Paperwork || c.h z.m {slow updates}

2. Red Umbrella Tab

When we arrived back at Sarah’s apartment we didn’t even have to wait to knock on the door before we were let in meaning that Alfie was home. Sarah greeted him with a peck on the cheek, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Hello.” She mumbled.

The place smelt like pasta sauce and cheese: lasagne. The benefits of my best friend having a boyfriend who was an apprentice chef. 

“How was your day?” She asked as he hummed away under the range hood, layering the pasta sheets with cheese and pasta sauce.

He shrugged, moving to hug her properly and plant a kiss on her forehead. “Same old, same old. How was yours?”

“Good.”

“Cassie? How was your first day at the internship?” He asked loudly even though I had only headed into my room to put my stuff down. I brought the flowers back out and Sarah took out a vase from one of the top cabinets in the kitchen.

I smiled and helped Sarah arrange the flowers decoratively. “Let’s just say that it was pleasant.”

“Pleasant?” He muttered. “That’s a word I haven’t heard in a while.”

Sarah huffed and swatted his arm. “Having a much more extensive vocabulary is much more beneficial.” She argued.

Alfie pouted at her. “Pleasant has a nice ring to it though.”

She rolled her eyes at him and bustled her way out of the kitchen. “You never had to like my vocabulary anyway.” That was the final word. She had to have the final word. Even if she didn’t, she would.

As we sat down to dinner at the table situated in the middle of the apartment, Alfie served up the food and began making small talk. “So Cassie, did you meet anyone?”

“What?” I asked with my mouth full of food. Sarah rose a disapproving eyebrow at me and I swallowed before speaking. “Pardon.” Making myself sound extra polite.

“Anybody interesting?” Alfie asked.

“Oh, there were plenty of interesting people there,” I rose my eyebrows as I spoke. “Some more interesting than others.”

“How so?” He asked.

I gestured to the vase of flowers on the bench behind Sarah. “People who give you flowers because they think you’re pretty, for one.”

Sarah smiled as I spoke. Alfie didn’t do stuff like that for her because she didn’t appreciate things that died and made a mess. Artificial flowers that stayed looking nice all year were fine, but she still she didn’t display the ones she had as they had no scent and collect dust. Instead, Alfie would her little notebooks, pens and rolls of butcher’s paper. Which was altogether a better option for her as a writer as they were more practical gifts than flowers. 

“For two?” I swear Alfie acted as much like my dad as Sarah my mum.

“People who flirt.”

“Not the same person?” He asked.

I cringed. “Hardly.” My words were bitter. Zayn had been flirting with me moments before looking over Sarah like a possession.

The rest of dinner was eaten in peace; Alfie didn’t want to pick a fight or ask anymore questions that would have sour answers and Sarah was busy not paying attention to much else that was happening. It really was a wonder how she was such a quiet person, as an author she may never shut up about what she wants to write or emphasis on the right words, but as Sarah, just Sarah, she was timid.

*

The second day was slower than the first. And what felt like longer. I greatly anticipated eleven o’clock as that way I had twenty minutes that I wasn’t sitting behind a desk and answering calls with a cheery: “Hello, Cassie from Red Umbrella Records, what can I do for you?”