Falling For You | ✓

16

"Piece of absolute shit," Nicole cursed, throwing her pen at her monitor screen in annoyance, when it decided to freeze in the middle of her work.

Technology and Nicole, didn't really mix well together. Whenever things would go wrong, her answer would be to just hit it.

It was the reason why the girls had to go through three different tv remotes, because Nicole would always throw it at the wall when it wouldn't work. Usually it was just because the battery had run out.

Before Nicole could do anything worse to the screen, like throw it down or set it ablaze, she heard someone clear their throat.

"Nicole?" She immediately turned around at the sound of her boss's voice. "This a bad time?" He asked her, a little amused by her anger.

She smiled at him. This wasn't the first time that he'd seen her like this and it probably wouldn't be the last, at least for as long as she was going to be at the magazine.

"Nope, just breaking the monitor. So you know, the usual," Nicole smiled at him. "What's up, Barney?"

Despite being the editor of the magazine, Barney didn't really act like much of boss. He carried around more of a friendly colleague vibe.

Before this job, Nicole had previous part-time jobs and those boss's were the absolute worst, real pricks, ones that she'd never ever want to work for again.

However, with Barney it was different. He would help everyone learn and help them do better, something that a real boss, one who genuinely cared, would do.

Barney smiled, looking at her screen, and then glanced back to Nicole. "You want to step into my office?" He asked, nodding his head to the side.

Nicole frowned at him. "Are you doing a bit? Or you actually want me in your office?"

Due to his playful nature, Nicole could never really determine when he was being serious and when he wasn't.

"Actually want you in my office," Barney told her.

"Well, okay then," Nicole replied with a quick nod.

She turned around, back to her computer screen and attempted to lock it, only for that to fail and for the computer to remain frozen.

Nicole gave up on it quickly, before attacked the screen again, and then got up from her seat, smiling at Barney.

"This isn't a serious thing, is it? I'm not losing my job? Cause I wasn't really going to break the computer," she said as the two began to walk towards Barney's office.

He then gave her a look and Nicole sighed.

"Okay, I wasn't going to break it a lot," she confessed.

"You're fine," Barney laughed, as the two entered his office.

He walked in behind Nicole and closed his door after him, one that usually always remained open, according to his whole 'open door' policy.

When he closed the door, Nicole grew a little weary, wondering what could be so serious he wanted to talk to her about.

Barney sat down on his chair, on his end of the desk.

"Take a seat," he then told Nicole.

She sat down but gave Barney a suspicious look. "See, these are things a boss would say and you never use the boss lingo."

It was rare for Barney to ever act like a boss, or even for him to be in his own office. He'd usually be held up in the meeting rooms or if not, he liked to walk around the open-floor space and converse with staff, helping them through.