Will folds his arms behind his desk.
"And what makes you think can take next week off?"
"Well, considering I've accumulated over 45days of paid days, makes me think so." The blonde responds.
"I just don't think it's good for your clients to leave on such short notice."
"I've spoke with each of them and they have no problem rescheduling for the following week. Evelyn said she could take over if anything surprising pops up." The blonde spoke carefully.
"Have you even taken into consideration how this makes ME feel?" Will continues.
"I think as a boss, you should be very happy, considering you'll have to pay me out all the days I don't take if I don't finish them by the end of this year." She made sure to emphasize the word boss.
"Who are you going with?" His words are tough and dubbed with jealousy.
"A friend."
"A friend?"
"Yes, Emily."
Will laughs gently.
"Oh, no worries then. You're free to go next week."
The blonde exits the office with a huge exhale. Fucking prick.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*ring, ring*
"Fitch photography"
"It's Jessica. You looked busy so I figured I'd ring you instead."
"Oh, I'm never too busy to talk."
"Oh, well. You have a Ms. Stonem here for an interview."
"That's right. Send her in please."
Emily shifts up from her desk and straightens out her pencil skirt.
The interviewee walked into the room. My mouth opening slightly. It's the same girl that I had seen when I was meeting Kendra. Her now choppy hair is pinned back from her face. Still wearing leather boots, but a more conservative look than I had seen her in before. A simple black skirt with a red blouse.
"Hello, I'm Emily" Emily states a little flustered from seeing the black haired-purple-streaked girl again.
"Effy." The girl speaks quietly, making all too much eye contact.
"Great. Well, have a seat. Would you like some tea?" The red head asks gently.
"No thanks."
Emily instead situates herself behind her desk. Not sure where to begin, she just goes for it.
"Right, so, how long have you been shooting photography?"
"Several months."
The redhead eyes widen slightly. Not used to speaking with a potential candidate with little experience.
"I see. What had sparked it for you?"
The girl shrugs and speaks. "Some people have called me observant."
"It's a good thing to have with any form of art." The redhead smiles and the girl smirks back at her.
There's a silence.
"So, have you brought your portfolio?" The redhead continues.
"Yes." Effy reaches down and grabs the brown folder.
"Great. Let's take a look-see over on the table. My desk is a bit cluttered." The redhead motions to her messy desk.
Effy nods and stands up and goes to the large table in the center of Emily's office with Emily behind her.
Effy opens up the folder and lays several smaller folders out across the table.
"Have a go at it." She nods towards the redhead.
Emily begins to sift through the different folders in complete awe of the photos. Most of them with tremendous coloring. Mostly of people in social situations but some few solo shots of people as well.
"These are fantastic. I'm...I'm impressed." Emily continues, not making eye contact with Effy. Effy smirks. Some of the photos have a very dark feeling to them, and some so simple as a child laughing.
Emily pulls one out of the bunch.
"Tell me about this one."
Effy stands closer to Emily now to hover over the photo. Both of them leaning against the table, with their hands brushing.
"It's a photo of a good friend and his daughter." Both man and girl have a full grin with laughter nearly pouring out of their cheeks. Simply laying in the grass looking back and forth at each other.
"This is amazing. I love these." Emily shifts her head to look up at Effy. Effy does the same. The first time a different set of blue eyes met hers in awhile.
Suddenly the door opens behind them.
"Ems, I got the days off. We're all set." Naomi shouts before catching the two women standing together.
Emily smiles brightly and walks closer to Naomi. "That's brill. Everything is set up then. We'll leave Friday night." They stand less than a foot apart making all too much eye contact.
Naomi smiles slightly and then shifts her head to Effy. Effy with a tilted head staring back at the two women with a knowing look.
Emily follows Naomi's stare.
"Oh, Naomi, this is Effy. We were having an interview."
"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt-" the blonde starts feeling embarrassed for being rude.
"No interruption. Me and Ems here were just looking at my photos."
Naomi's chest sinks a little. Why the hell is she calling her Ems.
The blonde forces a smile.
"Yes. She's a fantastic photographer. We'd love to have you onboard, Effy." Emily turns towards Effy.
"Me too." She smirks.
"Wonderful. It's settled. I'll have Jessica write up the forms and go over the trial period, etc" Emily starts speaking aloud to Effy while reorganizing her portfolio for her. Naomi staring at Effy and Effy staring back at her. The black haired girl smirks.
"Naoms, do you mind sitting real tight while I walk Effy out with Jessica."
Silence.
"Naoms?" Emily finally looks up causing Naomi to jump.
"Huh, yeah. just-no problem."
The redhead shows a small smile.
"So, Effy. I'm just going to introduce you to JJ and you've already met Jessica, we're just going to speak about our current projects, etc. We have a couple other members who fill in occasionally, but no one with a permanent position in our group here."
They begin walking out the door while Naomi sits down near Emily's desk.
