CHAPTER TWELVE

Naomi was awakened by a noise from outside. She sat up, taking a moment to remember where she was; the spare room at Addison's house. Naomi creeped out of the room quietly and looked out of the window in time to see Sam get out of his car and walk into the house. Naomi kept watching as he turned the lights on, took his shirt off and picked up some weights. For a moment Naomi considered going back to bed but Sam doing chin ups in full view was too much to take. Naomi opened the front door quietly but not quietly enough to stop Addison hearing.

"You have no self control," Addison shouted out from her bedroom. Naomi giggled to herself.

"I'm just going over to talk."

"Yeah right," Addison said. "You two are like a couple of horny teenagers." Naomi giggled and went outside, closing the door behind her. From his vantage point, Sam smiled to himself knowing that his little show had worked. Sure enough, a few moments later he heard a knock at the door.

"Oh hey," he said, feigning surprise.

"How's Maya?" Naomi asked. "You were at the hospital late."

"I waited until she fell asleep," Sam replied. "She's doing well."

"That's good," Naomi said, closing the door behind her and staring at Sam's bare chest.

"Do you want a drink?" Sam asked.

"No," Naomi replied.

"Me neither."

Naomi and Sam were both thinking the same thing. They lunged forward towards each other and kissed passionately, undressing each other on their way to the bedroom.

Xxxxx

The next morning Addison promised herself that it was going to be a better day. How many more days of bad luck could I possibly have? She thought to herself as she strode confidently into the building. She spotted Pete up ahead. Addison smiled to herself, thinking that her day was improving already.

"Pete!" Addison called after him. He didn't seem to hear her. He stepped into the elevator. "Hold the elevator!" Addison shouted to Pete. He definitely heard her this time because he turned and looked her straight in the eye, glaring and letting the elevator doors close.

"What the…?" Addison asked herself, confused by Pete's bizarre behaviour. She turned around to make sure that Pete wasn't aiming his death stare at somebody else but there was no body else around and he had been glaring straight at her. When the elevator finally opened again, Addison stepped in.

"Hold the elevator!" Naomi shouted out, running across the ground floor. Addison held the elevator doors open until Naomi stepped in. She looked flustered.

"Big night?" Addison asked with a cheeky smile.

"I hardly got any sleep," Naomi said, yawning.

"I bet," Addison replied, starting to giggle.

"Shut up," Naomi said, giggling as well. They went into the conference room for their morning meeting.

Sam was pretending to be busy with some paperwork, ignoring Naomi and Addison as they took their seats.

"Hi Sam," Addison said with a cheeky smile. "Have a nice night?" Sam dropped the pile of paper that he was shuffling onto the ground when he heard Addison's question.

"Yes," he said quietly from under the table, clearly embarrassed.

"Stop it," Naomi said to Addison.

"I get my thrills where I can," Addison replied. "Are you okay, Violet?" Addison asked their resident psychiatrist who was sitting across from the table looking angry.

"I'm fine," Violet said moodily. She turned to Cooper who took a seat beside her.

"We work in a whorehouse!" she whispered angrily to him. Cooper tried to stifle his laughter as Pete entered the room.

"Oooh someone's not happy," Cooper teased. Pete glared at him and took his seat at the table as far away from Addison as possible. This didn't go unnoticed by the other staff members.

"So are you gonna tell us what happened?" Cooper asked.

"Nothing happened," said under his breath.

"Couldn't perform, buddy?" Cooper asked sympathetically.

"Cooper!" Violet said, hitting him on the arm. "Leave him alone."

"It happens to the best of us. It doesn't make you any less of a man." Pete glared at Cooper.

"I was stood up," he said under his breath.

"Who stood you up?" Addison asked. She didn't know that Pete had been seeing anyone. She could have sworn that he had been taking an interest in her. Pete glared at Addison again. "Sorry I asked," Addison said, looking away. "Someone's cranky today," she muttered to Naomi.

"Okay we need to start this meeting," Sam said, standing up at the head of the table. Addison didn't hear a word of what he said after that. She was too busy staring at Pete, trying to figure him out. A few minutes before the meeting ended, Pete stood up and left the room. He looked as though he was heading towards Addison's office but Addison couldn't see from where she was sitting. She leaned back in her chair, trying to get a better look at what Pete was doing but ended up leaning too far back, the chair tipping backwards, sending Addison back with it.

"Oh my God!" Naomi said, trying to help Addison up. Violet looked up from her side of the table and just saw Addison's legs in the air.

"You need better chairs, Sam," Addison said, embarrassed and flustered as she regained her composure and sat back down.

When the meeting was over, Addison sheepishly made her way back to her office, still embarrassed from falling backwards off of her chair. There was no sign of Pete. If she hadn't fallen over she would have noticed Pete take the flowers from her office and throw them in the bin near Dell's desk. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to Addison who hadn't seen the flowers in the first place. Addison assumed that she'd been seeing things earlier. Why would Pete go into her office?

Xxx

"Hey, Pete, we're getting take out," Sam said as Pete started to leave the office.

"I'm going out," Pete said sternly, getting into the elevator just before Addison left her office and joined the others for lunch.

"Where's Pete?" Addison asked Violet.

"He's eating somewhere else," Violet answered.

"You should have seen the way he was looking at me this morning," Addison said. "It was so cold and angry. You'd think that I was the one who stood him up." Violet looked at Addison, unable to believe her ignorance.

"Addison, you did stand him up," Violet said.

"I did not!" Addison said defensively. "I made plans with Naomi last night."

"You definitely stood him up," Dell said, picking up the flowers from the bin next to his desk. He held out the card to Addison who was confused by the whole situation. She took the card from Dell and opened it, reading its contents.

"These were delivered to your office," Dell informed Addison. "But you never made it to your office yesterday."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Addison asked, outraged.

"I thought you knew!" Dell said defensively. "Pete was bragging about his hot date all day and kept calling you so I figured you knew about it."

My cell! Addison thought to herself. She went into her office and rummaged through her handbag until she found it. She opened it up and found seven missed calls, all from Pete. Addison listened to each voice mail message, feeling more and more guilty with every message.

Thoughts?