I barely made it through the doorway of Lila’s office when she turned to ace me again “I think you should take the rest of the day off.” Her voice was less of a suggestion and more of a instruction but then again everything she said came out that way. Lila was tall by women’s standard and her slender frame only accentuated her ethereal features. There were few people who could meet her sharp green eyes and not back down.

At the beginning of our friendship, Lila had made it a point to sit me down and explain that she knew how timid I was, and how I should never feel like I needed to do what she said. Her explanation of the transparency of my anxieties had left me with an almost ironic sense of dread that my shortcomings were so apparent that even a new friend would be able to see it.

“Maybe I should take my mother up on her offer.” I mumbled to myself. Lila’s eyebrows drew together creating a strong crease on her forehead.

“Smells like ammonia and stale air. Your words, not mine.” she asserted “besides, I may have a solution to at least one of your problems.”

I almost regretted the swiftness in which my head perked up and shifted my legs. Like a poker shark catching someone bluffing on a good hand only to find them with cards barely befit a game of go-fish, she smiled in an almost predatory way.

“Why work for your mother or worse, live with her in moldy old soap shop, when you could just move in with a longtime friend of mine who is dying to find a roommate?”

“Lila..”

“You don’t have to decide right now but just consider it.” Her eyes flitted to where her large desk calendar sat, a red circle around today’s date “Better yet, come out with us for drinks tonight. She’ll be there.”

My face must have maintained its level of skepticism, so she added for good measure “Plus she doesn't even want rent. Her friend Theo was telling me the other day that she just really needs someone who can be there with her animals at night when she works.”

There was so much about this that I found appealing.

A roommate who don't want any rent money but would rather I watch after her pets? I’d have to be crazy to take an offer like this. It was almost like it was too good to be true.

“What’s the catch?” I mustered up my best impression of Lila’s permanent sense of rightness. My tone and the accompaniment of the action of my arms crossing in a dramatic fashion was not lost on her, a small chuckle escaping her curved lips.

“Well,” she seemed hesitant in what she was about to tell me, a rare trait for her, making me feel as though there really was some kind of terrible catch “from what I’ve heard she can be a little...neurotic.”

“And what does that even mean?”

“I don’t know. I’ll be honest in that I don’t know her as well as I wish I did but I know her well enough to know she’s a pretty good person to rely on.”

“I thought you were longtime friends.”

“Knowing someone a long time doesn’t mean you know them. Two people can be married for years and still not know the person lying next to them every night is actually a serial killer.”

We stood there a moment, my eyes wide but credulous.

“Bad analogy, I know” she huffed out “but give her a chance. Where would we be if you and I hadn't given each other a chance?”

My inability to express my emotions properly to the people around me kept me from saying t, but I knew where I’d be. Still being miserable living with my mother and short one hell of a friend. The idea of never having become friends with Lila left me a little bit misty eyed. She had helped me through a lot. I really couldn't imagine where I’d be without her. No one ever truly knows who will be that kind of friend when you first meet them, it’s the roll of a proverbial dice we all make when getting to know new people, and I would never know if this girl Lila was describing would be an amazing friend if I never gave her a chance.

“Okay. What time?”

Lila’s electric eyes crinkled around the edges as she smiled wider.

Plans were made. Directions were given. Anxiety was quelled. I began to feel sick at the idea of socializing. In a local bar no less. I took up her offer a half day at the office, the cramps in my stomach justifying the leave to both myself and the rest of our team. While gathering my purse and the tupperware containing what was meant to be my lunch I could hear Asher make a comment about wishing he could get out of work because of “feminine jitters” followed by the sound of a rather large paper ball being hurled at his head by Isaac.

Isaac and Tyrone’s round of hoots and laughter became infectious and soon even Asher joined them. I couldn't help but smile at their antics.

My attention, however, was diverted by a sudden need to look at the clock above the door adjacent to my desk. It was placed above a door that led to an office down the hall that no one hardly ever used as the office down the hall also had a second exit as every office in the building had. The clock above it was positioned where I could simply glance up to check the time if i had a need for second reference on time but I typically used to to exaggerate to her that he was very clearly wasting my time every time he came over to my desk to speak. I liked to dramatically look between him and the clock until he took the hit and left.

The clock, while a staple in my daytime routine, was not the reason I felt so compelled to look over.

Beside the first door, the clock ticking steadily above it, there sat a second door. Unlike the other doors in the office, all of which being a muted shade of gray, it stood a ew inches taller than the rest with a crisp green color. It almost looked absurdly expensive next to the minimalist door frame sitting next to it and certainly didn't match any of the decor in the drab office in which i worked. I wanted more than anything to touch this door, but one thought stopped me dead in my tracks.

It had occurred to me in this moment that I couldn't remember ever seeing this door before. There was never a green door there before, of that I was certain, and a sense of dread pooled deep in my chest. The doorknob gleamed in a way that spoke of temptation, but I was frozen for the third time that day. Where had it come from? There was no logical reason a new door should be installed. Where would it even go? that thought alone made my mind run with all the possibilities that all but screamed go find out to my already frazzled mind.

Right when my body began to give into the hypnotic sense of mystery I had found in that green door, Lila’s voice broke through the fog of pinpoint focus.

“Eddy?” her voice sounded concerned, my eyes searching for her face immediately, finding it only a foot away from my own “Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”

My eyes darted back to where I had seen the green door, hoping to ask Lila about its origins, only to find that as sudden as it had appeared, it was already gone.

I needed more sleep.

“Yeah I’m fine. Ready to go?” her smile was radiant as ever.

I glanced again to make sure there wasn't really a door and just as I assumed, there wasn't. If this was any indicator to how my stress levels will be tonight, I’m fucked.