Liquorice

~1~

The neat blue and white logo taunted her. No new notifications.

Facebook: The solution to and start of all of life's problems Waverly thought grumpily, banging the laptop closed before buttering her toast.

Wasn't it netiquette though? If you add someone on Facebook, shouldn't they accept your friend request the next time they were online? Especially when you could actually see they had been active on their account and still they hadn't had the decency to exert an iota of energy in clicking a single button.

"Oh Liquorice," she sighed, crunching on a bite of toast.

The black cat eyed her curiously. Or indifferently. It was always hard to tell with cats.

"It's so hard to put yourself out there, to give that power to someone who can then choose to hold it over you. Make you squirm like an ant beneath their mighty foot. Don't you agree Liquorice?"

Liquorice yawned and stretched out her paws closing her eyes sleepily.

"I'm probably over thinking things. If only I could sleep away my problems like you fuzzball." She chuckled giving the cat a quick pat on the head.

At least work would take her mind off things, for the short term at least she thought as she grabbed her jacket, bag and keys.

"Oops, almost forgot!" She cried, grabbing the fun-bag of liquorice allsorts and stuffing her daily bite-sized saviours into her bag as she headed out the door.

~2~

Waverly popped a green and black piece into her mouth. It had been a slow morning. She had already read and replied to all her emails and it was only 10.20am. Now she would have to find some other boring job to do like filing 'Ugh' or start on the customer monthly statements.

She opened the specialised programme in order to start downloading a statement. However, her attention was swayed as she saw Jenny walking towards her with a tall man in tow as if she were the tugboat of a mighty steamer. Jenny was pretty petite and it was quite a sight to see a small lass leading who must have been the new guy of strapping proportions in purposeful direction towards her. Waverly heard a bossy "Come on now, this way." That was our red-headed Jenny though, her temperament almost as fiery as her hair.

"Hi Waverly, this is Emmett, our new finance administrator"

"Hi" she said sticking a hand out.

He was cute, a rather good-looking guy.

He looked so briefly at her, he could have been skimming a paragraph in a novel. He offered a tight smile, before looking down at her proffered hand a moment too long and Waverly thought surely he's not contemplating whether or not to actually shake my hand? As if I wasn't worthy enough?

But he did shake her hand. A half-hearted shake which he abruptly withdrew and then looked away.

She was rather taken aback at this, and thought it a bit odd, but pushed the thought aside.

The three of them stood awkwardly for a couple of seconds.

I'd better make small talk, she thought.

"So… Have you worked in finance long?"

"Hmmm? Uh, no, not really." He said sounding rather bored and looking at Jenny rather than at her, who flashed him a brilliant smile, before continuing his gaze around the rest of the room.

Geez, it was like pulling teeth. Didn't this guy talk or something?

Jenny sensed the awkwardness and saved the situation.

"Well, I'll introduce you to the others now, thanks Wave." She said smiling at her.

Then she looked at Emmett "Shall we carry on?"

He smiled nicely back. "Sure, sounds great"

Hmmmm… What was with him? He didn't seem the least bit interested in who she was and the fact that they would be working together. Surely you'd want to make a good first impression on your colleagues? After all, they would be stuck in the same office for potentially a good deal longer. Waverly had definitely had an off feeling about him which was such a shame especially seeing as he looked like he did.

Strange also that he had given the opposite of the forced smile which had been directed at her to Jenny. Sure, he'd probably already spent most of the morning with her so perhaps felt more comfortable around her, but still, wasn't there such a thing as being polite?

Waverly couldn't help but feel self-conscious and her over-thinking brain whirled through thoughts of perhaps it was the way she looked, or that he thought himself too good to talk to the likes of her. But she forced herself to stop. This is what got her into trouble after all.

She'd never met anyone who came across so cold on first impressions, but she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and concluded he was probably the type of person to come out of his shell after a few conversations.

~3~

"Did you guys hear about Dave from billing?" Jenny asked, the next day in the lunch room.

"He bought his wife a new pony even though he was declared bankrupt only a couple of months ago."

Amanda's eyes gogged at this "I didn't even know he was bankrupt! Can you even work if you are?"

"Yeah you can, I believe you are actually encouraged to do so. You do know how much it is to keep a horse though right?"

