Entirely too often I would catch myself staring at her, thinking Play it cool Chase. Don't let her catch you.

There was just an undeniable beauty to her that never stopped drawing me in: long flowing auburn hair; deep blue eyes, ocean blue: dimples, yes dimples when she laughed. Magical.

Then back to reality. Sitting at my desk I heard a voice echo through the classroom.

"Hey Chase!"

Then louder, "Chase!"

I looked around to see if anyone else heard it, but they were all staring at the teacher in the front of the front of the class.

"CHASE!"

It was almost unbearably loud now.

I cringed and covered my ears.

I looked around and locked eyes with Stephanie.

She looked worried . . . and then smiled.

"Bye" she whispered and all went black.

"CHAAAAAAASE!!"

My head flew up off my desk. I looked around, confused for at least a minute, maybe more, as cold reality began to return.

I was in my cubicle.

My motivational cat poster was on the wall.

Greg, my co-worker and best friend from high school, was standing behind me.

"Dude," he said "You okay?"

"Yeah man," I replied , still out of it. " I just had the weirdest dream, we were back in high school, in Mrs. Cortoochie's class."

"Umm….Okay?" Greg muttered anxiously. "We obviously don't have time for that stuff."

"Why?" I asked, still confused.

"Seriously dude! Snap out this, we have to present to Carter in like 10 minutes! Get all your stuff and let's go!"

It was finally all coming back to me.

As I gathered my charts and presentation notes I told myself You are Chase Gunston. You work for Carter Tech Solutions. You and Greg designed a new software, and you are now going to show you boss how amazing, indeed, how truly revolutionary it is.

After the short self-pep-talk, I gave myself an internal high five and rushed to catch up to Greg in the elevator.

He pressed the button for the top floor, and we were on our way. My nerves were starting to get the best of me, my leg was shaking, I felt little beads of sweat rolling down my forehead.

"Hey man" Greg calmingly said to me, "We got this. No one has EVER thought of doing what we have ALREADY done. Carter will love this."

"Yeah, I know. I just feel kind of . . well . . off. I don't know why."

"No worries, after this we'll go out and the first round is on me."

Greg smiled and I started to feel a touch calmer.

The elevator slowed as it approached the top floor. As the door slowly opened, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath …

(to be continued)