Open Plan Office

Workin’ in broken glass

Their story started in the office kitchen, that first moment between Mark and Valerie, and it also ended when Mark came in with a bouquet of flowers, a childish smile, and saw his lover’s beautiful family.

His heart felt like it had gone through the pasta press. There was Valerie and her adorable daughter, just content to see her mom at work. Work. The job. The office. Mark had forgotten everything about the office and his coding job in the past four months. It was here that he met Valerie, a bubbly talkative blonde with honey-brown eyes. She had two moles just above her upper lip, they made her always look happy. But if you looked carefully, you’d see some sad wrinkles in her forehead. It didn’t really matter. Most people didn’t notice and they couldn’t tell really that she was an average, shy sales executive who somehow could become and act like a life-long Type A woman.

Mark didn’t notice any of her wrinkles when they met at their company induction session for new hires. He goes weak for women with moles, so he duly called Valerie’s Steph and Tess. Dork.

“Welcome to Churn! My name is Amina and I’m the COO around here, which really means that I run around and make sure that everyone is happy. And sometimes I do some work! Ha!”
Amina seems fun, Mark chuckled to himself. But not as damn beautiful as Steph (the mole) jumps up and down on Valerie’s face. Valerie is just so fucking hot.
“Alright, let’s go around the room, in fine elementary school fashion, and introduce ourselves. Mark, you first.”
Steph and Tess… and what’s her name?
“Earth to Mark, Earth to Mark!”
Everyone else let out nervous, composed laughs like you would if you just started your dream-job.
“So sorry, was miles away there. Uhm, well I’m Mark, I’m a systems engineer at tech and I’m really excited, happy to be here.”

Mark? What a boring name for a… intriguing face. He’s so yum, Valerie thought to herself. He was staring at me while Amina was waffling through her yawnworthy intro. But Mark is like, a hot nerd with just a dash of sex appeal. Yummy.

Valerie look at Mark. He was as skinny and tall as her. She caught a glance into his fearful deep brown eyes when they shook hands earlier. He seems friendly and nice, shy like her too. He’s marked prey and I’m the vulture. Deep in her analysis of Mark, she caught him making small talk with the new HR girl next to him. Hm. That’s weird. That fear recedes when he talks to women. That’s not very expected, huh, Valerie? This little prey may just be the Pandora’s box of prey. He’s way too hairy… and well-dressed. There’s something just off in him, just a bit skew. One hell of a Pandora’s box, really.

Mark and Valerie were standing by the microwaves in the kitchen while their food was being zapped. And somewhere deep in Mark’s chest, there was a raging ember over Valerie. She knew it and she liked that. And then Veronica walked into the kitchen. Veronica was Valerie’s sharp and mighty team lead, and they already were working on their giving-each other-shit-routine. Veronica was a hardened Churn veteran and a professional spectator of the office’s romantic tales.

“Hey, B,” Veronica chirped.
Baz looked up from a garlic sea, caught within a gyro bread, with a few pieces of grilled meat swimming in there.
“What, weirdo?”
“Have you caught a glimpse of our very own Vesuvius over there?”
Baz looked over at Mark and Valerie, taking awkward conversation in the workplace to an all-new Olympic level.
“It’s going to be a bloodbath.”
“Wow, they definitely didn’t hear your stage whisper.”
“Like I give a shit anyway, man.”
“Of course, you don’t,” Baz garbled out of the side of his mouth.
And he dived back into his garlic sea.

“How’s it going for you so far?”
“I love it,” Valerie oozed. “I’m just ready to get out there and make it rain.”
My God, she’s so beautiful. OK, Mark, chill man. Just take it easy.
“How about you… it’s Mark, right? I heard that you’re some hotshot developer poached from Flector.”
Mark chuckled. Flattery felt good out of her sweet mouth. “I don’t know about hotshot, your sources seem to lay it on thick for me. But I’m happy to be here too, I’ve found my feet already too, which is pretty awesome.”
“That’s great, look at you, just… sliding in there.”
Oh my god, she’s going to kill me with that look.

