Office Romance

Office Romance

Jule's watch did not tell time any more but it had been a gift from his father when he was ten. ‘Ten is old enough for a young man to wear a watch.’ His father made this pronouncement the morning of his birthday, put the watch on his ten year old wrist, set it to the right time. Then he went to work. People didn’t wear watches much any more. Those exercise computer things that did tell the time but did everything else. Jules didn’t even wear the watch.  He had long grown proper sized man wrists. He kept the watch in the wooden box by his bedside. Polishing the wood every week until the grain shone. He hadn’t seen his father again. Although he had been told that his father had a heart attack at work, although he’d been to the funeral and been hugged and kissed by the aunts, although his mother stopped setting a place at the table for him and she cried every day for months, Jules never stopped believing his father would come home again. After a while, polishing the box and checking the watch to see if it would begin to tick again was a ritual that was just part of getting up and going to work each day. If one day he forgot before he ran out the door, as soon as he came home he would go to his bedroom and complete his belated ritual.

Tonight, he decided was the night he would put his gold watch in his oaken box away. He would not forget it, but a new charm had come into his life. She was tall, quite lovely and eloquent. Jules was anxious to show off his study and had invited her in for the evening. They had only been out once before, but had known each other from work. The office had been abuzz that they were ‘love birds’. Jules and Cassandra just ignored them all and carried on their work. They passed notes to each other when one would pass the other’s desk. The one evening they did go out was after a late night at the office. Most people had gone home. Only the janitor was there, the hum of his floor cleaner the only sound but for their voices as they finished up a big project.  

‘Are you hungry?’ Jules was hesitant to ask but because he had no audience of workers he took a chance. A silent reprimand to himself to stop being so shy chased his hesitancy away.

‘I’m famished! But the only thing open is the pizza place down the block. I have heard that they have lovely wood fire pizza. And a glass of wine is available. Not too bad wine either.’  

Their long work hours slipped gently away as soon as the aroma of delicious pizza welcomed them into the cozy little restaurant. Romantic ideas were never far from Jules mind. He would have been surprised to know that Cassandra was entertaining romantic ideas of her own. The door chime brought him out of his reverie. He checked his tie in the hall mirror quickly before opening the front door. Cassandra was gorgeous. So different from the office. So …….

‘Please. Come in, Cassandra. I have a fire on in the study and hot chocolate for this cool evening. I’m so glad you could come.’

“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”

~ Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays