Strangers On a Sidewalk

She knew everything about Alex and the reverse was the case when it came to her too. From first kisses to the first time they had sex. The two of them were inseparable even as children. Alex has been worried that things would change but nothing really did. They talked about enough.

Ella breathed in as Alex handed her the card. She couldn't believe her eyes when she read the contact details.

He was the CEO of a big shot publishing agency that she never could have thought would give her a time of day. She couldn't believe her eyes.

Ella turned for the umpteenth time, unable to sleep. She wondered how fortunate she must have been to meet him. He'd asked her to call him so that was a good sign at least. But what were the odds though. That she would met someone fit enough to help her achieve her dreams.

Why was it even hot? It was supposed to be snowing this time of the year at least. She rolled over to a different side of the bed, trying to get a better feel and get some sleep. Maybe, just maybe fate was finally smiling on her. She breathed deeply, feeling a lot more relaxed than she'd been all day. It felt like she finally gotten a lot of things off her chest.

*. *. *

Ella took a peak from her large pile of files towered on her desk as she adjusted her glasses. There he was. It'd been months since they actually spoke. He'd gotten her the job she had always wanted but that was about it. He was like a complete stranger now. They hadn't said much during the course of her time at AdSense. The name of her company was called AdSense Publishing. She loved working here more than anything. Something still seemed off though. Joey had said as much words to her as the amount of fingers she had on one hand over the course of time she'd worked there. This had been an exciting five months of her life. She had a job that she loved and was enjoying every single day of it.

She worried that she had probably done something to piss him off or something. He had gotten her the job and he didn't so much as look in her direction except for a few times that he needed something. He didn't unless he absolutely had to speak to her. She could have even sworn that she could read a tint of hesitance in his voice. Did he feel like she only used him for his connection? That couldn't be right because she only knew about it after he told her. It was the ultimate coincidence which turned out to be in her benefit.

She shrugged the idea off, as she retreated back to her desk.

"So, you like the rich billionaire types too huhn?" She heard someone say from behind her, causing her to almost jump out of her chair.

"God!" Ella exclaimed, turning around to face Natalie.

Natalie was her work friend. She was the only one that really bonded with Ella in the workplace.

She was like that constant persistent friend that eventually becomes the only friend. Ella always thought that she was nosy though but she knew things. Well, mostly because she was exactly that. I mean how else was she to have figured out that Bob from accounting was cheating on his wife with Margaret, one of their colleagues. Natalie knew the goods and shared with her anytime. It was mostly unsolicited information she'd grown accustomed to listening to regardless of what she thought on the matter.

"Oh my, would you look at that." Natalie said.

"Look at what?" Ella replied.

"You're turning beet red." She told Ella.

"I am not!" She denied vehemently.

It was bad enough that Natalie had just caught her staring at their boss, her face wouldn't even let her lie her way through the situation without putting her out to dry.

"It's okay Ella," Natalie told her. "He is pretty cute."

No one else knew how Ella had gotten a job at AdSense. It was questionable to some as she didn't need to go through as much hoops to get in as they were probably made to go through.

"You know I was hearing some chatter around the office." Natalie began.

All of that unsolicited information she usually shared typically began like this. First, she called it her hearing some chatter or describes it as picking up on some office static. Ella didn't know what to say with that so she just gave her a questionable expression as if queuing her to say more. She'd given up on trying to discourage her whenever she began like this.

Natalie paused for a second, studying Ella's expression. It was as if she was studying her face, unsure how she would phrase the words.

Ella was not sure what made her feel like a lost cause the more. The fact that she was used to it or she was eagerly awaiting the said chatter that Natalie was offering to let her in on.

If she didn't know any better, she would say that she was hoping to find something on Joey that she didn't know about beforehand. Something that was probably going to get the two of them back on talking terms again.

"You seem interested all of a sudden." Natalie said, smiling at her as if she had just told the chatter box an undisclosed secret.

"I am not!" She denied vehemently as Ella tried to hide her embarrassment. She turned to the stack of manuscripts in front of her. She had a lot of work to do so why was she entertaining Nat and her vices.

Ella turned to her desk, resolved to facing the work that she had in front of her today.

"You sure?" She heard Natalie ask her.

