salute ➳ 〚h.s.〛 〚a.u.〛

chapter 28 - variable vulnerabilities & supportive shoulders

"You know what's frustrating about fruit-bottomed yogurt?" Piper sighed, hoping that this line of conversation was all a bad dream and this wasn't real life. "No matter how much you stir it, there's always some fruit at the bottom. It's irritating."

"Martin, I swear to god, if you don't stop talking about yogurt —"

"Oh Piper," Colleen interrupted from her desk on Piper's other side, her voice sounding motherly and scolding, "leave poor Martin alone. He's just trying to be nice."

Martin nodded along seriously, as if this was a matter of national security. They worked for MI6. They were in charge of keeping the United Kingdom protected from outside threats. And they were talking about fucking yogurt.

Piper couldn't wait until the day she was promoted out of this hellhole.

She went back to what she had been doing before Martin had started this whole dialogue about yogurt and dropped her forehead to her desk. It had been pounding all morning, a nice 'fuck you' present from all the tequila she'd drank the night before. Her headache was too severe for her to be doing anything other than resting her head on her desk and praying for death.

She groaned when a ringing started up near her head. Piper forced herself to sit up and looked around for her mobile. It was stuck under the stack of files she'd completed that morning and she sneered when she saw Andrew's name flashing on the screen.

"What do you want?" she grumbled when she picked up.

"Nice greeting, Piper. Really professional." As usual, Andrew's voice was unbearable and Piper regretted answering almost immediately.

"Listen, I'm very busy right now," she lied, deciding not to mention that she actually had absolutely nothing to do because she'd finished the day's work this morning and was now simply counting down the hours until she could leave. Harry had left for a three-day mission in the Caribbean so she was responsible for finding her own way out to Wimbledon that night. She had more important things to deal with than her brother.

"Right, at your call centre job." She could hear the sarcasm and deprecation in Andrew's tone and she tightened her hand around the edge of the desk to resist saying all the rude things on the tip of her tongue. "So sorry to have disturbed you."

"I bet," Piper muttered, rolling her eyes. "Is there something you wanted Andrew?"

"There was actually." He took a long dramatic pause and Piper leaned back in her chair, chewing on her thumbnail so that she didn't start spewing profanities in her place of work. "Tell your friends not to call me on my personal line ever again."

That threw Piper off. The whole idea of what he was saying was so ridiculous that all she could manage to say was, "what?"

"Some bloke called. Introduced himself as one of your friends and started asking questions about my work, about trading. He said that you spoke highly of me and that I could offer him some advice."

Piper burst out laughing, unable to control herself. She knew she was drawing confused stares from her coworkers but she couldn't have stopped herself even if she wanted to. The idea of her recommending Andrew to anyone was absolutely ridiculous. "I definitely didn't say that," she told him once she'd managed to catch her breath.

"I didn't think you had," Andrew said, the one thing they agreed on. Neither of them had any preconceptions about their relationship with each other. "I told him as such, instructed him never to bother me again and hung up."

"So what exactly do you want from me?"

"Even if it wasn't explicit, I imagine he got my name and number from you. So stop giving out my number."