Will they or Won't they?

The meeting was so boring, Georgie was going out of her mind. The room was overlit, overfull and overheated and smelt of bad breath, cheap perfume and BO. She was sitting in an emergency meeting listening to Mark and Pierre drone on about the new laws about fraud, bribery and corruption, while the rest of the room fought to keep their eyelids open.

‘Anything suspicious, report it to your line manager or the compliance officer.’

The room was crowded. Who were all these people? There were people in here she’d never seen before.

Georgie yawned openly and swung back on her chair like she used to do in school when Mr Edwards was boring her to sleep. She smiled at the thought. Edwards was cute but a terrible teacher. All the girls fancied him and he blushed anytime they spoke to him. Boy, they’d got through some double-entendres that year.

Georgie rocked forward and then back again.

She looked around the room, no one was paying attention, some people looked like they were examining their own private parts - no doubt sending a text or updating their Facebook status on their not so well disguised smart phones, some were pinching themselves to stop themselves drifting off while others had given up the ghost; their heavy heads nodding gently in the stale air. Surely it’d finish soon, surely.

Georgie rocked again forward and then back but this time she rocked too far. She could feel herself losing control. She was going to crash down backwards onto her head. It would certainly liven the meeting up but would put her in back Mark and Pierre’s bad books.

Just as she thought all hope was lost, she felt an arm go around her and an equilibrium regained. The arm eased her gently back to safety. She looked around to see who her saviour had been. It was one of the unknowns, but why was he unknown? He was delicious.

‘Thank you’ she mouthed. He smiled. God he was cute.

For the rest of the meeting Georgie stayed on terra firma but her mind was now on the man with the chocolate eyes sitting just slightly behind her to her right. Chocolate eyes and a smile like silk. Who was he? What department did he work in? Why on earth hadn’t she noticed him before? She felt his eyes on her neck, but was she just imagining that?

The meeting dragged on and on more scenarios to consider, more potential opportunities for corruption. Were they teaching their staff to avoid it or look for opportunities? Thankfully when Pierre asked if there were any questions there was silence, so they were free to go.

Georgie turned to her right, ‘thank you’ she said, ‘my name’s Georgie. Can I buy you a coffee.’

Chocolate eyes smiled, ‘I’m Luca and yes why not.’

They chatted over the latte, he was witty as well as gorgeous and that accent was as Italian and delicious as the coffee she was drinking. Was he her perfect man? She got the feeling that he liked her as much as she liked him. There was only one problem with this perfect little scenario. The gold bands that sat on the ring fingers of their two left hands.