That might have been a bit too obvious, Val. Sheesh. First conversation! First conversation! Deflect, deflect.

She touched his arm, as nonchalantly and cursory as she could, but it still came out as if she had been planning it for a year. Valerie could give up her daughter for this exact moment, when the guy is just about to erupt because of the sweltering magma of the moment. She knew it and had known it all along — don’t guys want girls like her, who pile it on with these charged moments?

Three days later, you heard a whole bunch of noise from opposite ends of the office, the cacophonous noise of vigorous typing. It was Mark and Valerie, engaging in rapid-fire email and Slack exchanges. And then the giggling started.

Veronica brought up the thread with Baz on Slack.
“Who will be destroyed first?”
“Man. Fuck. I’ll take care of Romeo.”

A few hours later, the day was over and Mark ran into Valerie at the elevators. Come on Mark, fuckin’ do something!
“Hey you.”
“Hey yourself, Mark.”
“We definitely had a productive day.”
“Yeah, definitely. I worked on a whole bunch of leads and stuff for clients.”
“What? Leads? I’m confused.”
“Wow, step up tech! Do you guys not get… flirting?”
It felt kinda flirty but she’s good, Mark thought to himself.
Despite how he carried himself, he never considered himself a confident or calm person. He seemed to feel judgy eyes sown into the back of his head, juggling constantly between fear and shame. But, even as he missed an opportunity to shoot back some innuendo, he felt strong. Damn strong.
“Well, you can break down innuendo for a lowly tech guy at the bar. Drinks on me.”
ABOUT FUCKING TIME!, Valerie screamed in her head. The trap is set.

They became candidates for the Nobel Prize in astrophysics that night, proving that they were bend light and energy around them, stopping everything else from disturbing them, even the loud raucous life around them at the Irish pub. They were able to pull a Tupac and fuck the world, even the hardened drunks and the students showing off their tequila self-murder. Valerie was animated and talkative, while Mark maintained a steely resolve and matched her flirtatious missiles with intense stares into her. A few times throughout the night, he scared her because he was thoroughly self-confident as he listened to her babble about nothing. Six beers and white wines, Mark glanced at Valerie’s serene lips briefly and then looked straight at her.
“I think I’m in love with you.”
Nice work, V.
“Aww. Is that so, you hottie?”
She moved into Mark’s body and left only a hair’s width between them. The drunk, the loud, and the lowly stopped to glance at this live re-enactment of Sexual Healing happening at their bar.

Valerie had more than the usual amount of photos of her daughter Sophia on her desk. But not of Carl. Her boyfriend. Boyfriend. His name only found his way around the office, in her department, when Mark wasn’t around. You could say that it was luck or fate, or the tryst between the two, that it was just Veronica and Baz who had heard Valerie ramble incoherent and hardly believable stories about Carl and how they met. They felt a tad fake and besides, Mark wouldn’t believe him or Veronica if they tried to warn him. He was a hapless romantic on his way of being annihilated by Valerie Perkins.

“Hey sexy.”
What?! Did he just say that in an email? At work?! The balls on this guy. Valerie looked a few times at the screen to make sure it was real. This is just crazy. It’s crazy and a little… OK so, no Valerie, we’re not doing this. Boyfriend and daughter, boyfriend and daughter! This is just another fling. It’s what you do. It’s meaningless. You’re going home today, as usual, to Carl and Sofia.. but Mark? No, no, no, NO, Valerie! Look alive.

“What, cigarettes?”
Baz looked confused at Mark.
“What?,” Mark mumbled. He was forest-deep in code.
“Didn’t know you smoked, chump.”
“Oh! Sorry, yeah, sometimes, you know. Back into it recently…”
A ping on Slack. Baz saw it. “SMOKE BREAK!”
Now it made sense why this straightahead guy was smoking cancersticks.
“Oh, look at that, smoke break,” Mark let it leak out with little conviction, as he minimized the Slack window and got away like a guilty child who had just broken his mom’s favorite flowerpot.

