Chapter 13

You both made your way back to Benthouse building, and up to the Chambers offices. Your lunch had taken an hour and a half, but you were still coming in with plenty of time to spare. The secretary at the front smiled warmly as she saw Sabrina, though to her credit she didn't drop it when you followed Sabrina in.

"Hey guys, welcome back," she said. "Everyone is in our staff meeting right now. Just head on back to the secondary conference room and we'll get you two started again when we have the chance, alright?"

"Sounds good," you said, taking the lead. "Anything interesting happen while we were gone?"

"No," the secretary said, with a questioning look. "Why? Should we be expecting something?"

"Oh, um, no?" you said, surprised at the response you got.

"We'll just head back, thanks," Sabrina said, bumping you to start moving past the secretary desk.

The main office area was empty of people, and you could see they were all packed into the large conference room with the lights dimmed and some sort of presentation going on inside. No one even turned to glance at you and Sabrina as you made your way down to the side hallway and back to your shitty little "office space."

"OK, I thought you said talking with her would make things better?" you asked. "Why the hell did she give methat look?"

Sabrina rolled her eyes with a sigh. Part way back on your walk from the restaurant she had re-donned her sweater, and now she smoothed it out again as she sat back into her seat at the table. "It's not just talking, John. It's what you talk about, and what sort of impression you made at first. She thinks you're weird, so when you asked a random question like that it came across as more weird."

You blew out a breath and sat down beside her, slumping in your seat. "I'm hopeless, aren't I?" you asked.

"Pretty much," Sabrina smirked. "At least you've got me to cover for you."

"Secretary-whisperer," you chuckled. "Going to put that on your resume?"

"Sure, right next to nu-"

"Knock knock," said the Office Administrator lady. The older woman leaned around the corner of the door, just poking her head in. "I saw you two headed back here. We finished our staff meeting earlier than expected, are you ready to start on the rest of the surveys?"

"Absolutely," Sabrina said, recovering from the slight moment of panic she had when she got cut off about to say something naughty.

"Great," the woman said. "Just two minutes."

"Maybe no jokes in the office," you suggested.

"Yeah," she nodded. "At least not during business hours. Or without a lookout."

Soon you two were back at it, going through the mind numbing paperwork and questions with each employee of Chambers Architecture. The thing was, you were having a good time doing it. Even if the faces and names started to blend together, the minute or two between questionnaires with Sabrina were fun. After particularly strange answers, Sabrina had a tendency to tap the toe of her heels a few times, and you made it a game to place your own toe over hers before she could start tapping.

There were also the looks. Soft smiles through pursed lips, playful and meaningless at the same time. Little winks when she knew you two were on the same page about something unsaid. She even started touching you more, though not in an unprofessional way. Just a brush of her fingers on your arm as she asked you for something mundane, or her fingers trailing across your shoulder as she went out to the staff kitchen for some water.

As the afternoon wore on, something else happened though. Just like your shitty office back at BMA, the conference room you had been shuffled off into faced east. And as the sun moved across the sky, it cut in through the window and you found the temperature rising.

In between two surveys, you uncomfortably undead a couple of buttons on your shirt and fanned yourself.

"I can't stand this much longer," Sabrina said. She sucked down the last of her current glass of water, then reached down and untucked her sweater from her skirt and started pulling it off again. It was light, and the way it hugged her petite body was both professional but also nerdy hot, but even that extra layer was causing her to sweat.

She caught you watching her, and instead of looking away you gave her a wink back. She let her eyes dart to the door, then back to you as she bit the corner of her lip with a naughty smile. Sabrina ran her hands down her sides, smoothing out her blouse, then back up and cupped her small chest. You watched her fingers close over where her nipples likely were and lightly pinch. You knew from the restaurant that she was wearing a bra with just a soft, lacy front so she was likely able to really, actually tweak them. The bridge of her nose crinkled a little as her grin widened, then she stopped and sat back down next to you.

"You're bad," I said. "Didn't we just agree not during office hours?"

"Couldn't help it," she said. "The way you were looking at me was hot."

Footsteps and humming in the corridor, your next employee coming for the questionnaire, stopped you from replying. Another boring 10 minutes later, you stood up and followed the guy out and headed for the kitchen.

"Thank God," you said, standing in front of the fridge with the freezer door open. Someone had made ice cubes in a tray. You grabbed one of the generic glasses from the cupboard, filled it with ice and went back to the room. "Here," you said to Sabrina. "Hold out your arm."

Sabrina's blouse was short sleeved, and as she held out her arm to you, you took one of the ice cubes out of the glass and touched it to her wrist. Her skin immediately goose pimpled, and she sighed happily as you dragged the corner of the ice cube up and down her arm lightly, spreading the cold.

"Mmmm," she groaned softly. "Hold on, that's not enough." She reached back and pulled her hair forward and over her shoulder, leaning forward to bare the back of her neck to you.

You smiled and, one hand on her shoulder to keep her still, you touched the flat bottom of the ice cube to her neck and slowly moved it around.

"Oh yeah, that's good," she muttered. "God, I can think of a couple ways to really have fun with those."