Leaving in a Hurry

This is the day that FridayNext has been secretly looking forward to since mid-December. Everything has been planned and nobody seems to have noticed that she only has one thing on her mind: to get close to J-Man; to feel him up; to chat him up; to stalk him to death; to snog the living daylights out of him.

Of course she knows that she may not be able to make all the plans come true, but she’s going to try her very hardest to at least get physically close without Ace noticing; without TheBoss noticing; without the entire party of authors, production executives, marketing people and the important people of the business school noticing.

Final preparations: done. The office: tidied beyond belief – it’s never been this clean and neat. Outfit: smashing and new, even put on a skirt to show off a bit. It’s ten minutes to show time. The nerves have not yet set in. It’s all going according to plan.

ObnoxiousMan1: Hi Friday. How’s it hanging? Can I crash here? I have numerous questions, little social skills and lots of obnoxious behaviour.
FridayNext: Oh…hello. Yeah, please come in. You can hang your coat…here, on this chair. Can I get you something to drink?
ObnoxiousMan1: *drones on and on about his camera and new job*
FridayNext: *working hard to bring drinks to the various tables and simultaneously acting interested in the endless word-stream from ObnoxiousMan1* Oh really? You don’t say? That’s fascinating.
ObnoxiousMan1: And then I thought that I could check out your servers. Where are they? In here? But the door is locked. Do you have a key? Where are you going with all those beers? Wait, I’ll come with you…
FridayNext: *about to be too stressed to be polite; carrying six full beer bottles to one of the tables in the reception area, only listening half-heartedly to ObnoxiousMan1* If you could just wait a second I’ll get the key…

She sees the table in front of her – and then she accidentally turns her head to the left and there…there he is. He carries a heavy box of stuff and all she can think of is: oh no! I can’t hug him now!

ObnoxiousMan1: I never thought that you had the servers here, in this actual area.
FridayNext: *gasping for air, putting down the beer bottles, trying to straightening her hair at the same time* Oh hello, J-Man and Ace.

The words come out abrupt and shrill, and her smile is too wide. ObnoxiousMan1 stands in the way of the two coolest men on the face of the earth.

J-Man: Hi Friday. Where would you like these leaflets?
FridayNext: Oh! Come with me! In my office. I can show you the way. This way.

ObnoxiousMan1: *stands in everybody’s way*

FridayNext turns around and glimpses UniCorn to the right. She lights up but then remembers that the guys are behind her – and ObnoxiousMan1 is following her as well. UniCorn smiles and gives her thumbs up but it only results in FridayNext turning red like a tomato in her face.

FridayNext: Hhhhere we are. Here. This. My office. It’s white. Got white walls. Come in.
Ace: Where should we put them?
FridayNext: Oh god. Under the table. Yeah, that sounds great. Under the table. Maaah haaaah!

The guys put both boxes under the table and turn around to face FridayNext who stands four steps away from them, not too sure of herself, not sure if her plan will ever work. J-Man looks deliciously young and tender (she could easily eat him for breakfast every single day) – Ace looks absolutely ravishing with his dark hair and brown eyes, looking down on her. Two seconds of silence. ObnoxiousMan1 has withdrawn to TheBoss’ office for a brief encounter with TheBoss. Ace makes a move. He reaches out his right hand to greet FridayNext, and now…now is the time for being bold and clingy! So she leaps forward, takes his right hand and then surprises him by jumping into his chest and hugging him. He freezes up for a second then hugs her back.

FridayNext: *super-score to me* Happy New Year, Ace.
Ace: Happy New Year.
FridayNext: Happy New Year, J-Man.
J-Man: Happy New Year, Friday.

And she walks stately over to J-Man and hugs him. She tries not to grope him; she tries not to glue herself to his chest. It takes all her stamina to let go and pretend that hey – it’s just the way I greet everybody these days; nothing wrong in hugging some business partners.

ObnoxiousMan1: So…do you have the keys for the room?

The guys leave her office and walk into the reception area much to FridayNext’s dismay being stuck in the room with ObnoxiousMan1.

UniCorn: Hey you guys! Aw, you look smashing! How are you?
Silence
UniCorn: I’m UniCorn. We met briefly some months ago.
Ace: Right? How are you?
UniCorn: I’ve heard so much about you two from Fri.
FridayNext: *overhearing the disastrous comment without being able to stop UniCorn because she’s stuck in the room with ObnoxiousMan1* Oh god!
ObnoxiousMan1: I know. It’s too fascinating to believe!