"Look, I have a lot of work to do today," she told her. "I'm sure you do too so why don't we just get to work and probably never talk about this ever again." She told Natalie in the most patient voice she could muster. A feeling that ran shallow in her right now, she thought to herself as she tried to dismiss the thoughts of him in her head.

Ella could not wait to tell Alex all about what she thought about it. Well, it wasn't like there was much to talk about but it was just a thing that she did very usually. She just got home and unloaded about her day to Alex which was seemingly normal now.

She was a little worried about how she talked to Natalie. Maybe she didn't have t be so harsh with her? She asked herself in her head. Maybe she had been too tense and it showed in her exterior. She knew for a fact that Nat was not the problem, Joey was. She didn't understand why he was suddenly a different person.

Ella knew that she didn't know enough about him to make such an inference but still, she told herself. On Some level, she had to have meant something. It wasn't that she was thinking too much but she just could not shake off the feeling that something had to have gone wrong somewhere.

Ella watched as Nat walked past her desk with some files in hand, trying not to look in her direction.

She hadn't spoken to her since her little outburst a couple of minutes ago. It felt like she was hurt but El could not just bring herself to talk about it. She felt bad about it. She knew that she had transferred all the anger she had been feeling over to Nat. She didn't deserve any of that.

"Nat." Ella said as she was watching her walk past her.

Natalie hesitated for a little but before reluctantly turning around to face her. The Latina girl was looking hurt and Ella could sense it. She was not the problem. It was this annoying hunk of a man that had managed to set her world into a twirl motion and would not so much as spare her a glance afterward. She was ticked off for sure and now more than ever. Maybe it was the fact that there was the usual flock of super models trooping into his office. It was a party in here as usual. Ella tried her best to do her job. The job that she had spent months trying to get, she reminded herself. The one that she was grateful to him for, she added in her head.

She was trying to remind herself that she owed him a debt of gratitude and even if she knew that was true, she still did not think that gave him the right to make her feel the way he had.

Was this on purpose? He didn't seem like the sort to do these sort of petty things. One thing she was entirely convinced of was the fact that he was indeed avoiding her like a plague.

Nat stopped to look at her, reluctantly turning around to face her as she tried to balance the weight of books that she carried. They were exactly books, they were manuscripts that would eventually find their way all the way to her desk on the long run.

"I love your hair today." Ella said, unsure how to proceed.

Nat hesitated for a couple of seconds then decided to walk towards her.

It felt like the right thing to say. Nat instantly dropped what she was holding and burst into a smile.

This was what she loved about her. She was very forgiving and too easy going to be bothered about certain things. She guessed that it was a good thing seeing as she did not take things to heart too much.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier." She said in a much more receptive tone.

She didn't deserve all that from her. Ella knew it all too well. She took some getting used to but that was just about it. There was not a thing about the girl that was not impossible to make friends with her, Ella thought. If she was going to be more comfortable here, she had to at least have friends.

She had been working here for a couple of months and she didn't have any stories to tell from work.

"It's all good." Nat said to her. "So, you wanna hear what I was going to tell you earlier?" She said, the enthusiasm that Ella had quelled earlier.

Ella smiled to herself inwardly, unknowingly letting out a sigh.

"I get it." Nat said apologetically, automatically turning to pick up the stack of papers she had set down on her desk from excitement. "I get it. You're busy." She finished.

"No, no." Ella denied. "— stay. I want to hear all about it." She told her.

"Awesome!" She screamed out loud causing the attention to be focused on them.

She was a free spirit and Ella could not at all fault her for that one bit.

"Keep it down." Ella told her.

"What're we talking about?" Her desk mate piped in from the other side of the bull pen.

"Nothing." She replied, instantly trying to get her to focus on work.

"Now don't be shy Ella." She said, peeking over even more to get a good look at the two of them.

"There's nothing to talk about Lisa." Ella said, amidst gritted teeth words.

Now this was one person that she never got along with. She had that air around her that made other people instantly get the right impression about her and get the right conclusion that she was not someone they would want to be friends with. It just sort of happened with her that way. Ell did not know how to stand this unwanted desk mate and she didn't want to so much as think about it.

Lisa was an actual pain. Ella had been here for three months plus and in that short time, she had managed to make her form an opinion of her.

Lisa was a self-absorbed Princess of doom and gloom. She felt like the world did revolve around her and it was frankly irritating.