The scene where Jenna was introduced to Armen was the opposite of a meet-cute. All that happened was that he was ushered into the bullpen and everyone stood up while the boss yelled all their names at him, finishing with, “Armen, this is everyone.”

Never in a hurry to rush anything, Jenna sat back down without stepping forward with her coworkers to make a more positive first impression. Besides, she had never had to pursue a man in her life. Even if they worked together, why would she need to do anything differently?

Contrary to what was best for Jenna’s personal development, Armen approached her the next day at the office fridge and introduced himself again.

“Yeah. I met you yesterday,” she drawled as she hunted through a basket for a pack of artificial sugar.  

“Well, it’s good to meet you,” he said in deep mellow tones. “You’re famous.”

He was about to retreat to the sound booths when Jenna spun around to face him. “What do you mean, I’m famous?”

“Oh, you know,” he said after he cleared his throat. “I’ve been told so much about you.”

Jenna was annoyed and looked it. “What could anyone around here have told you about me?”

He looked amused instead of embarrassed, which inflamed Jenna’s annoyance into peevishness. “Oh, you know, just that you’re perfect,” he said, giving her a studying glance that suggested she was far from it.

“Who, may I ask, gossips about perfection?” she questioned in a clipped tone.

“Who doesn’t?” Armen asked with a wicked smirk.

It was on the tip of her tongue to say something about how he could use some work himself, but when she looked for something about him to use as a barb, she couldn’t find anything. Everything about the way he was groomed and styled was above average. Another person might have made something up to twit him about, but Jenna was not a liar or a bully. 

Instead, all the irritation and upheaval left her features. A corner of her mouth made a jump toward the ceiling, “Maybe you could teach me how to be perfect sometime.”

“You’ll accomplish it better if you smile,” he said, with a charming grin of his own before leaving her gawking in front of the microwave.

It was then that Armen did something no other man had ever done to Jenna. He left her alone. She had assumed that his leaving the kitchen was only a temporary retreat, and he would be back to invite her out for lunch or a drink.  

A week later, he was still behind glass, doing his radio show without taking more than a professional interest in her, or anyone. He was one of those men who came to work, and then, just worked? Was he married? Did he already have someone special in his life? Was that the reason he was so aloof? Jenna did not have the pluck to ask her coworkers questions about him. She simply kept her ears open and waited for the information to trickle in.

It soon did.

No girlfriend. No wife. No significant other. Not even a roommate.

Apparently, he lived on a boat he kept in the bay and was particularly fond of stargazing. It had been his idea to incorporate information about what celestial activities were happening on clear nights along with the weather forecast.  

Other than that, no more information about him was forthcoming. Jenna waited, but three weeks went by with nothing new surfacing.  

She was on the verge of forgetting all about him when she once again met him in front of the microwave.

He kept looking in the fridge and closing it again.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“My lunch is gone,” he admitted sourly.

“Someone took it?” 

“Maybe 'gone' is the wrong word. My lunch is not in the fridge and instead, it’s on the counter… back at my place.”

“There’s a really nice Asian fusion restaurant around the corner if you have time to nip out.”

“I don’t,” he admitted, even more sourly.

“Are you dying? Do you want me to fetch something for you?” Jenna offered when she wouldn’t normally. Skipping a meal was not one of the things Jenna would normally have classified as a hardship. It was just that he looked so dismayed, so she wondered if he had missed breakfast, and what if that was compounded by having missed dinner the night before? She found herself suddenly worried sick that he was wasting away in front of her.

“Would you?” he asked with the most beautiful smile following the words. “I have to do a segment with Miles in ten minutes, but I should be finished with that in about an hour.”

“Fine. I’ll get you something. I assume you like noodles,” she said dryly.

“I love them,” Armen said, just as Miles stuck his head around the corner and waved him back.

Jenna went to her desk and phoned the Asian fusion place. She was about to order noodles for both of them, but then backtracked and canceled the meal for her. She had not forgotten her lunch that morning. Besides, he didn’t want to eat with her. He just needed to eat something. It was a humanitarian mission, not a date.