UniCorn: What the hell are you doing? The guys are loitering on their own!
FridayNext: I finally managed to shake off ObnoxiousMan1! Where are they? I want to…to…oh my gawd, Uni. He’s delightful!
UniCorn: Young. He’s YOUNG!
FridayNext: I love him. I love him!!!
UniCorn: Go speak to him.
FridayNext: I don’t know what to say!
UniCorn: Go!

UniCorn pushes FridayNext into the reception area and she makes an entry that nobody forgets when she barges in, nearly catches on fire from the various lit candles in the window sill and then baaah haaaahs in a loud and shrill voice. Everybody has a drink in their hand. J-Man is standing in the opposite end of the room and Ace stands next to her. There’s no way she can easily walk over to J-Man and begin a casual conversation. For a second she forgets that Ace is standing next to her and she leans into him because the candles are burning her bum. He looks down at her in surprise and then she withdraws immediately, remembering that he’s not UniCorn.

UniCorn, however, has wormed her way over to J-Man and stands next to him. She’s taller than him. She hand signals to FridayNext without caring if Ace sees her. FridayNext is once again red in her face.

J-Man: So Friday.

FridayNext nearly has a heart attack and gasps for air. She is so surprised that she doesn’t hear what J-Man says. Instead she puts on the worst smile ever and pretends all is well. He looks at her and then looks at Ace. She nods. In an attempt to show that she did indeed hear him. Everything sounds like the sea. Sssssssssssssssssssssssssss – waves!

Matt: All night to ourselves.
Spidey: Home alone. What to do?
Matt: Bored with the flexi-trax.
Spidey: Yeah. Hey!
Matt: What?
Spidey: One thing we haven’t tried yet.
Matt: Do I want to hear this?
Spidey: Yes you do. I’ll make a couple of calls…

ObnoxiousMan2: Hi Friday. How are you? Been a long time!
FridayNext: Hello. How are you?

UniCorn hand signals that she’ll look after J-Man and Ace when ObnoxiousMan2 drags FridayNext away from the reception area to talk at length about a book project that simply will revolutionise the world. Or something to that effect.

Ace: I’m sorry. My cell phone…
UniCorn: Oh! It’s a bit rude. You’re at a reception.
Ace: Ahm? Excuse me…I really have to take this.
UniCorn: So how are you, J-Man?
J-Man: *clearing his throat* I’m fine. Just fine.
UniCorn: You work with Fri?
J-Man: Sometimes, yeah.
UniCorn: She’s great at what she does.
J-Man: Indeed.
AceCellPhone: Where? Now? Half an hour. Tops. See ya.
UniCorn: She has a great sense of …
Ace: J, we need to leave.
J-Man: Oh. I’m sorry, UniCorn. We have to leave.
UniCorn: What?!
Ace: Meeting. We can’t get out of it. Very important.
UniCorn: You better say goodbye to Fri!
J-Man: Sure. Bye. It was nice meeting you.
Ace: Yeah. Nice.
UniCorn: *bursting to be rude* Likewise.

ObnoxiousMan3: Hey Friday. There you are! Oh hello. I didn’t know you were here as well.
ObnoxiousMan2: I was invited as well. How are you?
ObnoxoiusMan3: Fine. So Friday…
Ace: Pssst! Fri, we have to leave. We’ll see you.
FridayNext: What?!
J-Man: Bye Fri.
FridayNext: What the hell? Wait!

In desperation she grabs on to J-Man’s left arm and yanks him back a bit. He smiles politely but he’s too powerful for her.

FridayNext: *mumbling to whoever will hear her* Can I keep you?
J-Man: I really have to go. Bye.

UniCorn stands in the corner and shrugs to FridayNext after J-Man has freed himself from FridayNext’s tentacles.

Ace: It’s the westbound train, I think.
J-Man: Right.
Ace: Lots of people at the reception.
J-Man: Yeah.
Ace: You’re quiet. More than usual.
J-Man: She grabbed me.
Ace: She hugged us.
J-Man: She asked if she could keep me.
Ace: She’s just…just…eccentric.
J-Man: She really put all her stamina into it.
Ace: The hug?
J-Man: The hug was okay. I could barely feel it. But she really grabbed my arm tightly.
Ace: Well, we’re gonna kick some butt in half an hour.
J-Man: I tell ya, if Spidey cheats again, I’m gonna yell at him!
Ace: You do that.