Lauren: Poor Sport

Kinsley's gotten so much attention lately, it doesn't seem fair.  The only solution is a Lauren bonus to help even things out!
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After a rather spirited debate, we decide to take the bus to the stadium for the game.  I had offered to drive, but Alex isn't exactly a fan of my driving in heavy traffic.  He claims my road rage is going to get us both killed, but he's clearly being dramatic.

Anyway, we get there without incident: me in my Clay Matthews jersey and Alex in his Peyton Manning jersey.  Fitting, because I anticipate that Matthews will have Manning on his ass behind the line of scrimmage at least a couple times.  We get more than a couple looks and comments from other (mostly Bronco but definitely a good number of Packer) fans in and around the stadium.  Like no one has ever seen a Packers fan and a Broncos fan in love.

When we find our seats, I'm not shocked that we're surrounded by Broncos fan.  One of them looks at us, laughs, and says, "One of you is going to be sleeping on the couch tonight!"

Alex snorts.  "It'll probably be me either way--she's a terrible sport."

"Hey!" I protest.  Alex gives me a look and I laugh and relent.  "It's true, I am."

"I don't blame you," the guy says.  "Someone's going to take their first loss this season, and since it's probably going to be you, I'd be a poor sport too."  Alex cracks up and we do a little shit talking with the guy and his friend, which is fun.

Once the game starts, my poor sportsmanship doesn't take long to creep in.  The game is ugly from the start.  It stays ugly, too.  The Packers end up losing 10-29, and they didn't even put in a good effort, so I'm pretty surly by the end.

"They didn't even make it a good game," I mutter as we file out of the stadium with the thousands of people around us.

"You're right, they didn't put up much of a fight at all," Alex agrees, and I can see him smirking when I glare up at him.  "Thanks for the tickets, babe," he continues, kissing the top of my head when we pause to wait our turn to go through the doorway.

"I really might kill you," I warn him.

"You keep saying that," he replies.

We finally make it onto the bus we need and I'm irritated by all the cheerful Broncos fans.  I wish I wasn't such a poor sport.  "I'm sorry it wasn't at least a good game," Alex says.  I nod.  "Are you going to pout the whole rest of the night?" he asks.

"No," I grumble.  "Just let me sulk the rest of the ride and then I'll move on with my life."

"Seems fair," he agrees.

Turns out I don't even need the whole ride.  I realize that I'm being a complete bitch and shake it off.  "Well," I say, looking up at him.  "I guess it's only fair that your team won, since the tickets were a gift to you."

"Does that mean I don't have to sleep on the couch tonight?"

I laugh.  "I guess not.  I think I can probably share my bed with you."

"I'll make it worth it," he replies, wiggling his eyebrows at me.  I roll my eyes, but laugh when he wraps his arm around my shoulder.

I allow myself to relax against him, PDA be damned.  I don't even know who I am anymore.  The bus ride seems to take forever and I briefly wish Alex hadn't protested so vehemently to me driving.  Then I realize I'm glad to not be driving in the stadium traffic and relax a little more.  When we finally get back to my house, we got straight to my room and Alex more than makes good on his promise to make letting him sleep in my bed worth it--not that I ever actually considered making him sleep on the couch.


Monday, Liv and I spend our first Monday evening together since before she got married.  I don't know why I was surprised last week when she texted and asked if we could restart.  I guess I had assumed she wouldn't want to do it anymore now that she's married.  I'm not sure why I assume that things are going to change, but I just do.  We don't see nearly as much of Kendra now that she's married, so I figure Liv will be the same.  Maybe that's an asshole thing for me to think.

Either way, I'm excited to see her.  We meet at a restaurant close to my office in time to catch the tail end of their happy hour specials, so we order drinks and a few different appetizers to share.  "How was your fancy-pants honeymoon?" I ask her once we're settled.

"It was amazing," she replies.  "I have no idea how much it cost, and I don't want to know, but I'm confident it was worth every penny."

As Liv tells me all about their honeymoon, I can't help but feel a tiny stab of jealousy.  Both Alex and I are very comfortable financially, and someday if we end up combining our incomes, we'll be quite a bit better than "comfortable".  But even so, we'll never be able to go on a vacation like that.  And I have to admit that it really does sound amazing.

"That sounds really nice," I say when she finishes.  I keep my mouth shut because anything else that comes out might not be as nice.

"It was," she replies.  "I guess we're going back for our anniversary."  I have to literally bite my tongue then to keep my sarcastic comment about how nice it must be to be able to afford a once-in-a-lifetime vacation on a yearly basis.  I swallow hard and shake the shitty jealous feeling, because I don't want to ruin the rest of my evening with Liv by being an asshole.

"I'm really glad you guys had such a nice wedding and honeymoon," I say, and I'm not lying.  I am really glad.  Regardless of my jealousy, I'm definitely happy that Liv is so happy.  I can see it in her face, and when I think back to Liv when she was with John, the difference is amazing.  By the end of her relationship with John, she was timid, anxious, and constantly miserable.  I love seeing her back to her smiling, cheerful, kindhearted self.