Baz watched them as the two smoked and laughed and flirted on the balcony, alone, in full view of the office. They were smoking as lovers. Baz pulled away and got back to work, thinking how he was going to replace this solid developer when this whole thing erupts.
I fucking hate it when fucking Veronica is right, Baz brooded to himself.

It was 4:15pm. The buzz was dying out, as people were getting ready to leave. Mark turned off his laptop and packed it. Gotta take a leak, he thought… and maybe catch a glimpse of her before I leave. And maybe kiss her? and… other stuff.
The path to the bathroom cuts by sales. Steps away, he was by her desk and they exchanged a pregnant moment.
Mark closed the door behind him and looked in the mirror. He was happy. Genuinely happy. So much that he didn’t hear the door open again. Fuck! Valerie is standing behind me!
“What the fuck are you doing? Someone might see you!!!!”
“Shut up, you big baby…”
OK. I didn’t lock the door. Because this shit usually happens to me.
Valerie leaned back against the door. Her playful, silent stare drew him out of the initial shock.
“Well, I’m glad you locked the door…”
“Really now?”
She now leaned into him, the predator finally about to eat after a long hunt.
“So… why don’t you show me… that you’re in love with me?”
Can’t believe this shit, man. Our first kiss, in a fucking office bathroom, me and Steph and Tess! DIRTY.
When he held her head in his hands and savored her lips, his anticipation with her lipstick, he found nothing dirty. He poured in the sum of his passion and feelings and the build-up of the days past into her, and it became this elixir of swirling, subdued lust in a bathroom at Churn. Valerie felt the Mark’s genuineness, being tipped into her, how his hand was grazing her chin and the other was planted at the small of her back. While they kissed, predator Valerie, Valerieus predatorus, became vulnerable, shy Valerie. The clock struck twelve. Mark had stumbled upon the real Valerie. Who didn’t want to be found.

“Mark…”
Valerie pulled away from a kiss that Carl had never given her.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t do this.”
Mark became a pillar of salt.
“What?”
“I’m so sorry, I have to go!”
She left. His cheeks wouldn’t go dry.
All he could see was the hypnotic hum of the whiteness of the door.

Not in the kitchen or in the playroom. Hasn’t been to the weekly Wednesday meeting. What the fuck is going on? She avoided him at every turn.
“Hey, Marks! Can we touch base for a minute?” Bas said as he stood by his desk.
“Of course! Coffee?”
“You know it.”
They filled up their mugs in the kitchen.
“Listen, just wanted to tell you, everyone here at Churn is really happy with your work lately. I mean, not everyone can start here and deliver, being so new.”
“Wow, thanks, I mean, yeah, that’s so great to hear!” Mark was reveling in the coffee of victory!
“Let’s walk and talk.” They were heading towards the balcony. Hm, does Baz smoke, too?
“I wanted to let you in on a Churn secret. Like, insider information.”
“Should I be not recording you right now?”
“Very funny! But no, seriously.”
Mark took a sip. Baz looked solemn.
“Alright…”
“Look, Mark, this office… this office, this space, it has something about it.”
“OK so, not sure what you mean by that.”
“I know it’s beautiful and wide and comfy… it’s open-plan and all… but it crushes people.”
“This is one rough sales pitch, Baz.” Mark knew what he meant, but he didn’t want to face it.
“Look man,” Baz let out a laugh to ease the tension, “I’m serious. This office crushes people.”
“The company or the office?”
“No, chump. The office. Please take care of yourself.”
Mark heard Valerie’s silly giggle in the background. Baz noticed that Mark heard it.
“Back to work, solider.”
Baz walked away slowly to his desk, leaving Mark in the mess of his thoughts and feelings.

