Sarah had been eyeing Pete's new metal ruler for a few days.
Sitting on the desk in her cubicle in the stuffy office building was her own ruler. It was one of the black plastic ones taken from the supply cupboard. She liked to rule lines in her ledger, carefully delineating one day's notes from the next.
Sarah noticed that Pete had got up to get a coffee from the kitchen unit. This gave her the opportunity to get up and furtively sidle over to Pete's empty cubicle. Pete didn't even make lines in his note journal. But yet his ruler was crafted out of quality anodized aluminum with engraved markings.
Moving Pete's chair out of the way, Sarah reached out a hand and touched Pete's ruler very gently. She slid her finger along the metal feeling it's smooth precision sheen. She wondered whether he would even notice if she just swapped hers for his surreptitiously. Of course he would, she thought. But still the temptation was there.
In a moment of action, she picked up the ruler on his desk and hefted it, feeling its weight. Then she had an idea. She could just hide it somewhere. Pete would probably think he misplaced it.
But by now Pete had nearly finished making his morning coffee and was about to return. Sarah grabbed his ruler and stuffed it hurriedly down her bra, which was maybe a little obvious, but would at least avoid suspicion until she was back at her desk. Delighted with the approach she returned to her cubicle and locked the item securely in the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet.
Suddenly, without warning, Pete appeared right at her desk, looking over, with coffee mug in hand. “What are you doing at the moment?” he asked. Sarah's heart skipped a beat. “Nothing really,” she replied. Pete looked nervous and for a moment Sarah feared the worst.
“Do you want to get an early lunch with me out at the Chinese place around the corner?” he asked. “Oh, sure,” Sarah responded without much thinking.
At that moment the fire alarm suddenly sounded a workplace emergency, and the intermittent shrieking of the alarm had all the employees getting up and reluctantly heading downstairs to the assembly point.
Sarah thought of Pete's ruler, now technically “her ruler” in the locked cabinet. I hope it isn't a real fire, she thought, worried that such a perfect item, only just acquired, might ironically be damaged by the heat.
Once outside, Pete seemed to stick close by her side, which was a little suspicious. But he made small-talk and seemed quite pleased to have an excuse for the two of them to be heading out for lunch early together.
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