The blonde sits in silence while hearing the voices from the other room.
Eventually, Emily appears back in her office.
She closes the door slowly behind her.
"Hey." She says with her raspy voice.
The blonde smiles.
"So, we're all set?"
"Yes. Got all the days off. Just need to know how much I owe you."
"You don't owe me anything. Katie is the one who cancelled on me, so I got the ticket free for the flight and the hotel is already paid."
"Emily..." The blonde starts. Not wanting to bend the rules between friendship and romance.
As if reading her mind, "You can buy me a couple dinners."
"Good" Naomi relaxes.
"Jokes on you, I like seafood." The redhead winks while sitting down on her side of the desk.
"So, you hire rather quickly." The blonde motions with her head behind her. Biting her jealousy with her teeth.
"Oh, that. Yeah, well, I've interviewed a total of about fifty people by now, so I know what I want when I see it. Her stuff was amazing. So happy to have her on the team. Especially since we're leaving next week."
The blue-eyed girl just nods up and down and forces a small smile.
"Well, I only have a few more minutes on my lunch. I'd better walk back over."
"Okay." Emily smiles.
"It's different seeing you behind a desk."
"Is that your way of politely calling me a pencil pusher?" She jokes.
"No, you look nice."
Her cheeks turn as nearly as red as her hair.
"You're late."
"I am."
"Do you want to have lunch on Wednesday?" The redhead asks getting up from her desk as Naomi stands herself up as well.
"Sounds good."
"Good." The redhead stands close to Naomi and begins to walk her out the office.
"I'll see you Wednesday." She continues, but not before placing a gentle kiss on Naomi's lips as she's about to leave catching her by surprise.
Naomi just nods after the kiss and quickly exits the room.
XXXXXXX
Emily's POV
Fuck, I should not have done that.
XXXXXXXX
Naomi's POV
Why did she have to kiss me! This just puts it back where it was. We could have just kept at it as friends. She takes the stairs down to avoid more people instead of the elevator she usually uses. She exits the stairwell on a different side of the building then where she enters. Effy stands by the side smoking a cigarette. They briefly make eye contact.
"Fag?" Effy asks.
"What?" Naomi is taken by surprise briefly.
The girl smirks again and holds out a cigarette to the blonde.
She takes it.
"Thanks."
Effy doesn't give a response.
Naomi can't take the silence.
"Excited to start?" She asks after taking a drag.
"'Course."
"Yeah. It'll be great." Naomi finishes for her.
"Yeah, Ems seems fun." Effy speaks while turning her to watch.
Why the fuck does she keep calling her that. She doesn't even know her.
"She is." Naomi doesn't turn to look at her. She finishes her cig half way through and leans down to put it in the ashtray set out there.
"Thanks." Naomi continues and walks back towards her work ten minutes late.
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Wait, now Blondie, had you even banged her yet?" Cook asks while leaning over the kitchen counter with a beer in his hand as Naomi cooks.
Naomi fumbles with the stirring spoon.
"Cook! No! I'm straight." She finishes.
He starts laughing. "Then why the fuck are you going to go on holiday with her for a week?"
"She asked me too! I need a break, especially from you, tosser." She spits back.
"Oh, Blondie. I had never seen you so love struck."
"I'm not even-Wait. It's Monday. Where's Amelia today?"
"She's at her Grans." He takes a sip from the bottle after speaking.
"So, what was all that about making a bed?" Cook throws his hands in the air.
Naomi sighs while turning around from stirring the stir fry.
"We made a bed! My bed frame!"
Naomi turns to the side grabbing some of the spices she needs. She starts to shake some into the pan.
"You know what they say, 'you made your bed, now lie in it'." Cook laughs.
Silence on Naomi's end.
"You didn't willie waggle? You musta done something." He finishes his beer.
As if on cue, the blonde drops the whole container of spice into the pan.
"Shit!" She exhales.
She retrieves it from the pan and puts it on the side on the kitchen counter.
She turns around to face Cook as she pours the beef over the rice on the plates. He is wearing a gleaming smile and sitting with his fingers linked like a school boy.
"Go on, tell me." He smiles even wider.
"Eat your dinner, Cook." The blonde states as she takes her first bite of the food. It tasting a bit too spicy.
They finish the rest of the meal in mostly silence seeing how Naomi wasn't going to break into the conversation.
Cook gathers his things jacket as he gets ready to leave.
"I think this upcoming week, you should forget about everything you've ever said and just go with it." He smiles quickly and before Naomi could give a response, he kisses her cheek and is out the door.
A/N I know this seems a bit of a different direction, but I find it interesting. I hope you enjoy it and hope you all had a lovely weekend. I've spent most of it renovating a cabin. (our family bought a fixer-upper). Pretty awesome. Oh, and I think this might be the best way to view said photos. I don't have a whole lot but- instagram/lindseymerola