Vignette:Office Gossip

aptiste, Ryan, and Lyra are doing a damn poor job of hiding themselves. Everyone in the office has most definitely noticed a change in the atmosphere after a month; the floor manager was in on it, the CEO’s secretary was in on it, and practically everyone except Luc and Colette was in on it. This whole debacle revolved around Luc and Colette. They weren’t turning the office into a battlefield of words anymore, and this eerily peaceful state of affairs had been in place for three weeks now. As weird and awful as it sounded, they wanted the battlefield back.

A rooftop is an odd place for two people who want absolutely nothing to do with each other to meet. The fact that everyone saw the two talk in the break room without threatening to throw punches at each other makes this whole situation even more interesting. What happened three weeks ago? Did they actually throw punches at each other that night?

“So she asked him to come up here?” Baptiste has an inquisitive look on his face as he peeks past the doorframe and watches the two. “I wonder what’s going on between them.”

''“Aren’t we invading their privacy? I feel weird, eavesdropping on them.”'' Ryan’s words don’t match his bodily expressions. He’s quite eager to see what kind of gossip he can pull from this.

''“You two shut up and keep an ear out for them. We won’t have any gossip if all we can hear is each other.”'' Lyra’s harsh wording seems to have shut the two up.

Ryan and Lyra join Baptiste in his avid eavesdropping, their two heads join him as they stick out the door frame like sore thumbs. Somehow, they haven’t been caught yet.

''“You two know I have hearing aids. What are they saying?”''

“Baptiste, you are the worst person to have eavesdropping on someone.”

“I can tell shit’s getting awkward.”

“At least you still have good eyes, unlike four eyes here.”

Lyra gets a mean shove on the back from Ryan. “I’m going to murder you.”

''“Wait, wait, wait. Shut up.”''

There’s an unnatural silence as they spy on the two. Suddenly, the three retreat back into the safety of the stairwell, covering their mouths and shuffling down the steps as quickly and quietly as possible. They’ve just caught a very big fish.

“‘Only because I like you…’” Ryan repeated.

“‘...too’!?” Lyra continued.

“He confessed first!?” Baptiste yelled, muffled by his hand. "Since when!?"

There’s a cacophony of shouting right below them. As they peer downwards, they notice that quite literally everybody from the office is packed onto the stairway, eavesdropping on them. Ryan can even spot the floor manager gossiping with the director of communications and an intern about this new turn of events. The trio look at each other with expressions of shock; news will spread unimaginably quickly now that an entire floor has their hands on this information.

Before they can rush down the stairs and usher the crowd back into their places, there’s a sudden gust of wind coming from the door to the roof. As if things couldn’t get any more awkward, the entire floor was now looking at Luc and Colette, frozen in their spots, hand in hand.

“...Congrats?” squeaked the intern.