Amanda hears the news

Resting her head in the palm of her hand Amanda rubbed at her temple as she correlated data between different reports. The training she went through on her trip kept her busy, but she still had made an effort to not let too much build up on her for when she got back. She recalled getting silent glares from Bailey when she would work late and then get home only to open her laptop back up to do more work. On the trip out to California no one had been there to tell her that she should take a break, or at least no one that could see her. Derrick encouraged a work life balance and Bailey… her thoughts on the blonde green eyed girl distracted Amanda enough that she didn’t hear the knocks on her office door, only realizing someone needed her when the door opened.

“Hey boss lady.” April said as she stepped into the room, shutting the door behind her. “I have a few things for you.” She hadn’t heard anything from her friend the entire morning and thought it best to come in prepared. Stepping closer to the desk she put down two aspirin and a glass of water. “I think in time, you will thank me.” She said tapping the desk next to the pills and giving a wink.

Giving her dark haired friend a heartfelt smile Amanda took the offered medication, her head wasn’t bad, not yet at least and hadn’t even considered getting up from her desk to take care of the problem before it became a larger one. “I swear I am not around and people think they can get away with half assing their work.”

“You know, as their boss you can tell them to fix their mistakes.” April said as she made herself comfortable in one of the two other chairs in the office. “I recall someone telling me one of the jobs of management is delegation.”

Giving her younger friend a flat faced glare Amanda shook her head slightly. “I recall that too, but I also know if I just do it, then it will be done correctly now and I can get it off my plate before the people I report to start asking questions.”

“I’m just saying! It is their work, they should do it.” The idea that in a possible future April could be sitting on the other side of the desk in front of her danced across her mind. Going from an executive assistant to managing an entire department was the type of jump no one in human resources would approve without someone stepping in, but that was something she had, but recently all of it had come into question. If she even got the promotion George Brannon would be ruling over the building like a tyrant king. If she played ball long enough she could then maybe move to another company with the job title security on her resume. That was if… she could play ball with the creep at all. Then there was the offer from Derrick Connors… That would mean staying in the role she has now, but under him. The man had promised to help her grow within the company and while that sounded good, she couldn’t imagine jumping as many rungs in the future as she had the opportunity to now. “True enough, I know I hate it when my boss is breathing down my back.”

“When have I ever…” Amanda started to say before April spoke over her to answer the question before it finished.

“Last year when we were going to go to the orchestra, how many times did you remind me?” April recalled the two of them wanting to go see the orchestra when they had come into town, but she had accidentally paid her car payment twice that month, making money tight. It was her best friend’s birthday and she wanted to buy the tickets, it had just taken longer to get the money together.

“That… hardly counts. April, that had nothing to do with work and I hardly was breathing down your back.”

“Speaking of not having anything to do with work.” April said transitioning to one of the other things she wanted to talk to her friend about. “Did Bailey tell you what he is going to be up to tonight?” She knew Bailey hadn’t told Amanda, Bailey didn’t even know he was going to be going over to her mother’s place so her little brother could introduce his girlfriend. She was looking forward to seeing Bailey act like an airheaded bimbo in front of her mother. The chauvinist all dolled up and had to give attention to her brother instead of his now ex-girlfriend. April wanted to make sure they stayed as ex boyfriend-girlfriend and what better way than telling her friend what was happening. “My mother has been harping on August to bring the girl he is always talking about home, so tonight Bailey agreed to meet my mother.”

“Oh, Bailey is going to meet your mother?” Amanda could recall Bailey once complaining about having to go on a date with her best friend’s younger brother. Her telling Bailey that he just had to keep up appearances and how it would just be one little date. Now the two were actually dating, and to the point of introducing the other to parents.

“That is what I hear. Hard to believe Bailey being brought home as a girlfriend, things like this make it hard for me to ever think of him as a man again really.” April said, trying to hammer home the idea.

Leaning back in her chair Amanda nodded, reaching for the glass April brought in, she took another sip of the water. “No, I would say not. Hard to believe how quickly we got here. Hmm, April.” Amanda paused looking at her friend, considering how she had phrased things. “You do know Bailey is not going back, that this is who Bailey really is? Who she has always been, at least deep down.”

