Status: Ongoing and can be found on Wattpad and Archive of Our Own
Guess
Three
To say Kylie was excited was a huge understatement. She finished typing up the last new file and saved it. It was 11:59, one minute before her lunch break officially began. She let a little smile come across her features as she thought of the impending half hour because maybe, just maybe, she kind of, sort of, had the ittiest, bittiest crush on Mr. Nygma. Maybe. She pulled her lunch from the mini fridge in a corner behind her desk and stood to leave. As she left, she locked her office door behind her. The girl made her way down the hall and back through the main lobby of the precinct, but before she stepped the toes of her scuffed black combat boots out of the shadows, the archivist took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the jeers of a few rather barbaric individuals. She forced herself to stand a little taller and stepped out into the room, trying to make her way as quickly as possible to the hall across from her. For a while, she thought that she was actually going to make it to her friend's office without a major incident. She had spoken, or rather thought, too soon it seemed when Officer Thomas came into view for the second time that day and barred her path.
"Oh, hello Officer." She said with a forced smile, hoping that he would just move his out of her way.
The man let out a good-natured laugh, "Now, sweetheart, I've asked you time and time again to just call me Johnny. Why can't you just do that one simple thing?"
She found herself wanting to punch him in his condescending face but swallowed the sudden bout of anger and composed herself. Kylie had just started here not too long ago, it wouldn't do to cause trouble.
"Perhaps it is because you cannot force me to address you by your first name. I can call you what I please, Officer Thomas."
She pushed past him and continued her journey across the room. Something dangerous flickered on his face, but he covered the look before she could see it, putting on a rather forced smile and letting out a rather forced laugh. He followed close behind her, easily catching up to her short, agitated strides with his own natural, more relaxed ones. She mentally cursed herself for being so vertically challenged. For once, Officer Thomas was silent, something that sadly, did not last as long as she would have hoped.
"You're not still having lunch with that Nygma are you?"
She clenched her jaw in an attempt to retain her anger," I am. Although I find it hard to understand why you keep nosing your way into my business, especially when it has nothing to do with you."
By now the duo had reached the office door of one Mr. Edward Nygma. Without missing a beat, the man next to her replied, unabashed by her venom laced comments with something that made her blood boil.
He leaned against the door frame, preventing her entry to the room beyond it, and smiled another one of those smiles of his," Tell you what, how about you ditch the dork and have lunch with me down at the diner? Just you and me, huh?"
She glared angrily at the officer," That dork just so happens to be a very dear friend of mine and I would appreciate it if you would stop talking about him like that."
Kylie attempted to push past the man to open the door, but he shifted his body and blocked her path once more. Rage bubbled up within the assistant.
Without warning Kylie stomped the heel one of her heavy boots on his right foot with an amount of strength uncharacteristic for someone her size. Officer Thomas let out a most satisfying shriek and Kylie smirked.
He jerked the injured limb away from her foot and his right arm flew from the door frame to cradle his foot. It was then that the short, blonde woman grabbed the police officer by the tie and yanked him down to eye level with a dangerous look.
"It will be in your very best interest, Johnny, if you stay away from Eddie and I."
Officer Thomas' thoughts were too scattered to form a jeer at the endearing nickname Kylie had used in reference to the scientist. The feeling fanning out from her had warped from annoyance to a calm rage if there ever was such a thing. Her voice had somewhat changed too. Her normal quiet and awkward pattern of speech smoothed into something more intimidating and confident. He swallowed hard. Her light blue eyes had even darkened and swum with something that dared him to contradict her. Their gold flecks glinted menacingly in the flickering light in the hall.
"Because you will find that I am not someone you would want as your enemy."
She let go of his tie, allowing him to stand back at his full height as she straightened it and brushed some imaginary dust off of his uniform.
She smiled sweetly.
"You should run along, Officer, you wouldn't want another pay dock for shirking your patrol duties that you are, " she checked the small silver watch on her left wrist," twenty minutes late for."
