ONE: Vanilla on My Hands

30: A Dog Should Never Forget Who His Master Is

A/N: Btw look out, tomorrow is a double update.

Frank tugged at his sleeves the next morning, doing his best to avoid his boss as much as possible after the events of the night before, both at work and at home. He knew how much he had upset Gerard and the last thing he wanted was to bring it all back between them. Frank sat in the filing room as he sorted out some of the files that Derek had given him, knowing Derek was watching every now and again. He sat on his knees, humming to himself as he listened to Korn with one earbud.

"Morning, sweetie." Lindsey greeted as she stuck her head into the filing room, making Frank jump and turn to see her, smiling back.

"Hey, you." Frank replied simply with a small wave, "How are ya?"

"Never better." She smiled before stepping into the filing room, and closed the door behind her, "I heard about what happened last night."

"Dunno what you mean." Frank shrugged, sorting pages out correctly, frowning at the careless mistakes his coworker had made, wondering if Derek had started messing up on purpose to catch him in a mistake.

"Gerard told me about your argument last night. He came home rather perturbed." Lindsey announced and Frank grimaced at the thought, "Slamming doors and cursing like a sailor."

"Swearing? Gerard?" Frank asked, trying to act nonchalant as he paused his music, giving Lindsey his full concentration.

"He seemed rather upset about it." Lindsey sighed before she walked over and went down on her knees beside Frank, "He really can be a grumpy old man sometimes but, it's just who he is."

"Tell me about it..." Frank muttered, "First he lures me in, then pushes me away, then he fucks me and acts like it never happened, now I try and do exactly what I did last time and he completely rejects me- It fucking hurt, Linds."

"Give him time." Lindsey wrapped an arm around Frank and gave him a small hug as he leaned in, smelling her perfume- roses and floral scents that he completely predicted about her. He lay his head in the crook of her neck for a moment before pulling away. She smiled down at him, "I have a meeting in a few minutes but why don't you stop by my office later and we can chat, okay?"

"Yeah?" Frank looked up at her as she got up, dressed in the tightest leather skirt and an almost sheer blouse in a soft blush pink.

"Of course." She smiled, her crimson lips pulled up as she beamed down at him, "We can have lunch and discuss your tumultuous love life."

"I'd love that." Frank sighed out, offering up a small but grateful smile as she opened the door and adjusted her skirt's tight belt. She walked out again, redoing her hair in her usual large clip. Frank smiled warmly as he sat up a bit straighter, his day not as bad as thought it would be. He adjusted his tie and carried on with the files, realizing just how strewn out they had been when he hadn't been focusing. He gathered them up properly and began sorting them out, humming yet again.

"You almost done?" Derek sighed impatiently, rolling into view in their office doorway, looking at Frank across the hall who looked up.

"No, sorry. Lindsey was here and we were having a chat and she distracted me. I'm almost done." Frank grimaced apologetically and Derek merely rolled his eyes and pushed himself back to his desk, "Dick..." Frank sighed as he got up from the floor, sorting the files out properly for the last time before he pocketed his earphones in his blazer pocket.

~

It was lunchtime now, Frank was already heading back to the office after he had gone out to buy food, stopping at a deli to grab himself and Lindsey each a sandwich and juice. He knew she loved turkey on rye and he snagged the last one with an apple and berry juice for her, snagging himself a simple salad-sandwich and an orange juice. It was on the way to his car when he stopped, looking over to see the roses in a plastic bucket for sale by a street vendor. He grabbed a bunch of red ones, laughing as he hoped she'd remember the last time he'd given her flowers. An inside joke between them when he didn't want to admit that he had grown fond of Lindsey, feeling like she was almost like a sister to him, or a mother of sorts in a not-so-weird way. He walked into the building and into his office, shedding his jacket after he set the items down, folding the material over the back of his chair.