"How do you find out this info? You guys are such gossips." Waverly rolled her eyes popping the top of her warmed cup of soup.

"So what about the new guy?" Jenny rushed out suddenly, changing the subject, of which she was an expert at doing.

"Oh he sure is cute," Amanda stated with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"And nice too."

"Really?" Waverly's ears perked up at this little tidbit.

"Oh yeah" She said. "He was telling me all about how he volunteers at the local hospice shop in the weekends."

She found that rather hard to believe when she thought of the straight-lipped emotionless Emmett greeting the old ladies, exchanging kind words and offering help.

She scoffed out "He's probably just trying to impress you, you know."

"Well, we can always go check it out one weekend" Jenny offered.

"That's stalking!" Waverly was genuinely shocked at this notion.

"Well, you know, a guy who looks like that that may do volunteer work…you gotta snap those types up pretty quick."

Amanda vigorously nodded her head in full agreement.

Waverly wondered when this little 'chat' took place. For after all the introductions had been handed out, Emmett had been placed in the desk next to Jenny and apart from the odd question to her to do with his training, he hadn't said much else.

"When did he tell you this?"

"When we were in the tea room. Jen was there too."

"Oh yeah." Jenny agreed.

"Well I found him a bit stand-offish if I'm honest." Said Waverly.

"Oh no, he's not at all!" Amanda exclaimed.

"Once you get to know him I'm sure he'll open up." Jenny said.

Waverly certainly hoped this was the case, as it seemed the relationships of others in the office were progressing much faster than hers.

"Ooooh, speak of the devil!" cooed Amanda as Emmett casually strolled up to their table holding his lunch bag.

"Were you talking about me?" He questioned flashing Amanda a cheeky smile and causing her a bout of muffled giggles.

"Oh always." Said Jenny meeting his eyes and grinning stupidly.

Waverly rolled her own and said "Hey Emmett. So how have your first couple of days gone so far at General Automation?"

He glanced fleetingly at her. "Oh, uh, yeah just fine." He said directing his attention more towards the other two girls than herself.

What? He didn't acknowledge girls who didn't flirt wildly with him? Well she refused to go to that extreme. If he didn't want to get to know her actually as a person, then he wasn't worth the effort.

After he'd left early and Amanda had gone to the bathroom, Jenny and Waverly walked back to the office together and Waverly said "You didn't notice there how he seemed a bit weird towards me?"

"Oh don't be silly Wave, he was clearing including all of us in the conversation. Besides, you know you over-think things"

And in that moment, Waverly knew she was alone on this one.

~4~

And things didn't get any better over the next few months. The more cold and distant Emmett acted towards Waverly, the more she allowed herself to think something was wrong with her, which in turn distanced her from him. This happened until she didn't really even bother speaking to him at all, unless it was a formal hello when they passed in the corridors or something to do with work. She didn't get it though, she was well liked by pretty much everyone she'd ever come into contact with, and that was probably why it bugged her so much that she couldn't get through to him.

She looked across the office at him one morning as he laughed heartily with a few colleagues in the corner by the water cooler. For some reason on that particular day, maybe because she'd forgotten her liquorice and was having a bad day, that laugh began to infuriate her! He never laughed like that around her and didn't even have the decency to give her the time of day! Why was he so different around the others? What did they have that she didn't have? Why did he judge her so? She was a nice person, not that he would have the audacity to find out! She was so pissed that she was even spending so much time thinking about him and the more she thought about it the more she thought of him as an arrogant, cocky, self-inflated ego big-head!

One day she bumped into him in the tea room. An odd thing in itself as she had got into a routine where if he would leave the office, she would stay seated to avoid running into him alone and having to make small talk with him, just to steer clear of the awkwardness. She was absolutely sure he was doing the same. She would come back from the bathroom, and he would be up out of his chair like a rocket and out the door as though he'd been longing for escape previously but couldn't.

Oh great she thought when she saw him in the room that day. She contemplated turning and hurrying back to the office, but by that point he had seen her.

The tight almost pained smile ensued, little patches of white forming across his lips.

"I uh was just about to make a round of tea if you would like a cup?" She got out eventually.

"Oh, no need," he said. "I've already made one for everybody."

"Oh" She said noticing he had only seven mugs on the tray out of the eight that worked in their office.

