"All I'm saying," maintained Olivia, stubbornly, shifting her weight over to her left hip, "Is that either Lucas or Rick duped that poor girl into whatever it is they're doing to her."
"It was probably both of them, to be honest," said Steve, eying Olivia's healthy cleavage (which had become a habit, at this point) before flitting his glance over to Ryan.
"Yeah," Ryan agreed, sipping his coffee as they all stood together in a little circle around Trent's office, "Although I gotta admit, I'm not complaining, haha!"
"You think I am!?" returned Steve, laughing. "Hey, I'm all for it, ok? More power to her! And, well..haha, you know...more for us!"
"Wow, what a predictable response from you two," said Olivia dryly, shaking her head. "Really makes me feel great to be a woman around here."
"Well come on Olivia," said Ryan, slouching his shoulders slightly in a "complaining" motion, "What'd you expect? You work with a bunch of engineer nerds who've had trouble with women since middle school."
"Speak for yourself," chuckled Trent, standing up tall as he brought his coffee mug to his lips. Ryan and Steve turned to look at their taller, more dashing co-worker, and they both shrugged in assent. There was no doubt that Trent definitely didn't fit the stereotypical "computer geek" mold. He had an impeccable sense of fashion; he always wore the best-pressed suits to work, and his cologne was tasteful and expensive. And unlike both Ryan and Steve (and James too...but as usual, James was in his office, working rather than socializing), Trent worked out regularly, which was readily apparent from the impressive muscles which were noticeable beneath his stylish clothes.
"Yeah, come on you two," laughed Olivia, a bit nastily, "Just because you guys are insecure little creeps doesn't mean that you have to be to work at Braden...if you're a man, that is."
At the word "man," Olivia had looked up into Trent's face, lowered her voice suggestively, and given him a token wink. Steve and Ryan looked on, jealous as usual. They were just as aware as anyone how out-of-reach Olivia was for them (not the least because she was engaged to someone like Chase, who everyone at the office knew from holidays parties), and it didn't help that Olivia never seemed to pass up an opportunity to nail this point home by flirting with Trent. For her part, Olivia was just enjoying herself. She knew that she was safe enough, and attractive enough, to flirt with anyone she wanted to. She enjoyed the power trip of seeing someone as hunky and good-looking as Trent squirm in his pants.
"Ok...ohhhh-kay Olivia," said Trent, standing up straight and shaking his head down at her. She may have been 6 feet tall in her heels, but at 6'2, Trent was taller still, and an inch taller than Lucas. "You can just stop all that nonsense right now. I'm not going to end up on the wrong side of a fight with Chase...which, you know...is any side other than Chase's."
"Aw whassa matter, Trent?" teased Olivia, gently swiveling her curvy body from side to side, her red dress straining as her D-cup breasts bounced enticingly (as usual, her locket had already tumbled into the deep, black crevice of her cleavage). "Don't you think I'm hotttt?"
"I, uh...I mean, uh, look, I'm not arguing that you're not hot," laughed Trent, tripping over himself for a moment before regaining his confidence and composure. He had been working on the same floor as Olivia for over a year, and he still hadn't quite gotten used to seeing her slender, yet toned body flaunted in this freewheeling kind of way. "But I know what you're doing, Olivia. And it's not gonna work on me."
Olivia pouted playfully and retreated. This was a familiar game that she and Trent played -- both of them found the other undeniably attractive, but both of them also knew that nothing would ever happen between the two of them. Besides, Olivia knew that she was just flexing her power, which was fairly easy to do around here, anyway, what with an intelligent, experienced woman like Sofia occupying a position over her, and with a prude like Lucas in charge.
"H-how...how is Chase doing these days, anyway?" asked Steve, not quite reading the situation right, and wanting to diffuse the sexual tension between Trent and Olivia.
"Oh Chase?" said Olivia lightly, turning to look slightly down at Steve. In her heels, Olivia was a couple inches taller than both Steve and Ryan; and while Ryan was a bit pudgy and overweight, Olivia was confident that she had Steve by a solid ten or fifteen pounds.
"He was exhaaaaausted this morning," sighed Olivia dreamily, looking up at the ceiling as she twirled her hair slightly.
"That Crossfit competition really did him in, huh?" remarked Trent.
"What?" said Olivia, not on board. "Huh? I...oh...OH, I see what you're saying. Uh, no...that's not why he was tired this morning."
"Well then, why was -- ohhh I see what you mean," said Ryan, not able to hide his lascivious interest.
"Yeah..." intoned Olivia, smiling to herself.
The elevator door opened, and Sofia came out, looking a bit more frazzled than usual. It was more common to be at the office before anyone else, but this morning was different. She looked up at the gathered group by Trent's office.
"Boy, you all look hard at work," she quipped. "By all means, continue your meeting -- don't let ME get in the way."
"Hey Sophia, we were just...haha, yeah, just catching up a little, is all," chuckled Trent. But Sophia's presence had already broken the group up -- Steve and Ryan had automatically turned their feet toward their respective offices, and Olivia was just about to do the same. Sophia seemed to be in one of her no-nonsense moods, and no one wanted to start their Tuesday by pissing her off.
But then, one of the other elevator doors dinged again, and the whole group froze in place, turning around to look. They were far too interested in getting a good look at whoever was going to come through the door -- it was either going to be Lucas or Brooke, and no one even bothered to hide their sense of anticipation. Everyone knew that Lucas had basically asked Brooke out on a date the previous day...how had it gone? And perhaps more than anything else, everyone was anxious to see what Brooke looked like, now that the nanobots had been in her system for a whole other night.
It was Lucas who walked through the double opening doors, and Trent, Ryan, and Steve all felt a small sense of disappointment. Olivia was pleased, because now she wouldn't have to deal with the annoyance of seeing her poor junior colleague preyed upon by the helpless, shameless males...but she had to admit, there was a small part of her that had noticed that it was just past 8 o'clock, which meant that Brooke was late...again. Olivia didn't feel jealous or vindictive towards Brooke in any way -- what did she have to be jealous of, after all? But, especially after Brooke's growth and beautification the previous day, Olivia had been feeling a sense of strange anxiety, and even foreboding, around the idea that she could be replaced as the office's "hot one." It was a role she enjoyed, despite its obvious annoyances.
