M/C series chapter 1

Mouse
The burning in her cheeks, which she tried to flush away with splashes of water just moments before in the girl’s room, immediately returned when she sat down and saw her computer mouse. Inside the cubicle beside hers, she could hear her boss discussing stock market prices on the telephone. The digital clock on her desktop proclaimed that it was six minutes before 7:00 pm, and empty seats showed that there was nobody else in this wing of the office aside from the two of them, and well, the presence of a boy, or rather, his lingering scent.
Mary tried to brush off the feeling and relax. Intending to bring her thoughts to the task on hand, she decided to momentarily close her eyes and lean her back on her chair. Instead of refocusing her mind, she only found her senses intensified, leading her to realize that not only did his musky fragrance stayed, but so did his warmth, locked inside the threads of the cushion of the back of her seat. “Kainis ang IDM,” she whispered as she opened her eyes. She does not have time to wait for her stirred feelings to subside. The earlier she finishes her presentation, the faster she will be out of and away from the room.
She grabbed her mouse, and to her dismay, she could feel his palm on it. She pushed the thought away. It was silly for her to imagine that the momentary laying of his hand on her mouse could leave any trace. He held the mouse for only a few seconds, only out of frustration because she could not get the instructions he was dictating over the telephone from his seat on how to activate the Internet Download Manager permanently.
He came back late from a meeting. The audit section was already void of people. He had paused on her cubicle when he first came in, surprising her with a tickle on her waist as a greeting. Her usual shriek came and a delighted laughter was his response. He then resorted to his standard teasing of her only engaging in YM conversations during overtime hours, and their natural exchange of insults followed. Enrico cut short their fun when he came out of his cubicle to inquire about an irrelevant detail on the outline she handed him. Chris silently walked over to his own cubicle, recognizing the cue that the boss wanted Mary to go back to work.
After Enrico finished talking with her, she looked behind her and saw that instead of packing, Chris sat on his chair, looking like he was downloading something. That is when she remembered that she had been frustratingly and unsuccessfully installing the IDM software. She was already about to grab her telephone when it started ringing. “Hindi ka pa bauuwi?” the caller, in his sweet voice, implying a plea that they go home already, asked. She explained she could not, due to a presentation scheduled tomorrow. She then jumped to inquiring about the download manager, inserting slurs and accusations regarding the utility of Chris’s recommended software. He attributed her difficulty in installing the program to her stupidity before proceeding to give her instructions, which she could not follow, only because she could not see the buttons he was telling her. With a final emphasis on her lack of comEnrico sense, he put his telephone down and walked towards her cubicle.
His movements were swift, not giving her time to react, and before she knew it, he was already placing his hands on top of her own on her mouse. Instinct told her to pull away but another awareness that such abrupt movement would cause unnecessary implications of malice prevented her from moving. They are friends, touching of flesh should not bring about any discomfort, she convinced herself. Chris was comfortable, she thought, stealing a sideways glance at him. That was the mistake. She realized he was leaning over her, his face merely inches away. She immediately brought her eyes forward, to the screen, where the mouse pointer was quickly moving and windows started appearing. But the damage was done. Suddenly she was conscious of his body heat, she could feel it permeating the back of her seat, the cloth of her dress and piercing her skin.His scent filled her nose and she knew she would remember that smell forever. He was muttering instructions to her too, his soft breath grazing her face, landing on her cheeks which began to burn. She was able to mumble some sounds of agreement, pretending to understand what he was saying. But in truth, his words were a blur and the part of her mind not busy relishing his closeness, was struggling to gently pull her hand away from the mouse for she was afraid that he might feel the warmth currently spreading through her own body. The installation probably went accordingly, she was not really sure, her head feeling light and dizzy. His pulling away from her brought her back to reality. In a while, he was silently straightening himself behind her. Her lack of responses definitely brought on the awkwardness, and she could not even bring herself to look at him. She said her thank you, with all the glee she could muster, but she knew it still came out shy and maybe weird to his ears.
She was then drawn to evaluating the degree of her embarrassment (normal? slight? too obvious?) and blocking off sounds of his movements, not wanting to be attentive to what he was doing, only wanting him to disappear. He finally called out his goodbye and she pretended to look back at him, but still avoided his eyes. She felt relief! But she knew she was fooling herself. His departure made her aware of a part of her, which she did not know she had until now, leaving her.
She placed her palms on her face and found that her cheeks were abnormally hot. That is when she stood up and went to the girl’s room.
Looking at herself on the mirror after drying her face with tissue, she could not help but think, “Kasalanan ito ni Ann at Marie. Hmfp!”