AN: Thank you all for your reviews, follows and favs. Freshly baked, chocolate chip cookies for you all.
Hopefully I will have the time to write longer chapters over the next few weeks. *fingers crossed*
Emma sat in her office silently berating herself, and thoroughly organizing her desk. Mondays were usually a day Emma enjoyed, they relived her itch of boredom when she had done nothing of note over the weekend, and gave her new lives to make better. This Monday however was destined to be filled with hurried and awkward conversations. To make things worse she couldn't seem to get the stupid keyboard to sit in the angular way she wanted. The subtle cough from the doorway was unmistakeably belonging to Alex. He was standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets, and looking perfect as always even if he was wearing those awful pants again. She found herself restraightening her keyboard for the eighth time in the past five minutes. "May I come in?" Emma nodded in reply, pretending to be busy by checking her diary. Her tidying had not gone unnoticed by Alex and he frowned slightly, sitting next to her on the stall. "I don't mean to hurry you but I do need to get the spending report from our last client started." Emma reached past him for a pile of papers and receipts that had been placed in an unnecessarily neat pile on her desk. "Here," she bit her lip in an effort to conceal her anxiety from him and he tapped the papers against his leg a few times trying to come up with something else to say. The only problem was Emma usually said something to make fun of him and that started most of their conversations. She hadn't done any such thing today. Emma as it happened was trying to figure out what they usually talked about but wasn't entirely sure. They were interrupted from their pitiful attempt at normalcy by Emma's phone. "I should get that." She blurted out. Alex nodded shortly in reply and vacated the room, glad for an excuse.
Izzy Knightley, of the previous name Izzy Woodhouse was miles away waiting for her not so little sister to answer her phone call.
Emma woodhouse paced around her office trying to decide whether her older sister was having her own problems, or if she was merely deflecting hers onto the only available subject, her older sister. Their conversation had not progressed in any meaningful or productive way as both were trying to interrogate whilst deflecting the others tactics. If Izzy was having some kind of problem what was it? Emma would need to see her sister in person to solve this puzzle. Her behaviour had been truly suspicious. They were both true Woodhouse women.
As was inevitable a day of tedious planning saw to it that Emma was thoroughly bored and could not control herself any longer. What she usually did when this happened was harass Alex. It wouldn't feel right to do that but some amount of reasoning couldn't hurt. Striding out of her office, down the hall, and into that of Alex Knightley's, her heart began pounding unnecessarily in her chest. Alex as it happened was pinching his nose and staring intently at his blank computer screen. "How's the boring stuff going?" she asked casually, shifting all of her weight onto one foot. "I would answer that Emma but we both know you don't really want to know," he replied without looking up.
"True," she said shifting to the other foot. "But it would be rude if I didn't ask occasionally." Alex shifted his gaze from his computer screen to the pen he had unconsciously started tapping. The tapping stopped immediately. "Izzy just called, she and John are coming to visit." Alex was showing his 'I'm concentrating on something else face' and Emma gave in, quietly walking away. Alex didn't notice she had left until he looked up to find the light had been drained from the room. Normal office hours had ended more than half an hour ago.