Hard work at night
Being a stagiaire means so much and there are so many things to do: meeting new people, drinks every other day, freshening up on your school French, and subcommittee activities on top of trying to do a good job...
My supervisor, also the Head of Unit, came barging into my office just a few weeks after I started and walked right up next to me as I sat at my desk; he was so close I could smell him. Looking down at me in a dominant way he casually mentioned that I needed to step it up a bit at work before he rushed off to his next meeting. I felt a bit guilty for not doing a good job but at the same time I got angry because of the way he talked to me. I found it rude and he had definitely crossed the line of my personal space.
After spending a few hours relaxing and sunbathing with some friends at the Parc du Cinquantenaire one Sunday I decided that I would take a few hours out of my weekend to get some work done. Entering the building from the sunshine outside things got a bit murky and I was fumbling with my sunglasses for a few seconds while trying to find my badge in my bag. When I looked up I got a pleasant surprise; a really cute security guard was sitting behind the front desk. I realised that he had been watching me for some time and he was now sitting there smiling at me. My body shivered, I blushed, looked at him and smiled back.
“Hi, I’m just in to catch up with some work and I might be late.”
“Okay, but remember that they cut the electricity at ten and we sure don’t want you to get stuck in here on a Sunday night.” He winked at me.
“No, we sure don’t” I replied. But in my head I thought I wouldn’t mind being stuck in the office with him.
On the 15th floor I walked through the silent corridor to my office. The new legislative proposal from AGRI that I was working on was much more complicated than I expected and struggling through it to structure my contribution I completely lost track of time. All of a sudden I noticed the time; almost ten! I turned off my computer as fast as I could, ran to the lift and told myself I shouldn’t work late. Suddenly I was in complete darkness. Damn! It had turned ten and the electricity was turned off. The lift had come to a stop and I had no idea what to do.
I called out as loud as I could: “Hello! Help me!,” hoping that someone might still be in the building and hear me.
I told myself to calm down, and picked up my phone to call a friend but to my despair there was not a single signal bar on my phone. At least it lit up and I could use it as a flashlight to find the yellow alarm button; I pressed it frantically for at least a minute. I closed my phone, leaned against the wall of the lift in the dark and hoped that something would happen soon.
“Hello! Can you hear me?” There was suddenly a voice outside the lift. A familiar one as well: the security guy.
“I’m in here!” I called. “You have to get me out!”
“Oh, it’s you. I didn’t see you leave so I should have realised it was you. Of course I will get you out, just wait there.”
What else was there to do? I wanted to shout back but kept quiet.
When the lights suddenly came back on I jumped up and pressed the button for the ground floor. The lift started moving. So I was sure that I would not have to spend the night there. The door opened and there he was. Shaking his head and laughing at me.
“Stop that! It’s not funny.”
“Of course it’s funny,” he said, and took a step closer to the lift.
I could feel myself getting angry with him for laughing at me and even more with myself for forgetting the time. I felt like rushing out of the lift and running home but he would not let me out. His arms blocked me even though I tried to push through.
“Let me go!”
I tried to turn around to get past him somehow. He then grabbed my arms so I couldn’t move.
“Calm down,” he said, keeping me in a tight grip and looking me in the eyes.
I finally stopped moving and realised how close we were. I looked into his eyes that were like sparkling stars. Realising he could hear and feel my every breath I tried to calm down. But my pulse just kept racing.
He leaned in to me and whispered “I just saved you, you fool.”
Again he looked me in the eyes and he slowly came closer… but stopped just before his lips touched mine. His perfect lips. Pink. Perfectly shaped. I admit I had been thinking about them and now they were so close to mine. I couldn’t wait any longer. I leaned a bit closer and our lips touched. His lips were as smooth as I had imagined. Soft and warm like a gentle summer breeze. Softly, slowly touching, kissing. His grip of my arms changed and he slowly wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer to him. As the kisses became more intense he pushed me into the lift, all the way back to the wall. My fingers were playing with his soft hair. We pressed our bodies against each other. When he nibbled my lower lip I had to hold on to him or I would have fallen down since my legs felt like jelly. He had my devoted attention. His lips, his eyes, his hands, his breath, his heartbeat. All was so clear. Our bodies slowly moved as one. His strong arms all of a sudden just picked me up and I automatically wrapped my legs around him. I ignored the fact that my skirt moved up around my belly. This was as close to anybody as I had been since I broke up with my boyfriend and I quickly realised how much I wanted him.
“Allô, allô!”
We both stopped as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water on us. In half a second I was standing upright as we quickly fixed our clothes. To open the lift doors that had closed without me realising it he pressed the ground floor button. By the desk at the entrance was another guard, who turned to us as we stepped out of the lift. I excused myself and headed for the doors but before exiting I looked back and got a glimpse of his beautiful eyes and smile. I thought that this was the beginning of the rest of my time as a stagiaire here in Brussels.
During the following week I didn’t see him. I got worried and at the end of the week I asked another guard. It turned out that his father had had a small stroke and he had to go home to the small town and farm where he had grown up to take care of things. I haven’t seen him since, but I always think of him entering the lift.
To be continued...
To be continued...
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