Chapter 227

“I still don’t get it,” Eric said. “Why the hell do I have to cover for all three of you? You just left me with Andy! You know he’s not going to pull his weight.”

You were in the little office kitchen and had been grabbing a drink from the water cooler when Eric found you in there.

“Dude,” you said. “I really can’t blame you for being annoyed at this. But me and the girls didn’t volunteer - Garrison just called us out and gave us the assignment. And believe me, this isn’t a job you want. It isn’t like when Sabrina and I went to that other office. This sucks.”

And it did. It was even worse than your usual document management stuff. Every paper had to be assessed and dated, and every box had over five hundred papers, and the boxes seemed like they were never-ending.

“Well ... shit,” he sighed. “I’m just getting tired of getting left out.”

Now that did make you feel a little guilty because you hadn’t stood up for him more on the mentoring thing with Garrison. Eric had been on your side all the way. Sure, he could be a little Bro-y and annoying, but did that mean he didn’t deserve to be treated like a friend?

“I’m sorry, dude,” you said. “Next time there’s some sort of special assignment thing, I’ll try and do my best to get you on it. OK?”

“I’d really appreciate it, man,” Eric nodded. Then he sighed. “OK, completely different subject. I ... may have matched with Joy on Bumble. And she’s flirting with me.”

You almost dropped your water cup. “Um ... what?”

“I swear to God I’m not lying,” Eric said, pulling out his phone. He opened up his dating app and went to his matches and opened up a profile.

It was real. It was Joy.

“If I didn’t know who she was I probably already would have tried to set up a date,” Eric said. “I mean, she’s hot, right?”

“Eric,” you said slowly. “I would never try and tell you who you should or shouldn’t date, but if I were you I would be blocking the match, deleting the app and then throwing the phone in a river.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad,” Eric said, but he looked down at his phone like he was seriously considering it.

“Look, just ... be careful,” you said. “Don’t let her get in your head. Remember she did that to that IT guy.”

“True,” Eric nodded. Then he pursed his lips. “Maybe I can milk her for a nude or something.”

You raised your hands and shook your head. “I don’t want to hear anything about that,” you said.

When you got back to the conference room you were still a little shocked. “You guys are not going to believe this...” was how the conversation started, and as you were working you, Sabrina and Gemma had an entire afternoon of guessing at what Joy was trying to do.

The answer ended up splitting between her either having forgotten who Eric was in that short a time, mostly because she was that stuck up, or her planning to steal his soul through sex because she was secretly a demon succubus. The three of you gave about even odds to both options.

At the end of the day, you kissed Gemma and Sabrina goodbye outside the office and went home alone for the first time since last Thursday. It felt kind of weird, both looking forward to a bit of alone time and also missing your girlfriends’ presence after just spending all day with them.