Headhunters by Charlie Cole

over to join us. I didn’t really want to break the mood that
Jess and I had working, but sometimes it’s good to be gentleman. I tried to
catch her eye, but Athabasca looked right at me and then away, as if ignoring
me. I considered then that perhaps it wasn’t me she was ignoring, but us. Were
we breaking some company code about fraternizing after hours? I couldn’t
imagine. I decided to let Ms. Athabasca return to her cold fish alone. They
seemed suited for each other.
    I entered my office and flipped on the light. I’d decorated
or decorated by default. Max had offered some paintings. Jess had brought me a
plant. Ellis gave me a couple books that he recommended. And Catherine… well,
Catherine seemed to have grown to tolerate me. We shared a professional rivalry
and I had to concede that she was good at what she did. But for every
consultant that she placed, I placed two. I knew that I needed to be on top. I
had to keep my forward momentum going, building, like a shark, never stop
swimming.
    First thing in the morning, I began making phone calls. It’s
incredibly easy to want to put off making phone calls, so I did it right away.
I put on my headset and began dialing, calling managers first, catching them at
their desk before the work day began. Then as the morning wore on, I switched
to calling candidates on home phones and if nothing worked there I’d switch to
emails.
    Max waved to me as he walked past my office, then doubled
back and dropped a contract on my desk and mouthed the words “Talk to you
later” and continued out of the office. I kept working until I saw Jessica. She
smiled at me, saw that I was on the phone, kept walking. I wrapped up and disconnected
and ran after her.
    “Good morning,” I said.
    Jess checked her watch and made a face at me.
    “It’s nearly noon,” she said with a smile.
    “Oh, well… sorry I didn’t see you sooner,” I said.
    “You apologize too much.”
    “I do,” I replied. “And I feel badly about that.”
    Jess laughed and I liked the sound of it.
    “Care to join me for a coffee?” I asked.
    “It’s nearly noon,” she repeated.
    “Iced tea, then,” I offered. “To go with lunch?”
    “Lunch, hunh?”
    Jess and I had lunch together and as much as she put on the
pretext that I had to ask her out on a date every time I offered lunch, we’d
become a regular thing. We had lunch together nearly every day and talked until
we nearly lost track of time and had to run to get back to the office.
    It was the same today and we found a little deep dish pizza
place around the corner from the office. It was the kind of place that made
Chicago legendary and yet was unlikely to be found be someone who wasn’t a
denizen of the city.
    We ate and talked about nothing. TV, music, movies… I’d
learned that Jess was a hell of a cook. If there’s anything that’s a waste,
it’s a woman who knows how to cook who lives alone. I didn’t think anything
about Jessica was a waste, though. We finished lunch and returned to the
office. For once we caught the elevator and were alone for a moment. I was
hyper-paranoid about security cameras but I allowed my hand to find hers while
we rode up together, alone for the moment. Our fingers intertwined and we held
hands.
    “I’ve missed you,” I said.
    “You see me every day,” she replied.
    “No, I miss you.”
    “Oh…” she understood now.
    “We’ll need to find some time together.”
    “Yes…” I replied but then the doors opened and our hands
dropped before I could finish the thought. “Find me later.”
    “I will. Miss you too, Simon.”
    And then she was gone.
    I walked back to my office and sat in my chair, staring at
my monitor but not really seeing what was in front of me. I shook my head and
blew out a deep sigh. Work… work… think about work, I told myself.
    I picked up my headset and began dialing the phone.
     
    ***
     
    I’d set the reminder in my Outlook
calendar to pop up fifteen minutes before I