Dreaming

I shut the door behind me while carrying a tray piled with food. It will be hard to swallow all the precious extra in the stairs, before the elevator opens to the canteen and I must keep eating the unsuspectable  quantity in front of my colleagues.

The advantage of knowing the kitchen staff provides me food for the break but also extra pounds on my figure. ‘Oh come on, we only live once,’ I think whilst biting a cheeseburger.

I sit down with the tray on my knees in the middle of the stairs and start to taste the cheese that melts in the mouth, quickly, before someone discovers me.

I see a figure beyond the darkness of the corridor but before I get alarmed I recognize the bloke James introduced to me last week and I do not mind. He takes care of the garbage. He must be here for a pick-up. I just hope he does not try to invite me to dinner again. He and James are rivals in this.

"Good food, yeah? " he asks, taking with him a whole wave of trash.

Poor thing, withstanding all that smell every day. I can hardly keep myself from telling him. Perhaps he got used to it and doesn’t notice anymore.

"We could go out one evening by my car," he continues, "I could take you for a ride and maybe get to see Highgate by night. What do you think? "

Before I answer 'give me a break' my mouth says yes, even consenting with a head movement. Am I numb or what?

"What about tomorrow at 11pm, then? It’s when I finish work, " he continued, encouraged to the point I can notice his lightened eyes. And I am too hungry to worry about the trouble all this means and how the hell he knows my timetable.

Well, who cares. Sooner or later I'll have to go out with a guy who isn’t you. I might as well as start now.

PS: Extract from my first manuscript. I really want to try to send it to publishers and agents. Tell me what you think, please. And be honest!