Officer Thomas became visibly pale and bolted down the hall into the main room of the precinct.
The young woman looked after him with a small smirk before changing her expression back to one of excitement. She knocked on the door in front of her.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Ed looked up from his noodles hopefully when he heard a sharp knock on his office door, he had honestly thought that Kylie had skipped out on him as a cruel joke, just as others had done before her.
"Come in."
The door open to reveal the short archivist in her red dress and black combat boots, smiling sweetly, her light blue eyes full of excitement. The thing that lurked in the corner of Ed's mind felt the need to remind him how he usually saw dread in all the eyes of the people who looked him. It started to whisper other things too, like how pretty she was and how she always treated him with kindness but Ed quickly shut them out.
"Hi, Ed, sorry I'm late, Officer Thomas caught up to me in the lobby."
He stirred his lunch," Oh, that's quite alright. Although, I am a bit worried about him bothering you..."
She closed the door behind her and perched in one of the chairs in front of her friend's desk, sitting her brown paper bag on top of it.
"I'm fine, he didn't really do anything except try to get me to go out to lunch with him and ditch you."
She swallowed a bite of her sandwich," which I would never do."
Ed picked up a few noodles with his pair of chopsticks," It never crossed my mind that you would."
He felt a tiny twinge of guilt. One for thinking so lowly of his only friend and two for lying straight to her face. He moved the food into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. Three for the words being said about her by the thing in his head. He blocked out the voice again, something that he thought he was getting better at.
"I was thinking that we could play Joust, it's a simple enough game to master in a short amount of time."
Kylie nodded enthusiastically, chewing another bite of her sandwich and her friend got up to turn on the television and set up the gaming system. While he did so he began to explain the objective of its' two player mode. Going into every detail possible. She listened politely, interjecting at all the right times, even though she knew exactly how to play.
In all honesty, she just liked to hear Ed talk.
After getting everything ready the scientist handed her a controller before sitting down with his own.
"Now, Miss Wood,"
Try as she might, she could never get Ed to stop calling her that.
"I am not about to take it easy on you even though you've never played before," he said confidently.
She raised an eyebrow at how sure he sounded .
"So, please don't be discouraged from playing."
He pressed the start button and both of their avatars appeared on the screen, his yellow knight flying a very noble looking flying ostrich and her blue knight on the ever regal stork. A few seconds later enemies flew in, perched on their buzzards. Kylie maneuvered her knight past stone platforms, taking enemies out on the way and collecting the green eggs that were dropped, preventing the enemy knights from spawning again. Right when the game had started Ed had attempted to tell her what to do, his own way of helping, but shut his mouth when she almost cleared the entire board in under a minute. He quickly got to work, slaying as many buzzard-mounted foes as he could. Ed was so focused of ridding the board of computer generated opponents that he forgot about the human one sitting next to him. She had been lying in wait between screens, just enough to the left side of the screen to be hidden, but not too much to the left to be deposited on the right side. Ed's knight swooped over to the bottom right side, in hot pursuit of one of the last enemies on the board. Their lances clashed together and his knight emerged victoriously, he scooped up the egg that the buzzard had dropped and let out a whoop of celebration.
She took her chance.
She sent her knight to the farthest left she could go, sending herself careening over to the bottom right of the screen, but not before pinning her knight to the platform above, ensuring that her lance was positioned the highest. He realized what was happening too late. Before he had a chance to flee, the ostrich and stork collided.
She had won. This time, it was her who screeched victoriously while Ed adjusted his glasses and his ego, muttering something under his breath about beginners luck. He pressed play again, determined to win. Lots of button smashing and pterodactyl noises later Kylie emerged the winner again.
And again.
And again.
And guess what?
................again.
Ed stared at the screen in disbelief. No one beats him in video games. Ever. So he was not too keen on acknowledging the fact that he had just got his ass beaten in one of his favorite games.
The girl next to him turned in her seat and gave a little grin, mockery twinkling in her eyes," C'mon Eddie, please don't be discouraged from playing."