Forty minutes after their conversation, Jenna popped down to the restaurant and picked up the Vietnamese noodles. Traversing through the office, she set the foam container along with the chopsticks on Armen’s desk. The first time she placed them, she had stuck the receipt between the lid and the chopsticks, hoping that he would realize it would be good manners to pay her back, but then suddenly, she didn’t want to be paid back.  

She pocketed the receipt and returned to her desk, where she reluctantly gnawed on a carrot she had not cut into sticks before including it in her lunch. Now she understood why Bugs Bunny always had half a carrot. It was the food accessory that never went away.

She was awakened from her stupor by Armen as he wheeled an office chair into her cubicle. He had his noodles in hand. “I see you haven’t finished eating,” he commented. “Mind if I join you?”

She nodded to him and he took his seat.

“Thank you for this,” he said as he opened the lid.  

She smiled. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen a man eat like he enjoyed it. Most of the men she went out with were so afraid of making a mistake that they made all the mistakes. Armen obviously didn’t care if he had a noodle trailing from his mouth and ate like he meant it.

“Are you just eating that little carrot?” he asked when his mouth was empty.

It was so big around that she could just barely touch her middle finger and thumb around the circumference when she held it. “Little?” she replied.

“Okay, it could obviously feed a starving village. Why are you eating that instead of this?”

“I didn’t forget my lunch. Besides, I have other things,” she conceded and showed him the lunch box she had brought with her. It had tiny little compartments with fruit, meat, cheese, and crackers.

“So again, what’s with the carrot?”

She dropped it on her desk. “I’m trying to lose weight, so carrot first, lunch afterward.”

“If you can eat anything after that carrot!” he laughed.

“That’s sort of the point.”

“I think leaving the carrot on the desk is a mistake. I think you should stuff it in your bun. I bet you could hide all kinds of stuff in there and no one would be the wiser. It’s so big, you could have a black hole hidden in there.”

Normally, a comment like that would have thrown Jenna into a rage. She did not enjoy it when thoughtless men made jokes about her bun. Surprisingly, a rage did not seem to be on the menu. Armen had not meant anything by it. He was merely flirting with her and looking for a logical opening. Five seconds ago, he had been talking about the carrot.

“I hide stuff in there all the time,” she laughed back.

“Like what?” 

“All my secrets,” she said evasively.  

“I’d love to know all your secrets. They sound as inviting as a trail of gummy bears in the woods,” he commented pleasantly. He cleared his throat and continued, “I want to repay you for this food. You didn’t have to do this for me. I was dying and I want to show my appreciation. What sorts of favors, gifts, or shameless plugs on the radio tug at your heartstrings?”

“You don’t have to do anything,” she scoffed.

“Let me give you a list of things I can do. I’m good at getting new bands on the radio,” he said with an eyebrow wriggle.

She laughed. “I don’t have a band.”

“Then, your little sister’s band.”

“I’m an only child.”

“Okay, that’s out. I could take you stargazing on my boat.”

She looked around the office blankly, looking for somewhere to hide her discomfort. She was so shaken that for the first time since she started working at that office, she did not notice the discoloration on the ceiling which always irked her perfectionist leanings. Was there a reason to say no?

They did not work in the same department. Check. 

Neither one of them had authority over the other. Check. 

There couldn’t be any of the normal office romance objections. Check.

Besides, it was just stargazing in the bay, not sex in the sound booth. She added a check after that one for good measure.

“I guess we could do that,” she said slowly after she checked all the boxes in her head. 

“Then, tomorrow at nine. I’ll take you out on the ocean. You’ll look perfect, and I’ll try my best to keep up,” he said cheerfully.

He tossed his empty container in the garbage, saluted, and wheeled his chair back to his corner.

Jenna was breathless as he disappeared from view. The fluttering in her heart surprised her. Who knew what other surprises were waiting for her?