The Price of Love

7-Weird

  "Good morning everyone," Alex said brightly, setting his briefcase down and opening it, flipping through some papers, before grabbing the ones he needed and making his way over to the copy machine, clicking a few buttons and setting a piece of paper in the machine.

"Morning Alex," Anna said, sliding behind him to grab a pen, clicking it a few times to make sure that it worked.

"Hey. Got to your car safely last night I see," Alex joked. She laughed and shook her head.

"All in one piece," she remarked back.

   "Glad to hear it," he replied. She walked away and he continued his task.

   "Did you see that?" One of their coworkers asked another. He nodded.

   "It's like they didn't hate each other," he replied.

   "Weird."

It continued like this throughout the day. Normally, the two would have found a competition or something to yell at the other about by now. Instead, it was quiet. No arguments whatsoever. The news spread quickly through the building that there would not be a battle of between the two that day.

"Well I guess all bets are off now," the secretary said as she leaned over the desk talking to the security guard. The man nodded.

"I had twenty bucks on Walken winning today's fight," he replied. She nodded.

"Yeah? I had thirty."

"Should we ask them about it?" Someone questioned. Another one shook their head from side to side.

"We don't want it to be obvious that we all knew that there was something going on," they replied.

"I could never tell if it was sexual tension, or just tension," someone said, causing the others to laugh.

   "I think it was both."

   Everyone who worked there was confused, which threw them off of their games.

   "Why are you all acting so strange?" Anna asked her coworkers as she walked by the lobby. They all immediately tried to shut down the idea.

   "We're not acting strange," they said. Anna nodded slowly, not believing it for even a second.

   "Whatever you guys say," she said, not believing it for a second. She sat at her desk and tried to focus on her work, but felt like she was being stared at. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh sorry. Just thinking," one of the boys from the cubicle next to her said. She nodded and attempted to ignore the strange looks and whispers. She wondered what was going on.

Alex was having a similar experience. Stares and whispers. He, however, didn't realize it. He remained clueless to the fact that everyone had bets on and were trying to guess what was happening between the two and their newfound friendship.

"Maybe they'll start dating?" Someone said. Another laughed.

"No way. They'll go back to being rivals any minute now."

   Alex walked towards Anna.

   "Have you noticed anything strange today?" He asked her. She squinted at him.

   "Everyone's obviously acting weird. Take you this long to figure it out?" She joked. He rolled his eyes playfully.

   "Yes it did. What's going on with them?" He asked.

   "No idea. Probably some fantasy football thing or something," she replied. Alex crosses his arms and nodded.

   "Yeah, you're probably right," he said, before checking his watch. "Oh shoot. I have to leave early to pick my brother up from school. I'll be back in a few."

   "Alright. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens," she replied. He jokingly shot her finger guns and she laughed. He walked to his car and drove to the school.

   "Alex!" Andy exclaimed excitedly. Andy laughed as his brother ran to him. He bent down and hugged the blonde boy.

   "How was school?" Alex asked.

   "Great!" Andy said enthusiastically. Alex high-fived him.

   "Come on. Let's go to the car and I'll drop you off," Alex said.

   "Aren't you coming home with us?" Andy asked. Alex ruffled his brother's hair.

   "I have to go back to work for a few hours, but I'll be back before you even notice that I'm gone," he said.

   "Will Mallory and Jenn be home?"

   "They should be," he replied. They got home and Alex ran in quickly to tell everyone hi. When he got back to his job, he sat at his desk, getting right back to work. Before he knew it, Anna slid into the seat in front of him. Slightly startled, he jumped.

   "Sorry. So I did a little info digging, found out what they were all talking about," Anna said nonchalantly, checking her perfectly painted red nails. Alex blinked a few times, trying to recall what she was talking about. Then, he remembered.

   "What was it?"

   "Apparently they've been taking bets on which one of us would win the 'fight' of the day," she said.

   "Did we really fight that much?" He asked. She shrugged.

   "I guess so," she replied, before the two burst into laughter.