Played By Riggs

18

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in!" Tina exclaimed, swirling in her chair to watch me walk across the office and towards my desk. "Twenty minutes late. Twenty minutes. That's like, a new record for you."

"I've never been late," I retorted.

"Exactly. A new record. Oh, I will have to make sure everyone knows about it!"

"Don't start, Tina." I hung my blazer over the back of my chair and took a seat, really hoping she would listen to me, but also knowing that she definitely wouldn't.

"Don't worry, I haven't yet," she grinned, rubbing her hands together. "This is just great. Practise what you preach, huh? I made sure your coffee was on time this morning. Look, I even got you a bagel to go with it and what do you know, you turn up twenty minutes late with a wrapper, well... what looks like a McDonalds straw wrapper tangled in your hair."

Immediately, I ran my hands through my hair to either retrieve the straw wrapper, or to find nothing and deal with the humiliation of falling for her trick. And yet, I knew the latter wasn't going to happen because there was a 99.9% chance that my hair was withholding the wrapper, as James and I had ate McDonald's breakfast in the back of Keith's car and then had sex like uncontrollable, horny teenagers on the backseat whilst Keith took a pit stop to go and sign some forms for his daughter in school. Uncontrollable, horny animals.

But I had asked James if I looked like I had just had sex before I walked inside, and at first he said yes with a grin so smug that the debate of slapping it or kissing it off crossed my mind as it had plenty of times before. Then, he wiped some smudged lipstick off my cheek and said no one would know what we had been up to. And even then, Keith had spoken to me before I headed inside to confirm what time I was finishing so he could arrive on time to pick me up.

Neither of them told me that there was a straw wrapper caught in my hair. They had both lied to me. And they were both going to hear about it when the earful from Tina finished. If it ever.

"Of course, there isn't even a need for me to mention the sex halo around your head, because you must hear it singing," she sniggered, so satisfied with herself.

"Sex halo?" I scoffed. "Do you seriously think you can read me that well, Tina?"

"I know I can. Besides, I don't have to read you right now to know the truth. The signs are all there. Literally. Why would you have a wrapper in your hair? Why are you twenty minutes late? You had early morning sex with your business partner, and I am so not going to let you hear the end of it," Tina smiled sweetly at me. "How's that?"

I took a gulp of my coffee. Cold coffee. Because I was late. What the hell was happening to me? Like Tina had so kindly reminded, I was never late. I raved about punctuality so much, had it pinned a five start trait because I was so darn good at it myself, and wanted others to respect the quality too. And yet, there I was. It wasn't even as if I was late due to good reason – well, it was good-spontaneous and mind blowing at the time, and even now the memory of it was still pretty fantastic, but the anger now forming was hard to push aside.

Perhaps I needed a break from James. A few days from him to really clear my head and get back on top of business would be a positive thing.

"You can stop staring at me. And wipe that smile off your face," I grunted. "You had your fun, now get back to work."

"I can't just let this slide. You, little miss closed box, not only had sex before 9am in the morning, but had it in the back of the car. Fan. Fucking. Tastic!" she laughed.

I tried not to smile. Really. But I was in a good mood, despite the cold coffee, and Tina being her usual, dramatic self was just, this once, quite entertaining. "Okay, had enough yet?"