Valerie was locked into her phone while she waited for the elevator.
“Valerie.”
Fuck. I didn’t notice he was right there. Fuckfuckfuck.
And now he’s here. Just like last time.
“Is this some fucking game? You’re ghosting me.”
Alright, just play it ice.
“Sweetie, I’m sorry, you know it’s just -”
“Oh, cut that out,” Mark had to push it out of his teeth without yelling, “Seriously? You’re going to pull the I’ve been busy line on me!”
Plan B.
“Mark. I’m sorry.”
“Valerie, enough of your shit and level with me.”
This is a different side to him. This is not the same look he gave me in the bathroom, Valerie said to herself. But neither am I the same woman as I was before that.
“Yeah. This was a game.”
“Wow.”
“But -”
“But what?”
The elevator zinged.
“It’s different now -”
“You have some fuckin’ nerve, seriously-”
The doors opened.
“Because I’m in love with you, too, now.”
There goes that hand against my cheek again, Sandra purred to herself.
The doors closed with them inside.

- Carl, I’m sorry.
- UGH. Your usual fucking dumb shit.
- :’(
- Well, go blow your gasket and come home to your family, Valerie.

She had grown accustomed to this exchange with her boyfriend.

Mark was different. He wasn’t playing or even making it a game. He actually wants to be with me. This is so wrong, but… I’m in love with him, I love him, oh wow. I just said that in my head. I love Mark like I love Carl and my daughter, holy fuck this is so wrong, Valerie! Beautiful, precious Sophia, daughter to Valerie who plays with fire and thinks she won’t get burnt every time. But she does. And Mark can just heal that with his love. Right?

“You’re killing me here, M. What do you have up your sleeve?”
He squeezed her hand like a stuffed animal and kissed her like a feather would silk.
“Wait. And. See.”
“Come onnnnnnnnn”
“You’ll have to wait it out, sexy.”
Another feather kiss silenced her. They got out of the cab and came up to his apartment. He showed her in. She didn’t catch a minute to check out and evaluate his apartment because Mark did that applied astrophysics thing again and the forcefield of their lust undressed them, and sent them on a crash-course for his bedroom. The feather kisses had become napalm all over her face, neck, shoulders, and chest, and the napalm was mixed in with curdling proclamations of lust and announcing what’s to come to her body. They almost tripped over his shoes, but landed on his bed. He wanted his body to sink into her skin. She drove his lips around her body.

When they were about to get to the top of the mountain, Mark fell deep into her eyes as she gasped. And Valerie knew that this couldn’t end now. She didn’t want it to end.

Mark was counting the number of goosepimples out loud.
“What are you counting, dork?”
“Wait, hold up… 250”
“250 what?!”
“Goosepimples, I counted 250 while we were.. you know”
“YOU ARE SUCH A DORK!” She leaned over and kissed him, and felt the 250 shoot across her back and arm. Maybe he’s right, the hot dumbass.
“Is that even a word, goosepimples?” Mark giggled like a schoolboy. A happy schoolboy. Ecstatic. A different man in his own bed with me.
He felt her tears on his shoulders.
“Uhm, Val, I have a confession.”
Oh, God.
“I have names for your moles.”
“What!” Laughter came out with her tears.
“Yeah, names for your moles. Steph and Tess.”
Valerie laughed so hard and candidly that Mark blushed.
“I have no idea if you’re just a Class A idiot or the sweetest lover in the world.”
Her tears flowed again.
“Well, let me show you — baby? OK, you don’t have to cry about me being a dork…”
The poison in her tears came from that dark place in her heart, where she kept her guilt and shame about these extra-relationship trysts. Even as this time didn’t feel a tryst.
“No, sweetie, it’s not that.. it’s… mmmm… I just.. I love you.”
It was his turn to be quiet and have bubbling tears in his eyes.
“I love you too, you big softie.”
She laid her head on his chest and cried until she slept. Mark thought that they were tears of love and joy.

- See you on Monday night.
- Why did you even text me? Like, you give a shit about me or Soph anyway.
She didn’t reply.
A minute. “Let me guess, you love him?”
Valerie switched off her phone and went back to the wet patch on Mark’s chest. More crying to do.