He made a noise that sort of made him seem rather childish.
"Please don't call me that and I'm not discouraged, I am just tired of letting you win," he sniffed.
Kylie raised an eyebrow in disbelief and sighed, "Fine, Ed, then why don't we play again, and this time you can show me how good you really are at video games, instead of letting me win.
Ed sat his controller gently on his desk," No, no, that's all right," he said a little too quickly," break is almost over and I wouldn't want you to be late getting back.
She looked at the clock hanging over the door, they had about 8 minutes left.
"So what do you wanna do now?"
Ed swallowed nervously," Well, I, ah, I did have a question to ask you."
A little flame of hope flickered inside of her. Holy shit....what if he was going to ask her out on a date?
"Alright, ask away," she replied back coolly, hiding the pent up excitement pretty well if she did say so herself.
"You work with Miss Kringle, correct?"
She did not like where this was going.
"Yes, I am her assistant after all," she replied back, coating her words with nonchalance and hiding the disappointment.
He fiddled with a pen on his desk," Does she ever....mention me?"
She couldn't say she was taken aback by his question because she wasn't. She mentally cursed herself for being so stupid, of course, he didn't like her in that way, after all, she wasn't the one he stops by the annex to see every now and then. Even though he would always say hello to her, it was always Kristen he was there to see. Her chest began to slowly ache, although it wasn't for her and her invisibility to Ed. It was for Ed and his invisibility to Kristen. He had asked if she mentioned him and Kylie thought back to earlier that morning when the redhead had visited her. She mentioned him all right, she just didn't mention good things about him. It was always, "He's such a creep." Or," So weird." Or," He put a bullet in a cupcake! A live bullet!!! What a freak!" She never once said a good thing about him in front of Kylie. But how was she going to explain to her friend that the girl he fancied just was not interested in him?
She chose her next words very carefully," She.....talks about you from time to time.."
He brightened up a bit," Really?"
She gathered her garbage from lunch, planning to pitch it in a can in the main lobby, and stood up.
"Yeah.." she trailed off," but y'know only maybe once or twice a week.."
She was hoping that Ed would take the hint to not keep asking about her coworker and spare himself the pain of finding out her true feelings toward him. But of course, him being the way his is, all socially obtuse and whatnot, made everything worse. Even if did she find it endearing.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to walk with you back to the Records Annex. Perhaps Ms. Kringle will be there, I have something for her that I think she'll love."
He pulled a bouquet of lilies from under his desk and made his way to the doorway she was standing in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did you know the word crush originated in Britain and described social gatherings such as a dance or reception? The gatherings were often extremely hot and crowded with little space to move freely. They were places where men and women most frequently met and it is speculated whether the word was borrowed later to describe the romantic entanglements that occurred at the functions."
The blonde clapped a hand over her mouth in embarrassment. Damn her and her big mouth and prattling brain.
Ed looked at her curiously," Are you implying that you believe I am infatuated with Miss Kringle?"
She swallowed," I suppose so...I mean you do talk about her quite a lot....." she trailed off quietly.
Kylie really had no idea what her brain was implying, even though it was her own (Although not entirely). Sometimes it seemed as if she was merely a puppet and some unseen being was her puppeteer, manipulating all the little strings connected to her arms, legs, and mouth.
"I had been thinking about the same thing actually."
She turned her head to look at her friend with wide eyes.
"And I think you're right."
Now the ache in Kylie's chest was for her invisibility. They picked their way through the precinct, getting a handful of remarks thrown at them, an equal mix of belittling comments to Eddie and perverted snickers to her herself. Kylie found it difficult to swallow her anger and shot Kay a warning look. They had made it to the archive without a huge scene, something that was rare here. Kylie turned the doorknob and pushed open the door to the room beyond, saying something over her shoulder to Ed about maybe looking over some old cold case files for fun over break one day.
