Valentine's Day Storm

"Good Morning, Sandy. How was your Valentine's Day?"

Sandy seemed taken aback by the question, and he stuttered when he tried to answer, "Um...It...Ah...It was...It was fine, Ms. Spencer. My wife enjoyed the trip."

"That's good. I'm glad to hear it."

Sandy poured himself a cup of coffee so fast he nearly sloshed the burning liquid all over his hand in the process. He tried to make his getaway quickly, but Laura's voice stopped him before he reached the door.

"Oh, Sandy!"

"Yes, Ma'am?" he said turning around looking like a rabbit in the headlights of an oncoming car.

"I was thinking you should put up some pictures of your wife in your cubicle. It's a good idea to remind ourselves of why we do this job. For the ones we love, right?"

Sandy stood with his mouth hanging open for a second before he broke into a smile, "I'll do that. Thanks, Ms. Spencer."

"You can call me, Laura, Sandy. We're all on the same team here."

"O.K...Um...Laura. Have a nice day!"

Laura returned to her office and promptly wrote an e-mail rescinding her earlier edict on personal items in the offices as well as re-instituting birthday and holiday celebrations.

"Time we did something about the morale problem around here," she typed.

A short while later, an intern brought her interoffice mail around, and she sorted through it. The clock showed it was almost ten in the morning, and she noticed that David was still not in his cubicle. She was starting to wonder if everything was o.k. when she came to an official-looking sheet of paper half-way through the stack. The paper was a transfer request from David Martin asking to be moved to another department.

Her whole body went stiff. The words on the paper in her hand made her heart sink into the soles of her feet, and she barely fought back the tears that threatened to pour from her eyes. It had been a one night stand after all, and now David was so ashamed or freaked out he was trying to put as much distance between the two of them as he could. She couldn't really blame him. He was loved and respected around here why would he want to be associated with the Dragon Lady?

Laura sat back down at her desk determined not to let this set back ruin what had started as a beautiful day. It was still some time before she could bring her eyes to focus on her monitor again and every time they strayed toward the transfer request on her desk she felt a strong urge to cry.

The end of the day couldn't have come soon enough, and Laura was pulling her papers together shoving them into her briefcase before she headed out. A knock on the frame of her open door made her look up right into the smiling face of David Martin.

"Hey! I'm glad I caught you it looks like you're packing it in for the day."

"Yes...I was finishing up," she said coolly.

"I'm assuming you got my transfer request?"

"I got it alright," she snapped anger creeping into her tone.

"O.K. Did you process it yet?"

"Wow! You can't wait to get away from me, can you? I understand...It must have seemed like a huge mistake when you thought about it. A night with the 'Wicked Bitch,' right? I can see why you're trying to put some distance between the two of us. Well, it's fine, David...I'm not up...upset...I'm not..."

The tears came whether she wanted them to or not just like at the cabin streaking her face.

"This is just great! Everyone in the office is going to know..."

"I don't care if they do, Laura," said David still smiling.

She sniffled hard trying to pull herself together, "What? I don't understand..."

"It's simple. I knew you wouldn't want to go out with me as long as you were my boss, so I asked for a transfer."

"Go out with me..." she echoed sounding like a lost child.

"Of course. Why did you think I sent that request? You thought I was trying to get away from you?"

Laura couldn't speak but just stood there holding the request in one hand while trying to wipe her tears away with the other.

"Oh! God! I must look like shit," she said trying not to smudge her makeup.

David plucked a tissue from the box on her desk stepping closer to hand it to her.

"I don't think so. I think you look beautiful. How about we go get some dinner?"

"Like a real date," she said laughing at last.

"Like a real date," David confirmed taking her briefcase from her while slipping his other hand into hers.

They walked out together while the rest of the group starred at them in surprise.

"Everyone is looking at us," said Laura nervously.

"Let them look..." said David and he kissed her as the elevator doors closed.