Something is off this morning. Cobie glances down to double-check if she is wearing her blouse inside out or unmatched shoes. Everything on her seems fine, even her hair isn't that stubbornly messy today. Then why do people gawk at her as if she's the most intriguing creature alive? Does she look that dashing this morning? Or is it because she turns up five minutes late? She stayed until ten at work last night. She deserved to have a little bit of an easy morning, didn't she?

When she reaches her desk, she hangs her bag on her chair armrest and turns on her computer, trying to ignore those gazes on her. Plopping down on her chair, she slumps forward so that she can disappear behind the cubicle wall, completely gone from her colleagues' prying eyes. Still, it doesn't make her feel unseen. Something is definitely wrong.

She looks over her shoulder to check Lucy's cubicle. To her surprise, her colleague is also watching her with a look she can't decipher. Lucy quickly waves at her once she meets Cobie's eyes.

"Good morning!" Lucy greets.

"Morning. Do you know what's going on right now?"

Lucy's lips stretch, a little bit too wide, but the anxiousness in her eyes betrays her attempt to smile. She looks like someone having constipation instead. "What?"

Cobie straightens her posture and peeks over her cubicle top. People are now back to their work, but a few of them catch her eyes and grin at her. She lowers her head again and turns to Lucy. "Something is off. People are staring, and those girls from Finance just grinned at me like maniacs. What the hell is going on?"

Lucy gulps. "Okay. Calm down. Don't freak out."

Cobie raises one eyebrow, utterly confused. "Should I be freaked out? Why?"

"Mmm, in case you didn't know.... There was, I mean, there is a message going around at the moment."

"What message?" When Lucy doesn't reply to her fast enough, Cobie stresses her voice. "What message?"

Lucy's forced smile turns to a wince. "Maybe you should go check your email."

What is Lucy talking about? She has her work email set up on her phone. The only message she got was from Luke last night, and it was about him thanking her for the files. Nothing more, nothing less.

Cobie clicks the refresh button three times, and still no new email. Frowning, she opens Luke's email and rereads it.

---------------------------------------------

Subject: Re: Files for Global Sports

From: Luke.Williams

Cc:

Thank you :)

---------------------------------------------

"So?" Lucy's voice comes from behind her.

"I still don't get it. What am I looking for exactly?"

Lucy gets up and walks over to her. "Why not revisit your email to Luke last night? Maybe" —Lucy bites her lower lip— "it will give you some idea?"

Without asking further, Cobie does as Lucy suggested and clicks on her sent messages history. Her fingers are shaky, and her stomach churns for no clear reason, but she can feel that what she's going to see is not a pretty thing.

When she rereads her last email to her manager, her heart drops to the bottom of her stomach.

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Subject: File For Global Sports

To: Luke Williams

Cc: Georgia White, Bram Slager, research_staff

Dear Luke,

Please find the files attached as per request.

J. Evans.

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Subject: Fwd: File For Global Sports

To: Luke Williams

Cc: Georgia White, Bram Slager, research_staff

So, I've been working with this guy for over two years now. Actually, he's my boss. No, he's the boss of my boss. If only he wasn't that infuriatingly hot and charming,... Read more

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What happens in the next five minutes is a blur for Cobie. Lucy's lips move quickly but her voice is like a muffled sound coming from a radio drowned in bubbly water. Cobie is unable to think; she's immobile. She stares blankly at the screen before her, believing it's just a dream.

She needs to wake up now. She needs to stop this familiar hum of the air conditioner, the rhythm of fingers dancing on the keyboard, the never-ending screaming office phone lines, and the brisk footsteps around her.

This is not real. Wake up, Cobie!

A hand touches her shoulder gently. "Cobie, do you hear me?" Lucy's voice jerks Cobie back to reality. "Are you alright? You look like you're going to faint."

Cobie jumps up, almost knocking her chair backward. She then looks around swiftly before hurrying out of her cubicle. "I need air."

