A candy bar and interacting with Candi

Stepping out of the office Bailey closed the door behind him he walked slowly through the rows of cubicles, if it wasn’t for the numbers on them and the occasional name tag everything would feel exactly like a maze. Not a difficult one to get out of when you can see over them enough to see the walls or windows, but plenty difficult when trying to find a specific cubicle, his own and doubly so when his mind was distracted as he tried to process everything that had just happened.

‘Was Mr. Brannon being like real real? Did he want me to do things… to him? Was everything a lie to get me to do those things? He said he wasn’t going to make like doing anything but like the way he looks at me and…’ Bailey shivered and stopped to try and figure out where he was. With a huff he realized he wasn’t even on the correct side of the floor or at least he didn’t think so. ‘What is with him wanting those files and wanting to play mission impossible? I could just ask Auggy for them, but… I guess he wants to do that part. Whatever! I just… I just can’t. I need… OH MY GOD! I won the bet!’ Bailey’s smile came back to his face as he took in a deep breath centering himself. “Come lunch time I am soooo getting a burger!” Bailey said, pumping his arm. “Okay, I need to like drop off my purse and then I need to find Candi and I guess Auggy.”

On the other side of the floor August opened up the top left drawer on his older sister's desk pulling out the red wrapped chocolate bar. Opening it up he took a bite of the brownie, peanut butter bar. No sooner had he closed her drawer than his sister seemed to appear as if some magical alarm had gone off after her dragon's hoard had been violated.

“What do you think you are doing!?” August continued to chew, holding up and waving the chocolate in front of him to show her exactly what he was doing. “Did you just take that out of my desk drawer!?” April asked, already knowing the answer to her own question, while her brother answered with a shrug before finishing the bite he had taken.

“Yeah, my blood sugar was low so I needed something to pick me up.” April tensed her shoulders as she glared at her little shit of a brother.

“You did not have low blood sugar.” She said in an even tone.

“Well, no, but I was hungry and it is a few hours before lunch.”

“So you stole from me? Do you know what would happen if I reported you to your boss or HR? Fired, you are still new here and have no protections for your little… hijinks.” August took another bite, this time a small one as he nodded at her.

“Yeah, I can imagine that wouldn’t be a great conversation with mom.” He said finishing a bite of his food before giving her a knowing smirk. She didn’t live at home like he did, but she did come by at least twice a week for dinner, something their mom insisted upon. He knew she didn’t even like the fact his older sister had moved out at all before she was married. “Gee Mom, I don’t know why April had me fired. I was really hungry and only wanted one of her candy bars to get me through the day. I was the one who bought them for her earlier that week, I didn’t know she would get so upset. I apologized and everything, I just can’t believe how cruel she is.” He gave his older sister a wink.

“Yeah and it was nice of you to get them for me when you saw them on sale, but after you give someone something it then belongs to them numbnu…” April trailed off forgetting where she was for a second, fully intending to call him numbnuts and then knee him in the groin like she did when they were younger and he was being an intolerable little shit. “I’m not going to report you for theft, maybe just let your boss know you were being insubordinate to me when you should be working on the project you were assigned to.”

“Sis… April. You know I love you, but you haven’t been in charge of me for a long time. Not at home, and not here. You are maybe in charge of the interns, but I’m not one of them anymore. Can’t be insubordinate.” He had fully intended to get her some more or something else she liked when he went out for lunch, he just needed something in his stomach other than coffee after being in such a rush to get to the office a little early to wait for Bailey. August also knew telling her that would help calm her down, but he just loved riling her up. She was snarky and calm here in the office, but growing up with her. August knew that fiery temper was just beneath the surface, something that happens when you grow up he supposed. You push down the parts of you that you don’t like, something he always thought was a shame. He knew she had drive and ambition, he just missed seeing some of the passion in her. Though that had little to do with messing with her, that was just fun.

August peeled off the rest of the wrapper, tossing it in the trash as he slowly moved the candy bar to his lips. “Mmmm this is so good, do you want a bite?” April made claw like motions with her hands reaching to grab the rest of the bar. She wasn’t hungry, she just would rather it be thrown away than her pesky brother having it, but she didn’t get anywhere near it. August stepped back, holding his hand out to keep her at bay, his longer reach making the grab impossible for her. Finishing the last bite of the bar he smirked at her while she glared at him.

“Thank you.” He said, before swallowing. “I will get you some more as an apology and a thank you. I didn’t eat breakfast this morning.”

“You will do that! You will also stay out of my desk!” August cocked his head to the side appraising his older sister.

“You know, you are always saying men are stupid and seeing how angry you are and honestly sis how cute you are when you are angry. I’m not sure how you are single.” April took in a deep breath when he mentioned the subject. She didn’t feel like she needed a man in her life, she would like someone, but didn’t need one and it was a constant topic her mother brought up around the dinner table.

