Waterboy

The SDN call center glowed beneath half-dimmed fluorescents, its rows of cubicles trimmed with silver tinsel and blinking LED candles someone from HR had optimistically labeled "festive." He sat alone at a desk near the periphery, far from the clustered laughter and music spilling out of the break room. His knee bounced beneath the desk, an anxious metronome keeping time with the digital clock mounted high on the wall.

11:47 PM.

He swallowed and turned the paper cup of soda slowly in his hands, realizing he hadn’t taken a single sip. His fingers were damp, the cup already softening under his grip. Stupid, he thought, glancing up again before forcing his eyes back down. He had practiced this—over and over—in his head. Just a few words. A simple sentence. Something normal.

The chair scraped softly as he pushed it back an inch, then froze. Heat crept up the back of his neck. His heart thudded painfully, stumbling over itself the same way his words always did when it mattered most.

11:48.

He stood and smoothed his perpetually moist wetsuit with clammy palms, a futile gesture. Just say hi, he told himself, shoulders hunching as if bracing for impact. The office felt smaller now, the air thick with anticipation, every second ticking louder as midnight edged closer.

“Okay,” he whispered. His voice trembled, but there was resolve beneath it. “O-okay. You can do this.”

He stepped forward, tentative but deliberate, moving toward the last few minutes of the year—and the chance he had been too shy to take for far too long. He paused at the edge of the aisle between cubicles, pretending to study the laminated evacuation map taped to the wall. The arrows and labels blurred together as laughter burst from the break room. Music thumped faintly through the walls. Prism cheered. Someone attempted a countdown and lost track almost immediately.

11:56 PM.

His chest tightened. This was it—the reason his hands wouldn’t stop shaking, the reason he’d stayed late when he could have left hours ago. Not the party. Not the free snacks. This. One small, terrifying question he’d been rehearsing since the beginning of December.

They were near the snack table—no, dancing now—smiling, completely at ease as others clapped along. The string lights reflected faintly in the office windows behind them, and for a moment, his breath caught. He forgot how to inhale. How to exhale. The paper cup crumpled in his hand before he realized what he was doing.

“G-god,” he muttered, mortified, quickly dropping it into the trash as quietly as possible. His shoulders curled inward on instinct, but his feet betrayed him. One step. Then another. Each one felt like a countdown of its own.

11:57.

The room felt brighter now, louder, charged with something electric. He stopped a few feet away, heart hammering so hard he was certain it was audible. Midnight loomed like a deadline he couldn’t ask to extend. If he didn’t speak now, the moment would slip away—another year turning over without him ever trying.

He opened his mouth.

Nothing.

Just ask, he pleaded silently. Before it’s too late.

He inhaled slowly, grounding himself the way he did right before being dispatched. In. Out. His fingers curled into the sleeve at his wrist, knuckles white.

11:58.

This was it. No more rehearsing. No more waiting for courage to arrive on its own.

“H-hi—hello,” he managed, voice soft, uneven, but real. He swallowed and forced himself to continue, words stumbling but refusing to stop. “I—I know this is sponta— r-random, b-but... with New Year’s coming up and a-all...”

His heart threatened to burst as he lifted his gaze to meet theirs.

“I was h-hoping—th-thinking,” he finished, barely steady, “m-maybe I could ask you s-something before midnight.”