Adrien
Jenna is sitting at her desk when I get off the elevator, and looks knee-deep at work.
Today’s going to be a busy day.
She has two piles on her desk. As soon as she hears the elevator doors shut, she’s walking towards me with a mug of coffee in hand. We swap, and I take the coffee and pass her the brown paper bag with pastries in.
She wouldn’t listen when I told her I didn’t need her to bring me coffee in the morning, so now I bring her pastries. It’s our thing. And stops me feeling like a dick. Sara has copied me too. But Jenna and I have been doing this for years.
She looks at me expectantly.
I know what she's after, but I’m going to be a dick here. I’m going to make her ask me.
I unlock my office door and press the fob to my desk that opens the blinds.
Jenna follows me in, a croissant resting on her iPad and coffee in hand. She sits down on the chair in front of me and continues to stare.
I’m not backing down on this.
I know she’s going to cave in 3, 2, 1.
“Adrien stop being a dick. Did you propose or not last night?”
I look at her mid-sip and raise my eyebrow at her. She gets to call me a dick three times a week. She's already used up one, and it’s Monday morning. She came with me when I left Mason Marketing in San Francisco and, well, she’s been with me ever since.
Technically, she’s my longest relationship.
“Do you really want to use one of your dick comments so early?”
She looks like she’s pondering this information.
“You chickened out, didn’t you?”
“Do you want to know? Or we could just get on with our usual morning routine.”
“All you have to do is call down to Sara, and I’ll have my answer. But I want to hear it from you.”
I sip my coffee slowly and sit back in my chair.
“Ok. Fine. Yes, I did.”
“And?”
“She said yes, of course.”
“Yes. I won.”
I raise my eyebrow at her again.
“Catherine, Bryan and I had a bet going.”
This is new to me, but then again, I guess that’s the point.
“Do I want to know what everyone thought?
“Well, Catherine crashed and burned ages ago.”
Not surprising there.