Hanky Panky

I stood on the street, desperately searching for a cab with its light on. It was 9 a.m. on Saturday morning and I was doing something I hadn't done in a while - the walk of shame.

I yelped with joy when one finally slowed to a crawl and pulled up to the curb in front of me. He rolled down the window and my heart sank, praying he wasn't going to turn me down.

"Where you going?" he grunted at me. 

"53rd and 9th," I replied, pleadingly. 

He gave me one sharp nod, "I'm changing shifts, but okay." 

I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly scurried into the back of the cab. Tourists were milling about all around me, and I was desperate for the safety of my own apartment asap. 

As we started uptown I pulled out my phone, which had been tucked away in my purse since I arrived at Keith's 12 hours earlier. I had three texts from Nick.

10:34 p.m.

What are you up to tonight? Just ran into Ash and Elena, but didn't see you.

12:07 a.m.

Come on, Dani. Are you with another guy or something??

1:48 a.m.

Come over babe.

I typed a quick reply, feeling almost guilty for ignoring all of his messages. 

Hey, sorry. Didn't have my phone all night. 

I quickly scrolled Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and before I knew it, we were crossing over 9th ave. 

"Thanks," I squeaked to the cabbie as I stepped out and onto the street after paying. I unlocked the door to my building and took the steps two at a time to my apartment. I unlocked the door slowly and tiptoed in, not wanting to wake Ash. 

"Hey!" I heard her voice from the kitchen. I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Hi! God you scared me," I said with a laugh. 

She raised her eyebrows, "Isn't it a little past your curfew miss?" 

I rolled my eyes. "Nothing even happened." Flopping down onto the couch, I kicked off my shoes and curled up into a ball. Ash sat down next to me, handing me a cup of steaming coffee. 

"Thanks," I said taking a long sip. "So I get there, and it's him, Haley and Joshua sitting on their roof drinking beers. Which was then pretty much what we did all night. Then around 2, I was about to head home since he wasn't making any sort of move. I mean not even touching me once." I started to get frustrated retelling the story.

"That's weird," Ash chimed in.

"I know," I nodded. "So I start to gather my stuff and he's like 'just say, it's late', so I took this as a sign he was maybe going to make a move. But he ended up just handing me one of his tshirts, and spooning me."

Ash tried to hold in a laugh, but it came out in a loud snort with coffee everywhere. 

"Stop it!" I cried, trying to suppress my own laughter.

"Is he gay or something?" I added. "I just don't understand."

Ashley shook her head, "I don't know but that's way weird. I mean he definitely didn't seem gay."

"He doesn't even try to kiss me," I said, frustrated. 

"Why don't you ask Haley about it?" Ashley offered.

"Don't you think she'd end up telling Joshua?" I said.

"No, just ask her." 

I nodded my head, making a mental note to ask Haley out to drinks this week. 

"So how was the rest of your night?"

Ash grinned, "I got a really cute guys number after you left."

"Ohhh do tell," I said. 

"Well actually, we ran into Nick. It was one of the guys he was with, I think his coworker." 

"Yeah, Nick mentioned he saw you," I said nonchalantly. 

"Wait, what?" 

"Oh, he drunk texted me," I said rolling my eyes. 

"Yeah he was in rare form. He must have asked us where you were ten times," Ash replied.

"What did you tell him?" 

"That you were at home," Ash answered. "Sorry, I couldn't think of anything more believable on the spot." 

"I mean, I have every right to see who I want," I said, staring down at my coffee. "Plus, my new boyfriend appears to be gay anyway." This caused us to erupt in another round of giggles. 

"What should we do today?" Ash asked. 

"Ugh I have to go into work," I answered. "Missing yesterday to help someone move put me a little behind." 

"Fine," she said. "I guess I'll have to entertain myself." 

An hour later, I was walking into work. I had to go in a side door since the main doors locked on the weekends, and I was creeped out at the eeriness of the building. 

I pressed 28 on the elevator and let the steel box sweep me up. I was mentally making a task list of everything I wanted to get done in the next few hours when the door opened with a ping. 

Stepping out into the floor, I was a little surprised to see that no one else was there. I had come in on the weekend a handful of times and was usually greeted by at least a few graphics people who came in to catch up on work.

As I rounded the corner to my department, I heard the sound of something falling off a desk. I quickened my pace, curious to see who was there. When our group of desks finally came into view, I stopped in my tracks. 

Jeff had his back to me, with two woman's legs wrapped around his waist. Some girl was in front of him and they were clearly absorbed in shoving each other's tongues down their throats. Assuming it was Elena, I cleared my throat loudly, about to bust their chops.

"Ahem," I said a second time. Both Jeff and the girl whipped around towards me, looking sheepish. My stomach dropped when I realized it wasn't Elena at all.. but one of the interns, Becca something. 

"Dani..hey.." Jeff said, extracting himself and straightening his jacket. 

I narrowed my eyes at him, You've got to be fucking kidding me. I thought. Instead I said nothing and walked over to my desk.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I have some work to do. Think you guys can take that elsewhere?" I snapped in an accusing tone.

Becca scurried away without a single word, but Jeff stood there looking uncomfortable. I ignored him and turned on my computer, fuming. I started to pull things out of my bag as I waited for my computer to start up.

"Dani," Jeff started. I looked up at him giving him the most bored expression I could muster. I was done giving him one minute of my time if he was going to keep pulling shit like this. We were at work for christ's sake. Elena's desk was ten feet from where he was attempting to impregnate an intern.

"Can we keep this between us?" he asked. 

I considered this, since I really didn't want to intentionally hurt Elena by telling her. But if she was going to start hooking up with him again I would never be able to keep it from her. 

"Jeff you can do whatever you want," I said. "Just so long as you don't hurt Elena. She's way too good for you." 

He looked a little hurt at my comment but didn't say anything else. He gave me a short nod and walked away. As soon as he left, I texted Ash what had happened. 

Oh my god.. what an asshole. Elena was texting him last night, but she didn't end up seeing him. 

I sighed loudly. Sincerely hoping she wouldn't see him anymore so that I wouldn't have to tell her what I had just walked in on.