He picked this up. "Oh well I saw how busy you were and didn't want to disturb you."

She looked at the blue eyes, cold deep dark wells leading to an abyss of nothingness. And she realised then that he was most definitely NOT cute anymore. Not in the meanness around the eyes where small lines formed. A squint which seemed wary of her and tried to work her out. And not in the slight frown that formed between the brows. No, he reminded her of one of those expressionless statues from Easter Island.

"Oh, ah, that's fine," she stammered. "I can make myself one." And with not a millisecond more spent in her company, he was gone.

And then she was silently fuming. Make myself one indeed! How dare you be so utterly rude and impolite so as not to ask me! Why he was no better than a piece of dirt on her shoe. What a horrible man!

~5~

"Oh why didn't I say anything Liquorice?" she complained later. Her poor cat was probably going to leave her, the amount of complaining she'd been doing to her about HIM over the months.

"Why didn't I stick up for myself? See I am too nice. Oooohhhhhh" Waverly groaned whumphing down onto her couch.

As soon as she'd arrived home, Waverly had been pacing up and down her little flat. She was still so mad from the day's events that she just couldn't keep still. She'd muttered curse words, clanged cutlery and crockery during preparation for the evening meal and ranted and raved at liquorice who quickly took to hiding under the sofa. She'd also eaten a whole bag of her favourite sweets and was on her second bag but even THOSE didn't work. And they NEVER not worked. When she still hadn't cooled down sufficiently she decided she needed another way to release the tension. She spied an old notebook on her book case and grabbed it along with a pen and just began writing. Letting the words flow with hardly any thought behind them. Before she knew it an hour had passed and she had written pages of heavy-handed words in block capitals with lots of expletives dotted throughout. She stood up feeling much better, like a weight had been lifted.

She looked down at the angry jagged lines and tears where the pen had gone right through in her scarily forceful rage and decided at that moment NO more. She was not going to let him affect her like this, to consume her every thought in a negative, self-destructive way. She was losing control and it wasn't pretty. This was not her, the friendly, easy-going person she knew herself to be. She'd been moodier at work, snapping on the phone when her mother rang or at the store attendant when he didn't hand over the change fast enough. That was just not fair. How dare he get her down to this low point!

From tomorrow it would be different.

~6~

It was a team building day. Waverly put on a fun T-shirt that had a picture of a phone pointing at a tube on it. Underneath the phone was a speech bubble which read "I phone, you tube." She thought it might get a few laughs.

She was determined to feel good about the day ahead and even made a point to smile ridiculously at herself in the mirror. Feel the smile, Feel the smile she thought and repeated the mantra "Today you ARE confident and brimming with positivity. You can achieve whatever you set your mind to today, your possibilities are endless."

She'd really gone loopy now she cackled to herself.

Woah! She really was getting carried away with the craziness of all of this!

Once she was at work, she was ready to rock n roll. Almost everybody commented on how cool her shirt was and she had a good laugh with them about it.

Of course that is ALMOST everybody bar one particular person. He didn't join in the group conversation. He almost always didn't when she'd initiated a topic of conversation. However if it was anybody else he was sure not to miss out. She almost felt sorry at him leaving himself out of the conversation. ALMOST. Well it's his choice she thought.

They were put into teams at random with the rest of the finance department and piled on a bus to a high ropes course. A lesson in confidence building. Perfect! She thought. This is just what I need.

Her team was Bill from billing (yes he did get a lot of jokes about that one), Sandra and Jonathan from collections and Graham the team leader. A good team she thought grinning, looking around at the other unfortunate teams. Amanda, Jenny and Emmett were all on one team.

Haha my chance to destroy! She thought. That will show them, although she really meant HIM.

She knew she would be good too. She wasn't scared of heights, and had taken gym for years as a kid. All that balance beam and crap was sure to come in handy.

And it did. Her team won.

Anyway, she didn't know if it was the T-shirt or what, but she felt like being a bit silly today. She did a crazy dance. Kind of a semi yes-I-won-you-suck slash mental-person-flailing-arms-around kind-of-dance. Everyone was whistling and laughing and clapping and yelling "You go girl!" and she felt so great and important as she grinned at the losing teams, one in particular, and stuck her tongue out at them.

