***Warning Explicit lyrics!***

Edward runs a team in an office, one of his new starts, Bella, makes him uneasy for reasons he can't prove or explain. Follow the games being played between the pair and Leah. Where does it end? Non-cannon.

Hi and welcome to The Office, this isn't going to be an explicit office sex story, it's a romance/drama not a naughty one, sorry!

Story is set in the UK, so apologies if you don't get all the words, some of it is UK slang and there's even some 'drunkenesse' in here too

Chapter 1

Yeah, sure, my job isn't sexy. It's pretty boring and repetitive most of the time. But hey, it's a job, its mine and when the high points are in town, they're pretty high, plus I get overtime. It's not always easy, it can be hard and demanding, more demanding than a wife with kids, I assume. A lot of project managers try to make it sexy, sleek, try to make it more than it is but all we do is manage change and solve problems. It's steady and pretty transferable. It's a middle management job which companies will always need. There's not much companies can do about that, they need to change as much we need to change them. Give and take, all balanced nicely.

My project is pretty dry, making sure systems cope with business coming in. Snore. But, at least I have a job, these days with the recession biting that's good going, I get paid reasonably well, I just got promoted because my boss left and it was too risky to bring someone else in, so I got it, along with a big fat pay increase and a car, if I want it and a shiny new Blackberry. I can live with that.

My life is ok I guess, my job fills most of my time, 10 to 14 hours a day anyway. I don't spend much at the flat I call home. I prefer to be out and about in the country. I spend most weekends hiking, camping and rock climbing. It's a good life, healthy if nothing else but being out, away from modern life is the thing that draws me.

I have a few mates, not many though. I've never been great at making friends, I've never really fit in with anyone. I don't drink much, my only real vice is smoking. There are surprisingly few people who share all these interests. Amazing I know, who'd have thought it!

The only person I could class as my best friend Jasper, he works in the office too. We met each other when we worked together in the same team about 5 years ago, he's pretty cool, older than me, but he parties like a student. He works with corporate risk or something or other. I was never that into his job, he isn't that into mine so that's just fine. We grab coffee sometimes, nothing major.

We used to hang out a lot, years ago, we used to watch films and eat pizza for an entire weekend just because we could. I'm not sure what changed but I grew up with my job, he didn't. People grow apart I guess. These things happen.

Another Monday morning, this one worse than the usual drudgery, my head is still fuzzy from Jasper's birthday do. Like I said, he drinks a lot and he has way more friends to do it with. It's a lot easier to socialise when you're social. I went out on Friday with him and some his friends from work.

I had intended to head out for a couple of beers, I don't really get on that well with work related folks. They all seem self obsessed and self centred. Well, they are, all confirmed now, from what I can remember. We started out in a little pub called "the fork" had my couple of beers. I was on my way out when Jaz caught me.

"Come on you light weight, where the hell are you going?"

"I best head off mate, early start tomorrow. I'm heading up north, getting away from it for the weekend"

"Balls! Take a load off your feet and get with the program, I know some lovely ladies you'll wanna meet! Relax man, it's my birthday. One for the road mate, yeah?"

"No man, hey I gotta scoot"

"Cool, hey! Garcon! Another one for my man Edward!"

"Shit Jaz... OK, OK"

"My man! That's more like it, the hills will be there next week, my birthday won't!" Jaz moved away surprisingly gracefully considering I was starting to feel a little unsteady on my feet already and I didn't even want to think about who else we'd be meeting throughout the night.

I caught up with Jasper after a few more beers "Jaaaaazzz, mate! Where necksht" After that it's a blur, I know we went to another pub then a club. I'm also pretty sure we bumped into Jake and his pack of Neanderthals at some point. I managed to pour myself to bed sometime early Sunday morning, I can't remember much more until I woke up this morning. I don't drink for a reason and I just remembered it. I have no idea what I drank or what happened although I had all my clothes, keys and my wallet which is a good start

My alarm splintered through my head this morning. I managed to stagger to the shower, there was hot water which was a bonus. I still stank of beer even after 20 minutes under the roasting hot shower. I brushed my teeth five times and it still feels like a badger took a dump in my mouth.

Christ, my head hurts.

I managed to get dressed, trousers on the right way round and a reasonably clean and ironed shirt. I am also impressed I managed to get to the train station, sat heavily on one of the benches. On the train it was like a game of sardines, again. Stupid, mindless commuters, stupid railway companies packing us into little metal tubes travelling along at 90 mph, great idea guys keep them coming. The steady rocking this morning made me feel like I wanted to barf all over the guy next to me. The guy's personal hygiene, or lack of it, didn't help. No shower or brushed teeth for that guy he must have been senior management...

Stone the crows, my head hurts.

Managed to get through the milling senseless mass on the walk in, it's raining which helped clear my head a bit but I stopped to grab some painkillers and a drink on the way in. Being 6ft 3 umbrellas are a hazard at the best of times. With my eyes half shut this morning and the lack of normal reaction times it was like walking through a dense pine forest. I'm lucky to still have my sight. I swore at more than one person on the way in. In my defence, the pain killers hadn't kicked in by then.

Now, sitting at my desk, looking at my calendar, I wish I'd phoned in sick. My boss is away so I'm doing his job this week, I couldn't just not show up. I'd probably get fired. Two meetings with the team, the rest with customers. Shit...

I have a good team working for me, Alice, Jasper's girlfriend, is definitely the bubbliest of us all, she's a real gem to have and keeps the team happy. Rosalie is, difficult, but she's good at her job. Emmett is built like a rugby forward but has an amazingly technical mind, couldn't run the project without him. Esme is older but she's like a mother hen, always worrying and fretting about us. Finally Carlisle, he's my boss. He's the father of the team, a good guy to work for. Then there's me, problem solver, childminder and general talker for the project.

