Forbidden!

It was not like she had planned it, nor did she anticipate it or contemplate it.  It just happened, unexpectedly.  You could almost say that it surprised her even though surprise was the last thing on her mind.  It all started when, as usual, she walked over to the coffee machine for her mid morning coffee break and selected, what she thought was her usual drink of coffee with milk, but, by some quirk of nature, had inadvertently selected the freshly brewed tea.  It did not occur to her that the drink took an unusually long time to prepare nor that the drink that emerged displayed the distinct signature of tea blended with milk.  Not even when she took the first sip, and the slightly bitter sweet taste, distinctive of tea, permeated her senses, did she realise her mistake.  For it was this very moment, this very instant, that the universe decided to change her life forever.

It was this very moment, while her senses were permeated by the distinctive taste of tea, that she saw him.  It was not that this was the first time that she had laid eyes on him, nor the first time that he had been in proximity of him, but rather the first time that she had really seen him.  It was as if though, for some strange reason, the tea had unblocked some mental gate allowing her to really see.  Her heart skipped a beat and she suddenly felt flushed as if the temperature had suddenly and immediately jumped a few degrees.  She rushed to her desk, leaving the tea to its fate, sat down, and unconsciously reached for the wedding band encircled the ring finger of her left hand, a forgotten reminder of the commitment she had made.

On the surface everything continued as normal.  They met and worked together, when the occasion demanded it, and chatted in hallways, as they usually did.  For her it was as if her mind was waging a silent war against her.  She kept seeing him in the corner of her eye, and while she managed to resist the temptation to turn her head, most of the time, she had on occasion hoped to see him.  And when she lay awake at night, while her partner slept beside her, her thoughts inevitably drifted towards him.  Even in those very intimate of moments it would seem as though, on occasion, he had managed to penetrate her thoughts.  

It was on one of these occasions, when sleep eluded her, that she contemplated her state of mind. Her life, the situation she found herself in and decided that these "forbidden thoughts" should remain just that. 

Forbidden! 

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