Her eyes went wide and she froze rather suddenly, giving her friend just enough time to peer over her and into the archive room. She cursed her short stature as Ed made a tiny choking noise as he processed what he was seeing. The girl turned and placed one hand on his chest to push her friend away from the door and closed it with the other, hoping their presence had not been noticed. Kristen had been there, indeed. But someone else was too. And that someone had been kissing her. Ed was silent and had brought the flowers from behind his back in front of him. He stared at them sullenly. Kylie gently guided him to her office and sat him in one of the chairs in front of her desk, positioning herself on its armrest. He was clutching the stems of the flowers hard enough that his knuckles began to turn white. There was nothing she could say that wouldn't make it worse. So she didn't utter a word. Instead, she cautiously wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. He tensed up for a moment before relaxing a little, remaining silent. They stayed like that for a while, but it was cut far too short in her opinion by the harsh ringing of her telephone cutting through the silence. It startled the both of them and caused Kylie to release her grip on him.
Ed looked at the clock hung on the wall and sighed," I best be going," he said dejectedly," I'm ten minutes late."
He stood and made his way to the door as Kylie let the phone ring on.
"Oh, um. I enjoyed lunch today, Ed. Perhaps we could do it again sometime?"
He mulled over her question for a moment," Perhaps."
Ed turned to the doorway took a step, then stopped, looking over his shoulder," Goodbye, Kylie."
She smiled at the use of her first name.
"Goodbye, Eddie."
He smiled flimsily before walking out of her office and into the hall, his steps making a dull thuds on the worn carpet.
Until they stopped.
Vexed by curiosity, Kylie peered into the hallway and saw Ed stopped by a trash can at the end of the hall. He was staring at the flowers again. Although, his shoulders weren't drooping as they were in her office. Instead, he stood rigidly, perfectly still. He looked angry, something she had never seen him be.
She jumped slightly when suddenly he snapped the flower stems and tossed the entire bouquet into the trash with a small noise of frustration. He stalked down the rest of the corridor and disappeared into the main room. Looking down both ends of the hall, she made sure no one was watching and darted out of the doorway. She peered down into the bin and sitting right on top were the ruined flowers. The assistant picked them up gingerly and plucked one from the middle. Somehow, this one made it out unscathed by her friend's anger. A single white lily. She crept back to her office and pulled a fake rose out of the vase on her desk before tossing it her trash bin. After filling said vase with water from one of her refrigerated bottles she sat the lily inside and tilted her head.
"White Alstroemeria, also known as the Peruvian lily," Kylie whispered quietly.
She gently brushed their fingers over the petals.
"Representative of friendship and devotion."
"Oh, hello Officer." She said with a forced smile, hoping that he would just move his out of her way.
The man let out a good-natured laugh, "Now, sweetheart, I've asked you time and time again to just call me Johnny. Why can't you just do that one simple thing?"
She found herself wanting to punch him in his condescending face but swallowed the sudden bout of anger and composed herself. Kylie had just started here not too long ago, it wouldn't do to cause trouble.
"Perhaps it is because you cannot force me to address you by your first name. I can call you what I please, Officer Thomas."
She pushed past him and continued her journey across the room. Something dangerous flickered on his face, but he covered the look before she could see it, putting on a rather forced smile and letting out a rather forced laugh. He followed close behind her, easily catching up to her short, agitated strides with his own natural, more relaxed ones. She mentally cursed herself for being so vertically challenged. For once, Officer Thomas was silent, something that sadly, did not last as long as she would have hoped.
"You're not still having lunch with that Nygma are you?"
She clenched her jaw in an attempt to retain her anger," I am. Although I find it hard to understand why you keep nosing your way into my business, especially when it has nothing to do with you."
By now the duo had reached the office door of one Mr. Edward Nygma. Without missing a beat, the man next to her replied, unabashed by her venom laced comments with something that made her blood boil.
He leaned against the door frame, preventing her entry to the room beyond it, and smiled another one of those smiles of his," Tell you what, how about you ditch the dork and have lunch with me down at the diner? Just you and me, huh?"
She glared angrily at the officer," That dork just so happens to be a very dear friend of mine and I would appreciate it if you would stop talking about him like that."
