Mr. Ericson had made another entry into the office one morning. He held various letters in his hands, frowning at everyone he passed. His destination was a bit hazy since he wasn't even sure where he had wanted to go.

It was almost a miracle as to how Freda had seen him lurking about with a bad mood. "Can I help you?"

Mr. Ericson wondered for a while. Could he ask the woman for help? It wasn't[1] like he was going to ask her for much. He just needed someone to listen. He had almost decided to ask the redhead to help him with whatever he needed it for, but then he saw the new mailwoman.

In the man's mind, he inspected the unreadable expression on the woman's face as she handed mail to the employees around the place with that small wheeling cart. "Uh, no." Mr. Ericson spoke up as he kept looking at Ola, who was now making her way back to the mail room.

Freda frowned as she turned her head to look at what Mr. Ericson had been staring at for so long. When her eyes recognized a familiar person, her frown deepened. "Okay." The man murmured before he made his way over to the place, he had seen Ola go off to.

Freda's frown remained on her face as she watched her boss follow the woman, she had begun to have intimate feelings for.

Intimate? What the hell?

Freda frowned as she looked to her sides if someone was standing there. She was sure that she had heard someone speak.

Oops, wrong person.

Freda had been frowning a lot that morning. At first it was because of how she had woken up late for work and she was a little angry at Ola since the other woman hadn't called her up to wake her or something. But her anger was unreasonable, so she let it go as quickly as it had come along.

Then Freda finds out that she had more work than usual, waiting for her at her desk, courtesy of Carl. Speaking of Carl, the man had smiled slyly at Freda, as if he knew something.

So, yes, Freda had spent most of her morning frowning at everything and anything.

And now, she had more reason to frown since she had just witnessed her boss walk over to the one place, she hadn't expected him to go. The mailroom.

The mail room was almost equivalent to the janitor's closet. No one ventured to the place unless they needed cleaning supplies, or in this case, mail. But Freda had familiarized the small room very well. She had the whole room mapped up in her head since she had spent most of her time for the past two months or so, in that specific room. With a particular someone.

A particular someone, who must've been in the sudden company of Mr. Ericson right now.

Freda's distaste was clear on her face as she slowly sat down at her desk and turned herself away from the direction where the mail room was located. Her eyes focused on her desktop and how she had been busy doing something on Photoshop before Mr. Ericson's foul mood had bothered her enough to get involved.

She was disliking the fact that she had cared when she shouldn't have.

Her head unconsciously turned so that she could glance over her shoulder to the one place she wanted to be at other than her desk.

It took the woman a bucket load of self-control and patience to not just get up off her table and go see Ola, and maybe even see what Mr. Ericson wanted. But she didn't. Instead, she chose to be mature and continue to work, and then maybe go meet with Ola at lunch.

...........................................................

Freda had lasted two hours patiently and had completed most of the pile of work she had to do. And she did all that without physically getting up from her seat to go to the mail room.

She hadn't even noticed if Mr. Ericson was gone or not but judging by how her other colleagues were just working calmly and even taking out time to converse with each other; she had assumed that the boss had left.

The red-headed woman had pushed herself away from her work desk before she stretched her arms upwards. It was difficult to remain at a computer and work for so long. Sometimes her right side hurt because she used the mouse for so long.

It was hard work, for sure, but Freda enjoyed it as much as she could.

Feeling proud at herself for various reasons, the woman got up from her chair. Carl had given her another sly smile as she accidently glanced at him, but she didn't care as she turned around and simply walked over in the direction of the mail room. She had a particular brunette woman in her mind, who she was waiting to see after so long.

Freda had wondered about what they should have for lunch today since they had been eating too much at the building's restaurant. She was craving for something more informal. Her lips stretched into a smile as she remembered the few food trucks that were always parked by the small park across from their office building.

She hadn't realized how she was right in front of the door to the mail room, but her smile had quickly faded as she watched Mr. Ericson clearly from the transparent door. She thought he had left already.

Her hand had reached the door's handle as she pushed open the door, but as soon as she heard Mr. Ericson's words, she froze.

"I've liked you ever since the first time I saw you, and I knew that I had no chance with you, but I still wanted to try."

It was like Freda had walked in on something intimate. She couldn't see Ola because of Mr. Ericson's body blocking her from view. The only thing Freda could see was his back, but she didn't need to see anything more.

Her head turned a little as she saw Howard, looking straight at her. But she didn't care. Her head wasn't in the right place as she quickly wiped at her eyes which were still fairly dry, but she was afraid of letting any emotion show.

She was panicking as she backed out of the room she hadn't even entered properly before she backtracked to her work desk. Her hands were trembling, and she was afraid of something, something she didn't even know of.

All of her reasoning had gone out the window as she picked up her purse and the overcoat which used to be Ola's before she made her way over to the elevator.

She wasn't ready to have a breakdown in the middle of her workplace, as she breathed heavily. Nothing made sense to her except for Mr. Ericson's words continuously repeating in her head.

She wondered what this was that she was feeling. She hadn't felt it before. It was bitter and jagged, and it kept asking for attention, even when it had all of the attention to begin with.

Freda didn't know how she had walked into the elevator or even feel it stopping at the ground floor, or how she had walked out of it calmly. She didn't even realize that she had exited the building unconsciously.

The only thing she felt as she had come out of her office building, was the way it was raining and how each raindrop felt like a caress. As if the universe was giving her an opportunity to let it all out if she wanted to.

And so, Freda walked all the way to the first food truck she had noticed. The workers were all scrambling about because of the sudden rain. It was sunny and warm one moment, and the next, everything was drenched in water.

Freda sat at the bench near one of the food trucks, which overlooked her office building and she finally let tears of frustration run through. Her tears mixed up with the rain as if they were one in the same, and Freda didn't mind any of it.

All she knew was that she liked Ola and hearing words that she could relate to so much be spoken by Mr. Ericson to the brunette, had done some kind of damage to her.

Freda didn't know if Ola even liked her back, she didn't even know what Ola's sexuality was. All she knew was that she liked Ola.

Oh, how people misunderstand so many things.

*******