INTERIM LOVER, ryan howard.

029 ⋮ attend the tale of randy bernroe

ㅤㅤㅤ"Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd!"

"I've heard that too many times at the office," Rachel groaned. Her head was stuck in her closet, searching for something nice to wear. Just nice, nothing flattering—she was already blessing Andy by attending his musical and getting dinner with him afterwards.

Her newest friend, Abbey, was skipping around her apartment much like Andy and his company when they had infiltrated the office. Much to Rachel's surprise, everyone was going to the play tonight. To her horror, people were actually excited about it, singing themes and bounding around like animals. Even Oscar, who shared her dislike for anything Andy related. Whilst he claimed to be going since he was "the biggest Sweeney Todd fan", she was more convinced that he had a thing for men who could sing.

"How's this?" Rachel pulled out a white shirt and jeans.

Abbey made her way to Rachel's closet. "What about that dress?" she asked, pointing to a red sleeve.

"I'm going to a musical, not a corporate dinner."

"But you are going to a dinner! With Andy, remember?"

Even though the girl had grown up with more friends who were cows than humans, Abbey was an excellent debater. Rachel had sought out the girl to rant to her about how stupid Andy's proposition had been only to leave the kitchen ten minutes later and to tell Andy she would be delighted to come to his play and to catch up with him over dinner.

With a devilish grin, Abbey stuck her arm into the closet and pulled out the dress. "Girl, this is stunning. Andy is gonna faint at the sight of you."

"Good, I hope he stays unconscious."

Abbey still wasn't sure if she was being humorous or if this was genuinely how she felt about Andy, but she knew Rachel would give him a chance. Not a generous one, maybe, but it was a chance nonetheless. They'd been friends since college, so Abbey could guarantee Andy was an awesome person.

She shoved the dress onto Rachel and shoved her into the bathroom. "You are gonna look awesome."

Rachel looked helplessly at the dress in her hands, then back to the door being slammed in her face. She had no idea what Abbey saw in Andy that pushed her to set up the unlikely match, but she needed to find out before things got out of hand again.

—

ANDY
I personally invited Rachel to the show so she can fall in love with me. Women cannot resist a man singing show tunes. It's so powerful, even a lot of men can't resist a man singing show tunes.

—

"Why are we here so early?" Rachel whined. "The show doesn't start for half an hour."

"It's courteous to come before the show starts and wish the performers luck," Abbey informed her, scanning the crowd for their colleague. Clearly, she was the more sociable of the two, almost seeking out the opportunity to chat with others. She turned to her sullen friend, tilting her head. "Hey, it'll be fine. They'll probably compliment your dress, just brush it off to me and I'll handle it."

The only person she truly dreaded seeing outside the office was Michael. The man was a lunatic at work, and somehow worse beyond the confines of his company. No doubt tonight would be memorable and in the worst kind of way.

"Rachel!"

Speak of the devil.

She turned, not bothering to mask her mirthless expression. She noticed that he hadn't been bothered to change in the two hours between clocking out to now, but he had decided to get some helium balloons. She raised a brow at his choice of gift. "You brought balloons?"