Victoria:He forgot to move his car off the drive this morning and he was blocking me in. This wouldn’t have been a problem, except he took both sets of car keys, so I was late for work. We’re talking diamond levels of grovelling being due.
Maxwell:Back to Seph’s query: how did you find time to conceive Ava? It’s a shame you did, really.
Marie:Bathrooms.
Claire:Bathrooms.
Seph:You really just sent that at the same time?
Marie:I gave Claire the tip for future use. You have a legitimate excuse to have the door locked in a bathroom, and daddy could be washing mummy’s back.
Maxwell:I’m never using any bathroom at your house again.
Jackson:I caught them in your room once when you’d gone to uni early.
Maxwell:You’re talking about Claire, right?
Jackson:No.
Jackson:While Maxwell’s in the shower, bleaching every inch of his skin, can I confirm that you’re dating Georgia, Seph?
Seph:Yes. I’m dating Georgia. Does that break some office protocol or something?’
Jackson:No. Just try and act like a mature human male. Don’t emulate your eldest brother because that will just go horribly wrong.
Maxwell:What’ve I done now? Is this bully Maxwell day or something?
Seph:Can I ask that no one makes a big deal of this or anything? I don’t want to scare Georgia off.
Claire:Is it a big deal?
Ava:I’d guess so. He’s told us. He knows her name. Why don’t we take her out for lunch and then we can tell her all the stories we know about him?
Payton:That sounds amazing.
Seph:Let’s not. If I want to scare her off I can do that myself.
Marie:Is this serious, Joseph?
Maxwell:I wondered why you were smiling when I saw you at the photocopier this morning.
Seph:I wasn’t smiling because of that…
Maxwell:What were you smiling at then?
Seph:Have you checked what’s in your photocopying?
Maxwell:If you’ve copied your arse again, I swear to god I’m going to fucking skin you and use your internal organs as paper.
Seph:You’d best check then, hadn’t you?
There comesa point in the day, especially after you’ve spent most of it seriously distracted, when you realise that you have to spend a couple more hours in the office else you’re going to end up utterly fucking swamped with work.
I’d breezed around the offices, met with a couple of clients, taken Georgia out for lunch and stolen a kiss or two, then joined Max at the gym for a decent legs workout when I proved I could deadlift more than him. It had been most satisfying.
The door to the building wasn’t properly locked; secured, but not locked up for the night, which told me I wasn’t the only one still working. It wasn’t uncommon for some fee earners to be here late, especially if there was a big court case coming up or a mediation. I stretched my back out and rolled my neck, feeling a few bits click back into place. Training had been satisfying, but not as satisfying as Friday night. Not having had sex for months, Friday had used a different set of muscles and I was definitely feeling some sort of orgasmic bliss that had sated most of my body. The only problem was, one night hadn’t been enough.
I felt the dead weight of used leg muscles climbing up the stairs to my office, knowing I’d feel it even more in the morning. Training with Max was good; we were obnoxiously competitive which meant we weren’t ever lazy, but there was also no way he’d let me hurt myself or vice versa, mainly because Jackson would kill both of us if one of us turned up for work injured.