"Oh Edward, you look a bit peaky today, are you coming down with something" Esme said looking concerned. As always I smiled, Esme was an inspiration, one of the rare people who really cared about people, even when they didn't care about her.

"No, no Esme, just a good weekend, according to Jasper's meaning of life anyway, me, I'm not so sure" I smiled.

Esme still looking concerned said "remember we have new people joining the team today, you really should get someone else to talk to them, at least until you are feeling better, please?"

"No, I'm fine Esme, really, I just need to put together some slides to walk them through everything, 30 minutes then I'm done. When are they coming?"

Esme peaked at her watch "In about 20 minutes" she smiled.

"Ah, shit..."

"I have some slides I can print off for you, don't worry, they only cover about 15 minutes but I'm sure you can stretch out the questions and answers, looking at the state of you, you will struggle to get out an answer in that time anyway" Esme said, not unkindly "although, I suggest you say you're not feeling too well at the start, it'll set the scene."

"Thanks Esme, if you wouldn't mind, just pop them on my desk, I don't suppose you know what room they'll be in, do you?"

"Got it covered, boss" Esme wrote the room number down along with the chair of the meeting and the start time.

"You're a life saver Esme, thanks... Where's Alice, she's usually in by now, it's..." I glanced at my watch, slightly shocked "Jesus, it's nearly 10am"

"Well, judging by the state of you and Jasper, I suggest she'll be calling in sick today" I glanced across at Jasper's desk, he was face down, obviously nursing a worse headache then mine which made me feel a bit better.

"hhhmmm... If you could pop that stuff on my desk, I'll just sit here quietly and suffer until I go, thanks Esme." I watched her turn and head back to her computer and then closed my eyes. My phone rang, "aww... fuck it" I mumbled as I let it go to voicemail "not this morning..."

Great, I love my job, I love my job...

"Thanks Esme" I said quietly as I heard a pile of papers slam down on the desk not unkindly. "You'd better go, you've got 2 minutes"

"Awww... shit, not even time for a smoke, damn it!"

I walked slowly down the stairs to the room with the new starts. There was only five of them and the chairperson (Sandy, the perpetually annoying, happy, bubbly, in your face, pain in the ass) in the room but the noise drilled through my head like a hammer drill. I smiled weakly as I entered the room taking a deep breath.

"Guys, this is Edward, Edward, would you like to introduce yourself" Sandy said with a massive smile.

What the fuck Sandy I thought you just did that for me and what fucking drugs are you on to have that fucking smile on a Monday morning, bitch. "Sure, thanks Sandy. I hope you've been nice to these guys. I'm Edward Cullen and I'm the Senior Project Manager for the Platform upgrade programme. Sounds grand, but really I'm here to make sure you guys are OK and to sort any problems you can't. So why are we all here?" The next 25 minutes was wasted with me talking shit about the work and feeling like crap. "So, any questions?"

No hands went up, none ever did in a presentation unless you were in a room with "real suits", or pricks as I like to call them, the ones who take their jobs too seriously and want to be better than they are, or look better than the person doing the presentation. A hand went up, shit...

The hand belonged to a slender young lady, one I'd noticed a couple of times during the presentation. She was too alert, too engaged in the whole thing... a real suit in waiting by the looks of it.

"Yes, Bella, is it?" I asked, the tone in my head rang of sarcasm but happily it didn't seem to come through when I spoke. "I was just wondering if we'll get the opportunity for development in the role" she asked, very sweetly I must admit. I knew the type, come in as a temp worker then take all the training, shove it on your CV and go get the next job for more money... Bitch, who the hell picked these people, Jesus.

"Yes, there will be limited training opportunities to bring you up to speed with how we do things here and specifically to deal with the infrastructure elements of the work" Bitch "Bella, anyone else?" I answered

No more questions, I thanked everyone and told them I'd be catching up with them over the next few days to make sure they were settling in before heading out the door and back to my desk. I'd have to keep an eye on Bella to make sure I caught any shit she might stir up.

I wondered slowly toward the stairs and then took a swerve toward the exit doors. The cold breeze refreshed me as I walked round the side of the building to the smokers haven. I saw Seth, I liked him, straight up guy with a sailors mouth, most importantly, honest as the day is long.

"Hey Seth, how you doing on the drizzly and dank Monday morning" I asked causally

"It's Monday morning, how the fuck do you think I am? And you?"

"Me" I answered, "fucking shit mate".

"Ah honesty from a PM? That's new" he smiled

"Funny fucker this morning huh?"

Seth took a deep drag on his cigarette "better head in mate, boss is being a cock this morning"

"Gimme a shout if you're heading out again" I said

"Will do boss man!"

Seth is a good guy, he's part of Jake's team, he's the only one I'd speak to if we didn't all work together. Jake is, as Seth so kindly put it, a cock. He's in charge of another project but he's a Project Manager who thinks the job is sexy. I mean seriously, what the fuck? The job feels like being in charge of a nursery most of the time. Whine, whine, fix this, fix that, I don't want that anymore I want this... But Jake seems to enjoy the publicity, he's a talker, a "real suit" he's the one who always asks questions even if they're fucking mindless ones, those ones he just puts, "forgive me if I'm being slow, but..." in front of. What a cock...

I flicked the half finished cigarette into the sand bin realising it was only making my head worse and walked back in the front doors. I noticed a very pale Jasper heading down the main stairs toward me. "mate, what the fuck happened this weekend and why do you look like shit, I thought you were used to that stuff!"

"Ah Christ on a bike Edward, stop shouting" Jaz cringed. I chuckled gently still nursing my own headache.

"Come on mate, fuck this place, I'll buy you a coffee and you can tell me what happened" I said as I spun on my heals and nearly feel over in doing it.