This is another story I wrote on a friends request. Sorry for the English. Enjoy!
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Today was the yearly office party. It was usually a pretty nice event with lots of opportunities to interact with people from other parts of the company, you know, the ones usually only seen on elevators, drinking lattes and wearing headphones.
The company I worked for had just finished the transition from startup to big company. Small enough that I was pretty sure that I had seen everyone at least once but it was long ago since I knew everybody's names. There had been a big influx of people the last couple of years as the company consolidated and the offices had moved to one of the big high rises in downtown. As far as I knew we had most floors on this building.
I had made quite a lot of friends the last four years, mostly in my department but I also had a couple in other departments.
This year the party was held in what was usually a cafeteria and meeting spaces level. The floor had a very big area in the center for people to hang out, meet, share ideas and "innovate" over the free coffee and soft drinks.
The area had been repurposed with lots of activities for people to mingle like poker tables, karaoke, arcade games, photo booths and the like. Food and some alcohol were distributed around in small stands and tables and a DJ was playing music in a corner.
Since the company had grown the events had slowly become more formal. I noticed that most guys were wearing jackets, some even wore ties and the women were in dresses and heels although the style varied a lot. Quite a big contrast against the jeans and hoodies that everyone wore. I was dressed to match, in the best smart casual style I could muster with semi-formal trousers, nice shoes, a shirt and a jacket.
I walked around and said hi to a couple of people. I looked for the director of my division and exchanged pleasantries as one should in this kind of events. With that done I went to the bar, got a beer and looked for my friends.
They were easy to find, right between the arcade games and a bar stand. Nerds. The usual suspects were there. John with his usual happy banter, Peter a little to the side just hearing everybody speak, Caleb making sure everybody was comfortable and accounted for, etc. There was only one person in the group I did not expect, Lisa.
Now let me tell you about Lisa. I had met her a couple of years ago at a similar event. I must confess that the first thing I noticed about her was her beauty but I quickly realized how smart and witty she was. Over time she had become a very good friend of mine. We talked often, about work, friend's family, relationships, etc. But due to our schedules we didn't actually spend much time together. I was glad to see her although it was weird since as far as I knew she didn't like my teammates very much.
She looked beautiful as always, wearing a sundress with spaghetti straps. The dress ended a couple of inches above the knees and was complimented by some medium height heels. The perfect combination between cute and sexy, something she usually pulled of effortlessly, or so it looked to me.
She smiled when she saw me and waved for me to join the group. When I reached her, she hugged me.
"Hey!" I said to her. "How have you been? Long time no see."
"I know! I was beginning to worry you weren't coming."
"Really? Because of my friends?" I smiled knowingly. "I know they are weird but trust me they are harmless." I said laughing. I think Peter heard me but he just smirked. "You know I always come to this parties, and I was hoping I was going to see you tonight." I said smiling.
"Well here I am." She said doing a cute dancer bow.
In a way, Lisa was right. Spending time with her was more fun that with my teammates. By the time I noticed we had drifted off from the group and I had lost track of them.
We walked around while the conversation flowed freely. She told me about the latest developments at work, that she had gotten the promotion she was gunning for and things like that. I talked about my work, and funny things that had happened that I knew she would find funny.
After we grabbed our next drinks, we drifted off to the photo booth area. There wasn't a line but the moment we got there three girls almost fell out laughing about whatever they had been doing there.
"It's been ages since I've been on one of those, want to go?" She asked.
"Sure." I followed her.
There were props outside, she quickly picked a ship's captain hat and I picked a cowboy one.
"What do you think?" She asked.