Holding on to the iron railings on the office building rooftop, Cobie tries to make sense of everything. She has no freaking idea about what is going on right now. How did the message she wrote for BreadPitt end up in the email she sent to Luke? Who pranked her like this? But as far as she remembers, there was no one else in the office with her last night. Did she copy-paste it by accident? Or did she...

Cobie holds her breath and fishes her phone out of her pocket. After entering her username and password on the dating site page, her screen is directed to her recent convo with BreadPitt.

Fuck! My cat is puking on my carpet

Ouch! Good luck with that!

So, about your question.

Bubba successfully ruined my carpet. It's the one grandma gave me. Fuck!

Yeah about my question. And?

??

Cobie groans as she turns around and leans back against the railings behind her, suddenly losing her ability to stand on her feet. She throws her head backward and closes her eyes to let the warmth of the sun caress her face, hoping it can soothe her chaotic mind. Yet, all the questions and speculations around the disastrous email won't stop swimming in her head.

She did write the damn message on the email for Luke. What kind of dumb action was that? After letting Luke read her convo with BreadPitt, and now this? Great!

And who is malicious enough to leak the convo and spread it to the rest of her colleagues? Since she only put a few people in the Cc field, the suspects narrow down to Luke's secretary, Bram, the other research team members, Samuel and Dara, and Luke himself.

It's hard to see Luke would do this to her. And for what reason? He's her manager after all! She also can't see any rational explanations for why her team would do this to her. Bram, her supervisor, would definitely beat her first once he saw the email. Sam might have been a little competitive since Bram announced his early retirement plan for next year, but he's not a typical guy who plays this stupid high school game. And Dara is just a new chick who started last week. She's still pretty much clueless.

The last suspect is Georgia, the secretary. Everyone knows she is into her boss, and she's not shy in showing her admiration for him in public. Did she do this to eliminate her rival to avoid the potential hassle? Or did she find it just funny to embarrass other girls who think Luke is hot? Shivers run down Cobie's spine as the thought brings her back to the second year of high school.

No, not this again.

She was three months into dating Peter, the popular boy in town who was also one of the arrogant jocks at school, when she found out it was a total joke. After a series of ignored red flags, Cobie learned that she was just a number for him. But too late, she was already blindly in love with him.

Sadly, the story didn't just end with Peter cheating on her. She then became a laughing stock when people at school learned she gave up her virginity to Peter on the day he met his next girlfriend. Later on, she found out that Peter's new girl was a bully. She was the one who leaked the news, including Cobie's problematic pictures during the time she was dating Peter. And Peter did nothing to stop that bitch.

The sound of the door being yanked open pulls Cobie back to the current moment. "Are you okay?" asks Lucy as she walks over to her while squinting her eyes against the morning sun.

Cobie nods. "Yeah. I'll go back in a minute."

"Alright. I just wanted to make sure. The joke seems to hit you harder than everyone expected."

Cobie looks down at the brown flat shoes her mom picked for her this morning. "Joke, huh?"

"For them, yeah."

"Does everyone know about this?" Cobie asks and is answered with a nod. "But how? Who did this? Do you think it's...Luke?"

Lucy shakes her head, her brown curls dancing on her shoulder. "Why would he do that? He's everything but make fun of someone who has a crush on–"

"I'm not having a crush on him."

Lucy's mouth hangs open from Cobie's correction, but she quickly overcomes her bewilderment. "Okay. I mean, someone who" —the girl scrunches her nose— "is in your situation."

Cobie groans from how fast she denied the truth. The contents of her stupid email spoke louder than anything after all. But Cobie agrees about Luke not being a jack-ass. He may have power from his managerial position in this company, yet he always treats everyone with respect. Luke is not Peter.

"It's Georgia then," Cobie concludes.

"My first guess would be her, yeah, but she isn't the only one on the recipient list. Presumption of innocence."

