Pay for Your Sins

Today marked the fourth day this week that Delilah's boss had made her stay late at work. She would have tried to complain, but after the third time, she had just given up. It was like her words went in one of her bosses ears and out the other. She felt like she was spending more time at work than she was at home. Though, there wasn't much that she could do about it. She needed this job. So she was just going to suck it up and deal with it. That didn't mean that she had to be happy about it.

"Fuck this bullshit," Delilah grumbled to herself as she sorted through the files in front of her. "I hate this fucking job. I should just tell y boss to shove it and go to hell."

"Wow. I'm glad that you love your job so much."

Delilah's head snapped up at the sound of another voice, worried that it was her boss. But she breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw that it was just Andrew. "Jesus Christ! You almost gave me a heart attack."

Andrew chuckled as he walked into the room, sitting down in a chair on the opposite side of the desk, setting a bag down next to the chair. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," Delilah replied, smiling widely. Her heart felt like it was about to bust out of her chest with how hard it was beating. But she honestly couldn't say if it was because of the scare Andrew had given her or if it was because this was the first time Andrew and her had been alone together in months. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I stopped by your place to see if you were home, but Jolie said that you were staying late. So I figured that I'd surprise you here. Bring you something to eat because you'd probably be too busy to think about eating," Andrew replied, gesturing to the bag at his feet.

At that exact moment, Delilah's stomach growled loudly, causing her to blush. "I'm actually pretty hungry now that you mention it."

Andrew smirked as he picked the bag up from the floor, setting it down on the desk. "I got that turkey sandwich that you like from the deli by your apartment."

"You are the best!" she exclaimed as she moved some of the papers off the desk before she was digging into the bag to pull the sandwich out. "I haven't had one of these sandwiches in forever."

"I thought that you went there everyday."

"Not recently," Delilah replied before taking a bite of the sandwich. "Jolie can't handle the smell of turkey these days. Plus, with working so much, I haven't had a chance to go," she added after swallowing her bite of sandwich.

The silence that settled over them after that wasn't the least bit awkward and for that Delilah was so grateful. She had almost started to get used to the awkward silences between the two of them. But she was glad that she could just relax right now and not have to worry about filling up the silence with idle small talk.

It didn't last very long though. Soon Andrew was opening his mouth to speak and the words that came out of his mouth nearly made Delilah choke on the bite of sandwich that she had just taken. "Is it just me or has Jolie been different lately?"

Delilah took a sip of her water, trying to buy some time so she could figure out how she should reply to that question. There was no way that Andrew could know. Maybe he was just asking in general. "What do you mean acting differently?"

"Well, like, since when does she like chipotle pickles? She hates anything even the tiniest bit spicy or hot."

A stab of jealousy shot through Delilah, but she just ignored it. There was no reason for her to be jealous. Anyone who knew Jolie knew about her aversion to spicy or hot things. So she could see how Andrew would notice when she started to eat something weird. But that didn't mean that she had to like that he had noticed.

"And Brandon told me that when he went over there the other week, Jolie had a mini breakdown and cried in front of him. They even hugged."

"No fucking way!" Delilah exclaimed. She honestly didn't know what surprised her more; that Jolie and Brandon had been alone and hadn't killed each other or that they had hugged.

"Yeah. So I figured that since you're Jolie's best friend, you would know what's up," Andrew stated.

Delilah swallowed hard, giving a small shake of her head. "I haven't noticed anything different about her lately."

"Really?" Andrew questioned, raising an eyebrow.

She could hear the disappointment in his voice and she hated it. She could just tell that he knew she was lying. Or at least she wasn't telling him the whole truth. And this really wasn't the way to make things better between the two of them. But she had promised not to tell anyone. Was keeping her best friend's secret worth ruining her relationship even more?

"Really. I haven't really been home that much lately, so I can't say that I've noticed anything different with Jolie. Plus, if there was something going on with her, I'm sure that she would have told me already," Delilah lied, leaning back in her chair.

Andrew sighed softly, shaking his head. "Alright. Just checking."

For a moment Delilah was tempted to take back what she had just said. Tempted to tell Andrew the whole truth. But she clamped her mouth shut. Spilling her guts wasn't going to solve anything. In fact, she was pretty sure that it would only make things worse.

"I can try talking to her?" Delilah suggested. "See what's with her. I know that she's been dealing with some family stuff. Maybe that's what's wrong and she's stressing out about it."

"Maybe," Andrew agreed absently, getting to his feet. "Don't worry about it though. I'm sure that it's nothing. I mean, if Jolie hasn't said anything to you about it, it's probably not important."

Delilah forced a tight smile to her face as she nodded. "Exactly."

Andrew made his way around the desk, leaning down so that he could press a kiss against her forehead. "I'm gonna head out. Early practice tomorrow. Don't stay here too late, alright?"

The words had Delilah wanting to break down in tears. Even though Andrew that she was hiding something from him, he wasn't even going to try and call her on her bullshit. He was just going to let it go. After all the lying that she had done in the past, it seemed like he expected nothing less from her. And she really couldn't blame him. She had done this to herself.

"I think that I'm going to head home now too. Walk me to my car?" she asked softly as she climbed to her feet.

"Of course," Andrew murmured, helping her into her jacket.

The two of them walked out of the office together, Delilah stopping to shut the lights off and lock up the office. When she turned back to Andrew, she let out a soft gasp when he tentatively reached out to take her hand, lacing their fingers together.

"Is this okay?" Andrew asked quietly.

All Delilah could do was nod her head, not trusting herself to speak.

"Awesome," Andrew stated happily, giving Delilah's hand a small squeezed as he headed for the exit.

Delilah followed him, rapidly blinking her eyes to hold back the tears. She hated this. Hated how things had changed. She was used to an Andrew that was loud and confident and didn't need to ask if he could hold her hand. This new Andrew scared her. And she knew that she was the whole reason that he had changed. It broke her heart that this was how things had turned out for the two of them. But she just had to be happy that Andrew was still with her and that once everything had blown over, she would be able to fix them.