child's play || [GAVIN]

Gavin sat at his desk with parchment sprawled all over his desk, and on top of all that, an open file. He was trying to organize essentially a pee-wee Quidditch game, something meant for younger ages. It was kind of like a camp, and it was outside of school hours. It was apparently his duty to also manage all the permission slips and make sure everyone was placed properly. He also had to find a location, and in fact had just come back from scouting. It wasn’t as easy as just finding some field. It had to be the right length and width, be able to hold the goals, and then he also had to perform all the Anti-Muggle charms to keep Muggles away. Building the stands was another concern. It all couldn’t be done in one day, but he tried to get his morning started right. He always felt better when he worked in the morning. 

He hadn’t even heard Dana approach until she spoke. She leaned against the doorframe like some kind of model, and his eyes instinctively started from the bottom and worked their way up to her face. He expected her to look angry with him, but instead she seemed calm and collected. He couldn’t remember the last time he had exploded at someone like that, and he knew it hadn’t been fair to Dana. Gavin looked down at the work in front of him and then nodded at her. He pushed himself away from his desk, stood up, and then wiped off his trousers casually. He left his jacket draped over the back of his chair and made his way to Dana.

“Yes, I could definitely go for coffee,” he said with a small half smile. Gavin nodded his head to indicate the direction he was going to take. As he walked along with her to the lift, he realized he hadn’t gotten over the fact that Dana stood eye-level with him. It didn’t happen to him very often with women. As they waited for the lift, he shuffled uncomfortably before turning to face her properly. “Look, I’m really sorry about what happened the other day. You’re one of my best secretaries and I shouldn’t have made you feel like otherwise. It was just a really bad day for me, and I shouldn’t have brought that stress into work with me.”

He hoped his apology would be enough. Gavin was tired of making apologies, and figured maybe he should stop performing actions that required apologies. Dana was a perfectly lovely woman, more importantly, a perfectly lovely age-appropriate woman. His resistance to actually allowing someone else in was one of the reasons why he felt completely and utterly miserable most days, and he wanted that to end. Dana seemed like a good place to start. 

It was hard looking at Dana and remembering how rude he had been to her. He prided himself in not being a rude man, yet there he had been. She was beautiful, and it was hard to be difficult to a beautiful woman. The eyes that he thought were dull back when he was frustrated with her seemed suddenly bright and alive. It was always that way, though. When he was with Dana he seemed to forget about his problems, but when he was with Eileen, Dana suddenly seemed almost unappealing in his mind. It was ridiculous, as she was clearly eye-catching. It was hard not to be when one was tall, blonde, and wore high heels. She shone in an office of rather plain looking men and women. He knew he himself was considered attractive by many, and wondered what they looked like walking together. 

Gavin studied her face as he apologized, and she seemed legitimately surprised. She had been the one who had invited him to coffee, perhaps she had put that incident completely behind her and now he was bringing it back up again? “Please, call me Gavin,” he felt as if he was too young to be called ‘Mr. Jenkins.’ Hardly any employees called him that. It wasn’t as if he was doing her a favour, she was merely being polite, but she was new and didn’t seem to know that his regular employees called him by his first name. He felt her hand against his and it felt like to him that electricity passed between them. He hardly knew a thing about Dana, but he knew that she got his pulse moving. He gave her a small half-smile. “Again, I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve it, it’s on me.”

He grimaced at Dana mentioning Eileen. “She’ll be fine.” He replied, almost coldly. He had to remind himself that Dana wasn’t in on any of his personal life, and she didn’t understand. She wasn’t intentionally trying to wound him by mentioning Eileen. He sighed and let the tension out of his shoulders. “She’s a friend. I suppose she felt more about me than I about her,” he tried to explain. It was a bit of a lie, but that didn’t matter. It almost felt good half-admitting the problem to someone else. “Me? I’m definitely okay. It just caught me off-guard, being at work and all.” He felt like a pig telling Dana, but if he didn’t say something to someone, he felt as if he was going to explode. 

They stepped off the lift and led Dana through the atrium and out the doors. The early March sun shone upon them, almost as if apologizing for practically disappearing for the dark and dreary winter that they had experienced. It was still chilly and there was snow on the ground around them, but the sun made everything feel better somehow. “Do you – do you have a favourite place to go?” he usually actually had one of the secretaries bring him his coffee, and since he lived in Hogsmeade, he didn’t know this area particularly well. 

Gavin couldn’t help but grin at her. He felt good that they had gotten back into the swing of things, and that she hadn’t made it overly awkward by dragging out his apology or making him feel worse than he already did. Dana just went with it, and for once it seemed relieving. He didn’t have to constantly repeat himself or assure her that it wasn’t her fault. Dana was very self-secure, which was a rare find in a woman. He supposed that she was just very confident, and knew her strengths. He knew that sort of thing happened when one got older. Gavin knew his strengths and weaknesses, but he didn’t quite have the security to go along with it. Perhaps in a few more years. It was strange to think, because even Dana seemed to know what she was doing a lot more than Gavin, he was the one who was Head of the Department and the likes of her was just a lowly front secretary.

“Something like that,” Gavin replied, not bothering to tell Dana Eileen’s true age. It didn’t matter anyway. It was over. Besides, Dana only seemed vaguely interested in the situation. Another thing he was happy about. Eileen had burst into tears just at Dana’s presence. He looked at the woman with adoration in his eyes. He wanted to run his hands through her hair and try to experience the situation again, but this time focusing on the fact that he was with Dana and not Eileen. He had yet to ever do that, and his conscious felt guilty due to it. “Puppy love can be quite adorable,” he agreed as he looked at her. It would take him awhile before he got used to not looking down at her. Then again, once she would remove her heels she would become a bit shorter. He liked her heels, though. She walked in them as if they were an extension of her legs. It was strange how when Dana wasn’t around, he tried to justify all the things that were wrong with her, but in her presence that ability seemed to fly out the window. He tried to remind himself it was due to her pretty face. How could a guy say no to a woman that beautiful? 

“Well then, that sounds perfect,” he agreed as he walked with her, her sunglasses taking up a lot of room on her face. Gavin never bothered with sunglasses much. He had a pair, but he always ended up losing them. He expected when Eileen cleaned his office that they went to their proper place in his top drawer, but he hadn’t bothered to look. It hadn’t occurred to him until this moment that perhaps he would need them. He smiled at her when she ordered and he pulled some money out of his pocket and plunked it on the table. “I’ll have whatever she’s having,” he added, not even sure about what the hell was delivered to him at his office. He never asked for anything specific, and just accepted what was given.

The drinks were made rather quickly and with excellent service. He handed Dana one. “Careful, it’s hot,” he reminded her. He looked around and there were a few people at the small tables within. He made his way over to one by the window and sat down. The place almost seemed intimate, made for pairs of two and hardly any groups larger. He got to the table first, and therefore Gavin had the pleasure of watching Dana walk toward him. “Don’t your feet ever hurt in those shoes?” he wondered. He didn’t understand where the idea of high heels came from, but whoever invented them were geniuses. Well, he’d give that person more credit if they were easier to walk in. “I see girls in the office wearing them all the time and they clunk around as if they’re in pain,” he added. He didn’t understand that those women just didn’t understand how to walk in them yet. Gavin took a sip of his drink. He wasn’t too picky about his caffeinated beverages. He was tempted to apologize to Dana again, but resisted. He had the feeling that she just wanted to be over it, to move past it.