Kylie attempted to push past the man to open the door, but he shifted his body and blocked her path once more. Rage bubbled up within the assistant.
Without warning Kylie stomped the heel one of her heavy boots on his right foot with an amount of strength uncharacteristic for someone her size. Officer Thomas let out a most satisfying shriek and Kylie smirked.
He jerked the injured limb away from her foot and his right arm flew from the door frame to cradle his foot. It was then that the short, blonde woman grabbed the police officer by the tie and yanked him down to eye level with a dangerous look.
"It will be in your very best interest, Johnny, if you stay away from Eddie and I."
Officer Thomas' thoughts were too scattered to form a jeer at the endearing nickname Kylie had used in reference to the scientist. The feeling fanning out from her had warped from annoyance to a calm rage if there ever was such a thing. Her voice had somewhat changed too. Her normal quiet and awkward pattern of speech smoothed into something more intimidating and confident. He swallowed hard. Her light blue eyes had even darkened and swum with something that dared him to contradict her. Their gold flecks glinted menacingly in the flickering light in the hall.
"Because you will find that I am not someone you would want as your enemy."
She let go of his tie, allowing him to stand back at his full height as she straightened it and brushed some imaginary dust off of his uniform.
She smiled sweetly.
"You should run along, Officer, you wouldn't want another pay dock for shirking your patrol duties that you are, " she checked the small silver watch on her left wrist," twenty minutes late for."
Officer Thomas became visibly pale and bolted down the hall into the main room of the precinct.
The young woman looked after him with a small smirk before changing her expression back to one of excitement. She knocked on the door in front of her.
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Ed looked up from his noodles hopefully when he heard a sharp knock on his office door, he had honestly thought that Kylie had skipped out on him as a cruel joke, just as others had done before her.
"Come in."
The door open to reveal the short archivist in her red dress and black combat boots, smiling sweetly, her light blue eyes full of excitement. The thing that lurked in the corner of Ed's mind felt the need to remind him how he usually saw dread in all the eyes of the people who looked him. It started to whisper other things too, like how pretty she was and how she always treated him with kindness but Ed quickly shut them out.
"Hi, Ed, sorry I'm late, Officer Thomas caught up to me in the lobby."
He stirred his lunch," Oh, that's quite alright. Although, I am a bit worried about him bothering you..."
She closed the door behind her and perched in one of the chairs in front of her friend's desk, sitting her brown paper bag on top of it.
"I'm fine, he didn't really do anything except try to get me to go out to lunch with him and ditch you."
She swallowed a bite of her sandwich," which I would never do."
Ed picked up a few noodles with his pair of chopsticks," It never crossed my mind that you would."
He felt a tiny twinge of guilt. One for thinking so lowly of his only friend and two for lying straight to her face. He moved the food into his mouth, chewed and swallowed. Three for the words being said about her by the thing in his head. He blocked out the voice again, something that he thought he was getting better at.
"I was thinking that we could play Joust, it's a simple enough game to master in a short amount of time."
Kylie nodded enthusiastically, chewing another bite of her sandwich and her friend got up to turn on the television and set up the gaming system. While he did so he began to explain the objective of its' two player mode. Going into every detail possible. She listened politely, interjecting at all the right times, even though she knew exactly how to play.
In all honesty, she just liked to hear Ed talk.
After getting everything ready the scientist handed her a controller before sitting down with his own.
"Now, Miss Wood,"
Try as she might, she could never get Ed to stop calling her that.
"I am not about to take it easy on you even though you've never played before," he said confidently.
She raised an eyebrow at how sure he sounded .
"So, please don't be discouraged from playing."
