Forbidden / Shayne Topp

Fifteen: Similarities

After being off, you'd think I'd be excited to go back to work; I wasn't. I was simply terrified to go back to work after everything that has happened and being asked a whole bunch of questions on what happened to me. Thankfully, nobody has said anything to me. I was in my office looking over some of the ideas they have been discussing when suddenly, Tanner knocks on my door.

I looked up from my papers and slightly smiled at him. "Hey Tanner," I said to him.

"Hey there, Veronica," he said to me. "So I just wanted to let you know that Sarah and I made sure nobody bombarded you with questions about your days off. We understand you had a lot of stuff you needed to take care of and we just didn't want them making you feel uncomfortable."

"That's very sweet of you, Tanner. Thank you," I said to him. He smiled and nodded his head at me. "Was it your idea or Sarah's idea?"

"Actually, neither," he replied. "Shayne was the one with the idea." My eyes widen and Tanner chuckled. "Yeah, I know. He was just worried that it would make you want to take off more days and he knew that's not what you wanted. Who knew Shayne had a big heart?"

"Just like we didn't know he had a twin," I joked with a grin. Tanner laughed and shook his head at me. I know the joke probably gets old to him, but damn if he didn't look like Shayne's twin. As cute and nice Tanner is, I could never date Tanner Risner just for how much he looks like Shayne.

"I can see why you and Damien get along now," he said to me. I giggled and shrugged my arms at him. "We're glad to see you're back, Veronica. If you need anything, just come looking for me." I smiled and nodded at Tanner who then waved bye to me and walked out of office. He is such a sweetheart and such a laid back kind of guy. Shit, him and Shayne even have that in common.

"Hey," a voice said. And speak of the devil who made my heart drop down my chest. I looked back up to see Shayne Topp standing in the doorway. My heart made its way back up to my chest and started beating instantly. I didn't know how I was going to talk to him about Anthony and I since I made it seem like something between us could happen. I was in a fucking pickle.

"Hey, Shayne..." I slowly said. I cleared my throat and put the papers down on my desk. "What's up?" I asked since I didn't want him knowing how bothered I was.

"Just wanted to check up on you," he replied. There goes my breaking heart again. I wanted to say aww, but I had to hold back. Did I make the wrong choice? "I'm just glad to see you at work again."

"Yeah, me too," I stated. "It gets my mind off of everything and I miss seeing everyone. By the way, thank you for talking to Sarah and Tanner for me. It means a lot that I'm not being questioned by everyone about why I wasn't here."

"Oh, no problem, Ronnie," he said to me. "Olivia basically knows why you weren't here, Damien knows, and Ian knows, but nobody else knows. Not even Boze." And a huge part of me hated that. "I just didn't want everyone asking you and it making you uncomfortable. It was a fucked up situation that you aren't able to talk about and I understand that. They should understand that too and that's why I told Tanner and Sarah to tell everyone to not ask questions."

"You're a good friend, Shayne," I said. I closed my eyes after I said that and looked at the wall. I literally just friend-zoned Shayne once again. Fuck, what the fuck? "Shayne, I need to tell yo-"

Suddenly, Anthony walked into my office and Shayne just stood there staring at him. "Hey V, do you have the scripts for our next Every Blank Ever?" Anthony asked me. My heart started beating harder and harder by every second, but I nodded my head at Anthony before he started questioning why I wasn't responding.

"Yeah, I have them right here," I said as I opened my drawer up and pulled out a folder that had the Every Blank Ever scripts. Anthony walked over and stood in front of me as I handed him the folder. "Here you are, sir. I made sure there wasn't any mistakes and proofread everything."