Lunch and Drinks

"So what did you bring this time? Anything good?" Hannah asked as we sat down with our lunchboxes.

Instead of saying anything I unzipped the opening of my lunch box to reveal what I had within. It was a fairly typical lunch that consisted of some barbeque chips, a cola, and a sandwich. The sandwich was made with a small baguette, cheese, chicken, bacon, and lettuce.

"Wow, looks good! Did you make this one or did you buy it?"

"I made it last night, I actually prepared a little this time."

I saw her eyes light up and glimmer a bit as I said that and took it as a sign that she was impressed, if only a little.

"Let's compare then, take a little look at mine!"

With a bit of haste she opened her lunchbox as if comparing our meals was a competition to her. She took out some glassware and visibly through the container you could see she brought spaghetti with meatballs. 

"Tahda! Hmm… I think I'll need a bite of your food to first decide which is better. Of course, you could also try mine too. Let me just go heat it up really quickly."

She grabbed the little glass box as she ran to an unoccupied microwave. She pressed a few buttons then came back over.

By this time I had already started eating my sandwich. She had a slight pout on her face as she sat down and saw me already consuming my sandwich.

"Don't look at me like I cheated, it's my sandwich and I'm hungry."

"So how is it?"

"Of course it's good, why would I purposefully make a bad sandwich for myself?"

"Ok, let me try then! I'll be the judge!"

She leaned over and I angled it so she could get a bite. She brought a hand over so she could stabilize the sandwich on her own, but managed to brush past my hand with her fingers in the act.

It didn't matter though, it was probably just an accident anyway. She took a bite right next to where I bit it and simply expanded the bite mark I had made by some.

She sat back down and I noticed there was a crumb on her lips, but before I could even point it out her tongue appeared. She licked all around her lips and scooped up the little crumb into her mouth.

The whole process of us sharing our food like this was a little odd in the first place. Taking bites from the same place and drinking from the same bottle would typically be considered an indirect kiss. It was something you would normally find main characters in a romantic show heavily blush at.

Perhaps, she had simply influenced me a lot already into thinking that this was a normal thing that could be done between men and women. I always felt that it was a little more normal between the same gender, but it still had an awkward feel to it for me. But between men and women, I felt there had always been this slight barrier.

Yet, here we were doing it, with her who seemingly had no shred of shame in doing so. The first time she tried it happened to be the day I came back to work after my girlfriend had died. I had taken a few days off to mourn and sulk before eventually going to business as usual.

Coincidentally, this day was both the first time that Hannah started being a little more intimate with me over our food and Emma started inviting me out to drink. 

The death of my girlfriend must have evoked a heavy sense of pity in my boss so she actually invited me to drink with her. As for Hannah, she had really been my only friend here since we were both hired on at the same time. I took it as her simply trying to cheer me up or distract me with other thoughts.

*Eerrrt!* *Eerrrt!* *Eerrrt!*

I could hear the microwave in the distance beeping and Hannah ran accordingly. Soon steaming spaghetti appeared on our table. She took out a fork and stabbed it into the food before she pushed it toward me. 

'At least she hasn't started to try and feed me as of yet, though a part of me kinda wished she would have done so.'

I took it and and with a small twist spaghetti was wrapped around it, I then took a chunk of a meatball before I took the bite. I knew beforehand that if I didn't get a little of everything she would get a little mad and start nagging me to have a taste of what she missed.

I placed the fork in my mouth and I could instantly taste the expanding flavor of the sauce in my mouth and a good mix of spices and herbs intertwined with the meatball.Of course all of this was just simply heated up through a microwave so it couldn't capture the taste it had when freshly made, but it was still pretty good.

I stuck the fork into the spaghetti and slid the glassware back towards her while I reached for my cola. She smiled as I slid it back before she reached for a bite.

"Hmm, I think that today…I'll be taking the win."

"That's your opinion, I still think mine is better."

"Taste it again!"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Hmph! Gimmie that! I'm thirsty too!"

She took the cola I had just set down and drank where I did.

"You have a water bottle! I see it!"

"I just wanted something sweet, besides I know you really don't mind."

Well, she was right. If I was really so adamant about it she probably would've stopped, but a part of me wanted something more. Maybe I was just trying to fill in the hole that Diana, my girlfriend, left me. 

It had already been 5 months since she passed though, I had to move on eventually right? I shouldn't get stuck in the past after all.

..

