Office Christmas parties. Penny really didn’t like them and never had. It all seemed so forced; getting together with people from work, even those you don’t particularly like, and having a few drinks and nibbling bits of warm chicken nuggets and cocktail sausages on sticks. She’d rather not even be there. But like many others, she felt it would look as if she was being antisocial if she stayed away. She sighed and took another sip from the glass of mediocre white wine she was nursing. She looked around the all-purpose meeting-dining-banquet room that her firm had booked again for yet another Christmas party. A few imitation holly wreaths and piped in jolly Xmas music as background to the bursts of laughter from the salesmen clustered round the open bar. She wondered which one would be first to grope the chairman’s wife or make an offensive remark to the CEO.
Unlike a lot of the female staff, Penny hadn’t made a particular effort to dress up for the party. There was no-one she needed to impress and she wasn’t interested in attracting the lecherous glances of liquored-up office boys or the red-faced old lecher from shipping.
Penny glanced at her watch and wondered how soon she could diplomatically slip away and get home to Mike. She was looking forward to an early night with him.
As she looked up, she was startled to see an attractive woman standing a few feet in front of her, looking her directly in the eyes. Penny couldn’t help staring back. The woman looked strangely familiar. Penny couldn’t place her but it felt as if they should know each other. She was aware of a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. The woman took a step closer, still staring at her as if trying to communicate silently.
The woman was perhaps just a little taller than Penny, the extra inch or two coming from the four-inch black leather pumps she was wearing. Then Penny noticed the woman’s shoulder- length hair, envying the strawberry blonde color with a hint of copper and gold.
Penny felt almost hypnotized by this strangely compelling creature. The woman was looking at her with an ironic smile beginning to play across her lips. She raised an eyebrow and lifted her chin, still staring into Penny’s eyes.
(more…)