He pressed the start button and both of their avatars appeared on the screen, his yellow knight flying a very noble looking flying ostrich and her blue knight on the ever regal stork. A few seconds later enemies flew in, perched on their buzzards. Kylie maneuvered her knight past stone platforms, taking enemies out on the way and collecting the green eggs that were dropped, preventing the enemy knights from spawning again. Right when the game had started Ed had attempted to tell her what to do, his own way of helping, but shut his mouth when she almost cleared the entire board in under a minute. He quickly got to work, slaying as many buzzard-mounted foes as he could. Ed was so focused of ridding the board of computer generated opponents that he forgot about the human one sitting next to him. She had been lying in wait between screens, just enough to the left side of the screen to be hidden, but not too much to the left to be deposited on the right side. Ed's knight swooped over to the bottom right side, in hot pursuit of one of the last enemies on the board. Their lances clashed together and his knight emerged victoriously, he scooped up the egg that the buzzard had dropped and let out a whoop of celebration.
She took her chance.
She sent her knight to the farthest left she could go, sending herself careening over to the bottom right of the screen, but not before pinning her knight to the platform above, ensuring that her lance was positioned the highest. He realized what was happening too late. Before he had a chance to flee, the ostrich and stork collided.
She had won. This time, it was her who screeched victoriously while Ed adjusted his glasses and his ego, muttering something under his breath about beginners luck. He pressed play again, determined to win. Lots of button smashing and pterodactyl noises later Kylie emerged the winner again.
And again.
And again.
And guess what?
................again.
Ed stared at the screen in disbelief. No one beats him in video games. Ever. So he was not too keen on acknowledging the fact that he had just got his ass beaten in one of his favorite games.
The girl next to him turned in her seat and gave a little grin, mockery twinkling in her eyes," C'mon Eddie, please don't be discouraged from playing."
He made a noise that sort of made him seem rather childish.
"Please don't call me that and I'm not discouraged, I am just tired of letting you win," he sniffed.
Kylie raised an eyebrow in disbelief and sighed, "Fine, Ed, then why don't we play again, and this time you can show me how good you really are at video games, instead of letting me win.
Ed sat his controller gently on his desk," No, no, that's all right," he said a little too quickly," break is almost over and I wouldn't want you to be late getting back.
She looked at the clock hanging over the door, they had about 8 minutes left.
"So what do you wanna do now?"
Ed swallowed nervously," Well, I, ah, I did have a question to ask you."
A little flame of hope flickered inside of her. Holy shit....what if he was going to ask her out on a date?
"Alright, ask away," she replied back coolly, hiding the pent up excitement pretty well if she did say so herself.
"You work with Miss Kringle, correct?"
She did not like where this was going.
"Yes, I am her assistant after all," she replied back, coating her words with nonchalance and hiding the disappointment.
He fiddled with a pen on his desk," Does she ever....mention me?"
She couldn't say she was taken aback by his question because she wasn't. She mentally cursed herself for being so stupid, of course, he didn't like her in that way, after all, she wasn't the one he stops by the annex to see every now and then. Even though he would always say hello to her, it was always Kristen he was there to see. Her chest began to slowly ache, although it wasn't for her and her invisibility to Ed. It was for Ed and his invisibility to Kristen. He had asked if she mentioned him and Kylie thought back to earlier that morning when the redhead had visited her. She mentioned him all right, she just didn't mention good things about him. It was always, "He's such a creep." Or," So weird." Or," He put a bullet in a cupcake! A live bullet!!! What a freak!" She never once said a good thing about him in front of Kylie. But how was she going to explain to her friend that the girl he fancied just was not interested in him?
She chose her next words very carefully," She.....talks about you from time to time.."
He brightened up a bit," Really?"
She gathered her garbage from lunch, planning to pitch it in a can in the main lobby, and stood up.
"Yeah.." she trailed off," but y'know only maybe once or twice a week.."
She was hoping that Ed would take the hint to not keep asking about her coworker and spare himself the pain of finding out her true feelings toward him. But of course, him being the way his is, all socially obtuse and whatnot, made everything worse. Even if did she find it endearing.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to walk with you back to the Records Annex. Perhaps Ms. Kringle will be there, I have something for her that I think she'll love."
