At the beginning ...
At the beginning they were good colleagues, good buddies, talking about their work, sharing thoughts on day to day issues, nothing major, just a smile from time to time. They went along just fine.
And then a major customer selected their company as main supplier, which meant more work, more focus and they both ended up in the same team, sharing the same office, being late almost every evening, being together more than 10 hours every day. And Lena started looking at John with different eyes, she noticed him as a man, who was caring, concerned of her well being, even if she saw more than it was, he cared about her as a good colleagues, as a buddy.
And so day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute, second after second she fell for him. Not even noticing her feeling, not even understanding what happened with her heart.
She was alone in the evenings and she started dreaming of him, of his eyes, of his smile, of his laugh when things went their way, of his worried face when they had trouble. She started remembering how he smelt, she noticed that he had detergent marks on his coat, that his shirts were not ironed. And she wondered what the 'other she' (as Lena called her) was doing. John was in a relationship, for a long time, considered getting married, so Lena knew she had no chance, so she suffered, in silence (or that was what she thought!).
But then she started making mistakes, being careless, day dreaming when she was supposed to stay concentrated. She started being a sentimental wreck and John started wondering, was seeking for answers which she was not ready to give. She did not want to cause him any pain, she had enough. So one day she resigned, out of the blue, she gave in to the tenth head hunter who wanted her for another company. She had enough holiday left so she announced that she intended to take it so she would bridge her time inside the company, it was not fair but she could not face John.
So day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute, second after second she tried to recompose, tried to find her old self. The phone was unplugged, she did not want to see anyone, she only went for long walks in the forest around the corner. And then one rainy afternoon, while returning from her walk, she saw John waiting in front of her house, wet, miserable and very sad.
They did not talk, they just looked at each other and then they knew, in the end there is only love.