Lucas strode out his office down the hall, as he listened to Brooke stumbling along awkwardly behind him in her oversized heels. Rolling his eyes to himself without turning around, he just kept on walking purposefully, down past Trent's office, Ryan's office, and so on. He knew that he was going to be stuck with Brooke, more or less, for the rest of the day -- the sooner he got this tour over with, the better. Then he could finally settle down in his office and do some meaningful work, perhaps after giving Brooke some simple, mundane task to do that would undoubtedly take her the rest of the day to complete.
'Maybe that's how I can do it,' he thought to himself, 'Maybe, when Dave and Bill ask how she's doing...if they even do ask...I can just tell them what she's done...or not done...and they'll finally see how unqualified she is and let her go...and let me off the hook.'
He passed Olivia in the hallway, giving her a knowing, wide-eyed look and tipping his head back behind him, as if to say, 'Yeah, I'm stuck with her,' only to have his eyes travel inevitably down to her cleavage, which was even more obvious whenever Olivia was moving. Her big breasts were already plainly obvious to anyone when she was sitting down, but when she was walking, they stood out even more, since they bounced and jiggled up and down with every sway and sidle of her athletic, curvy body. How could Lucas not stare!? It wasn't really a conscious choice on his part -- at this point, it was almost automatic. Her medallion was nowhere to be seen, buried deep down in the chasm of her cleavage, swallowed up by the bountiful, bodacious breast flesh on either side, squeezing together in the inadequate space of her top, seemingly threatening to burst out at any moment. Olivia blinked and shook her head a little, tilting her head to the side and giving Lucas a playfully censuring glance, before smiling warmly at Brooke and continuing on her way.
'What's with the women in the office, making a point of being so sweet to her?" thought Lucas, with a bit of frustration. 'First Sophia and now Olivia...being all buddy-buddy with her. Probably just trying to spite me, is all. I know that's what Sophia's doing...she probably had a little chat with Olivia and put her up to it too. That would totally be something she would do.'
Ever since he and Sophia had been briefly involved together, Lucas saw every aspect of their interaction like a game...or more specifically, a chess match. The stakes had dropped considerably, ever since they had stopped dating, but the game had continued, though with no real end goal in mind. The two of them were simply used to that peculiar mode of interaction: flirtation that took the mode of incessant teasing, mocking, and scheming against one another. At least, that's how Lucas saw it.
He turned the corner in the hallway, glancing over his shoulder as he did so. He saw that Brooke was farther behind him than he had thought, causing him to slow his pace down a little as he sighed in frustration. He knew that he really needed to get a handle on his irritation if these next few days...or weeks...were going to be remotely manageable. But really, how was he supposed to act when every single aspect of his existence had been slowed, restricted...curtailed...by the presence of this utterly inadequate girl?
"S-sorry, Mr. Minuar," Brooke said, mispronouncing his name again as she kept him waiting. "It's...uh...hehe, I'm p-pretty clumsy in...in these shoes."
"Then find some better ones to wear," muttered Lucas under his breath.
"Huh? Wh-what...what was that?" asked Brooke, finally catching up on him. "Hehe, I, uhh...I have a little tinnitus in my ears, s-so,, uhh...hehe, yeah. Sometimes I c-can't hear as well."
'Of course you have tinnitus,' thought Lucas to himself, but he smiled outwardly, making a point to do his best impression of Sophia and Olivia's kindness. The women didn't have a monopoly on empathy in this office, he reminded himself.
"I said, maybe Sophia can take you out shopping sometime soon," he replied, cringing at the thought that he was playing into his colleague's game. But even though Lucas didn't care what this new temp-intern-whatever thought of him, he didn't want her to labor under the knowledge of his own frustration and irritation with her. He didn't feel this way because he cared about her -- it was entirely to do with her performance...and her nervous energy. If she knew that he was frustrated with her, that would doubtlessly only make her more nervous, and would lead to her being even more incompetent and awkward. The last thing that Lucas needed was for this girl to make his life even harder...but really, how much farther down could she go?
'She already stutters every other word,' thought Lucas, resuming his trudge down the hall toward the laboratory, where they were going to get Brooke her security clearance. 'And she's already clumsy enough as it is. If she was more nervous, then she probably wouldn't even be able to get a word out of her mouth...she'd be tripping and falling every step she took!'
The thought was so absurd that it actually made Lucas chuckle out loud. He shook his head without turning around as he continued walking. Brooke wouldn't know that he was thinking about her; as he turned another corner, he saw her several paces behind him, her eyes intently focused on the floor directly in front of her.
'Wow, she's making sure she doesn't fall, every step she takes,' thought Lucas. 'Poor girl.'
He actually did feel a little sorry for Brooke, even if his empathy for her was far outweighed by his empathy for himself at having to put up with her. He realized, around this moment, that he had been walking silently in front of Brooke, and that he should probably try to engage her in some kind of small talk to make everything seem normal.
"So...Brooke," he said, his pleasant, conversational voice sounding oddly out of place in the situation, "How did you first...uh, get into software engineering?"
"H-how did I, uhh...g-get into it?" she asked blankly from behind him. It sounded to Lucas that she was already out of breath...from walking a little bit down the hall? Maybe it was just her nerves.
"Yeah!" said Lucas, glancing back at her again and giving her a forced smile as they turned another corner. "Like, I don't know? What got you into this business in the first place?"
"Oh! Oh y-yeah!" said Brooke, her face brightening as she looked up at him. Now that she was looking at Lucas, she wasn't quite watching where she was going, and she took the corner a bit too sharply, her bony hips smacking a little into the corner of the wall.
"Ow!" she exclaimed, rubbing the protruding bone.
"You ok?" asked Lucas.
"Y-yeah...yeah I'm, uh...I'm used to it. Umm...umm..." She seemed to have forgotten about what they were talking about.
"So...how you got into software engineering?" asked Lucas helpfully, privately not quite able to grasp how easily her mind trailed off.
"Oh yeah! Uh...w-well...I...I've always been interested in, um...in computers," she began, looking back down at the ground in front of her, preparing to dodge any obstacles that came her way.
"Mmhm," nodded Lucas, turning another corner and looking at the steel-reinforced laboratory door down the far end of the hallway.
"And...and, uh...I...I always p-played computer games...when I was a kid," she continued.
"Mhm, yes...most people have," replied Lucas. He quickly realized that his comment could be taken as rude, and so he quickly added, "But I'm sure you were really good at computer games, huh?"
"Uh, hehe...I, uh...I m-mean, not really," said Brooke, blushing. "I was, um...n-never really that good, uh, actually."
"But you enjoyed them," said Lucas, coming up to the laboratory door. It was an imposing door, to be sure, its steel glinting strangely in the hallway light. Everything else in the office suit looked more or less like a normal office, with normal modern decor. But the heavy laboratory door, kept secure with a code panel and fingerprint scanner, made it clear that there were extraordinary things going on in this office...things that needed to be kept guarded...and secret.
"Y-yes...I did," said Brooke, trailing off a little as she looked up at the door. "Wh-where...uh...where does this lead to?"