“Baby? See you at work…”
She kissed him on his forehead. I’ve never kissed Carl like this.
“Of course, sweet lover,” Mark sighed as he smiled, half-asleep.

In the cab to the office, Valerie had a single, untouched thought — I’m leaving Carl. I want to be with Mark. That dark shit I feel every time.. I’m done with it.

It was a lively day at Churn and the whole tech team wondered where their hotshot developer was, and how he could even be late on internal alpha day. Sandra and sales wondered, too. But she didn’t want to message him. She noticed that she was under surveillance by Veronica and Baz. Maybe they were better vultures than she was. Or, they just knew. Who cares, Sandra? And she went back to her coffee in the sun-drenched kitchen, taking polite sips too of the memories from the weekend.

“You’re glowing, Valerie. What’s good?”
Vulture 1.
“Just… really happy.”
She beamed a smile that she hoped would melt Veronica’s darkened cynicism. Veronica didn’t have time to deflect the smile and tell her about her visitor.
“Mommy!”
Valerie shriveled up. And the dark shit spilled into her mouth.
“Sophia baby, what — what are you doing here?”
I’m a fucking disgusting person.
Veronica snuck out with a heavy heart. “Vesuvius all over again.”
Carl sat next to her at the kitchen table. Three days of spurned malice had made his cloud-blue eyes black.
“Don’t act all surprised. She hasn’t seen you in three days!”
His words were so hushed, but cut through her ears.
“This shit ends today. Is that clear?”
That was a little louder than the rest.

“What ends today, Valerie?”
Carl saw the man who had somehow upended the irrational dance he and Valerie had been locked into for years. It was a dance that involved a temporary flight from home for Valerie, but then she’s back home with me, Sophia, and that’s that. This time… was not right. I can’t fucking believe she loves this nerd!
“As the boyfriend of six years and father of her daughter, I say that this shit with Valerie ends today.”
“Boyfriend? Daughter?”
“FLOWERS! Mommy loves flowers! I love flowers, too, like Mommy does!”
Mark felt like he had been crumpled up, as he stood by the microwave, with the flowers. His brain stopped thinking and his heart stopped pumping. Carl had one thought.
“Hey buddy, it’s really sweet of you to bring flowers for Sophia, right sweetie?”
“Daddy, daddy, so those are for me?!”
“Yeah, honey, they’re for you,” Carl picked her up and tickled her.
“So, I’ll be taking the flowers AND Valerie tonight. Right?”
Boyfriend?
Sophia?
No, Mark. No…

Churn was housed in an all-glass open-plan office on the 12th floor. With a striking view of the ocean, every employee could say that they worked at the beach. The kitchen and meeting rooms were at the center of the office, so they were like open stages for everyone. Amina and Matilda, the CEO, wanted it like that, so that there would be an easy and fun feel to the office. There were shiny MacBooks on every desk, the kitchen bustled with imported espresso and cappuccino machines, and iPad Airs lined the meeting rooms. That’s how you booked the meetingrooms. Every part of the office was open to everyone. There were no secret nooks and crannies. The sun and view of the ocean permeated all.

Mark looked at Valerie as a broken man. They were silent. Carl and Sophia and the flowers left an hour ago. It became so obvious that the office stopped to watch.
“Mark-”
“Oh, fuck no.”
Boring Mark with the intriguing face grunted and got up to go to the bathroom. He closed and locked the door behind him. Violently.

Valerie knocked on the door. “Mark?”
Just her and the silent office.
“Mark. It’s 7 o’clock. You’ve been there all afternoon.”
“That doesn’t sound like an explanation of what happened today.”
She had no explanation. Valerie the undercover softie and Type A woman couldn’t even make up anything either.
Her phone buzzed.
-Come home now.

Churn’s internal Spotify system queued up a song for the moment.

Now I dread beautiful days/the days when I thought our love was a song

“Go home, Valerie Perkins. Maybe go for a walk with Sophia. It’s a beautiful day out.”

This is the English rendering from the original Swedish story.