Office Gossip- (Sample)

6. The Truce

Violet

I was sitting on the swings in the front yard when I saw Alex make his way up the back stairs that led down toward the lake and the back deck. Please don't come over here. Please don't come over here. Keep walking, pretty boy. There's nothing left for me to say to you.

But, as I caught a smile peaking from those damned lips, I knew that he had every intentions of coming toward me, instead of his car at the end of the driveway, and get as far away from this place as he possibly could. And as much as I wanted to avoid him...I knew that it was likely, that someone would lock me out of the house in an attempt to show "tough love" and force me to talk to him. Whether I wanted to or not.

"Ooh, I think he's coming over here?" Chloe had said as she sat in the swing next to me, watching the small crowd of kids in the front yard as they played with our Labrador retriever.

I rolled my eyes. I did not want to discuss this right now. Not with Chloe. And certainly not with Alex. What was he doing? Is he coming over here? Oh shit! It felt as if my heart skipped a beat for a moment as I saw him walking out into the yard, making his way toward us. I knew, instantly, that this might be the moment I've been dreading ever since we came here.

"Hey," he said, greeting us as he managed to walk over here without making a beeline for his own car in the hopes that he might drive off and vow to never come back here for as long as he lived. "Do you want to go for a walk? Just down the road? We don't have to go far?"

No! I really don't want to go for a walk with you. I wanted to scream at him. Punch him in his pretty boy face, and a few other things that were definitely unladylike. But, Chloe was right. If I wanted any chance to attempt to make peace with Alex, I was going to have to change my ways. Be nice to him for once in a long time. Otherwise I knew I'd never hear the end of it. This was, as far as I knew, probably my one and only chance to get him to talk to me before I started working in his office. The last thing I wanted to be dealing with was him and his ego, when I'd worked so hard to get to where I was already. I'd been dealt a shitty deck of cards once. And I wasn't about to go through that again. And certainly not at his hand.

However, I knew that this was, probably, the one time that I got with him to tell me every little thing that goes on in that head of his. He, probably, wanted to make amends with me or something. Put all of our past problems behind us before entering into a working relationship, literally. And, as dumb of an idea as I thought it was, I knew that I wasn't going to have much choice. Otherwise I feared that whatever enemies to...whatever we end up being-thing would go too far one day, and then we'd both be screwed.

"Okay," I sighed, after taking a moment to consider it. He walked up beside me, a huge grin on his face as if he was going to enjoy whatever it was that he had to talk about with me. "Lead the way? I guess?" I said as he started ahead of me a few feet, making his way down the long dirt road.

For several minutes we walked together in silence, occasionally waving to the neighbors who were outside in their yards, playing with their kids or animals. Most of the animals tied to trees in the front yard so they wouldn't come charging at us as we passed. By the time we were well down the road, out of earshot of anyone who might come down to the end of the road on their own little adventures.

"So...what is it that you wanted to talk about, exactly? I mean, you didn't ask me to come all the way down here just so you could dismember me and toss pieces of my body into the woods, did you? Because you know my daddy will not hesitate to hunt you down and kill you himself. Years of deer hunting paying off."

Alex rolled his eyes and laughed. "Oh come on, Vi. Why do you have to say things like that? You know I'm not the murderous type. Besides, I only asked you out here so we could put resolve everything between us. I know I fucked up the first time. But, despite what I know you believe, I never led you on. That was never my intention. I loved you just as much back then as I do now. And I know I don't exactly have a great track record of showing it. But that's going to change. I promise. Besides, this isn't for you, or our families. Or, hell, anyone at the office who thinks that we need to be put in a room together with a licensed psychologist or some insanity just so we can try to get to the root of what our problem is. Is it really so hard to believe that I want to get along with you? Despite everything that I've put both of us through? I want to make up for that. So that when you go into work and see me there every day, that you're not going to give me the stink eye like you did when you went in to interview for the job. Because we're going to be working together, whether you like it or not. And one of the dumbest reasons for anyone to lose a job is over a woman. Not to say it hasn't happened before. I've seen it. And I don't want whatever we have to be the end of both of our careers. Because it won't be just me who they get rid of if you and I can't seem to get along. Your ass will be on the line just as much as mine. And there goes my promotion. One, that you know I've been working my ass off for even when we were together. You know how important that is to me. I'd hate to fuck it up over something as silly as not being able to prove you and I can get along."