“I will have you know I have a date tomorrow night.” Calming down she was able to speak without clenching her jaw or giving in to her desire to show her younger brother that with the right kick it didn't matter how much taller he was than her.

“Yeah? That is awesome, I hope you have a good time. We were having family dinner, have you told Mom you aren’t going to make it?” April pursed her lips, giving a single shake to her head. Her mother didn’t like texting and any phone call would last for a minimum of forty minutes, saying she wasn’t going to come to family dinner would exacerbate that and if she mentioned a date it would only go longer. “No? Don’t worry, I will cover for you.”

“Wait. You will? What is the catch?” Her brothers shift from being an ass to being helpful made her suspicious.

“No catch, you have a lot on your plate and you don’t need stress from Mom on top of it. Like I said earlier, I love you, and want you to be happy.” April bit the inside of her cheek listening to him, but still she looked at her taller sibling with suspicion.

“Okay, thank you… but what do you want for the help with Mom?” Crossing his arms, August smiled at her.

“Sis, I’m happy, I mean. I am really happy. Do you remember what happened when I was in middle school, the one single time I asked a girl out?”

April gave her brother a genuine smile as she remembered what happened. He had asked the girl out at the bus stop, she had been close enough to see it happen, but not close enough to hear what either had said. “Yeah, Sarah… something or other, little Asian girl gave you a black eye.” August reached out touching just below his left eye with a finger, remembering the physical and emotional pain of not only being punched by a girl, but having to go to school like that.

“Yeah… I have never been exactly good with the ladies, but I have someone now. I don’t need Bailey to be happy, but having her in my life makes things just… better. I want that for you, you are amazing on your own. Seeing you happier would just be… nice I guess.

“Ah.” April nodded, wishing her was still being a jerk, it was easier to hate him when he wasn’t being nice. She just wished he could open his eyes, but that was what big sisters were for, to help guide their doofus little brothers. “I'm glad you are happy. How are you enjoying working with Candace?”

August looked off towards the elevators, he had set her up with some things to do, but he still needed to check out another batch of documents from the secured storage. “Going great, honestly I think you were a little hard on her about the making binders thing, but then again she is a good partner to hit this project.”

“I think she is a good partner for you too, one of the reasons I requested your boss assign you to this.” Originally she had planned on putting more people on the project, they had more scanners they could move to the file room, but this opportunity was too good to pass up.

“You asked for me to do this? Makes sense, take me away from the job I earned to make me do work with the interns.” He playfully stuck his tongue out at his sister.

“Say, what are you doing for lunch? I have a gift card to the White Wolf cafe down the street if you wanted to take Candace out. Being in that windowless room all day, I’m sure the two of you would like to spend some time out in the sun. Hmm, but you might want to take that sweater vest off first, looks like you got something on it.” She said ignoring the accusation he had levied at her.

Slipping his hands into his pockets August gave a few shakes of his head before looking down at himself. At a quick glance he wasn’t sure if he had smeared some of the brownie off himself when playing with his sister or if he got ink smudged on himself when moving boxes before coming up here. “Hmm, thanks. I have a blazer in the car I can toss on and umm thanks for the offer, but I was planning on taking Bailey out.”

‘Bailey, Bailey, Bailey!’ April thought in annoyance. “I think her schedule might be a little different, her lunch is half an hour later than Candace’s, you know we have to stagger the breaks.” August nodded for a second before shrugging his shoulders.

“Not a big deal, I’m sure she can swap with someone else, we used to do it all the time. Anyhow, I have to get back to it.” August gave his sister a wave before heading off to the elevators.

April watched him go wanting to tell him that no Bailey could not swap lunch schedules, but it wasn’t against the rules and at that moment she couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse without showing her hand.

Down in the concrete walled basement Candi sat at a folding table, one of a few that had been set up between the rows and rows of shelves and filing cabinets. The basement really only had two areas, one was the open file area. Some of the shelves had cranks on them to press them together or open them up to save space, one of those spaces being used by a large scanner and a computer deemed too old to be used for anyone for real productive use. The second area was a locked area that always had a guard assigned, their job just to make sure files got signed out before being taken from the room. The employees had created a semi third space, moving a shelf a few feet back and some filing cabinets to give the illusion of privacy where someone had managed to fit a couch for a hidden break area.

Sitting there Candi sat not in front of the scanner or the computer, but off to the side, carefully pulled out staples in the paperwork inside files or rubbing a black crayon over any indented seals imprinted on documents. She hummed to herself as she did the boring work, wishing she was allowed to have her phone with her so she could at least listen to music. Rubbing the crayon on a piece of paper she stuck out her lower lip. “Totally unfair, music totally can make people work faster and help them concentrate.” The tenuous concentration she did have for her task was broken when she heard the familiar sound of heels, someone walking across the uncarpeted floor. People were always coming down here to get something, but the sound of the footsteps getting closer drew her attention. Standing up, a big smile came to her face when she saw her best friend coming closer. She really hoped Bailey would be working with her, the job seemed way, way, way too big for just her and August to do.