After lunch ended I saw her off back to her department. She was an IT person so she had to deal with the hardware and software of our company. Her department was on the other side of the building to me, but the building wasn't too massive so it wouldn't take that long.

After some time I returned to my little corner space to finish those documents that Emma gave me.

..

I just finished the last document and stacked it up on the side of my desk. The documents were all really just a little test for me or just busy work. Emma wouldn't let me do anything that truly related to the production of the company, but that was probably since my hire wasn't a typical off the street hire.

I was doing a work-based learning program, Hannah and I actually were both here for that same reason, just different programs. It was still summer now, though in approximately 1-2 weeks classes would start up again.

I was supposed to be more of a maintenance person, but since there's nothing to fix I couldn't really learn hands-on either. Since that was the case Emma sought to teach me other skills in the meantime. She had basically turned me into her assistant at times.

I looked out the window and saw that it was close to 5PM, the end of the shift. I tapped the documents neatly on the table before I started making my way over to Emma's Office with my stuff.

I repeated the same actions as earlier and entered the room. She sat in her chair diligently working on some paperwork. I slowly placed the small stack of documents I was handed at the corner of her desk.

"Have a seat Ethan, I'll be done soon then we can talk about tonight."

"Alright."

Of course heeding her request I sat on one of the side couches and brought out my phone. I made sure not to have any sound on before I started to play a few games.

..

A tap on the shoulder made me pause my game to look up. Emma had gathered her belongings and was ready.

"Say, Emma, why do you want to come over to my place anyway? Why don't we just go to one of those places like we normally do?"

"Well I had bought something for us to enjoy! Besides, I heard it was quite strong, if we go to your house then you won't have to worry about getting home or to bed."

"I guess you're right, but it feels a little weird to bring my boss home with me, you know? Besides I don't think another woman has even been to my place since Diana died."

"You know we could always do it at my house."

"Your house? Maybe, I wouldn't want to stay over though if I do get too drunk though."

"Then, your house it is! Don't make this too complex, now show me how we get to your house?"

I took her phone and imputed my address.

"Alright, let's go then."

…

Soon we arrived at my house, she had followed behind me quite closely in traffic as if to make 100% sure she would be able to follow me wherever I went and never lose me. She had parked next to me and as I got out of my car she did as well.

"So this is where you live? Ethan, this is quite nice, very scenic."

I unlocked my door and together we went in. After putting up my stuff I saw that she had already taken out a bottle of what seemed to be Scotch Whiskey. I brought out two glasses for us to use and set them down in front of the couch she decided to set up on.

 It felt a little awkward from her being here and the silence, so I turned on the tv for any kind of background noise.

"Are you still hanging around Hannah?"

"Yeah, of course I am."

"You and that girl really get along don't you?"

"Well, yeah, she's like my only friend at work."

"Oh, Ethan, am I not your friend? I'm hurt."

"Well, you are, it's just that you're usually just that after work."

"We should act professional after all, maybe I'll give you a little extra work because of what you just said."

"W-what? That's not fair!"

"Fufu~"

..

After several drinks later everything had already become blurry. The tv in the background had become some fuzzy unrecognizable sounds and a creeping dark tunnel was surrounding the edge of my vision. Most importantly though my brain was starting to become sluggish and anything I even thought would come out my month.

"Ethan, what are your thoughts about getting a new girlfriend? It's already been 5 months since she died hasn't it?"

"G-girlfriend?..Y-yesh I'vve, been thinnking tooo."

"Would you object if say, I was your girlfriend?"

At those words I turned my blurry gaze from the screen to her face.

"Y-you?! I-I doon't thinnk that we r-really coould. Bosses can't date their subordinatesss, riiight? I think, that Hannaaah miiight be goood actuaallly."

I could barely pick up the details, but I felt that she wasn't happy.

"Why is that? Do you think that she's better than me?"

"N-no, I think that both of you always loook amazing, but your position is just tooo looffty. You'rre also kinnd oof cold sometiimmes. Ugh… I should go to bed…"

I stood up with some shaky legs and a hand over my forehead.

'W-why did I… drink so much?'

Out of nowhere an arm was across my back holding me up by my armpit while they swung my other arm over their shoulders. Of course it was Emma, but I could barely even keep my eyes open at the moment. 

My head swayed until I saw my hand over her shoulder and resting on her breasts. Without any mental barriers telling me that it was a bad idea I squeezed what I could get a hold of. From the very first squeeze she halted her movements and looked at me.

"Hehe..he…"

…