Office Mates

Office Banter

Robin walks back to his office. Marian and Darrin are talking about something when he arrives. He is grateful because he face still feels hot from the conversation he had with Aurora at lunch. He and Aurora are going to spend time together this weekend. He surprised even himself with how quickly it all happened. Marian is in the midst of a story when Robin arrives. Rather than put his headphones on, Robin starts to listen in. Marian is in talking about her weekend.

"So I realized that I had made the fatal mistake of choosing to go out. Because it was now officially too late to get toilet paper. But I had promised my roommate. So I decided should go to the bathroom and steal a roll from there. No one would even know. I wait in the ridiculously long line for the women's bathroom. And when I get to the stall I realized that this bar had these giant industrial sized rolls of TP. I then stashed the roll in my coat, which wasn't big enough to fully cover the roll itself and left for my apartment."

Darrin is laughing at this story and shaking his head. "You were committed to your cause." Marian also starts laughing, "I promised my roommate I would get some and I didn't want to be a liar. She was counting on me. Although, the roll couldn't fit on the holder so we just had to set it on top of the toilet." Darrin asks, "Did anyone try to stop you?" Marian smiles, "I don't think the bouncer is paid enough to worry about toilet paper." Darrin, "Marian, you always act first and think later." 

At this point Robin decides to cut in and join the conversation. "That's a perfect description of Marian." Darrin stops and looks over and finally notices Robin. Darrin keeps smiling, "Hey Robin! I was about to grab you and Marian for a group meeting, but I saw you talking with Aurora so I left you alone." Marian gets very excited at this news. She turns to look at Robin with a quizzical look on her face. She needs to know more. "Oh?" says Marian, "Talking with Aurora? Did you finally take the initiative?" Robin smirks at Marian, "No, she came and sat next to me." Marian is not going to be stopped. "But did you talk with her about what I suggested?" Robin's cheeks begin to turn a little pink, "I did." He is done saying much more in front of Darrin. He doesn't need the whole office to know his business.

But Marian goes into a frenzy. She is so excited. She grabs Robin by the shoulders and begins to shake him. "What?! I can't believe you listened to my advice!" At this point Darrin looks at the two of them and says, "What is right. What the heck are you two talking about?" Marian smiles excitedly at Darrin. She would normally tell Darrin, but she knows how private Robin can be so she decides to leave it basic. "Just some Marian advice I gave to Robin." Robin looks at Darrin, "Yeah, Marian thinks she knows everything." Robin looks at Marian hoping to convince her not to say anything else. Marian starts to feel a little upset that Robin is throwing her under the bus like this. Darrin continues, wanting to know more, "Marian giving you advice? Sounds lie a disaster waiting to happen." Robin looks at Darrin and starts smiling, "that's what I said too!"

Marian looks at the two coworkers and realizes they are just giving her a hard time. She is just going to let it go because she knows that her advice is solid. "Was it bad advice?" She asks Robin. "Well...no.." Robin starts to pause and think for a minute. Marian gives herself a celebratory fist pump. Robin cannot believe this is the person giving him dating advice. Marian sits down next in her chair and smiles at Robin triumphantly. She is acting like the winner of a debate. "I knew it would be helpful." 

Darrin takes a look at these two. Just a few weeks ago they barely spoke and now it seems like they are friends. He is smiling because that is the power of Marian. She gets everyone at work off topic. It took Robin much longer to crack, but it appears that he finally has. Darrin points at the two of them and says, "You two, it's time for us to go to Kris's office for the group meeting." Robin looks at Darrin and asks, "Do you know what the meeting is about?" Darrin shakes his head, "No idea. How about you Marian, you are good friends with Kris, right? Do you know?" Marian shakes her head.

Marian stands up ready to leave. Then she gets an idea. "Hey, maybe the meeting is about new offices!"  Darrin shakes his head, "you can dream, Marian. They don't just hand out new offices all willy nilly." Robin follows up, "Do you want to get rid of me?" Marian smiles at Robin and fires back, "I would think it is the other way around. Don't you want to get rid of me?" The two office mates are making eye contact and squared off with one another. Darrin decides to cut some of the tension, "Neither of you is moving anytime soon. They only give single offices to supervisors and managers." Robin smiles at Darrin, "It's not bad, I don't mind Marian." 

Marian cannot let this go. Robin has never been this playful with her at work. He usually gets straight to work. He usually puts his headphones on. He usually wont talk about anything personal. But today he is bantering with her. One of her favorite activities. She smiles at Robin again, "You don't mind me? That must mean we are best friends now." As she says this she looks at Robin and gives these big sweet eyes. Robin is unmoved. He is not going to give Marian and inch. "Not even close." Marian's smile starts to get a little creepy as she starts to tease Robin more. "Once I find out where you live, that will be the moment I know we are best friends." Robin teases Marian back, in his own way. "Now you sound creepy." He smiles back at Marian. Marian continues her teasing back, "what are you talking about?!" Robin continues, "talking about stalking me to find out where I live is creepy." Marian smirks at this, "I wouldn't have to try that hard. I would just have to buy Graham a couple of drinks and then he would tell me." Robin looks off put by the thought that it really could be that easy. "Graham wouldn't betray me," he concludes. Marian calmly replies, "Graham has questionable loyalties." Robin looks shocked at her last statement.

Darrin watched the two of them quickly descend into chaos. He needs to get them to the supervisor before Kris comes looking for them. Darrin finally cuts in and pulls them back to reality. "Both of you need to grow up and focus on work. We have a meeting we have to attend. Let's go." Robin suddenly realizes how much time they just wasted. He is so embarrassed. He looks at Darrin and quickly apologizes. Marian on the other hand loved every minute of it. She also apologizes to Darrin, but she wasn't sorry at all.