Chapter Twenty-one
Claire
I raised my arms, stretching my body out. Then I twisted and rotated my head, trying to get a crick out of my neck. I rubbed both my shoulders, and leaned back against my seat once again.
Simon had just stepped out of the room, and I was taking it as a momentary break. I couldn’t help but be cautious around him, so there was no way for me to relax with him there. I didn’t know how long I had, though.
“What time is it, even,” I muttered to myself, pulling my phone out.
I was too afraid to even use my phone and I’d left my watch in my hurry to get to work this morning. I had no idea what time it was, but it had to be really late because it had been dark outside for a while. The lights in the room were on, but the blinds hadn't been let down so I could look out the window at the dark night. Even other buildings around us had their lights off.
I checked the time and winced.
Shit!
It was nine and I was still stuck at the office! This was becoming a reoccurring thing in an annoying way. It had been two weeks already, and every day I left the office late. If it was really late, I left really close to eleven. There was a lot of work to do, and Simon stayed behind to work with me, so I couldn’t complain because we both left at the same time.
It was true that this was a pretty big job. I didn’t know the payout for it yet, but considering all the effort we were putting into it, and from what I’d seen of it, it would be quite a bit of money. I wasn’t sure how much of it would be going to my bank account, but if I got even five percent, it would be a lot on top of my salary.
Did Rogue go to sleep already?
It had been a surprise to me, when I started getting home late to find dinner ready and covered for me in the kitchen, and Rogue waiting for me, sleeping in my bed. I didn’t know how to take it, and we hadn't had the chance to talk yet, so I was going along with everything for now, trying my best to keep from getting too attached to him just in case things went bad between us down the road, like I expected them to. I didn’t think he’d left the house much, either, or used much cash. It was different from the old him, that was almost always out for a night in the town and sleeping through most of the day.
“I really wanna go home,” I muttered to myself, whining just a little.
I was tempted to lay my head down on the desk, but what if Simon walked in and caught me unawares? At the moment, I was relaxing, but I knew we still had a while yet before he would allow me to leave. All the overtime I was keeping was being marked down, too, and I imagined I would be bagging a bonus at the end of the month, because no matter how involved I could be in my work, I’d never worked overtime. It was simpler to just take my cases home and work there because I lived alone.
I guess that wouldn’t work now that I have Rogue around. He’s sleeping in my room, too, so is it a good or bad thing that I didn’t turn the second room into a home office instead of a guest bedroom.
The door opened suddenly, and I turned back to my work, picking up my pen and bending over the document I’d been reading through. I did a casual glance up and saw it was, indeed, Simon, coming back inside. He’d been out for a bathroom break, and I was lucky it had lasted about five minutes.
Should I go for one myself?
“How much progress have you made?” Simon asked, coming over to my desk.
“Um, I’ve gotten this far,” I hesitated as I told him about my progress.
I moved the document so he could see, pushing it far enough so that, when he rounded the desk to stand behind me, he wouldn’t have to come too close. He still put an arm on the back of my seat and another on the desk top as he looked at the doc, so it felt like he was hovering behind me.
In the past two weeks, I had been subjected to a lot of this behavior. I didn’t like it, but he hadn't actually done anything besides come a bit too close, but not so close that I could claim it was harassment and he was doing it on purpose.
Maybe his eyes were just bad.
“This isn’t as much progress as I would like,” he murmured, sounding a bit disappointed. “Keep going over it. I want you to finish then move over to my desk. We’ll have a bit of a discussion and head home. Don’t forget to be here early tomorrow, too.”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
He moved away, going back to his desk, and I let out a sigh of relief. I was still stuck there for at least another hour, but it would be too stifling if he stayed so close to me for long periods of time. I was lucky that it didn’t happen so often, or I would have lost my mind over it already.
We went on working, and occasionally, I would hear the flip of a page or clacking of keys on a keyboard that weren’t coming from me. I didn’t even try to look up, trying to move as fast as possible without missing any important details.
Twenty minutes passed just like that, then, unexpectedly, there was a knock on the door.
I looked up, not even masking my surprise. Not so much that there would be someone around this late, but someone looking for either me or Simon this late? Most people at the office left during normal hours. This late at night, not that many people aside from the night time workers would even stick around.
“Come in?” Simon said, looking up with a frown on his face.
The door opened, and the last person I expected to be there stood on the other side of it.
“Rogue?” I blurted out, standing automatically.
He gave me a grin and held something he was holding in his hands. It was a bouquet of flowers, and my eyes widened, my jaw dropping in my surprise.
Rogue was at my office, late at night, bringing flowers?
“I came to check on you because you’ve been coming home late a lot lately. Wanted to see if you were actually working.”
I felt my face redden as I shot a glare at him. “Of course I’d be at work, Rogue. Where else could I be this late at night, huh? How did you even know to come here?”
He shrugged, stepping further into the room, eyes never leaving mine. “I asked around. You know, you’ve been leaving me at home alone too often recently. I get bored, too, you know.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but Simon spoke up before I could.
“I know it’s late, Claire, but you’re not supposed to be taking visitors at work. I ignored it the last time because it was important, but you should know better.”
I bit my tongue at the scolding I wanted to give Rogue, glancing over at Simon. He was scowling at me, looking annoyed as he eyed Rogue in distaste. Thinking back on what Rogue had said, I wondered what he was thinking the relationship between the two of us was. He’d probably misunderstood and thought my boyfriend was coming to visit me at work, not my stepbrother.
Rogue only then seemed to realize I wasn’t alone in the room, his eyes turning to Simon as he arched an eyebrow. He shot me a look, then looked back at Simon.
“Sorry about that. It’s just not good to be eating cold or microwaved food all the time, so I brought it along this time.”
He held up his other hand, and I only then noticed he was holding a bag in his second hand. He walked over to my desk and set both the flowers and the bag. I peeked inside, and saw a couple packed dishes. When I touched the outside of it, it felt hot, so he must have cooked and brought them over immediately.
“I was going to the hospital, anyway. I thought I should let you know so you don’t get surprised when you get home and find I’m not there.”
My eyebrows shot up. “They’ll allow you to see him?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Dad seems to be getting better, and I’ve been going pretty frequently this week. Your mom is getting kicked out to spend time at home for the night, so I offered to spend the night there if she wanted. Things seem to be working themselves out, but she wants to keep vigilant, you know?”
I knew. No matter how much better Richard got, Mom would keep worrying. The worry was completely warranted, considering how sick Richard was, but since I hadn't gone to see him myself, I could only feel relief at the news. I hadn't talked to Mom much, either, so she hadn't had the chance to tell me. Everyone, including the doctors, were probably looking out for a relapse, and if we were lucky, it wouldn’t happen.
“Tell them I said hi, okay?” I said quietly, turning away from Simon as I said it.
Rogue smiled at me and turned to leave without another glance at Simon.
I sat back down, putting the flowers and the food to the side. I could practically feel Simon’s gaze boring into me, but I acted like I didn’t notice and went back to work.
There was silence on his side of the room, but eventually he went back to work as well, and I sighed in relief. There was a smile on my face, and I wondered when it got there.