She thought she even saw one particular member smile when he thought she wasn't looking. However it was so fleeting it could have been a trick of the light.

~7~

The two girls beside her giggled.

"Oh for Pete's sake, can't we just be normal about this?" Amanda whined looking distastefully at the two chuckling chimpanzee's who called themselves Amanda and Jenny hiding with her behind the bush across from the local hospice shop.

"This is stupid anyway. We shouldn't be spying it's probably illegal not to mention creepy. He won't talk to us ever again if he catches us."

She found some form of irony in that statement. Them maybe. Us, pffft, he doesn't even talk to me anyway so no great loss there she thought.

"It's not spying, it's called checking out the facts" Jenny then moved a finger to her lips "Shhhhhhhh, there he is."

She pointed to where Emmett was near the front of the shop helping an old lady carry her bags to her car. He opened the boot up, put the groceries within, then rushed around to open the lady's door and let her hop in.

"Fake. He's faking it. Probably forced her to pay large bucks. Probably even scared her into it." said Waverly rolling her eyes.

"Ever the cynic." Amanda hissed back

On their way back to town for ice-cream the girls didn't stop their oohing and aahing over who was now known as handsome AND lovely Emmett.

Gag she thought to herself, where was a bathroom when you needed one.

~8~

It was the end of year work party and Waverly felt glowing in her golden satin chiffon number. Just the right amount of dressiness without being over the top, the knee length keeping it casual. It looked great with the soft brown curls she'd achieved with the curling iron.

This time she couldn't help grinning at herself whilst getting ready, she did look ah-meh-zing if she said so herself. No awkwardness tonight she told herself. She was going to have a good time with her friends and colleagues regardless of Emmett and how he made her feel.

She told Liquorice "Avoidance at all costs and I'll only have a couple of drinks. That way no trouble will happen." She couldn't let herself get carried away now, not when she was feeling this great.

When she arrived at the venue she was momentarily dumbstruck. The huge ugly main conference room downstairs at their company and been set alight with soft lighting, candles, white and turquoise drapings (the company colours), and elegant chair and table sets. Waiters and waitresses ran around in smart suits and everybody looked stunning in their coloured frocks and outfits.

She made a point of hugging the other guys from the office and telling them how great they looked and to make sure it was within earshot of Emmett in a bid to perhaps make him jealous or get some sort of reaction from him.

But he didn't even flinch. That is when he happened to be near enough to know what was going on. Most of the time he seemed to have mysteriously disappeared from sight. Not that she was looking though.

"Where's Emmett?" Amanda asked coming up beside her clutching a long flute of bubbles.

"Why would I care?" said Waverly casually, restraining herself from snapping at the thought that she would have anything to do with him.

"Jeez, I was just asking. I think you need something to loosen you up. Come with me." She said leading Waverly to the drinks stand.

They found Amanda there and the three of them got chatting.

"You know he doesn't have a girlfriend?" Said Amanda, somehow managing to get the topic back to Waverly's least favourite.

"I was going to see if he maybe wanted to see a movie with me." she giggled like some silly school girl.

And after some cheering on from Jenny and jeering from Waverly, which was ignored, the girl sashayed away to find Emmett.

"Well you can't she wasn't warned." Muttered Waverly under her breath.

Some time later, about three more drinks worth, she realised she was hungry. She saw him standing at the food bar and thought it a perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation. The wine was going down quite well and it was about time to try and make peace with him. Positivity and all that right? Amanda was nowhere in sight. Instead another sleek looking girl looked rather besotted with their engrossing conversation, or his talking and her laughing flirtatiously if you can call that a conversation.

She walked over to him and when he looked up from the conversation he was having, she even gave her most pleasant smile, the one she knew flashed the dimple on her right side. He looked back at said girl and took a long swig on his beer. But just as Waverly was about to speak, his eyes darted about looking for an escape before he put a hand on the girls back and led her towards the other side of the room.

The nerve! The cheek! That was it! She stormed over to the bar and grabbed more booze. She found a dark corner and loitered moodily there vaguely registering the earlier thought that this was not how she envisioned the night to go. She'd already gone against three of the things she said she would not do tonight.

1. Drink more than two glasses of wine. Hmmm not much more than two she hiccupped to herself eyeing the empty bottle and other one swishing half-full in her hand.

