Love to Hate You: Ask Vicky...

Chapter Twelve - Like a Woman Scorned

Xander Sinclair was on his best behaviour; motivated by the desire to keep his testicles intact, and a concern for Chris Colville's blood pressure. He couldn't rise to Vicky's scowls and niggling remarks, because he couldn't let Chris know that he had very recent history with her. Certainly not when the history in question involved not only making her redundant, but making her come. Repeatedly. He couldn't risk antagonising the bolshie woman, because his scrotum had only just healed after she'd tried to castrate him on her last day at Millennial, and - if he was completely honest with himself - he felt guilty, because he had hurt Vicky. He had screwed her over, and he did like her, even if he didn't love her, as Rafe had seemed to suggest she loved him.

His biggest concern about his new job at Paxton and Colville was, however, Mattie Paxton. As Vicky's best friend, he could only assume that Mattie knew every detail of each thrust and suck they'd shared. And, as someone who seemed enamoured with her ogre of a husband, and fiercely loyal to her bitchy best friend, Xander surmised that Mattie wasn't as sweet and demure as her size and childish face would lead him to believe.

His suspicion was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon, when Mattie re-appeared after a shared lunch break with Vicky. Gone was the friendly smile she'd offered upon his arrival that morning, and in its place was a determined resolution to pretend he didn't exist. She didn't look at him, acknowledge him, nor respond to his questions. If he didn't know otherwise, he could have mistakenly thought that she was both deaf and blind, rather than merely being obstinate and rude.

It was only after a weary sigh from Rafe, and a rather sternly raised eye brow (which Mattie secretly thought quite sexy) that she deigned - under obvious duress - to offer Xander a coffee, having quiet happily taken drinks orders for Rafe and Chris, and every other senior architect in the meeting room. When she returned with a tray of drinks, she was quite specific about which coffee was Xander's, despite two other people taking their coffees the same way. It made him fear that she might have spat in it.

'Don't worry,' she told him, as she leant in close to place his coffee beside his iPad. 'I didn't spit in it.' He breathed a sigh of relief. 'I mean, you know what they say about poison, right?' she whispered; an evil glint to her eye. 'It's a woman's weapon of choice, isn't it? Drink up,' she smirked, before leaving the room and sequestering herself in Vicky's office - where, through the glass walls, he could see the pair of them laughing.

Xander looked at his coffee with a frown. She's obviously just winding me up, he told himself, because he wasn't the sort of man to let himself fear things like unrealistic and unjustified poisonings, at the hands of a person who had no access to poison, and a lot to fear from prison. And even if Mattie had spat in it, Xander refused to give her the satisfaction of returning to the meeting room to find his drink untouched through fear.

Determinedly, he drank his coffee, made notes, asked questions, and focused on the job at hand, but when he drained the dregs from his mug, it was to see the word "Wanker" written in the bottom of it in thick black print. He coughed in surprise; his face frowning as he stared at the insult. Rafe saw his reaction, and - having be the recipient of the mug on his first day working with Mattie - he knew well enough what had caught the business consultant's attention.

'Dinner?' Rafe said, as everyone filed out of the meeting room an hour later. 'We should all do dinner this weekend. Clear the air. Start over.' Xander licked his lips in thought. 'Seriously,' Rafe told him, 'you do not want both those women as your enemy. Mattie and I were at logger heads for a while when I first met her and it was unpleasant. Her and Vicky?' And the large man shuddered. 'No,' Rafe sighed, 'we need to nip this in the bud. A nice meal, some wine, do it at the weekend so it's a sociable thing rather than a work thing. What d'you think?'