Cobie frowns. "It can't be Bram. And Sam doesn't play dirty. At least not for something stupid like this."

"What about that new girl? Sam's mentee?"

"Dara?" Cobie purses her lips. "Nah. I don't think she has anything to do with this. She still looks pretty intimidated with stuff around here."

"Then it's Georgia."

"Yeah. Must be her," Cobie mumbles. "What did the message say by the way?"

"It's just a screenshot of your email."

Cobie groans again. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asks, feeling slightly betrayed that her friend left her in the dirt alone.

"I thought you knew, and you intentionally played dumb when you entered the office."

"Seriously? Even if I knew, wouldn't you check up on me?" Cobie's voice is dangerously sharp. "Nice."

"Hey! I get that you're pissed, but don't you think you're barking at the wrong tree right now? I didn't know anything about this until I arrived at work, like, fifteen minutes before you came in. I was also overwhelmed and had no clue whatsoever how to react when you asked."

Cobie closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, counting to five in her head. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Look, I will help you find the proof that she did this to you. And if you want, we can bring this issue to the Personnel, or we can prank her back. Meanwhile, you need to keep your cool in front of everyone. Don't feed them with your panic."

"I am keeping my cool."

"Good," Lucy says, contrasting the doubt that flashes in her eyes. "I mean, admiring Luke is not a crime, you know? Who doesn't find him hot anyway? I believe a lot of us have done something silly when it comes to him."

"But none has sent him an email saying he's hot enough to bang. On a work email." When Lucy muffles her giggle, Cobie narrows her eyes. "You find this funny, don't you?"

"Sorry." Lucy's voice sounds like a strangled duck. "It's definitely not funny. No."

Cobie peers at her friend, trying to show that she is displeased with her reaction. But the more she looks at how red Lucy's face has become, and how her lips wobble from holding in a laugh, Cobie can't help softening up. "Okay, that was a bit funny."

Lucy instantly breaks into cackles. "I'm sorry I'm laughing! Please, don't be mad! But it was actually funny!" she squeals between her laughter. "I mean, how did you do that? How did you write him something like that?"

Cobie rolls her eyes but she chuckles along. "You don't wanna know. It's just" —she sighs— "completely idiotic. I was talking to that guy from the dating site, and that message was supposed to be for him."

Lucy's eyes widen in amazement. "You talked about Luke like that with the guy? I thought you guys were talking to each other as potential lovers. I mean, you've been talking to him every day. Something must've been brewing hot between you two."

"That guy is another story from another planet. We don't need to worry about him now." Cobie shakes her head. "Dammit, Lu! I really don't know what I'm doing now."

"Hey. Everything's going to be alright, okay?" Lucy says. "Everyone might be laughing at you right now, but it will go away with time, especially when there is something new to laugh about. All you need to do is be cool. Just act as if it's not a big deal at all."

Cobie nods, forcing herself to agree with Lucy, but she knows it's easier said than done. However, she went through bullying before. If she survived her high school years, she will overcome this one.

"I need to write apology emails soon."

"And I think you should talk to Luke in person if you have a chance."

Cobie wails. "What am I going to say to Luke?"

"Apologize and undo everything you wrote to save face?"

"How the hell am I going to undo what I wrote?"

Lucy shrugs. "Not sure. Deny it maybe? Or just lie that you were talking about someone else in that message?"

Cobie narrows her eyes on her. "Are you crazy? It's very clear that it was about him!"

"So, are you saying you're going to admit in his face that he's hot and bangable?"

"Of course not!" Cobie brushes her hands through her hair and makes fists while groaning in frustration. "And even if I clear this up with Luke, how am I going to make the rest unsee my email?"

Lucy shrugs. "You can't make them unsee it. But you know that fixing the mistake you made to your manager is more important than those sneering faces in the office, right?"

Cobie groans again. "Fuck, fuckity fuck!"

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