He pulled a bouquet of lilies from under his desk and made his way to the doorway she was standing in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did you know the word crush originated in Britain and described social gatherings such as a dance or reception? The gatherings were often extremely hot and crowded with little space to move freely. They were places where men and women most frequently met and it is speculated whether the word was borrowed later to describe the romantic entanglements that occurred at the functions."
The blonde clapped a hand over her mouth in embarrassment. Damn her and her big mouth and prattling brain.
Ed looked at her curiously," Are you implying that you believe I am infatuated with Miss Kringle?"
She swallowed," I suppose so...I mean you do talk about her quite a lot....." she trailed off quietly.
Kylie really had no idea what her brain was implying, even though it was her own (Although not entirely). Sometimes it seemed as if she was merely a puppet and some unseen being was her puppeteer, manipulating all the little strings connected to her arms, legs, and mouth.
"I had been thinking about the same thing actually."
She turned her head to look at her friend with wide eyes.
"And I think you're right."
Now the ache in Kylie's chest was for her invisibility. They picked their way through the precinct, getting a handful of remarks thrown at them, an equal mix of belittling comments to Eddie and perverted snickers to her herself. Kylie found it difficult to swallow her anger and shot Kay a warning look. They had made it to the archive without a huge scene, something that was rare here. Kylie turned the doorknob and pushed open the door to the room beyond, saying something over her shoulder to Ed about maybe looking over some old cold case files for fun over break one day.
Her eyes went wide and she froze rather suddenly, giving her friend just enough time to peer over her and into the archive room. She cursed her short stature as Ed made a tiny choking noise as he processed what he was seeing. The girl turned and placed one hand on his chest to push her friend away from the door and closed it with the other, hoping their presence had not been noticed. Kristen had been there, indeed. But someone else was too. And that someone had been kissing her. Ed was silent and had brought the flowers from behind his back in front of him. He stared at them sullenly. Kylie gently guided him to her office and sat him in one of the chairs in front of her desk, positioning herself on its armrest. He was clutching the stems of the flowers hard enough that his knuckles began to turn white. There was nothing she could say that wouldn't make it worse. So she didn't utter a word. Instead, she cautiously wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. He tensed up for a moment before relaxing a little, remaining silent. They stayed like that for a while, but it was cut far too short in her opinion by the harsh ringing of her telephone cutting through the silence. It startled the both of them and caused Kylie to release her grip on him.
Ed looked at the clock hung on the wall and sighed," I best be going," he said dejectedly," I'm ten minutes late."
He stood and made his way to the door as Kylie let the phone ring on.
"Oh, um. I enjoyed lunch today, Ed. Perhaps we could do it again sometime?"
He mulled over her question for a moment," Perhaps."
Ed turned to the doorway took a step, then stopped, looking over his shoulder," Goodbye, Kylie."
She smiled at the use of her first name.
"Goodbye, Eddie."
He smiled flimsily before walking out of her office and into the hall, his steps making a dull thuds on the worn carpet.
Until they stopped.
Vexed by curiosity, Kylie peered into the hallway and saw Ed stopped by a trash can at the end of the hall. He was staring at the flowers again. Although, his shoulders weren't drooping as they were in her office. Instead, he stood rigidly, perfectly still. He looked angry, something she had never seen him be.
She jumped slightly when suddenly he snapped the flower stems and tossed the entire bouquet into the trash with a small noise of frustration. He stalked down the rest of the corridor and disappeared into the main room. Looking down both ends of the hall, she made sure no one was watching and darted out of the doorway. She peered down into the bin and sitting right on top were the ruined flowers. The assistant picked them up gingerly and plucked one from the middle. Somehow, this one made it out unscathed by her friend's anger. A single white lily. She crept back to her office and pulled a fake rose out of the vase on her desk before tossing it her trash bin. After filling said vase with water from one of her refrigerated bottles she sat the lily inside and tilted her head.
"White Alstroemeria, also known as the Peruvian lily," Kylie whispered quietly.
She gently brushed their fingers over the petals.
"Representative of friendship and devotion."