A Beautiful Struggle (3 page)

The line moved along at a steady pace, and
we all took our drinks to one of the tables inside the break room. At our table
was Anne, Carl, Albina, Joanne – who prefers to be called ‘Jo’; Kayley and
myself. It kind of felt like a scene from a high school movie were a group
swoops in and claims the new girl - they all seemed nice though, and were
filling me in on some of the office happenings. I found out that the IT guy was
having an affair with one of the admin girls, they thought no one knew but
weren’t very good at pretending nothing was happening, no one cared enough to
report them though, so they were left to it.

As is usual with a new person, they were
very interested in my life, and wanted to know if I had a boyfriend and what I
did with my spare time. I told them I had recently broken up with a guy I lived
with for 3 months, and that I trained for triathlons around work and my law
degree at university.

“So you want to be one of them,” Carl
commented.

“I suppose, but I’ll make sure I’m still
kind to the little plebs,” I replied with a smile.

When morning tea was over, Kayley and I
walked back to our area of the office. “Do you want to have lunch with us? We
don’t do anything special, just gasbag in the break room while we eat and maybe
go for a walk, and do a bit of shopping in Pitt St. It would be great if you
could come,” she offered.

“I really would love to,” I answered
genuinely, “but I am actually going out to lunch with a friend today.”

“Ok, never mind, maybe another time then,”
she said as she sat down at her desk, and I continued on to the library.

I managed to work steadily until lunch and
was excited to grab my bag and get out of the office for a while to have lunch
with my best friend David, we have known each other our whole schooling lives
and are both studying together at Uni. He was the one that had the idea of
getting entry jobs in law firms while we were at university to get our foot in
the door. He works a couple of blocks away from me as a filing clerk, so we
figured meeting for lunch would be a great way to celebrate us both working
now. 

Just as I was about to leave the library I
was held up by one of the solicitors asking me where a particular book was, it
wasn’t in the library, so I had to chase it down. In truth, it only took about
ten minutes, but I was feeling really bummed that I was then running late to
meet David.

I rushed towards the lifts and could see
the doors starting to close of a cab that was on its way down, so I ran for it
– jumping through the shrinking gap before it got too small for me to fit
through.

“Whoa Indiana Jones! I think you left your
hat out there!” said the only other person inside the elevator. I sucked in my
breath when I noticed it was Elliot. He was leaning against the side of the car
smiling his sexy and very amused grin at me. He seemed really friendly – a
stark contrast of the stoic man I'd met earlier that day. I actually looked
over my shoulder to check he was talking to me. Seeing no-one else, I responded
with raised eyebrows.

His brilliant blue eyes were dancing as he
clarified, “You know - Indiana Jones? He just makes it under a door and then
reaches back for his hat?” I shook my head, and he laughed putting his hands on
either side of his head like his head might explode. I gulped as I noted the
curve of his bicep through his shirt, “Oh my god! I can’t believe you haven’t
seen that!”

I shrugged my shoulders and offered,
“Sorry?”

He was still laughing as shook his head,
“No worries; it's just a classic film – you should watch it some time.”

“I’ll be sure to put that on my to-do
list,” I told him.

“You should,” he put his hands in his
pockets and focused on the numbers as they counted towards the ground floor.

Standing close to Elliot, I noticed his
height – I guessed he was around 6’3” as he was just a notch above me in my low
heels. Gorgeous and tall, I was practically a puddle at his feet. I could feel
my body humming with attraction. It felt like there was some sort of force that
was trying to pull me towards him. I wondered if he was feeling it too as
images of him hot, sweaty and naked flashed through my mind.
Don’t think
like that!
I chastised myself, not wanting to fall prey to my hormones and
make a fool of myself.

Despite the 'no dating' rule stating that I
shouldn’t act on my attraction, I didn’t have time for men in my life. I had
recently gotten out of a relationship and had no inclination to start another
one – I needed to focus on my sport, my studies and my work; which I thought was
more than enough for one girl.

“How’s your first day going?” his rumbling
baritone invaded my thoughts and snapped me to attention.

“Huh? Oh, Not too bad!” I answered quickly,
“just trying to figure my way around.”

“It’s not so hard. The office is really
just a big circle, if you keep going eventually you’ll work out where you are,”
he said as the elevator doors chimed open. “I’ll see you around Katrina. That
was a pretty cool elevator entrance, it made my day,” he beamed at me, and I
blushed uncontrollably.

He lifted his hand in a wave as he left. I
lingered back in the elevator bay and shamelessly watched him walk away until
David placed his head next to mine.

“Who are we looking at?” he whispered.

I blinked away my erotic thoughts of Elliot
and turned to David. “Nobody,” I answered coyly.

“Nobody huh? I wish you looked at me like I
was nobody then. I wouldn’t mind doing whatever was in your mind making your
cheeks all pink like that,” he teased.

I swatted him on the arm. “Get your mind
out of the gutter and come and get lunch with me. We've lost 15mins already.”

“As you wish my dear Trina,” he said
wiggling his eyebrows up and down comically, he took my arm and linked it with
his as we set off across the street to the nearest food court and have a quick
chat and an even quicker meal.

David’s usually pretty popular with the
ladies, and I noticed a few girls from my office in the food court looking at
him with interest. In my heels, he’s the exact same height as me. He’s pretty
easy on the eyes, with sandy blond hair and blue eyes that crinkle shut when he
smiles his dashingly dimpled smile. Many a girl has fallen prey to that smile
of his, and it has gotten him both in and out of trouble more than once. He is
fairly fit, with a lean and wirey build with broad shoulders and a small waist.
Occasionally, he trains with me, always holding his own fitness wise.