Cocking her head to the side, April blinked twice, trying to fathom what she had just been told. “Is that what he told you? The man that you once confessed to me made you feel young again as the two of you fucked like rabbits? That is the man that…” April stopped talking, bringing up who Bailey actually was in normal life was counter to her point.

“April…” Amanda said her friend's name as she leaned forward on her desk, leaning on her elbows. “Take a good look at Bailey, talk to her. I bet if you asked Bailey how her outfit she would talk your ear off. That isn’t the sort of thing you would find in someone just pretending. The Bailey you are thinking about, the one that was sullen, who did not talk much, that was the person who was unhappy with who they were, not the Bailey we see out there…” Amanda motioned towards her office door. “Always smiling, ready to tell you about the most recent celebrity gossip on who is dating who.” Amanda added that last part thinking about how Bailey had turned down the radio that morning, to talk about the singer, going into a recap of how her and Candi had been talking about the recent breakup the singer had and how all the singer’s other breakups had led to songs being written. April bringing up sex between her and Bailey had thrown her for a small loop, it wasn’t something that had crossed her mind in context of the feminine Bailey.

“So, it doesn’t bother you that Bailey is going to have dinner with my mother, as August’s girlfriend?” April asked with a raised eyebrow.

Blowing out some air from her lungs Amanda nodded. “It does, but not because there is anything wrong with Bailey dating a boy that she likes. The problem is that she didn’t think to ask me first.” Pursing her lips she thought about how April was teasing her on that very first day Bailey played the roll of her daughter, how there could be wedding bells between her brother and Bailey. ‘How would August even act if he found out Bailey was, or used to be a boy?’

The comment made April laugh, she didn’t know how Bailey convinced Amanda to think he actually wanted to be a girl, saying those crazy good girl lessons that Megan told her about, but she also didn’t understand how the short man convinced one of the smartest woman she knew to not just date him, but let him move in and support his unemployed ass. The fact she perturbed that Bailey didn’t ask permission, like he really was her daughter was just purely funny to her. “Well, I’m going to let you get back too it.”

Leaving the office, April let her wolfish smile come into place after holding it back. She didn’t know Bailey’s angle with letting her friend think he really wanted to be a girl. The closest thing she could come up with is him trying to show her how sensitive and in touch he could be with his feminine side so that she would overlook all of his many bad qualities. It didn’t matter though, it looked like her friend had already determined Bailey wasn’t even male anymore, let alone dating material. That meant her friend would stop self sabotaging and ditch Bailey for a real man.

Moving to her desk, April was just about to sit down when the man she had just been thinking about, in his three piece suit, walked up to her. She looked him up and down, not considering how she looked at him like a piece of sexy meat, while hating the fact men did it to her. “Mr. Connors, you have impeccable timing, I was just thinking about you.” She said, her wolfish smiling sliding into something more warm and pleasant.

“Good to see you too Ms. Gates, I do hope they were good thoughts and not ones of ill intent.” Derrick said with his easy grin as he stopped in front of his girlfriend’s administrative assistant.

“What kind of ill intent? Or have you been reading my mind?” April asked as she crossed her arms under her chest. With her arms still crossed the wrist of her left hand touching her right elbow she brought her right hand up, her index finger just lightly touching her bottom lip as she playfully bantered with the bearded man.

“Mind reading isn’t one of my talents I’m afraid, it would help raising a teenage girl I would imagine but…” Derrick’s eyes looked past the dark eyed woman to the closed door, he didn’t want to stand here and have a casual conversation, but he also didn’t want her to think something was going on either. “Bad train of thoughts, I was more of speaking about you accepting or turning down my offer, but you can take your time considering that. That matter at hand is if Ms. Best is in.”

