right into my soul but I continued on. "I don’t want to talk about this anymore. This is my place of work, just as it is yours. I don't need any more run-ins with you and your girlfriend because they are just way too awkward for me." That being said I felt like I was done with this conversation. "I have work to do, and I'm sure Mr. Steel needs you."

"I'm sure he does." Nathanial murmured. "But I'm not done with this."

We stared at each other silently for either a few seconds or a few hours. I don't know. Involuntarily I moved closer to him, as Nathanial took the final step towards me. He pulled me closer with his hand on my lower back, his other on the back of my neck. I offered absolutely no resistance as his mouth crushed down on mine. My hands were full with my tea and shoes, but I wanted nothing more than to slide them inside his open suit jacket and explore his muscular back through the fabric of his dress shirt. The building could have been on fire, and I wouldn’t have stopped kissing this man. I was obsessed.

A door slammed shut somewhere in the stairwell, and Nathanial pulled away breathing hard. I finally came to my senses.

"Shit!" Why did I do that? Especially after my little speech about regretting our last encounter. And then I did it again!! Ugh!!! "Shit." I said again more to myself than him.

I couldn't even look at him. I was sure he had a girlfriend, and I had just kissed him again, knowing he had a girlfriend. I did the only thing that felt right to me, and hurried barefoot up the stairs away from Nathanial. I heard him call my name, but I kept going until I reached my floor. He didn’t follow me and when I got to my office I sat down and caught my breath for the first time.

Kathy popped her head in. "Everything okay? You practically ran past me." She inspected me a little closer. "What happened to your hair?"

"Oh!" My hand flew to fix the back of my hair. "I just decided to take the stairs today."

"Well aren't you adventurous, dear." She said, and bustled away.

Little did she know….