A Dangerous Affair

“Did you hear that?” Stephanie whispered.

Seconds later they heard the distant sound of laughter and the slam of a car door on the street outside.

Tom shrugged. “Must just be kids outside,” he said, leaning forward to kiss her neck.

She stiffened. “What if it’s not?”

“It is, it is,” he murmured against her skin, praying that she wouldn’t go cold on him.

“What if it’s someone from the party?” she went on.

“No, no it’s definitely not that,” he replied adamantly. Tom didn’t think that his blood pressure could cope with the ups and downs of the evening, particularly the down if she called a halt to things now!

Then Stephanie heard a noise which most definitely came from within the building.

“Oh god, there’s somebody coming in!” she exclaimed in a panic, pushing Tom away, jumping up and pulling her clothes back into place with shaking hands.

Oh god not Brick! Please not Brick!

Tom began frantically searching for something whilst Stephanie attempted to retrieve the objects which had fallen from Brick’s desk. She stopped suddenly and looked at Tom.

“Where the hell’s your shirt?” The unmistakable sound of footsteps was getting louder, “Find it, I’ll delay whoever it is,” she said rushing out of the door.

The outer office was in semi darkness and it was clear that the person was in the corridor outside. Stephanie headed for the door but then hesitated. She realised that if it was Brick she had absolutely no idea what reason she could give for them being there. She wracked her brains to come up with something convincing to say. If she didn’t have a good enough excuse he would undoubtedly see through it and know that something was going on. She had to calm down; she looked and felt guilty at that moment. The person coughed. Was that a Brick cough? It definitely came from a male. It had to be him. Her heart jumped about in her chest. God she hoped that Tom had his shirt on by now!

She was standing in the middle of the office at that point, anticipating the door opening, but she knew that if Brick walked in and saw her like that it would look suspicious. She had to be doing something. She dived for her desk and sat down, reaching for a file. What the hell was she doing? It’s hardly likely that she’d pop back to the office in the middle of the party to catch up on paperwork! Too late, the door was opening.

The person entered and she looked up at the man. He frowned.

“What the hell are you doing here Stephanie? You can leave the paperwork for tonight!” he said, strolling towards the door behind which she prayed Tom was fully dressed.

Tom heard someone at the office door and panicked. What was he supposed to be doing there? He glanced down, grabbed a file and leant against the desk.

“Do you really expect me to believe that you two are here to catch up on work?” the person said with disbelief.

Tom looked up from the file and decided to resort to plan B. “You caught us out. We’ve helped ourselves to the whiskey but we figured we needed some. Stephanie and I had a bit of shouting match and…well now you’ll be glad to know that working relations are back to normal,” Tom explained.

“Hmm,” the person glanced around the room and noticed some papers and pens on the floor around the desk. “Well, I came here for the whiskey so you’d better hand it over.”

Tom replaced the cap on the whiskey bottle and handed it to him.

“Next time you should think twice before you come sneaking in here to do… whatever it was you were doing,” he said, taking the bottle. “There are a lot of people expecting you back at the pub. I strongly suggest that you get back there.” The person turned to walk away but paused before he left. “Oh and Tom, that file you’re reading…”

“It’s the new story we’re working on,” Tom cut in defensively.

“Well that may be so, but you might like to pick the contents of it up off the floor before you start reading it!”