Relationships in the Workplace

Rough Night

It's been a couple of days now since Mano was told to lay low on his relationship with Ari. She has been visiting Mano almost every other day because he hasn't been himself since that sit down, he had. It's now the end of the work week and Mano has been standing under his shower for over thirty minutes. His mind has been eating at him as every angle of the worst scenarios played out in his head. There was suddenly a knocking sound on the bathroom door causing Mano to snap out of it. "Mano are you okay in there?" a worried Ari spoke. "You've been in there for a long time..." soon after she said the sound of the water running disappeared. A few minutes passed and out came Mano with his head hung low. Ari looks up at him and he's not the bright animated self that she's used to seeing, "Mano I made you chamomile downstairs."

She takes his hand and starts leading him to the kitchen. "Thank you Ari I got it from here..." he goes for the tea and takes a long sip of it. He exhaled satisfied and looked at her with a weak smile, "Great as always..." Ari lets him finish the tea before asking, "Mano can we talk?" He nods and she leads him over to the couch so that they can be comfortable. Ari puts a hand on his cheek and rubs his cheek, "Now speak to me, Mano. You haven't been yourself since the meeting with Nidia. What is eating at you?" He stared at her and sighed, so he just gave in and laid himself down with his head on her lap. She blushed not expecting that, but she quickly got used to it as she looked down at him. He wraps an arm around her back, "I thought that if anything were to happen to us it'd be my fault for being so reactive... It's been haunting me ever since." 

She shook her head and said, "Stop thinking about that. If anything were to happen, I'd still have you and you'd still have me." Then she shrugged, "If I were to lose my job, you'll have to take responsibility and help me move in with you." She said that to try to cheer him up which worked as he laughed for a bit. He takes her hand that's on his cheek and kisses it, "I wouldn't mind waking up seeing you every day..." Her blush grew extraordinary, but she laughs cutely, "You dork..." He looked up at her shrugging himself, "Yeah but I'd be your dork." She had enough and wanted to just make out with Mano, but before she could even lean in her phone went off. 'What a kill joy' she thought as she took her phone out of her shorts to see the call I.D. "Ass-hat!" she declined the call and put it down exhaling to calm herself. "Before you ask it was my ex..."

Mano sighed hearing that from her, "Would you know why he's calling?" Ari gives a rough shrug, "Who cares?! I don't even want to think of that s.o.b." Her phone notifications start going off, so Ari groans snatching her phone back, "I'm gonna block this idiot!" As she reads a text from her ex berating her for not answering, she drops her phone back onto the couch and looks out the nearest window, "I-i don't even know why I lasted as long as I did with him..." Mano saw that she was clenching her fists, and he was afraid that she was going to get so worked up and cry that he sat up and without warning locked lips with her. She was stunned by Mano's sudden action as tears did in fact stream down her face, but she soon forgot about all that and placed each hand on his cheeks.

Later that night 1a.m

Ari wakes up on Mano's bed in a baggy t-shirt she liked of his, it is pitch black and the only light is coming from the moon and a light lit in the bedroom's private shower room. "H-huh...?" She noticed Mano wasn't in the room with her, so she sat up and looked around. There was no sign of him, so she got up out of bed and headed out of the room after putting some sandals on. When she opens the door of his room, she notices there is a brighter light lit. "What?" she goes down the stairs and sees Mano reading something cozily on a loveseat. "Mano-chan...?" she sounded like a tired child who woke up looking for their parent. 

Mano looks up at her, "Oh? Hey sorry... I couldn't go back to sleep" He closes the book and puts it to the side. Ari studied the book and then Mano, "What were you reading?" Mano looked back at the book and then at her, "The Bible. It helps calm me down." Without even asking he picks her up in a bridal carry, "You need to go back to sleep." She grips his chest and says, "But you're staying with me..." He sighs as he wants to continue reading. He then gets an idea, "How about I continue reading and you can sleep with me down here?" She nods liking the idea, so he takes her back to the couch and sits down with her on his lap. She was resting her head on his shoulder as he pulled a blanket over them. She got comfortable as she heard him read the book of Proverbs. He watched her practically fall asleep almost immediately as he smiled still reading the Bible. 

Later Saturday Morning

Ari wakes up to the smell of cooking as she found herself lying down on the sectional. She had the comforter over her and a pillow under her head. She stretched and groaned as she heard her bones sound like an orchestra. She sits up with the craziest case of bed hair looking over at the kitchen to see a focused Mano watching over the food and coffee he was preparing. It was almost eight when she lays her head on the backend of the couch staring over at Mano, "How can you be awake this early on the weekends..." Without looking at her he flips a pancake, "It's eight o'clock mami." 

She did not expect that as she buries her head into the couch and screams. She points her finger towards him like dart, glares at him and shouts, "D-dont say that!" He only glanced at her with a smirk, but when he noticed how flustered she got he broke out laughing. "If you weren't making breakfast, I'd toss all the pillows your way!!!" she threatened him as she got up out of the couch and stretched some more.  She couldn't stay mad at him as he looked like he was in better spirits. Before she knew it, he came over with a plate of fresh pancakes and tea for Ari, "Where do you think you're going? Breakfast in bed." She looks at the plate then at him, "Isn't that a little much for breakfast?" Confused he asks putting the plate down on the coffee table, "What? 3 pancakes are too much?" She then acts innocently confused, "OH! So, you weren't part of that menu? I'm sorry I was confused." 

Mano snatches the plate off the coffee table and with a sinister look says, "I guess you weren't hungry. I'll have this for myself." Ari reached out and grabbed him by his shirt, "No you bully! I am hungry!" She pouts like a child and gives him angry puppy eyes. An idea sparked into his mind as he set the food back down, so he leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "Behave yourself for once and maybe... you can have seconds..." He laced in an innuendo. Her imagination started taking over as she got from a light blush to full sunburn red, "S-shut up! I do behave! You're the one messing with me!" She glares up at him before sitting back down and started eating into the food he prepared.

Mano laughs victoriously and tells her, "Let's go to the park. It looks like it'll be a beautiful day. Obviously not as beautiful as you, but you get what I mean right?" She screamed again but it's muffled as she stuffed her mouth with food to not give him an earful. 'Just you wait mister... just you wait...' she thought to herself. 'Vengeance will be mine...'