2. Avoid Emmett at all costs. Well he had avoided her so she was still on top of that one. 3. Maintain positivity and feel great all night. Hmmmm the alcohol will help with that as she took another swig from the bottle.

Amanda ran past her crying then. Waverly ran after her and tried to grab her arm, but Amanda brushed her off and ran into the bathroom locking herself solidly within the stall.

"Amanda, what is it?"

"It's him"

Waverly gritted her teeth, knowing exactly who HIM was. Oh what had he done now? Not her friends too! It was one thing on her, but another to mess with her friends. Her lovely friends, especially lovely sweet Amanda.

"What about him?"

"He's not interested." she sobbed.

"Can you wait here a sec?" Waverly asked, plan masterminding within her brain.

"Uh, yeah" Sniff, sniff.

At this point she was feeling bold enough to do anything after almost two bottles of wine, this was the last straw, he had to be put in his place. She stormed over to him.

"What the hell is your problem!" she blurted out, happy that it didn't sound too slurred. Boy she was going to regret this tomorrow! But she couldn't stop now.

His eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't speak, or make any moves to speak for that matter.

"What did you say to Amanda?"

"She's a sweet girl, too sweet for the likes of you." She sneered.

The mask of surprise had left his face and was replaced with a cool, calm and collected mask.

"She's not my type" He accented out each word with a hard edge to his voice.

"What the hell is your type then? And why be so rude about it? Why can't you just be nice to people?"

"It's people like you who make me this way." his prominent jaw-line clenched and unclenched.

She shivered then, there was an unnerving quality to his tone of voice and something inside of her broke.

"Why don't you like me?" she got out riding on a wave full of emotion, which threatened to unload onto the shore at any moment.

His face remained the blank canvas and she couldn't help it, she found tears pricking at her eyes. Damn it and damn him for getting to her this much, for making her cry! She never cried!

"Uh.." He stammered faltering as two lone tears made a trail down each of her cheeks.

"I just don't understand," she sniffled. "I never did anything to you."

She was aware of how pitiful she sounded and looked, tracks of mascara now streaming down her face. But that didn't compare to her utterly hurt pride and the hopelessness she felt inside.

She dared herself to look up at him again through heavy sodden lashes. Drops fell silently off them, making the lonely plunge far below to the floor with a splash of finality.

Nothing.

"So once again, you've got nothing to say huh?" God, this guy was made of stone!

The anger was back. "Well screw you!"

And with that she spun on her heels to walk away, biting back the chocking sobs which threatened to overtake her every action.

"Wait!" he called out.

It seemed to echo around the room, but as she turned back to him he was looking down at his feet, still even now not meeting her eyes.

"That's it!"

And she stormed off. They were coming in uncontrollable spasms of her entire upper body now. The tears running down her goddamned nose and flying of the tip as she ran blindly. The top part of her dress was soaked in her salty liquid. How could there even be a person who called themselves a human being who couldn't react to this level of emotion? She cried and cried at everything, everything she wasn't able to change or gain, the devastating nature of the situation, the empty pit in her stomach threatening to consume her whole. But why was it empty? She'd done it. She'd finally stood up to him and told her how she felt. She should be feeling fulfilled, in her own person, in confidence. It was him as a miserable human being that chose to do nothing about it.

Suddenly she heard an approach of heavy footsteps and a forceful hand on her arm. He grabbed her and whirled her around so fast they were now only a few inches apart and both breathing heavily, hers still laden with the occasional sob.

At that moment she saw the first ever emotion on his face. Anger.

His eyes were flashing. "Stop, damn it!"

Her own defiance turned her glistening eyes hard onto his as she wiped the last of the tears from her cheeks and nose with the back of her hand.

"Why?!"

"Look…" he trailed off. "Just follow me ok. You'll see." His voice was a bit softer.

She felt strangely compelled to do as he said tottering after his massive strides as quick as she could, not saying a word as he led her up stairs to their office and to his desk.

He opened the top drawer of his desk and removed various papers from the top, before pulling out his thick diary and shoving it towards her.

"Here." he muttered sinking down into a chair in a defeated sort of way and allowing his head to fall into his hands.

What could be so daunting about this diary it could bring a guy like Emmett to his knees so to speak?

