Love to Hate You: Ask Vicky...

Chapter Twenty-Six - Moving On

Vicky and Rudy were the newest couple in their apartment block, and although Rudy didn't work at Paxton and Colville, they were the newest office romance, too, because Rudy would often drop by to "speak to his cousin", and then get waylaid in the basement archive room. The bowels of the building provided good sound-proofing for Vicky's inevitable wails of pleasure, as pointed out by a staggeringly dry-eyed, happy-looking Moping Mandy, who – after dating Lukasz for a few months – should perhaps have been renamed "Moaning Mandy". Sexy moans, of course, because Lukasz was too much of a sweetheart to make anyone moan in frustration or dismay.

'Are you alright, Mandy?' Vicky had asked, when she first saw a rather flustered-looking junior architect adjusting her hair in the lady's bathroom.

'Oh!' the younger woman had gasped, surprised at being seen in such a dishevelled state. 'Yes.' Then her cheeks had flushed bright red; odd, considering Mandy cried so much that she was no longer embarrassed about her over-active tear ducts.

'What upset you this ti–' Vicky had asked, before stopping and really taking in Mandy's expression. Her eyes were aglow and she had a healthy rosiness to her face that was usually entirely absent. Then Vicky considered her mussed hair, her slightly-crumpled blouse and the fact that she'd passed Lukasz on her way to the ladies' room, and the friendly giant had distinctly avoided eye contact. 'Did you and Lukasz just... y'know?' Vicky had asked, in a voice full of pride.

'No!' Mandy insisted. Vicky had responded by narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

'I had sex with Rudy in my office on Tuesday,' she confided conversationally. 'He totally didn't want to at first, 'cos "It's an office, not an hotel" and he actually said "An hotel", as well! Anyway, I goaded him into it, and obviously, he enjoyed it, because who wouldn't enjoy spontaneous sex with the love of their life? But I digress.' She stood tall and straightened her spine, before telling Mandy, 'We closed the blinds for privacy, but I think it was kind of obvious what we were up to as a result.'

'The archive room is good,' Mandy had been unable to resist saying, before she'd slapped a horrified palm to her mouth, as though she couldn't believe what she'd just said.

'Remind me where that is?'

'The basement. No eyes or ears,' Mandy had admitted.

'So, it's your go-to place, is it?'

'We don't make a habit of it,' Mandy promised. 'But I was upset about a client who snapped at me, and Lukasz was trying to cheer me up, so...'

'But he's always trying to cheer you up,' Vicky had felt the need to point out.

'Yes,' Mandy agreed, with a sigh of resignation and an embarrassed flush to the cheeks. 'It's very unprofessional, I know, but Lukasz swears that Rafe's always doing it; that when Mattie worked here, they had sex in their offices at least three times a week.'

'Probably more,' Vicky acknowledged.

'Are you going to tell anyone?' Mandy had asked; her voice pleading for a "no".

'Not if you and Lukasz keep out of the archive room on Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes when Rudy stops by before his late surgery.'

'I usually go there on my lunch break straight after the Junior Team catch-up on a Monday,' Mandy informed her in return. 'I don't like meetings. They stress me out.'

'Understandable,' Vicky told her, because if sex was the go-to response to stress, she'd deliberately get stressed all the time.

'You and Rudy seem good for each other,' Mandy volunteered, as she splashed water on her face and fiddled with the collar of her blouse. 'Better suited than you and Xander, I think.'