When Annie got into work on Monday Gus and Ruby were sitting at one of the booths having a cup of coffee. Annie waved at them, poured herself a cup, and then slid into the booth beside Gus. "How was your weekend?"

"More like, how was your weekend?" Ruby wriggled her eyebrows up and down with a beaming smile on her face.

"It wasn't too bad." Annie lifted her cup and grinned behind it before taking a sip of her coffee.

"I let you go home early, Annie Mitchell, so don't you try hiding anything from me."

Annie laughed and shook her head to tease Ruby some more.

Gus laughed with her. "Roobs has been chomping at the bit waiting to hear how it went with Short Pants so cut her some slack, Annie. Otherwise, she'll be hell to work with today."

Putting her cup down and leaning forward with her elbows on the table, Annie clasped her hands together and exclaimed, "I had the best day on Saturday. Rohan asked me to the museum over at South Bank." She looked from one to the other. "There's a thing called the Sciencentre there. Really interesting and lots of fun because you get to try things."

"So... did he kiss you?" Ruby leant forward too and gave Annie a huge cheeky grin.

"Roobs... that's not a question you should be asking." Gus looked at Ruby sternly, and then faced Annie. He put on an animated face, clasped his hands together and mimicked the women by leaning forward, his forearms on the table. "So did he?"

Annie roared with laughter and slapped him on the shoulder. "Yes, he did as a matter of fact and it was very nice." She pointed firmly at them. "That's all I'm telling you and if either of you says anything to Sid and Harry, I'm gonna kill you."

"I hope he didn't wear that revolting jumper." Ruby shuddered like a wet dog. "You're gonna have to do something about it, Annie." She grinned and wriggled her eyebrows again. "Especially now he's given up oiling his hair and stopped wearing those bloody ugly glasses."

"I'm working on it, Ruby, but I'm not going to tell him what to wear." Annie sighed dreamily. "I don't think it would matter what he wore he'd still look good to me."

"You know Roobs had him pegged as a stalker come killer," he said.

"What?"

"I was worried about you, Annie, and he did act strange and looked weird."

"But he's not, Ruby. He's really nice and shy." Annie paused and added, "Like really shy. I don't think he's had much experience with women. How stupid was I falling for that story Sally tried on me? I feel really bad that I doubted him."

"Well looking the way, he did, it was a bit hard to believe because he did look weird and not a likely ladies' man." Ruby laughed at how they could have had any belief in the story. "Only a little crazy white girl like you would give someone who dressed like him a second glance."

"Just goes to show if you look hard enough you might find a nugget of gold." Annie grinned and wriggled her eyebrows back at Ruby.

"Yeah, it just goes to show." Ruby chuckled and looked directly at Gus.

He puffed out his chest and said, "Yeah it just goes to show."

They all laughed again.

Of course, Ruby told Sid and Harry that Annie had gone out with Rohan again. She grinned sheepishly when Annie confronted her.

"They were in on Saturday so I just said he'd come and wanted to speak to you. What was I supposed to say when they asked me what happened?"

"I told you I was gonna kill you, Ruby, if you told."

Ruby chuckled and held up her hands in surrender. "Now if you did that, Annie, you wouldn't have a job. We all love you so much and are interested in keeping an eye on you."

"You lot are worse than my parents. I came to the city for independence and what have I ended up with? Numerous bloody father figures and an over protective mother figure."

"Ah... Annie. That's lovely to compare me to your mother."

Annie huffed and rolled her eyes. She grinned, and then couldn't help but laugh. "Ruby you are way worse than my mother. I don't tell her half the stuff I tell you. You have a bigger hold over me than she does when it comes to secret keeping and you're not very good at that, are you?"

"Sorry, Annie." Ruby pouted and shook her head.

She giggled so Annie slapped her playfully, and then gave her a cuddle, she whispered, "Bitch."  

Ruby and Gus are a pair of old gossips. Hahaha

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