the wrong kind of love #23

Chapter 23

Mandy woke up bright and early the following day, even though she didn’t have to be in by 10 o’clock. She was too excited and nervous to have a lay in. She had her breakfast and tidied up the house, getting it ready for Nicky’s arrival later on tonight. When she finished that, she finally got showered and dressed, got in her new car and headed off. She walked out of the lifts by the office with a big grin on her face. She dug into her bag and fished out a pocket mirror, which she opened and inspected her hair and make up on it. Satisfied with how she looked, she put it away, took a deep breath and marched into the office.
“Morning!” she greeted cheerfully, looking around the room.
Everyone looked up at her, smiled at her politely and then got back to work, with a few of them muttering morning back to her. She looked around for Brian, but he was nowhere to be found. Mark saw her and walked up to her.
“He is in the big bosses office!” he smiled as if reading her thoughts.
“Huh?” she asked.
“Brian, he is in the office with Simon.” He smiled, “I take it you were looking for him!”
“Oh, no I was just…” she stuttered.
Mark smiled, “It’s only natural to look for your mate when you’re new to a job!”
Mandy smiled and nodded.
Meanwhile, back in Simon’s office, Brian stood by his desk, leaning his hands and bowing his head to the floor.
“Simon, come on. Let someone else train her, please!” he begged after being told he had to train Mandy.
“Noone else is qualified enough to do it Brian. It’s your job!” he sighed, looking for something on his desk.
“Well, can’t you do it yourself?” he whined.
Simon looked at him in bewilderment, “A bit of respect for your boss Brian!”
Brian sighed and bowed his head down again, shaking it softly.
“And to answer your question, no. I cannot do it myself. I am in a meeting all morning!”
Brian and sighed and shook his head once more, “I cannot do it!”
“Well tough coz you have to, and that’s final. Now get out of here coz it is 5 past 10 and she’s probably here already. Come on. Scoot!” he ordered.
“You don’t understand!” argued Brian insistently.
“What? What don’t I understand, McFadden. What is the big deal here?” he asked impatiently.
“We just have a history that’s all!” he mumbled with a shrug, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
Simon tilted his head to the side and looked at him, “Her working here is not going to cause any problems is it, McFadden?”
“No. Course not!” answered Brian quickly.
“coz if it will, there are ways to deal with it. If you know what I mean!” he raised his eyebrows at him.
“No. god no, it’s fine. No problems!” insisted Brian.
“Excuse me if I am wrong, Brian, but I was under the impression that you and her were friends!” he commented.
Brian bit his lip and looked up at the ceiling, “A lot of things have happened recently, ok?”
Simon looked at him suspiciously, “Have you and her…you know!” he questioned, making gestures with his hands.
Brian sighed and nodded, causing Simon to laugh, “OH dear!”
Brian rolled his eyes and huffed loudly.
“Hang on a minute. Wasn’t she married to that Byrne guy from accounts?” he asked confused.
“Yeah. She is. Loser!” he muttered.
Simon tried not to laugh again, “Oh dear!”
“That is why I cannot train her, Simon. It’s too awkward!” he sighed, looking back at him and trying again.
“I take it she is not dumping Byrne for you!” he chuckled.
“It’s not funny!” he hissed.
“No you’re right. It’s not. I’m sorry Brian. And I’m sorry but you’re stuck with the job. As I said noone else can do it and it has to be you. You’re gonna have to get used to working together though without it getting awkward!” he sighed, grabbing his briefcase from the floor and placing it on the desk. He opened it, put some official looking papers inside and then closed it again. He grabbed it and walked to the door with Brian.
“Fine!” sighed Brian, walking out of the office and into the main room. Simon followed him and stopped behind Brian as he walked towards Mandy. He looked nervous and that made him chuckle softly before walking out. Brian looked at Mandy sitting there and waiting and slowly made his way closer to her.
“You ready?” he asked unenthusiastically, but at the same time, feeling his stomach flip over a few times.
“What for?” she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
“For your training!” he sighed, rolling his eyes.
“You are training me?” she gasped.
“Looks like it!” he mumbled, “Are you ready?”
Mandy stared up at him and shook her head, “Brian, please don’t…”
“Come on. I’ll show you how we work the phone system!” he interrupted her.
“Brian!” she repeated with a sigh as she followed him to the customer services desk.
When he got there, he picked up the headphones and showed it to her, “Basically, you put this on your ear. If you look at these buttons, the red one is to answer, the green is to switch calls and blue is to transfer the calls to someone else in the office. In this booklet you have a list of internal numbers in the building so you can transfer the calls. Basically you press the blue button and then the central number and hang up.” he quickly explained.
