As keys continued to be tapped, Ann came to a stop as a worried look came across her face. She then looked over at the empty cubical to where Lucas should have been. Here gaze then met with both Chris and then Joe with equally worried look.
"He's late." All three thought simultaneously. They knew Lucas as a person that hated being late and usually one of the few who tired to get here as early as possible, even with how far he lives. However, he was nearly a full hour late today.
"I hope he's alright," Ann thought as she went back to answering a call.
As the elevator rung, all three friends turned there attention to it to see Lucas rushing quickly too his disk. He moved too fast for them to try and stop him to get a question in. All they could do is watch him quietly go to his seat and turn on his computer.
"Fuck." Lucas said in a low voice as he realized what time it was. He didn't waste anytime trying to clock in, and deal with this first person on the phone. A long sigh left his mouth as he tried his best to keep his home related issue out of his work. Yet, it was like a tiny imp was on his shoulder constantly whispering into his ear about his issue with Amay and last night all together.
"Right ma'am. I understand. Have you tried doing this instead or checking the cable itself?" He spoke in a calm voice trying to offer her some advice. Instead of being welcoming and understanding, the woman began to scream and berate him. She called him all kinds of things that she could think of and Lucas just sat there taking it.
"Ma'am...Ma'am.....Ma'am..." Lucas said in a low voice as he began to zone out. Her screeching soon slowly began to turn to white noise. He felt his vision began to zone in and out as he found it hard to focus. Using his right arm to rest his head, he pulled the phone away from his ear. He then looked at it with heavy eyes.
"Just hang it up." He heard his inner voice speak.
"And another thing, you worthless piece of shit, how hard is it to do your damn job. Even a...
Her voice was cut off completely as Lucas hung up on her. He looked down at his hand as it wasn't shaking from what he did. He pulled his arm away as he leaned back in his chair. A long sigh left his mouth as he looked up at the ceiling. He had a dull look on his face as he was questioning a lot of things. He slowly leaned back forward to look at his computer and then the phone.
His mind began to race with different thoughts that made it very hard to focus on picking up the ringing phone again. Even with the enough time he had before getting to work, his mind couldn't let go of last night and constantly made him question if he did something wrong.
"Come on. Focus." He told himself as he tried to pick up the phone again, but found himself pulling away from it again. It was as if his body just didn't want to deal with the drama today, especially with his own mindset at the moment. "Just have to do this for a few more hours ." He whispered to himself as he picked up the phone.
As a few hours had passed, Lucas had managed to get through a few phone calls and pushed his worries to the back of his mind. His back began to sting from his scratches as he moved in the wrong direction. Part of him was glad little dick didn't come by as he honestly wasn't in the mood today. He just wanted to keep his head down and just go back home to try and handle the situation with Amay better.
"Hey, Lucas." A voice called from behind him.
Lucas turned around to see Chris with a worrisome look on his face rather then his goof smile. His expression told him that something was bothering him and it had to do himself.
"What's wrong, man?" Lucas asking knowing exactly what he was going to talk about.
"Nothing. You good?" Chis asked looking back at Joe and Ann who were busy but wanted to know what was going on. "You noticed you were an hour late, and you seemed kind of off. We just wanted to make sure you were good." He said rubbing the back of his head before folding his arms.
"Well," Lucas said looking away for a moment. Inside his body was burning up to tell Chris what happened, but he wasn't full sure. He couldn't say "nothing was wrong" or "that he was fine" because they already know something was up. He let out a sigh before making sure no one was listening.
"Amay and I....hooked up last night," Lucas confessed. He could see a shock face came over Chris face as he was both shocked and surprised. He then watched as Chris was fighting himself for being proud, but wanted to stay serious.
"Damnit," He said in a low voice. "I'm proud, but I know there's a but to it. What happened?" He said balling up his fist and popping his fingers.
"Well as we were doing it. And I told her if she felt uncomfortable at any moment, I will stop." Lucas said in a low voice as he tried to clarify. He could feel his own face become red. "As we were doing it, she started to cry. So I stopped and checked to see if she's alright. When I woke up this morning, she said she wanted to forget about last night." He explained before stopping to think more.
"And you think you did something wrong, correct?" Chris asked Lucas as he leaned against the cubical wall. He saw Lucas face lit up as if someone finally understood him. While he would have smirked at this, his face would remain straight. "Look, you did the right thing by stopping when you saw there was a problem. That's really good. Now for the main problem. You need to not beat yourself up?"
"Are you sure? I just feel like I..."
"Stop right there," Chris interrupted him. "Don't blame yourself for something you didn't do. It's something with her. She's probably thinking about how embarrassing it was to cry in the middle of it or something. We wouldn't know. But you need to respect her wishes."
"But I feel like..."
"Don't do it. If you try to push for an answer, you might push her away. " Chris said point a stern finger at Lucas. "If she said she want to forget about it, then you act like nothing happened. Don't make a mountain out of a mole hole, man. Enjoy what happened, but don't make it any awkward then it has to be." Chris told him. "Especially, since yall technically live together."
"Oh...okay then." Lucas said unsure how he should process this, but Chris for all his goofiness knows what he was talking about. He then felt a hand on his shoulder with a light pat.
Chris looked at him with a smile. "Congratulations on become a man, although you were always one. Just don't let it get to your head. Okay?" He said taking a step back and heading back to his own desk.
With all his emotions finally calmed down and a moment of clarity and insight filled his body, Lucas found himself smiling a little. "One step at a time, I guess." Lucas said with a smile as he went back to his computer. He pulled up his tab to continue to work on his video project. He still needed to check his audio clips on his phone and then catch up on some workplace laws.
A soft knock came to Amay's bedroom door forcing her up. She was wearing one of Lucas shirts and a pair of shorts. After he had left, she took a shower and cleaned up the house, mainly washing Lucas's sheets and her dress from last night. She needed her space to think about everything and just wanted to distance herself from him for a while. With a deep sigh, she opened the door and was surprised not to see him.
"Huh?" Amay let out as she looked around expecting to see him, but instead there was a little gift bag. She tilted her head slightly and opened her door further to investigate it. Her eyes went wide as she looked inside.
Inside the bag was all sorts of snacks and goodies, a fancy looking night light and a note. She placed the bag on the ground for a moment and began to read the note.
"I know last night was weird, but if you ever want to talk, I'm all ways be willing to talk. I couldn't grab food, but I do hope these snacks help out. -Lucas
P.S. I stole some of the chocolate."
A small smile came across Amay's face as she read the note. She let out a small giggle as she shock her head at him. "You're such a kind idiot," she said in a whisper as she took the gift into her room.