90s Queen Bee #Wattys2016

Chapter 15 - Thora

                  

2015

It turned out that I couldn't pay Thora a visit first thing Monday. Low conversion rates over the weekend counted as an emergency and we needed to put Viv's rescue plan into action.

I'd ended up stuck in a meeting room at 8pm with what's his name the copywriter and Penny trying to come up with a new design for the campaign page. I hadn't had even had the chance to give Colin a flirtatious look and Viv had somehow gotten away with swanning out of the office at 5pm.

What I encountered as I rounded the corner to the office kitchen early on Tuesday morning made me wonder why Viv had needed to rush off yesterday.

I saw Viv touching Colin's arm and giggling flirtatiously.

I coughed loudly. Colin looked startled and Viv raised an eyebrow at me.

'You're in early,' remarked Colin as he grabbed a mug from the kitchen shelf.

'So are you two,' I said sharply.

'Well, you were here late last night.' Viv flashed me a dazzling smile. I was sure she'd had work done on her teeth. 'I thought the least I could do was come in early to help put out some fires if they came up when I wasn't here.'

Wow, it wasn't even 7am and she was already hurling insults at me about my performance at work. Maybe I'd interrupted something between her and Colin. What if they were about to go at it on the kitchen counter? Gross, we all prepared our breakfasts on it.

'Everything's under control,' I said coolly.

'Congratulations on becoming an auntie,' Colin piped up. 'I didn't get a chance to congratulate you yesterday.'

Viv's one smug raised eyebrow turned into two excited raised eyebrows. Here came the faux enthusiasm. She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off.

'Little Emilia! She's perfect.'

'That's wonderful.' Colin stirred his coffee. 'And more importantly, how was the 90s party?'

Viv, clearly feeling excluded from the conversation, wiped imaginary dust off the kitchen counter.

'Crystal Waters and Blink 182, how can you go wrong?' I asked with a laugh.

'No Doubt?' he asked.

'Naturally.' I actually had no idea if the DJ had played No Doubt after my feet had been splattered in vomit, but sure, why not?

'I'll definitely join you for the next one then,' said Colin.

Viv's hand practically slapped the counter like she was trying to kill some imaginary ants.

'Of course!' I exclaimed. 'And how was your weekend with your daughter?'

'Oh yes, how was it?' Viv's voice went up an octave. Ha! Betrayed by her own veneer of niceness. Now I knew that she had no idea what was going on with Colin's personal life - unless she was pretending not to know to get me off the scent that they were having an affair.

'Roller skating, the movies and listening to way too much Taylor Swift,' said Colin.

'Why are you being such an early bird today Sammy?' interjected Viv, changing the subject.

'The credit card campaign's not the only thing I'm working on Viv.' I pulled my oatmeal from the shelf and noticed that it was exactly the same oatmeal Viv was eating. It wasn't the first time I'd noticed that we had similar diets. I wondered if she was teased at school for being big. Hey, maybe we'd bond one day over how kale was the new quinoa, like how Robin and I had bonded over the cabbage soup diet.