Mandy still stared at him, “Brian please don’t hate me for loving my husband!” she sighed, not really paying much attention to him. Brian sighed and ignored her.
“You will get a lot of calls either demanding to be put through to a certain department or to speak to Simon. This is basically what you will be doing for the majority of the day…” he continued.
“Brian, did you even hear a word I said?” she asked.
Brian sighed and looked at the desk. He blinked, swallowed and tried again.
“You will see a file on your desk. That big red one there. There it has all kinds of information…” he continued explaining.
“Brian!” she raised her voice slightly. It was her mission to make him listen.
He stopped talking and sighed, “I don’t hate you, ok?” he finally answered.
Mandy looked at him, “Then why won’t you even look at me?”
Brian shook his head and continued staring at the desk, “Coz I can’t!” he sighed.
“Why?” she whined.
“Coz I cannot bear looking at you, thinking how that man is hurting you and will continue to hurt you, and you don’t even care!” he growled.
Mandy sighed, “Nicky loves me Brian. He will not hurt me!”
“Yeah. We’ll see about that!” he muttered.
Mandy sighed, “We used to be mates Brian. What happened? I thought that’s what you wanted!”
“NO Mandy. You used me to get over your husbands dirty deeds!” he shrugged.
“I did not!” she gasped.
Brian slowly raised his head and looked into her eyes, “I gave you all the support you needed and you threw it back into my face!” he growled, “And when I told you I would continue being your friend, you kicked me out the house and told me you never wanted to see me again. Now you have changed your mind. What is it? Scared that I might be right and that you will need a mate?”
Mandy stared into his eyes and gasped as he demonstrated all that anger in them.
“I did not throw it back in your face Brian, and I did not use you. I appreciated all the support you gave me and still do!” she sighed.
“OH yeah? Then why did you not want to see me again?” he hissed.
“Coz I was scared that I would end up sleeping with you again!” she sighed.
“First you kissed me and acted like it was the biggest mistake of your life!” he started.
“I explained all that already Brian!” she sighed.
“And then you slept with me, coz you thought your husband was doing the dirty on you, and then change your mind about me and say you don’t want to see me again because you think he is not doing the dirty on you and that you made a mistake.” He added.
“We can be mates again Brian. We can be back to the way we were!” she pleaded.
Brian shook his head, “I don’t like being used, Mandy, Not at all, and no. I don’t think we can be mates anymore. Too much has happened. It’s all or nothing for me I’m afraid!” he shrugged.
“You knew I was married. You knew there was a chance this could happen!” she growled with tears in her eyes.
Brian sighed and shook his head, “It’s how I feel. I am sorry Mandz. As I said, I don’t hate you, but I cannot be mates with you after all that has happened!”
“Fine!” she answered with a shrug, “I guess I was wrong when I thought you were a good mate then!”
Brian bit his lip and stared at her for a while. This hurt him. It hurt him telling her that they could not be friendly towards each other anymore. He closed his eyes, swallowed hard and looked at her desk, “Back to the training now. I want to get this over and done with!” he sighed.
“If you don’t want to train me Brian, then don’t! I pretty much know what I am doing anyway!” she growled.
“I have to train you!” he answered, lacking in emotions.
Mandy sighed, “Very well. Do carry on then!”
Bran spent the majority of the morning explaining what her job entailed and the proceeded on giving her a tour of the whole building.
“And that’s about it. Do you have any questions!” he sighed.
Mandy shook her head. But then changed her mind, “Actually, I have one!”
Brian stared at her and nodded.
“I was wondering, how the hell are we ever going to work together when we are just gonna feel awkward around each other!” she answered.
“A job related question!” he sighed.
“It is job related. I want to know how we are going to manage working together without any tension!” she shrugged.
Brian sighed, “We’ll manage!”
“Will we?” she asked, raising a brow.
“We’ll have to won’t we?” he moaned.
Mandy bit her lip and nodded, “Yeah. I suppose. Anyway thanks for the training Brian. I’ll see you tomorrow!” she sighed, holding onto her bag strap and walking out. Brian stared at her as she delicately made her way to the lifts. She diverted her eyes towards him briefly, caught his gaze and then looked away again. She got in the lift, let out a heavy sigh and leaned her head against the lift wall.
“Damn that man!” she cursed softly to herself, “If he wasn’t so damned cute!”