S.O.S/The Winner Takes It All

Chapter 16

I've been at the office for a couple of hours, and so far, everything is normal. That is, until Courtney pulls me into a cleaning cupboard at lunch break.
"Shayne, we need to talk."
I slowly take her hands, separating her fingers from my shirt. "I know. But you need to chill out a little bit."
"Olivia knows. She asked about it on set, and I froze. I know she saw it." Courtney bites her lip anxiously. "What if she tells everyone?"
"Olivia wouldn't do that. You know she wouldn't. Just don't worry too much and act normal." I smile at her, my hand placed reassuringly on her shoulder.
"I'll try." She pauses, sighing heavily. "I'm sorry, Shayne."
I frown, curious. "For what?"
"For kissing you. I just made things worse."
I shake my head, brushing her hair away from her face. "Courtney, I don't regret that. I love you." I lean in, kissing her softly on her lips.
Courtney smiles, her hand drifting down to hold mine. "Do you wanna come over to my place after work?"
"Sure." I return the smile, letting go of her hand.
Courtney opens the cupboard, stepping out with me. Noah walks in at that moment, stopping in confusion.
"What are you two doing in here?"
"Just chatting." I say quickly. "We were just about to come join you guys."
Noah blinks, and I can tell he doesn't believe me. "Uh...okay. We're having lunch in the office if you, uh, wanna come." He gives us one more look before leaving.
Courtney leans close to my ear. "He knows." Our eyes meet briefly as she walks away. I follow a few seconds later, deciding to get to the main area a different way to her.

After about five minutes of pointless walking, I step into the room where everyone is sitting, eating lunch. Noah and Olivia go silent as soon as they see me. I seat myself at my desk, raising my eyebrows. "Wow, not obvious at all guys."
Noah frowns. "Well, you did walk out of a cupboard with her, so...."
Olivia leans forward, an excited look on her face. "Are you dating? You've been spending a lot of time together."
"Olivia, we've always spent a lot of time together. Can you just leave me alone to eat my..." I realise I don't have anything to eat. "My non existent lunch. I'm gonna go get something."
As Olivia starts to get up, I shoot her a warning glance. "Alone."
She sits down again, looking disappointed. "Fine."

I leave the room, making my way to the elevator. I begin thinking about the dream I had when I slept at the office. The one where Courtney had a knife. I remember getting kidnapped by someone with blue eyes.
Then I happen to catch my own gaze in the mirror of the elevator. The same sharp blue eyes stare back at me, and I realise that what Courtney had said in the dream was right. I had brought myself to her. Because I had abducted myself.
I exit the lift, staring down at the floor. As I'm about to look up, a woman slams right into me, and all her papers go everywhere.
I stumble backwards, immediately kneeling down to help her pick up the paper.
"I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going." I tell her, assembling them into piles.
She kneels down next to me, collecting the sheets. "I'm sorry as well. I'm just in such a big rush today."
After about a minute, I stand up, handing the stack to her. She smiles, curling a strand of brown hair behind her ear. "Thanks so much for helping me. I'm all over the place today."
I nod. "No problem. So do you work here? I've never seen you before."
She adjusts the paper in her arms. "Oh no. I'm just here to drop some things off to my brother, Noah. I haven't seen him in a while, because I was in England for a long time, so this should be great."
I pause, frowning. "Wait, Noah Grossman? I work with him."
She grins. "Oh, what a coincidence! Well I have to go, but maybe we'll see each other again. Thanks again, by the way."
I smile, waving farewell as she walks into the elevator.

At that moment Courtney walks into the building, holding coffee's and a brown paper bag. She starts towards me when she catches my eye.
"Hey, what are you doing down here?" she asks, holding out a coffee to me.
"I was just going to get lunch, and also to get away from the pressing questions." I say, taking the coffee from her outstretched hand."Thanks."
"No problem. I got you lunch, so you don't have to worry about that. It's just sandwiches, but they're nice ones."
"You didn't have to, but thanks anyway." I smile, walking to the elevator with her.
"Shayne, it's fine. I'm just lucky I didn't miss you. Did you just get down here?" Courtney presses our level.
"No, I ran into Noah's sister. She said she was staying in England for a while and she didn't see him. She and I bumped into each other, and she dropped all her papers. I helped her pick them up."
Courtney takes a sip of her coffee. "See, I would say that's a nice story, but Noah doesn't have a sister. Not one that he's ever told us about anyway." The elevator dings and she strolls out.
It never occurred to me that Noah has only talked about having brothers. I follow Courtney out to the main room. As soon as I walk in, I see the woman I bumped into next to Noah. He's holding the papers, and nodding. I sit down at my desk, placing my coffee down.
Noah looks up at me, beckoning to me. "Shayne! Come over here for a sec."
I rise form my seat, walking over. "Yeah?"
"I want you to meet my sister, Ashley. Shayne this is Ash, Ash, this is Shayne."
I shake her hand, and she smiles. "It's nice to meet you, Shayne."
"Nice to meet you too, Ashley." I let go of her hand, ruffling my hair.
Noah continues to talk to her, and I go back to my desk, sipping on my coffee.
Courtney hands me a sandwich. "Who's that?"
I kick my feet up on my desk. "That's Noah's sister, Ashley Grossman."