She opened it to a page. Some work stuff, a few doodles. Trees, birds and… robots?! She supposed it was a boy thing.

She opened to another page. April 2nd. There was a list of work-related tasks down the page, but at the bottom he'd written something non work-related.

Her name.

It had been emboldened like it had been gone over many times with the same pen. She flipped another couple of pages to see the same thing again. And then again, sometimes with little doodles next to them.

But why on earth had he been writing her name over and over?

She looked over to him questioningly, but he wasn't watching, instead seemed to be meditating or something.

She flipped through more pages and a bunch of stars around a particular date caught her attention and six words causing a lumpy gasp to catch in her throat.

Jan 10th: The day I met her – Waverly. Again emboldened.

"Wha….." she trailed off, realisation a slow train coming.

A photo slipped out then, and as she fingered it's rather worn edges, she realised it from that team-building day in April. It was of her and the three other people on her team. She was wearing that dorky t-shirt. The day she'd been truly happy. And a bit crazy she thought with a bit of embarrassment colouring her cheeks then. It showed in the photo. An unbridled grin on her face and flushed cheeks from the climb they had just achieved. In fact, it was such a great photo of her, that at that moment everything came to her, like daylight comes to a dawn sunrise, as to why he had it in the first place. Slowing looking up from the photo she met his eyes for, what seemed, the very first time. His eyes were on her true and pure and full. And she realised she hadn't noticed the violet in them before. His head was raised slightly to meet hers from where he sat on the chair, peering up at her through his dark locks in a way that made him look so vulnerable, almost pitiful, but so sweet at the same time.

And he began to speak softly.

"From the moment I met you I've been scared of you, intrigued by you and excited by you and I know it seems like I might act crazy sometimes, but what I know now is that I'm crazy with all these feelings, crazy with all these feelings for you." He cleared his throat.

"I know you're going to hate me for being such a jerk to you, but for what it's worth I'm sorry."

Something caught her eye then. She'd looked into his open desk drawer and had seen bags of liquorice.

"You're obsessed with liquorice too?" she asked.

He laughed nervously, a blush spreading across his face and down his neck.

"Umm, no. I mean I like it sure, but ahhh….Well, you know how there always seem to be left-over liquorice with the rest of the food in the tea room after the conferences?"

She nodded.

"Well, uh, actually there isn't. I put those there because I know how much you like them."

"Hmmmmmm…." Waverly kind of moaned popping one into her mouth. After all, liquorice did help her think.

She pulled up a chair and wheeled it next to his.

And she looked at him, REALLY looked at him for the first time as she hadn't been able to do with all the tension and other stuff between them. She was an explorer in unchartered territory covering each rise, bump and valley. Where the land curved, where the contours changed and where it was perfectly symmetrical and straight.

He must have felt uncomfortable for he started to speak again "You know, I'm just not that good at expressing my…"

But she had grabbed another liquorice and pushed it through his lips into his mouth and before he'd even had time to chew, let alone swallow she leaned forward and placed her lips on his.

It was a deliciously pungent and spicy aroma to which they stayed as one while he, at first for only a split second, resisted, his body stiff, before he relented as he began to kiss her back.

And she thought how crazy that it should turn out like this, but she could say with certainty now that she did like him, and she suspected always had. In some bizarre unconscious way, her mind had been trying to tell her that all along: The constant thoughts about him, the need to understand why he did not like her. And she felt all the feelings inside her – the confusion, cynicism and yes even the loathing ball together into a solid force which was now driving the need inside her to have him and she realised that this ball was not that unlike passion and that they were really almost one in the same in their intensity and all consumingness.

His arms pulled hers then from where they rested on his knees to wrap around his waist. Lean and firm under his white cotton shirt, he then wrapped his arms around her and she knew then that this was where she would always want to be.

When she finally pulled away a little breathless, they sat nose to nose staring at each other.

He pushed a few strands of hair away from her face where they had fallen, placing them behind her ear.

"What are we going to tell the others?" She whispered.

He thought for a moment, eyes moving upwards and she peeked a look at his amazing strong profile and she grinned.

"That we are both obsessed with liquorice!"

And with that he laughed and laughed, so hard and enthusiastically, she had to join in.

THE END