t w e n t y  f o u r
" office flirtation "
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It was strange for Simon to find himself in a situation where he once again had a girlfriend. After a few months of being single, he'd found someone totally different to Adela and someone who he found himself wanting to spend more time with.

Catherine was actually the one who asked him out on the first date. It wasn't awkward, much to Simon's surprise, and they quickly arranged a second in between office flirtation, to which Cal rolled his eyes into the next room.

It was a quick kind of romance, but in all the best ways. He couldn't see it being anything like his relationship with Adela; maybe that wasn't such an awful thing.

After a month of dating, Simon finally bit the bullet and asked her to be his girlfriend, to which she responded, "I thought you'd never fucking ask."

In the moments of their embrace following her acceptance, he couldn't help but be thrown back in time to when he'd asked Adela the same question.

She'd reacted so differently. Sweetly, timidly, but lovingly. As if he'd given her the world in a few words that neither of them knew would mould into what they were today, whatever they were. He didn't even know if they were friends. They hadn't spoken since the day she'd moved out.

They'd gone out that night, him and Catherine, and spent the evening in a fancy restaurant with fine wine and full course meals. It was wonderful, but there was something about the way Catherine looked at him that told him she wasn't quite satisfied with red wine and pasta.

And so they spent the night together, finally reaching that end that weeks of office tension had built up. That in itself was entirely new for him. Not that he was a virgin before he'd been with Adela, but he was so used to what made her tick that it was strange to have to figure someone else out in that way. Although, Catherine didn't seem to have much trouble.

Waking up that crisp Saturday morning with someone in his bed was odd and not something that had happened since Adela. But he liked it, especially when she curled into him with sleepy affection, grumbling about it being too early.

"We should get up," Simon murmured, but she just held onto him tighter, nuzzling into him. "Cath, come on."

"No one ever calls me Cath," She replied quietly, voice muffled against the pale skin of his chest and vibrating against his rib cage.

"Sorry, should I not call you that?" He frowned, worried he'd offended his girlfriend of one day.

"I like it," She said. "It's what my sister used to call me."

"Does she not..." He trailed off, not really knowing what he was going to ask but feeling like he should ask. Not only to satisfy his curiosity, but to show that he cared about what Cath had to offer up, whether she wanted to talk about her past self. Everyone has something, but its whether they feel ready to express that something to the person that's asking.

"We haven't seen her in years. Dropped off the face of the planet after she lost her job and her fiancé in one week. She'd never got in contact with us, so we never got in contact with her." She groaned as she propped herself up on her elbow, gazing down at Simon as she trailed a finger in circles on his chest. "I like to think she's out there with a family now. She always wanted three kids, maybe she's got that now."

"It's nice to think about it like that," Simon replied, eyes scanning her face for any signs of irritation.

"Yeah, but I don't usually like to think about it first thing on a Winter morning. There's better things to be worrying about, like... whatever the hell you're gonna cook for breakfast."

Simon scratched his head. "I can't cook," He admit sheepishly.

Cath's mouth parted slightly and then she creased into a laugh. "You're hopeless, honestly. Someone needs to teach you how to cook," She told him, playfully digging her finger into him.

"You could always give it a try?"

"You know what? Get dressed and I will, Minter. Challenge accepted." She grinned.

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It was another night trying to concentrate whilst the bustle of the bar went on around him. He'd ordered one drink, but he could see Cora from the corner of his eye glaring at him between serving customers with that showman smile of hers.

Chris tried to ignore her as he continued scrolling through the dating website on his phone, distracting himself from editing, head resting on his hand and the music thumping in his ears. It was awful music, but drunk people could dance to anything.

He'd been in there far too long. He was just about to shut everything down and go home when a hand clapped on his shoulder. It was a firm grip followed by a hearty laugh. Chris turned around expecting a stumbling, drunk idiot to be stood there.

He wasn't wrong. Before him stood Derek Gate grinning like the drunk fool he'd expected. He dropped his hand from Chris' shoulder and said, "Long time no see, huh, Chris?"

The group of men behind him were rowdy, but paying attention as the ringleader spoke to the man they hadn't seen in a few years, not since school anyway.

"Yeah, its been a while," Chris replied, standing from the stool, suddenly very conscious of his football shirt and tracksuit bottoms in front of old school peers dressed in their expensive clothes and shined shoes. "So," he looked between their faces. "what brings you here?"

One of the other guys, a man with wavy blond hair to just below his ears, lets out a thundering laugh and grabs Derek by the shoulders. "Big man's getting married. Who would've thought he'd ever get tied down. By a library chick too? Mad world!"

"Alright, calm down, Theo," Derek said, laughing. "This is my stag do." His eyes flickered to the laptop screen and back to Chris. "So, what about you? Seems like an odd place to be watching Youtube videos."

"Oh, I- uh..." He stumbled, fumbling for an excuse and jolting when he felt a slight, feminine hand slip around his waist.

Cora was next to him, pulling him down for a kiss before he could object, not that he resisted all that much in surprise and honest compliance. It was odd to feel that smile she flashed so often against his own lips, melting into him, feeling cold when she stepped back.

He didn't take his eyes off her when she turned to the men on their stag do with a smile and said, "Sorry, I just can't keep my hands off him these days running up to our wedding."

"You're engaged too?" Derek's eyebrows shot up. "Congrats man. Thought you were just sat in a bar watching Youtube like some sad little man." He laughed, clapping a hand on Chris' shoulder again. "Well," he glanced between Cora and Chris again, not knowing how he'd managed to pull when he still dressed like he never left the house. "I guess I'll leave you two alone."

"Good to meet you," Cora called as they walked away, a few of them glancing over their shoulders to see if it was a fraud.

Once they'd slipped into the crowd, Cora stepped away from Chris, her smile gone, and said, "Order another drink or get out."

"I'm sorry, what?" Chris blinked at her.

"That's what I came over here to ask you to do, but ended up saving your ass from humiliation. So, order something. This isn't free wifi and kisses club. This is a bar." She didn't meet his eyes.

"Right." He pulled his wallet from his pocket. "Just one coke, no alcohol."

"A pleasure doing business with you, Chris."

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1335 words
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