It's just Pretend | clexa AU

chapter five

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12 hours after Clarke had left Lexa's place with an acceptable amount of new information, she was long back in her office, which was so hot, she was glad she wasn't wearing a too tight dress. In fact, she wasn't wearing a dress at all, which was a rarer thing at work, at least in summer.

She crammed a stack of informational papers and files into her top desk drawer, making sure not to put creases in them, wiped her forehead and groaned as she decided not to give a fuck and button up her shirt somewhat further.

It was Lexa's work that they had an entire office space as comparable small business, with each of their employees having an own desk square and two seperate offices away from that open space for Clarke and Lexa. Not the biggest, but acceptable and each able to make calls without interruption. And Clarke's without a damn fucking airconditioner, but at least the privacy allowed her to have a button open that brought her state of undress to the borderline of inappropriate. Or two.

It was one of their first investments planned to get a new office floor, with more space for more employees and better offices for themselves, preferably directly next to each other. That was if they got the deal with Ms. Blake.

One of her assistans had just called that she was sorry for missing calling them sooner but that Ms. Blake had sent her to stop by that day, that it would be quick and she apologized for the spontaneous visit.

Clarke had sent Lexa a text right afterwards about the assistant who would come after their lunch break and the woman's contact data before getting back to her work. She hoped Ms. Blake wasn't as smart as to send a person right after they had their previous call to check if Lexa and her really were girlfriends. To take away their time to prepare better.

She sent that thought to Lexa as well before opening her file to work on, a design of their new collection she had developed. Leaning back as her laptop loaded, her hand found her forehead again. Fucking heat. Her ponytail had lost a strand of hair already and as she renewed it, even her hair felt weirdly damp with sweat. It was like a sauna in there.

The suit she had been wearing had long lost its jacket, leaving her in light brown slacks and a white button-up shirt tucked in.

"Fuck it," she mumbled and started buttoning the shirt up entirely. It wasn't like it had been slightly see through before and she had chosen an acceptable bra for underneath. Warm air hit her torso, but at least not through a shirt anymore. At least her back was free from these damp parts of the shirt.

-

When Lexa got the text from Clarke that she hoped Ms. Blake's assistant wasn't a test, she almost freaked out and instantly went over to talk to Clarke.

It wouldn't be an hour and the assistant would be there. How the fuck was she supposed to manage that? How the fuck were they supposed to manage that?

She knocked once, not waiting for an answer, and entered the office of her partner. "Hi Clarke. I thought that maybe we could just stay completely-"

Her words got stuck in her throat when she saw the woman in front of her. Sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, laptop in her lap and mainly, her shirt somewhere discarded on her chair.

Lexa was embarrassed by how quickly her eyes took their own way and got stuck on the white lace bra hugging Clarke's breasts. Sweat shone in the valley between them and on her collarbones, making Lexa almost drop the pen in her hand with how her body stopped moving completely.

Clarke got up and finally, Lexa managed to find the woman's smile. "Sorry," Clarke said. "The floor and wall is the only survivable place these days. What were you saying?"

Only then, Lexa noticed the unbearable heat in the office. "Fuck, what did you do in here?"

"What, you haven't been in here for the last like thousand months? That airconditioner did something, not me. Broke about the second I placed a foot in here."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Lexa asked incredulous, motioning for Clarke to step outside, who just grabbed her wrinkly shirt.

"Because it's not in our current budget to fix my airconditioner and you know that."

"And you know that I have no problem buying you an entire pool into that office," Lexa argued. They had agreed beforehand, in the first stages of their business, that they didn't want to make use of Lexa's parents' private wealth to grow their business. Sure, the offices hadn't come out of nowhere and the first little push hadn't either, but otherwise, they'd done it all themselves and invested much into it. Which was why Clarke didn't have an apartment even comparable to Lexa's, as an example. It was one of the main reasons Ms. Blake had chosen them for partners, because they didn't sleep on other's money.

"Lexa, we have an agreement about private money."

"We have an agreement that my dad doesn't buy us this entire floor as office space and my mom doesn't put us on every billboard on Times Square, but we do not have an agreement that any of here has a workspace like yours. Besides, we could easily afford one single damn airconditioner."

By then, they had reached Lexa's office, where Lexa held open the door for Clarke and then closed it behind herself.

"You have our finances planned exactly and there's not a part that says office improvement. That comes if we get the job with Ms. Blake. But for now, our interest is in those clothes." Clarke sat on the chair across Lexa's desk, leaning back into the cool leather. "I'm just going to visit you here more often," she said with a grin and Lexa gave it back only weakly when she sat on her chair. Clarke was still not wearing her shirt. "Now, why were you there anyway?" the blonde asked and Lexa almost breathed in relief when she reached for her shirt. Maybe the girlfriend idea wasn't the best after all.

"I wanted to say that maybe we should just stay professional," Lexa said, her voice thankfully as steady and calm as ever.

"What do you mean?"

"If it's a test. If she asks us. We'll just say that on work, we're always staying professional."

Clarke hummed.

"Are you sure that's what Ms. Blake would want to hear though?" she asked and Lexa shrugged.

"I don't know, you're the- love experienced," Lexa gestured in the air, making Clarke laugh.

"Oh, sure. I mean maybe we should just use the lunch break to develop our backstory and then we'll see. It's not like we have to make out in front of her to prove our point, I doubt that she has the audacity to question us that much."

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