The Cold Office

Kate looked around the office and wondered if she was the only one there that felt as cold as she did. It was a pleasant day for October, as long as you were outside, but inside the office it felt downright arctic. She spotted Danielle off in a corner, speaking with one of their other colleagues, and she felt ice.

Kate had been working there for a little over three years and she had immediately gotten on really well with Danielle. Kate would inquire about her children and Danielle would ask her how her dating life was — and right now it was particularly peculiar since she seemed to have the interest of two different people.

In the last couple of months, however, something seemed to have happened between them — Kate wasn’t even aware of what it was or when it had happened — and Danielle had stopped talking with her about matters, unless they were strictly related to work. Now she watched on as Danielle spoke with this other person and wondered what she could have done to make her no longer want to speak with her as she previously had.

At one point she made an effort and actually asked Danielle directly if there was something that was bothering her, or if she had done something to perhaps offend her that caused her to keep a personal distance. As she suspected, the answer she got back was less than useful if not polite. “Of course you didn’t do anything to offend me,” Danielle said, “it’s just that I have had so much on my mind and we have been so very busy here with new projects and I’m afraid that I just haven’t had time to think about personal matters, I’m so very sorry” and walked away only to have a very personal conversation minutes later right where she could be seen and heard by anyone including Kate.

So it went.

If you enjoyed this story, it is one of fifty stories collected from the New York Living book series by Gordon Davidescu. You can find the rest in the book Stories in the Key of Kate (affiliate Amazon link here.) Additionally, you can get free weekly fiction, non-fiction, poetry and more from Gordon Davidescu here.