A few days went past without any calls or visits from Mike. It seemed he had taken my request to heart about needing some space to think things through.
When Mandy had returned home later that Sunday evening, she had popped around to bring me a souvenir she had bought me whilst visiting her parents. She had asked how my weekend went, and not having any other real friends to confide in, I had told her about the intense weekend I spent with Mike. I left out all the steamy bits, but I'm pretty sure her imagination filled in the blanks.
Completely unexpected, Mandy had agreed with my decision to slow things down, and for us to get to know one another better before 'doing the horizontal hokey pokey' -- her words, not mine!
My weekdays were filled with work, which kept my mind busy and well occupied from straying to thoughts of Mike. My nights - well that was a different story completely. Without the slightest of prompting from my very fertile mind, I would recall - with infinite detail, every nuance of Mike's body and the way his lips had danced across my skin. These recollections of our time together did nothing to curtail my lustful cravings for Mike.
On Wednesday morning, sitting at my desk, I received a call from reception telling me there was a delivery-man waiting for me. Puzzled at this, I climbed into the elevator and pressed the button for the lobby. I searched my mind, trying to recall if there were any urgent documents I was waiting on, but as nothing immediately came to mind, I became anxious to see what was in the package.
When I stepped into the lobby, I saw a huge vase of sunflowers sitting on the receptionist desk.
As I approached, the receptionist turned to me with a speculative eye and said, "Hi Carson. This guy won't let me sign for it. Apparently Mr. Delivery Man here has instructions to have you sign for it personally."
"Can you sign here please, I'm in a bit of a hurry," the delivery man asked me.
He was of medium height, with a slight paunch around his stomach -- which his courier uniform did nothing to hide. He had on a peak cap with the company logo emblazoned in the front pulled down low on his forehead which all but shielded his entire face, except for the shaggy unkempt beard covering the lower half of it.
I took the pen and jotted my signature down where he indicated. With that, he muttered under his breath, turned on his heel and basically sped out of the building. I looked at the receptionist in mild surprise at his speedy exit, but she just shrugged her shoulders and gave me a look which said, "he's a weirdo".
"Ooh, I wish someone would send me flowers. This must have cost a fortune." Julie the receptionist crowed. "You must have a secret admirer," she hinted slyly.
I knew she desperately wanted to ask who they were from, but had just enough self-restraint not to.
I reached between the flowers and extracted a florist card. Before opening it, I made sure that Julie wouldn't be able to read its contents.
"I can't stop thinking about you. M" A huge smile stole across my face as I read the card.
Oh God, just when I thought I was safe from thoughts of Mike at work, he managed to insinuate himself into that facet of my life as well. It seemed Mike was deadly serious when he said he was going to court me.
Thursday, a bakers box arrived with a dozen pastries inside -- all shaped in alphabet letters with spelt out my name. Oh God, how did Mike come up with these ideas?
I chuckled softly to myself, as I headed back to my desk to tuck my treat away to take home later...
****
That evening, Mandy called and asked if I wanted to go down to Mike's Grill with her for supper. She was meeting a few friends there for supper and drinks. My immediate knee-jerk reaction was to refuse, but I knew I needed to thank Mike for the gifts. I agreed and she told me to be ready in half an hour.
The restaurant was crowded when we arrived, but we managed to get a table for four close to the bar. I looked around, but couldn't spot Mike anywhere - maybe he was up in his office.
Once we had placed our orders and our drinks arrived, we all sat around laughing and chatting, while waiting on our food. I kept glancing at the stairs leading up to the office; hoping Mike would make an appearance.
Mandy, noticing my distraction leaned over to and said in my ear, "Why don't you go upstairs and look for him. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Just ask Lance behind the bar if it's cool if you go on up."
"I'm not sure. I don't want to put Mike in a weird situation with his staff, when I explain to the bartender my reason for wanting to go upstairs," I replied.
"Carson! Stop thinking about what other people think," Mandy rolled her eyes at me. Then she got up and went over to the bar before I could stop her. I saw her talking to Lance, gesturing upstairs with her hands, before she returned with a smile on her face.
"Lance says to go on up. Mike is just doing some paperwork. He apparently left instructions that if you came in, to let him know before you left," Mandy explained with smug satisfaction.
I blushed, but excused myself and headed towards the stairs, careful to avoid eye contact with anyone.
At the top of the stairs, the landing veered off to the right, where three doors led off a single corridor. The first two doors stood open, and were unoccupied, but as I neared the last one, I could hear Mike talking on the phone to someone.
I slowed my pace, and as I reached the doorway, I hesitated before knocking softly. I saw Mike glance up at the interruption with the phone still by his ear. On seeing me, I saw his body tensed slightly as his eyes locked onto mine.
"I have to go. I'll call you tomorrow, " Mike said into the mouthpiece, before he slowly replaced the receiver, all without taking his eyes off me.
"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing," I said as Mike continued staring at me.
"No, I'm glad you're here. Did you get the package I sent you," Mike finally replied.
It took me a moment to figure out what package he was talking about, before I realized he meant the flowers and the pastries.
"Yes, I did. I wanted to thank you for them. I've never received flowers before," I said.
"Was it too cheesy?" Mike cringed.
I laughed at his discomfort. "A little bit, but mostly it was sweet." I wanted him to know that his efforts were appreciated.
Mike stood up from behind his desk and came towards me. He took my hand and walking backwards, he tugged me further into the office, until his ass rested on the front of his desk, and I was standing directly in front of him. He stretched his legs outwards and pulled my to stand between them, so that his hands could rest on my hips.