"How is work?  And Alex?" Liv asks, and I'm relieved for the subject change.

I shrug.  "Work is work.  Logan won't leave me along, even though I just keep blowing him off.  Alex is great though."  I pause and smile, and Liv's grin grows bigger.  "Things have really fallen into place since we finally talked about how I was feeling and it's such a relief."

"That's good," Liv replies.  "So what's Logan's deal?"

I roll my eyes.  "He's such a dick, Liv.  He knows he got to Alex that one time we saw him out, and I think he loves just fucking with me."  I cringe and continue, "I'm so glad I didn't do anything more stupid than I did."

"No kidding," Liv agrees.  "What an ass."

We spend a lot of time sitting there, eating and drinking and catching up.  Liv checks her phone when we've finally paid and says, "I need to hang out in town until Brody's ready to leave, and he's stuck for a bit longer.  Do you want to find a place to have another drink?  Otherwise I might go hang out at his office for awhile."

"Why don't you just come over?" I ask.

"Oh, good idea," she agrees.  We split up to drive back to my house, and we spend a little over an hour hanging out on my couch, watching shitty TV together.  We have a really great time, and both my jealousy and my worry that things will change are long gone by the time she leaves to go pick up Brody and head home.


On Tuesday, everyone seems to be buzzing when I get to work.  I have never been into office gossip, so I make my way back to my cube and get situation for the day.  I don't even have my computer booted up when Logan sidles over.  "Did you hear?" he asks.

"Hear what?"

"The boss man is out."

I roll my eyes at his glib tone.  "What do you mean?"

"He quit this morning.  He's gone."

In our competitive industry, there's no such thing as two week's notice if you have a high enough position.  When you quit, you get to pack up your shit under the watchful eye of security and whoever is above you, and then you get escorted immediately out.

"Huh," I reply.  Logan looks at me expectantly, like he's hoping I'll say more, but I don't.  Finally, he shrugs and walks away.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that gets anything done today, but by the end of the day they've hauled in some poor fool from one of our other offices and put him up in our former boss's office.  Not even an hour after, we get an email stating that Sean is here to stay, so please be sure to welcome him!  I glance at the clock, see that it's 5:01, and shut down my computer.  Maybe tomorrow, Sean.

Turns out I don't have much of a choice.  On Wednesday, Sean is pulling everyone into his office, one by one.  Every 10-15 minutes I see him come out, wander to the next cube in the row, and motion the poor employee there to his office.

Because I'm in the back corner, I'm one of the last.  It's 4:30 before he makes his way all the way back to my corner.  "Hi," he says, flashing a dazzling smile at me.  "I'm Sean."  He's attractive, but his smile and tone are too bright to be genuine.

"Lauren," I reply.

If he's put off by my brief answer, he doesn't show it.  "I'm taking a few minutes to chat with everyone and get to know the staff here.  Will you come over to my office for a couple minutes?"

"Sure," I say, shrugging.  I save what I'm working on and stand, trailing him back to his office.  Once I'm seated, he pulls the door firmly shut behind us.

"So, Lauren," he starts.  "Why you don't you tell me a little about your career here with us so far."

I tell him the basics.  How long I've worked there, what I do, what types of projects I usually get.  He listens intently, his dark blue eyes trained on my face.  His intense eye contact is enough to make me uncomfortable.

Then he tells me a little about himself.  Which office he came from, what he did there, the usual.  When he finishes that, I'm surprised to hear him say, "So why don't you tell me a little bit about what you're like outside of work."

Before I can stop myself, I blurt, "Why?"

He chuckles.  "I'm a firm believer in people working for me because they want to.  I think it's important to form strong relationships with your employees, and I can hardly do that if all I know about you is what you do while you're here."

"I prefer to keep my work and personal lives separate," I say carefully.  I don't like the vibe I'm getting from this guy.

"Oh, come on Lauren.  Don't be a poor sport."  But I'm so good at it.

"Well, I don't know," I answer uncomfortably.

"Sure you do," he insists.  "Do you like to kayak?  To go to the movies?  To hang out with your boyfriend?"

"Sure, I guess I like to spend time with my friends and my boyfriend.  I like to read.  I like to binge watch shitty TV."

"Don't we all!" he replies cheerfully.  "Thanks for sharing, Lauren!"  I hate the way he says my name.  "I'd better let you finish up what you were working on before it's quitting time."

I stand, relieved to be done.  He steps out from behind his desk to come open the door, but when he's next to me, he puts a hand on my back.  I immediately step away, earning a weird look.  "Please don't touch me.  I'm picky about my personal space," I say firmly.

He chuckles.  "I love an assertive woman in the workplace," he replies, winking at me.  "Consider me warned."  He holds up his hands and walks past me to push open the door.

I'm seething by the time I get back to my desk, but by the time I get home, I've calmed down considerably.  One thing is for sure, though: things are going to get really interesting at work.