Played By Riggs

14

My coffee was late. It came bursting through my office doors in the hands of an even later, Tina. She was panting heavily with that infamous apologetic expression on her flushed face as she placed it onto my desk, and I sat in my chair, arms crossed and fighting back laughter as she threw together an excuse.

"You're looking at me as though you can see right through me, but I promise my reason is sincere," she pleaded, trying to work the puppy eyes that, weren't puppy eyes at all, but simply the fire escape to forgiveness. "First of all, I woke up late next to some guy I can't even remember the name of. And, before you slate me on how classy that is... he was the guy from the building site last week. Anyway, then the traffic was really bad because, you know, this project has caused manic on all of the roads."

With pursed lips, I sat quiet for a moment. Her excuse, which, in all honesty did seem pretty sincere, settled in the air and it made the brewing laughter work its way from my throat despite the great effort to hold it back.

"If you wanted me to let you off the hook, you shouldn't have told me the first story," I said.

"You don't let me off the hook for traffic, anyway, so I figured I'd go to town with the truth because I'd be getting an earful either way."

I grinned at her. "You really can't remember his name?"

The frown slowly vanished from her face as she turned red. "Okay, I lied about that. I do remember his name. Harry. Remember last week, when we were taking promotion pictures on the building site... I turned up late and, well, the point is... he's the guy that pulled me on my speed."

"Last week?" I repeated. "So, you've been seeing this Harry for a week now?"

Her cheeks turned pinker. "Roughly. I haven't been keeping track."

I snorted and took a quick sip from my coffee. "Since this is a great coffee, I guess you're off the hook. But, Tina, if you continue to see this Harry, these late appearances need to stop."

"Promise. Last night was a one off, I swear. We were up all night and-"

"I got that," I nodded curtly.

"Right. I'll get to work, then."

"You do that."

Once Tina was seated at her own desk, I figured to get my head down on the list of emails I needed to make. The project was coming along quicker than expected, and we had companies eager to make partners to promote their products. We were eager to accept them – James and I, however to accept we needed to be together to go through the offers. He was currently at the building site, and I, at my office.

This fact soon settled, and I exhaled a frustrated sigh.

"Trouble in paradise?" Tina asked from her desk, clicking her pen.

"Not in paradise. In heaps of emails."

"Mhm. Have you read the one from Judy?"

"Judy?"

"The woman from the newspaper, who took the pictures. She's sent an email with a link for the article." She clicked around on her computer. "Shit," she paused, clearing her throat, "and it looks great. You and James look great."

At that, I quickly scrolled through my emails in search for the one from Judy. It read;

Dear Miss Rigsby & Mr Branson,

I would like to thank the both of you for your participation within this month's paper. Attached is the article, where I hope you enjoy the story as much as the public.