“Hey sis! Are you coming to help?” Candi said, the big smile on her face only growing as Bailey came closer.

“Umm… no, I mean like I can, but I wasn’t. I’m assigned to a manager to help him.”

“Lucky! That sounds so much better than this.” Bailey shook his head.

“Not really, he is like umm…” Bailey had considered telling her all about what Mr. Brannon had said and what he wanted, but it also felt like a conversation that if he wasn’t lying could blow up if the man found out he spoke about it. “He doesn’t have anything for me to do at the moment, but like when I left he smacked my butt.”

Candi crossed her arms, pushing up on her breasts. The happy expression on her face falling away. “Who is he? We can go find human resources and have them cut off his hand.”

“What?! No, and like they don’t do that.” Candi pursed her lips, shrugging.

“It was like from a sermon at church about plucking an eye out because it made you sin or something like that. The pastor was talking about how men have to take responsibility instead of blaming us for how we dress. Or at least that was what Nana said I really didn't like paying attention really.” Bailey blinked at her a few times.

“Umm, yeah I was there.” Candi leaned her head back, the sour expression becoming something much lighter.

“Oh yeah! Well no hand chopping, but we can still tell them.” Bailey shook his head, waving his hands in the air in front of him to indicate that wasn’t going to happen.

“No, we are or like I am not going to do that.”

“Bailey, you can’t let him get away with stuff like that. If you don't, he will think it is okay.” Bailey broke eye contact with his friend, a small pang of guilt for things he had done in the past and shame for much more recent events.

“No, like… think about it. Both our parents are like in charge of people here and if we run off and tell on people it will like I dunno look bad on them. What would happen if Mr. Brannon said he didn’t do it? If nothing happened or if he got in trouble after saying that, people would think it was because of who are parents are.”

“Brannon, and he is on the same floor as your Mom?” Bailey gave Candi a hard look when she asked the question.

“Did you like not hear what I said?” With a big inhale Candi puffed her cheeks out for a second.

“That we can’t chop his hand off and that we can’t get him in trouble either.” She said with a sour tone. “Fine… well you are here now you can help me out.” Candi went to go sit back down, when an idea struck her, her eyes flicking back to her friend.

“I’m sorry you had someone touch you, but I know something that can cheer you up!”

“Yeah!?” Bailey didn’t mind helping her with her work, but it also didn’t look like something he wanted to do either.

“Yep! Back over there!” Candi went upon her tip toes and pointed back towards a back wall. “We have a hidden break area and it is like mostly me and August down here. So you could borrow him for a little bit and at least be touched by someone you love.”

“I don’t love him.” Bailey glowered at the girl.

“Sure you do, love at first kiss when the two of you went tumbling to the grass within the first few minutes of meeting.”

“Candi, no.” The blonde girl smirked at her friend.

“Incorrect! Candi yes! In fact… I can make you do whatever I want for five minutes after you lost the bet by painting your nails.” Bailey looked at his long nails, scrunching up his nose.

“Totally unfair that you counted my toes too.”

“Anyhow…” Candi ignored her and kept talking. “I use my power only for good, you need to be cheered up. You are going to take the love of your life, your Auggy, back over there and ask him if you can swallow his kids.”

“What!? We are not going to blow him here!” Candi raised both her eyebrows, and gave Bailey an opened mouth smile.

“I didn’t say anything about we, but it sounds fun.” She said teasingly, but glanced back down at the work she had to do. She had never actually did something like that before, but doing it in a hidden area where they could get caught with Bailey sounded hot.

“No, if you want to give him a blow job you can.”

“You would let me give a blow job to your boyfriend?”

“Sis… Candi, no. I just like… Gah you can be like impossible sometimes you know that! You aren’t like going to blow Auggy and you aren’t going to do it with me either. What about Ryan? Haven’t you like thought about him?”

Touching her hand to her mouth Candi nodded. “Oh My God! Yes! You, me and Ryan?” A shiver ran down Candi’s spine at the thought. “I don’t know if I’m like ready for that, but wow!”

“Candi… that like isn’t…” Bailey’s words cut off when he heard footsteps coming closer, he could already see August coming around a file cabinet corridor. Unlike when he walked on concrete the young man’s rubber soled shoes made much less noise.

“This is a wonderful surprise!” August said seeing his girlfriend. Candi looked over at her work partner before leaning in close to her best friend.

“Five minutes, the two of you just go cuddle. I promise you will feel better.”

Bailey looked into his friend's green eyes. “Cuddle for five minutes? That’s like it? That is what you are spending your win on?” Candi nodded.

“Cuddle and anything else you feel like doing at the moment.” She smirked thinking back to their first double date and what happened in the theater.