Chapter 5: Dinner?

Claire was distracted all morning up to this time thinking about what happened earlier and how some of her colleagues noticed what happened.

"Are you okay, Claire?" Joan asked her, she was one of the executives.

"Y-Yeah, of course." Claire answered her. She wasn't even convinced herself that she was okay. Jamie left her office twice in the morning just to go to the bathroom and every time she did, she wasn't even looking at Claire and it somehow pissed her off.

Why wouldn't she look at her? Wasn't she just joking with her earlier.

Why was she overthinking this? A part of her mind questioned. 

Because...

She thought they had a moment earlier and, you know...

Oh my god, Claire was going nuts talking to herself.

She stood up and walked towards the elevator, because she needed fresh air.

As soon as the elevator door opened, she went inside, pressing the 10th floor and leaned her back against the wall of the elevator and shut her eyes.

"Hold it!" 

She immediately opened her eyes when she heard a voice.

It was Jamie.

She was running towards the elevator while Claire just stood there looking at her.

She managed to block the elevator door with her hand before it closed.

As soon as she entered, she faced Claire.

"I told you to hold it." She snorted.

"I-I'm sorry." All Claire could muster to tell her.

Not long when the elevator opened, she walked past her and hurriedly went to the table at the corner side of the open area where there was a man waiting for her.

Claire's eyes followed her as she sat across the man in suit. She was smiling while talking to him, she looked happy, he must've been her new boyfriend.

Claire felt a pinch in her chest when she thought about that.

What the hell was that?

She looked away as she didn't like what she saw and how it felt.

It was almost lunch time, the place would be full in no time. Claire wanted to buy something, eat something but she didn't have the appetite. She went to one of the carts and ordered a smoothie.

Her eyes flew to where Jamie was and caught her already looking at her.

She couldn't read her face, she was just staring at her while the man across her was talking.

Claire looked away and turned her back as she didn't know if she should have smiled at her or just nod. She took her drink and went back to where she was seated.

It was not long before the staff started to come.

"Claire! Hi!" It was David. He was walking towards her while waving his hand and carrying a tray on the other.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" He asked politely.

"Oh, no. Please, have a sit." 

He put his tray down and looked at her again. "You're not gonna eat? You want me to get you something?"

He was sweet, he was also handsome, really good looking guy and Claire could tell from his shirt, that he worked out.

"No, I'm fine. I don't feel like eating." She told him.

"Are you sure? I think I saw little muffins over there, I'll go get you some." He was about to stand up but she stopped him.

Claire held his arm and pulled him back to his seat.

"It's fine, David. Really, I'm not hungry." She smiled at him.

His eyes flew to her hand still holding his arm, as soon as she realized it, she pulled her hand away.

As she pulled her hand away, her eyes flew to where Jamie was seated. And again, to her surprise, she was already looking at her.

She still couldn't read her expression, was it grimace written all over her face? What was wrong with her?

And for the last time, Claire looked away.

David was a smooth talker, he was funny too.

The whole lunch time, Claire was laughing at David's jokes, she actually enjoyed his company and for a moment, she forgot a certain brown eyed girl who had been invading her thoughts since yesterday.

"Shall we go down now?" He asked her looking at his wrist watch.

"Yeah." 

He offered his hand to help her stand up which she accepted.

They were walking together towards the elevator when someone behind them talked.

"Mr. Lopez, I see you enjoyed your lunch." 

And guess who it was.Jamie walked past them and pressed the elevator button.

She turned her back and faced them both.

"I want the proposals for BRC Corporation to be in my Desk in an hour."

Claire looked at David and could feel him tensing up.

"But Ms. Jamie, it was due by the end of today, we agreed on that yesterday." He tried to reason.

But Jamie wasn't planning on listening to him.

Before she answered him, she gave Claire a look.

"I know, but I changed my mind."

When the elevator door opened, they all went inside, Jamie standing at the back and them in front of her. Claire kept her silence as she seemed to be in a bad mood and David still was tense.

"Ask Ms. Claire here, maybe she can help you, you two seem to be getting along good." She said and Claire swore she heard disgust in her tone.

She looked back at her with her brows furrowed and her eyes trying to silently ask her. 

As an answer, she mouthed the word "what" trying to play innocent.

As soon as they reached their floor, Jamie excused herself between David and her and headed towards her office without looking back.

David did not speak to Claire but she heard him mutter under his breath "crazy bitch."

She didn't know but she secretly laughed at that, she was really being a bitch just then.

Claire got busy in the afternoon and didn't notice it was already 5'oclock, she just saw her colleagues leaving and bidding their goodbyes.

One of the managers asked her to review and compare some contracts from last year's. One contract alone was 9 to 12 pages long and she intended to finish them all today.

It was almost 6'oclock when Jamie's door opened, Claire didn't even notice but Jamie spoke and that made her look in her direction.

"What are you still doing here, Ms. Claire?" She was walking towards her table.

Claire took my gaze back and refocused to what was she was doing.

"Just finishing some work." She answered her without looking.

She was just standing in front of her table and didn't say anything more. 

She stopped reading and looked at her again.

"Uhm, do you need anything?"

"Hmm, no."

"Ow-kayyyy."

Before she could return to what was she was doing, she spoke again.

"How's your burn?"

Hearing that, she looked down inside her shirt not caring that she was in front of her and could see her breast for the second time.

"Okay, I guess."

"Let me see." She put her bag and her coat on top of her table and pulled one of the chairs and placed it on her side.

She casually turned her chair to face her and just lift up her shirt without even saying anything.

It was so fast that Claire did not react or even had the chance to refuse or whatsoever.

"Hmm, There's some blisters in your stomach." She said while inspecting her body.

"But it is small, maybe you can buy some cream in the pharmacy to avoid scarring." 

As soon as she was done, she put down her shirt and she was looking at Claire dumbfounded.

"Uhmm, what just happened?" Claire asked her confused.

"What? She saw it already this morning." She answered directly.

"I know... But still..."

"Still what, Ms. Claire?"

She didn't want to argue with her as she still had things to finish.

"Nothing." She pulled her chair away from her and get back to her table.

"You can finish it tomorrow, Ms. Claire, whatever it is."

"Claire." I corrected her.

"What?"

"You told me this morning that we are on first name basis so you can call me Claire. Plus, you just saw my breast again for the second time so I guess maybe that earned us to have a dinner sometime." She told her sarcastically.

"Hmm. Good idea. Come on, I know just a place." She stood up and took her things off her table.

Claire looked at her trying to understand what she just said.

"I was kidding, Jamie." Said Claire.

"Well, I am not. And I'm hungry, I didn't have lunch today. So come on, Chop! Chop!"

Was she really inviting Claire to have dinner with her?

"Oh, you're serious?" She asked her.

"Yes, so get up, I'm starving!"

"I think I'm gonna pass, I want to finish all these today so that the team can give me new work tomorrow."

Claire went back to her documents and before she could start again, she put her stuff back on her table and sat on the same chair. She took some of the documents from the stack she had.

"Ok, what are we doing with these?" She was reading them.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked her.

"Helping you so that we can have dinner."