His features are fairly similar to my own.
We're often mistaken for brother and sister, second only to being mistaken for
a couple - something that neither of us really wanted to cross the line into; a
good thing for our friendship as David tended to have a new girl on his arm
every week, and I tended to be more of a long term relationship kind of girl. 

“So, are you going to tell me who that guy
was you were perving on before?”

I rolled my eyes, knowing that if I didn’t
tell David he would tease me mercifully until I gave up the information, “It
was Elliot. He's the office ‘hottie’ that all the girls drool over.”

“How about you? Are you all of the girls?
Because that’s what it looked like to me.”

“He’s hot yeah, and I admit that I was
perving but I'm not going to make a fool of myself going after some guy I can’t
have.”

“Who says you can’t have him?”

“Um! The fact that there is an office full
of gorgeous girls in there, and he hasn’t dated one of them,” I said all
indignant.

“Maybe he’s gay?” countered David.

“No, I don’t think so. There’s a 'no
dating' policy.”

“That sucks! Where’s the fun in that?”

I laughed at this. “We can’t all be Mister
Sex in the Filing Room with the Receptionist!”

“Hey, I’m all about the pleasure,” he said
with a cocky half grin on his face.

“I don’t know how you get all of those
girls to sleep with you, if they knew you like I do they’d run a mile.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah that’s so,” I told him only
half-seriously. Truthfully, I thought that any girl that could hold David’s
interest for more than ten minutes would find herself a very lucky woman.

He laughed and threw his scrunched up
napkin on his tray and looked around the food court, watching the people moving
around us. I turned my thoughts inward for a moment before bringing the subject
back to me again.

“All joking aside David, I still don’t
think I’m ready to start dating yet.”

His face went sombre as he returned his
attention to me. “I know you’re not Trina,” he reached across the table and
squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry for teasing you about Elliot. I wasn’t thinking.”

I blinked back the emotion that was suddenly
prickling the back of my eyes.

“It’s fine. You didn’t do anything wrong.
I’m the one that needs to let go and move on,” I took a deep breath and put a
smile on my face, pulling my hand away from his. “Besides, a bit of harmless
perving on a guy I can’t have seems pretty safe to me.”

David looked at me with an assessing gaze,
“There’s no guy on this earth you couldn’t have Katrina. You don’t give
yourself enough credit,” he cleared his throat and pushed his chair back,
assuming the usual jovial persona that he likes to present to the world. I felt
sure that his mother, and myself were the only ones who ever got to see David
being serious.

“Well,” he said. “I hate to leave the
company of a beautiful woman, but I need to get back.”

Flicking my hand down, I said, “Oh! That’s
what you say to all the girls!” in a mock sexy voice.

He shrugged and smiled at me as he started
to walk away with his tray, he seemed to remember something and paused mid
turn, spinning slightly on his heels before turning to face me again. That’s
when I noticed something, “Are you wearing hi tops?” I commented, surprised to
see them sticking out of the bottom of a pair of dark grey dress pants. 

He gave me a half smile that showed his
dimple on only one side, “What can I say – they’re comfy…Hey, you want to hit
the town on Friday night? We haven’t been out in the city for ages,” he asked.

“I do, but I have to go to drinks at work
for a bit beforehand. The social committee chick was pressuring me so it seems
pretty important - I will have a drink there and then meet up with you, ok?”

“Sure, I’ll email or text you so you know
where to meet me.”

“Sounds good,” I said, standing to leave
myself. We hugged good bye, giving each other a cheek kiss before we headed off
to our respective jobs.

The lift was more crowded on my way back up
to the office; the snooty receptionist was in there with Elliot’s PA, Beth as
well as maybe ten other people from other floors.

The receptionist turned to me and said, “So
was that your boyfriend I saw you having lunch with?”

I frowned and looked at her, not
understanding how we went from frosty glares to questions about my personal
life so quickly – I didn’t even know her name.

Taking my frown for incomprehension, she
repeated herself slowly, “I said – was… that… your… boyfriend?”

“I heard you,” I replied. “I’m just not
clear on why you’re asking me.”

She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips
while she exchanged glances with Beth. Beth smiled charmingly, in her stiletto
heels, she was a half a head shorter than I was, her skin was creamy and
flawless; she looked like a porcelain doll with large hazel eyes, full lips and
a heart-shaped face. She was dressed impeccably and had a very slim build, looking
like she just stepped out of a magazine ad.

“Let’s try this again,” she said. “Hi, I’m
Beth, and this is Bianca.” She held out her hand to shake mine, and I
reluctantly took it.

“Katrina,” I said cooly, not at all
comfortable in this situation.

“I’m Elliot’s PA and Bianca, as you
probably already know is the receptionist.”

I nodded, confirming I did indeed, already
know.

“Forgive Bianca, she just saw you with a
guy at lunch time and was wondering who he was. No harm intended.”

“I’m sure,” I said warily, there was
something about these two that set my internal alarms off. I didn’t like them.
“To answer your question - no, he’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh, so he’s your brother?” Bianca probed.

“Why is this so important to you?” I asked,
willing the lift to travel faster so I could escape this conversation.

“Just curious - he’s a good-looking guy, I
wanted to know if he was fair game; That’s all,” she said challenging me with
her eyes.

I narrowed my eyes a little. “He’s not my
brother or my boyfriend, and I don’t discuss his ‘game'. It's none of my
business.” 

Beth and Bianca once again exchanged
glances as the elevator opened, and I was granted the freedom to walk straight
back to my desk instead of continuing a conversation with those two.