Cocking her head to the side, April considered telling him the not so secret thoughts of a teen girl. Jumping from a few of her interests, to way too much self doubt, to boys and then living in the self doubt some more, but considering the conversation she just had with her best friend, she thought it prudent to get her current love interest into her office as quickly as she could so that the blonde woman could focus on the good thing that she had. “Yes sir, your beautiful girlfriend is in her office.” Shimming her shoulders slightly, enjoying the banter, April took the few steps to the door she just had come from, knowing once before opening it. “Ms. Best, your afternoon appointment is here and looking dashing I might add.”

Derrick gave the woman in her mid twenties a look that he hoped conveyed this thoughts on how she should be keeping things professional, but his attention was quickly stolen away when he saw Mandy standing up from her desk, a large smile on her perfect lips, her blonde hair almost glowing from the sun’s light coming in the windows behind her. He had just seen her the day before, her in a tight pair of jeans a smile on her face as they talked about the shared day riding, that smiling fading from time to time as she adjusted how she walked or sat, mildly complaining about how the movies never showing how you felt after riding a horse. “Thank you Ms. Gates, if you would excuse us.”

Amanda didn’t miss the thumbs up her friend gave behind Derrick’s back as she shut the door. Turning her attention back to her boyfriend she gave him a happy smile, showing just a hint of her white teeth. The day before she had considered offering him and his daughter to stay the night at her place, but the way her legs felt after riding left the idea questionable. More so in questioning if she would be able to walk into work today if she let the man into the same bed as her after the day they had. Now hearing Bailey would be out on her own adventures, and seeing him standing in front of her she was now considering being the aggressor and asking him out on a cheap date, minimally planned date. “Is this personal or business? I do not have a lot of time for Mr. Connors, that man should be talking to directors, not coming to speak with me. If I was speaking to Derrick, my boyfriend then I am… well I am also incredibly busy, but for him I can spare some time.”

For a moment Derrick considered taking a seat, but with Mandy standing behind her desk he decided to walk around the chairs to stand by her side, putting one hand on her hip. “Both… I think. Something has happened.”

Seeing the serious expression on his face, the playful smile on Amanda’s face washed away quickly as worry flooded in. “Is everything okay?” Her thoughts jumped around in no particular order, thinking about Derrick’s mother, his daughter, himself, to Bailey and finally about herself and the position she had just gone on a work trip to prepare herself for.

He wasn’t positive how to answer the question, in some ways things would be okay, he was going to move mountains to make sure George Brannon paid for what he did, but he couldn’t say how things would work out for Bailey and the trauma she had just lived through and how she would feel about him talking to her mother about what she confided in him. “I don’t think so… you might want to sit down for this.”

The pair were already standing close, Amanda could feel the larger man’s hand holding her side and the way he was talking worried her, giving her that familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach as she anticipated that first drop on a roller coaster. Stepping slightly closer she pressed her calm to his chest, pressing into the fabric of his vest. “What is going on?” She truly hoped it wasn’t about her, but even as those thoughts ran across the surface of her mind she felt guilt for being concerned about a job when more important matters could be what he was talking about.

“Your employee, George Brannon, security has escorted him from the building, his employment is being terminated.” Derrick began, wanting to get this part out, just in case Amanda stopped listening after he told her what happened. Looking into her dazzling blue eyes, he could see confusion mixed with worry. “He is being fired because I believe… no. George Brannon compelled your daughter, Bailey…” Derrick shook his head, feeling a thousand different feelings at once, mentally slapping himself for saying Bailey’s name after saying her daughter, like she wouldn’t know. He felt a great deal of concern for the teen girl and worry for Mandy and how she was going to take this. Then there was the guilt of betraying the green eyed girl’s trust, mixed with a lot of anger over what had happened to her and finally a sense of pride that he was able to make the man pay.

“Derrick.” Amanda said, not moving an inch, but her voice having a tone of command. “What happened with Bailey and Brannon?”

“He said something to Bailey, taking advantage of her. I don’t know what he said exactly, but he manipulated her into… Mandy… she came to me crying with the man’s seed still on her chin.”

Eyes going wide, the palm she was pressing onto Derrick’s chest changed to a hard grip as she grasped his tie and vest. “What!? Derrick, tell me everything!”