Short Story: Evil Butterflies Part 2

Alright my favorite peeps! Part two of my little short story.  Hope you enjoy!

Evil Butterflies Part 2

Damon

My Leg shook of its own volition, the meeting was taking way too long. I had finally pulled together enough courage to ask her out even though it wasn’t technically the type of outing I originally had in mind. She said yes, which is the only thing that matters, but now she might up and leave if this meeting didn’t end anytime soon. My head began to bob in rhythm of my bouncing leg, I was more than anxious to get out of the production meeting but my boss couldn’t seem to put a stopper on his rapid flow of words. I wasn’t the only one ready to bail, several other co-workers stared in glazed boredom of the conversation now floating around the overly bright conference room.

I couldn’t help but glance through the hazy glass wall into the studio area. It hadn’t been extremely conscious, but from my exact spot I could just make out the back of Grace’s head from across the building. Her pink and green bag sat next to her packed with her days supplies, but her head bobbed to a silent tune as she stared at the bright screen of her desk top. It eased my mind a bit knowing she was still there, waiting for me, but at the same time my insides wanted to rip my body to shreds at the idea that she had been waiting for me to finish this damn meeting for the last hour and a half.

My mind shifted directions away from my anxiousness and replayed the entire day in its complete awesomeness. I saw her the minute I walked through the front door, she was getting her usual double espresso macchiato in the kitchen before she grabbed a single mini blueberry muffin which she had the habit of pulling off the bottom and saving the tops for last. Her little idiosyncrasies might seem strange to some, but to me they always pulled a smile across my face. It was impossible not to smile when I saw her, for more reasons than I could ever list, but the most important was that she kept me on my toes. Perhaps it didn’t hurt that she had the most beautiful green eyes I had ever seen, or that her reddish brown hair fell straight down her back usually landing just below her shoulder blades. I can’t say she is skinny, it wouldn’t be right to label her as a bean pole, but she wasn’t by any means overweight, I would call her curvy where it counts. She had a preference to wearing earth tones which always brought out the sharp yellow fused with the heavy green in her iris’. Her perfume always sent my mind into a jumble of disorientation, it had been almost impossible to focus on anything the entire day with her so close to me, which had purely been my doing. It didn’t make the work faster, she built a model, saved it, I opened the model through a companywide folder, and finished it. But, sitting next to her all day had been a treat.

The entire day would never had happened if I hadn’t arrived early to work today. On happenstance I bumped into her boss while he was on the phone talking about needing a layout for previz finished tonight and he had no idea who would be able to work fast enough to complete it. I actually didn’t know either, but out popped Grace’s name before I even thought about the consequences of what would happen if she failed. Her boss thought about it for a moment, but too busy with other problems he quickly agreed and handed the project file over to me without any protests. “Get it done,” was what he had said before they both walked over to Grace’s desk to drop the bomb on her morning routine.

In all honesty, her work wasn’t the best, but it was far from bad. She was quick and efficient, though some of her topography of quads needed work. She had a habit of making things slightly more complicated or adding to many polygons, but all in all she was fast and got the necessary work completed. It made me nervous watching her work at first, but as the day wore on I couldn’t help but smile as she bobbed to a fro, never breaking away from her screen unless it was absolutely necessary. Perhaps asking her several times about the lighting and the color of his work hadn’t been necessary, but it had her leaning over the mutual desk space pursuing his work more closely. He wouldn’t deny the fantastic view he had received with each cursory glance at his screen, but he was pretty sure his motives had been pure despite his casual glances and slight position fidgeting after she resituated herself back in work mode.

The main bosses throat clearing and shuffling of papers pulled me back from my daydreams into the present. “Is that everything folks?” No one responded, though some nodded with quiet hope that they were finally allowed to vacate the building.

I immediately popped up from my seat and was the first person to exit the room, but I pulled myself back under control as I approached Grace’s work station. “Hey there,” I said slowly before I plopped down in the same spot I had that morning, directly in her bubble of space. Close enough to be close, but far enough away that I wasn’t too overbearing. It was hard not to breathe in every morsel of her, but I was honestly trying to play it cool. I had asked her out for a bite to eat, but it had sounded more like a casual co-worker hang out not a real date. It had been my way of asking without worrying about the rejection of her saying no. Thankfully she had said yes, I was one step closer.

“Hi Damon,” she said sweetly as her eyes pulled away from what she had been working on. I was desperately trying to keep my intentions pure, but when she looked at me like she was it was almost impossible not to want to pull her into the nearest closest and… “That meeting must have been torture.”

“Not too bad, why?”

She smiled sweetly as she began the process of powering down her desktop. “You sure,” she pressed with a smile pulling at the dimples lodged permanently in her cheeks. “You looked like you were about ready to burst in there.”

I bowed my head in embarrassment but tried to pull it off as playing man coy. “Yeah, sometimes those meetings get to be a bit redundant. Besides I’m starving, how about we head out and find some food?”

Her smiling response reach all the way up into her eyes flashing him with the most brilliant expression he had ever seen. “That sounds fantastic,” she breathed out steadily. Perhaps it was just me, or my body running on a high of excitement, but in that single moment I saw a spark ignite in her body that I had never seen before. All day today she had steadily worked, and didn’t pay much attention to me most of the time unless I purposefully pulled her away from her work. It irked me, as much as it pressed me to keep trying. But now, looking into her vivid green eyes I could swear I saw attraction, mutual desire, and a form of intensity that I had never seen before. Intrigued and bewildered is the only way I could possibly describe it, I was hooked in that single moment and I wanted to know more.

“Shall we?” I said stupidly before I jokingly acted gallant by offering her my arm. She happily stepped into my offered embrace and together we walked out the front door. Fresh air assaulted our faces bringing a lash of sage, sea water, and asphalt. It was the smell of our city, and it invigorated my senses even more than they already were.

“What do you feel like eating,” Grace asked from the crook of my shoulder. My hand relaxed over her bare shoulder and it sent a sizzle of excitement ripping through me before it settled in a mash of wild butterflies zooming around at warp speed in the pit of my stomach.

“Tacos,” I said easily.

“That’s easy enough,” she replied with the hint of humor alighting her features at my quick and easy response. It was no lie, I seriously loved tacos, but tonight it was more about comfort of my surroundings. With her I felt all over the place, and I needed something to keep me tied down with a semblance of sanity.

It’s hard to explain why, but at her easy response I felt an overwhelming urge to kiss her. I wouldn’t, not out of the blue like that, but her voice pulled me out of my own self absorbed world into a new one. Something about her just felt right, and I was anxious to see what would happen next. For the moment, I pulled her as close to me as I could allow, and breathed in her delicious scent. Tonight was the first of many, if her smile was any clue to what she thought of us hanging out, I would make this happen as often as possible. Grace was a conundrum, and I would spend as much time as it took to figure out everything about her, I wanted those eyes and that smile for as long as she was willing to give it.

The butterflies took flight once again as she casually wrapped her free arm around my back resting on my opposite hip. Evil butterflies, I thought deliciously, everything about you makes me want your presence again and again.