Chris was also finding it hard to concentrate; after he and Karen had been talking about making their relationship that much more open, he was starting to worry that she didn't feel the same way about him at all.
For some reason, the idea of her simply using him for sex hadn't completely escaped him.
Tom came into his room. "Can't concentrate?"
The younger male jumped in his chair, but relaxed when he came in.
"You and Karen make a right pair." He taunted lightly.
"Why's that?"
He smirked. "Because you both look like you can't concentrate all that well."
Chris seemed more pensive. "Could you give her a note?"
"Why, what's that for?" Tom placed a hand on his shoulder. "Not planning another secret rendezvous, are you, naughty?"
"What? No!" He finished writing out the small note. "No…I just want you to give this to her."

Morning break came.
Tom handed Karen the small note. "Chris told me to give this to you."
Confused, she took it. She didn't want to be rushed into the whole idea of sex when he hadn't given her enough time to think it over!
Luckily, the note made no mention of having pure, passionate sex in the office after work; nor did it make any mention of asking her to stay round his place for the night and sleep with him.
"So what does it say then? If you don't mind me asking."
"He just wants to meet up for lunch, that's all."
Tom smirked playfully. "Oh, but is that all he wants?"
Karen shrugged. "He's just trying to be friendly, Tom…I mean, there's nothing wrong with me going out with a bloke for sociable reasons."
"Maybe you should just try to play hard to get." He came closer to her.
"Tom, I…"

He snaked his arms around her waist. "Come on, where's the problem? There's nothing wrong with having a bit of…friendly competition."
Their lips came dangerously close to kissing – within touching distance.
The door opened, and Chris started to come in; what he saw shocked him. His eyes widened in stark horror, as he saw their bodies pressed up together.
Tom slowly gazed at him, whilst Karen pulled herself away from him.
"It's not what you think." She protested.
"M-maybe I should come back later." He went to quickly go again, only to have Karen follow him and grab him by his shirt sleeve.
"I didn't mean to kiss him…Chris, I'm so sorry."
"It certainly seemed that you didn't mean to, you were all over each other." He placed his hands on his hips. "Karen, I know we're not officially together, but if we are considering being in a more open relationship and you're going around doing things like this…what was going through your head?"
"He thought I should play hard to get."

Chris tilted his head and his eyes became dim with confusion. "You're not sixteen years old anymore."
"I know." Karen drew in a deep breath, and tightened her grip on his arms. "I know how immature this all seems, and I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry."
He shook his head hazily. "I thought you were better than that." He was ready to go, already hearing and seeing enough.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to my work – like what you two should be doing."
Tom watched Chris slowly and dazedly go off; he saw Karen heavily sit back down in her chair. "I'm sorry."
She flitted her gaze to the desk. "Don't worry, I think his anger was more directed onto me than you, you're safe."
"He's pretty harmless when it comes to him expressing his anger over things like this." He assured her. "Talk to him later…he might've calmed down."
Karen placed her hand on his wrist. "I think I might've really hurt him, Tom."
"What…really?"
"I just have a suspicion that he'll go and do something really stupid."

Karen tried to get in touch with Chris all day after their small spat; he didn't even bother coming to see her when afternoon break came round, and when she did "accidentally" patrol where he would usually be, he was never there.
She kept sending him text message after text message after work when she knew he would be back home, but he did nothing to acknowledge her advances – he simply deleted each text as it came through.

As soon as he got back. Chris felt so exhausted from the shock of what he'd seen, that he went straight to bed; he stayed awake from the time he dropped down onto it, finding it useless in falling asleep.
What he'd seen happen between Karen and Tom kept going over and over in his mind; he still couldn't understand what the pair of them were even thinking. Was it all some nasty little ploy to well and truly stop him from seeing her?
Or was Tom still jealous of him having some form of a relationship with her?
He rolled onto his side, gazing out of the window. Every time he thought back to when they were both…like that, it made him feel sick to his stomach.

He heard his mobile vibrating on the nightstand, and he hazily picked it up, glaring at the screen when he found that it was actually Karen calling him.
Deciding that enough was truly enough, he answered her.
"Thank god you've picked up." She sounded worried.
Fazed by the worry in her voice but putting it down to nothing in particular, Chris sat up. "What more do you want from me? As if kissing someone else wasn't enough…"

"Chris, it's Jess."

That quietened him down, although he still wasn't fully accepting it…He knew that Jess had a habit of making things up and drawing attention to herself. "Why are you telling me about her?"

"She's gone into labour."
He flitted his gaze to the window. "Well where is she?"

"She's still at home."
"Karen, it's not doing her any good to stay there. She should be taken to the A + E."
"That's the thing…she wanted a home birth. And she gets agitated around hospitals."
Chris could associate with her in that sense; he hated hospitals just as much as the next person. "So why are you calling me exactly?"

There came a pause at Karen's end. "I thought you might be able to help."
"Because I'm a science teacher, that's what it's about, isn't it?" What was the point of getting her to tell him that herself? "I'm not a qualified doctor."
"But how hard can it be?"

"I know it's hard enough because I've never done it." He didn't even see the point in protesting anymore. She was asking him, heck, he was probably the only person who she would've asked. And besides, if no one else was going to help with a home birth, and Jess was refusing to go to a hospital, then there was a strong chance she would lose it.
And that wouldn't look good if he and Karen were trying to become more of a couple…

Would it?