Autumn Page and Brandon Hearne
Wednesday Afternoon
Autumn walked into the Sector X offices, with two cups of coffee in a tray. She had gone specially out of the office for these, since the office coffee was rather crap. She walked over to the elevator and hit the down button and waited for the elevator to come up.
"What are you doing girl? He might be out of office… No, it will be fine. Just a cup of coffee, nothing more.” One the elevator button dinged and the doors groaned open, she got in and hit the button for the floor she knew Brandon’s office was on.
Once there, she stepped out and looked around, and soon spotted him and walked over.
“I owed you a cup of coffee, you interested in taking a break to enjoy it with me?” She paused, mentally slapping herself.
”Well that sounded stupid.”Brandon, with his feet on the desk and one earphone in, swiveled quickly around to look at her. He set down the notebook he was rifling through quickly, almost guiltily.
“Taking a break implies I was doing work,” he said matter-of-factly. He didn’t seem to notice her slip, or if he did, he didn’t mention it.
“But, yes.”“Shall we go outside then? I could use a little fresh air.” She let what he said slide. It wasn’t like she had never slacked off at work before. She was putting off her own reports at the moment, but she wanted to talk to Brandon for a moment, and honestly, she wanted to do it sooner rather than later.
“We can walk out the old fashioned way if you’d like.”“Oh, yes, thank God. I’ll take that option.” He stood up quickly and fixed his crooked tie, ready to follow Autumn.
“Lead on – I’m not sure I remember my way out of here, it’s been so long since I did it the mundane way.”She had to giggle a bit at that. It was easy for someone with a talent like Brandon’s to get in that habit.
“Walk this way then.” She walked over to the elevator and hit the button and waited. The doors opened immediately and she stepped in and made sure Brandon was following her before she hit the button for the seventh floor. Once there, she headed outside and towards the small seating area just outside of the outer disguise of Sector X. She took a seat on the bench and set the coffees next to her, leaving the spot next to them open for him.
Brandon took a seat, wasting no time in grabbing his coffee to warm his hands on it – though he didn’t start drinking it immediately.
“It’s been so long since I was outside without having to either chase someone down or run for my life,” he offered as a conversation starter.
She looked over at him and picked up her own cup of coffee.
“Really now? I thought you took smoke breaks on the occasion, or was I wrong about that? Also, uh… I wanted to say thank you. For Monday.” She looked down at the cup of coffee she held, playing with it a little. There were other things she wanted to say, but wasn’t sure if it was the right moment to.
“Anyone would’ve done it. You know, thieves’ honour, or whatever they call it,” he said with a dismissive wave of a hand.
“Not the thief I knew. Which is why I also owe you an apology. I misjudged you and I had no right to.” She looked over at Brandon and set her coffee down.
“You’re not like anyone I’ve met before, and honestly, I’m glad for that.”Brandon looked distinctly uncomfortable, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand whilst he hid his mouth behind a conveniently placed coffee cup.
”I dunno, there’s still time yet for me to live up to those judgements. Don’t go thinking I’m not an arse yet, thank you very much.”Autumn looked at him and simply shrugged.
“I don’t think you’re as much of an, as you put it, arse, as you make yourself out to be. For one, you’re here, working for us, trying to make an honest living, of sorts. So I will give you credit for that. That’s better than my father ever did… aww shit.” There it was, it had slipped out. Awesome.
”Way to go Page. Now he’s going to know you have daddy issues.”True enough, he did notice that one.
“Ah, father issues – don’t worry, I can write the book on it,” Brandon said sagely, if a little falsely.
“I’m sorry. This is usually like third date babbling… you don’t want to hear about my baggage, and I wouldn’t blame you.” She sighed, and sipped her coffee. She felt like an idiot. She barely knew him and yet she was willing to tell him her whole life story? She did have to admit he was cute, and a bit charming, with that roguishness about him, but… She shook her head and took another sip of her coffee to silence herself.
”Are you sure? If you need to get it off your chest,” Brandon offered. He seemed a little awkward, still hiding behind his coffee cup, but undoubtedly sincere – serious, for once.
”I mean, not a trained therapist or anything, but… A trade? Mine’s all old history.”She raised her eyebrow.
”A trade? I unload a bit of my baggage on you and you do the same?” Now that was interesting.
”Sure, however, I doubt just one cup of coffee will be enough time for all this.”“If we run out, I can go and get more. Plus, you’re looking all sad there. Can’t let you go back to work like that, you know?””Fair enough… well I guess I’ll start by saying I never knew my mother. She just handed me off to my dad and that was it. He was a con man, who pretty much made his life ripping off other people, and then moving when they started to get wise. Because of that, I have lived in all forty-eight contiguous United States at one point or another. So, no friends, new name every few months. Worst part was, he could have gone legit at any point. Stopped and made sure I was taken care of. Not that he ever did. He got off on conning people, it thrilled him. He only cared about himself, and I was just this great inconvenience to him. Hell, I only heard from him recently because he finally got caught and is in jail. Needs bail money. No, ‘Hi, how are you doing? We haven’t spoke since you went to college.’ First thing is, ‘Get me out.’ What an asshole.” She sighed, and pulled a pack of cigarettes.
“I know, bad habit will kill me, yadda yadda, but I only smoke when I’m stressed. Want one?””Sure.” Brandon, who’d remained suitably silent during the whole story, removed one and lit up with his own pin-up girl lighter.
”He shouldn’t have dragged you around with him if he was gonna keep doing it – crime, and all that. I’ll never understand dads like that.”Autumn pulled out her own cigarette and lit it up and looked at him, and took a long drag.
”Yeah, I guess that’s part of the reason I pretty much hate him. That and the fact he named me Maple. Ugh, stupid name. Not that I ever got to use it much in public. Anyways, so yeah, I pretty much grew up thinking all criminals were like him. But, you’re not. I mean, sure I don’t know why you did what you did, but given the chance, you did go legit. So, applause for you.””You say that like I don’t steal stationary from the office supplies cupboard,” he said lightly, though still rubbing at his neck.
She laughed a bit.
“I think everyone does Brandon. Anyways, your turn. We did agree on a trade, did we not?” He smiled like he’d forgotten, before coughing as one did before speaking to a crowd, or performing something.
“Well, where to begin?” Brandon rubbed his hands together in what would have been a confident gesture at any other point but seemed more like a delaying tactic. He looked down at his wrist, opened his mouth and then clearly thought against it.
“How’s the story of how I turned to crime sound? I’m sure there’s a life lesson in there.”Autumn raised her eyebrow as she noticed him look at his wrist, but then looked up at him, and nodded, and took another drag of her cig.
“Sure, works for me. I’d love to know why you started thieving.””I’m Catholic,” he said by the way of starting.
”No divorce. Or, well, it’s frowned upon. Ma and Pa hated each other’s guts for about ten years ‘til Pa – well, walked off somewhere and didn’t come back. Never knew what happened to him, exactly, but I never thought any less of him for it. Well, I don’t now.” Again with the wrist – then, Brandon took another drag. His voice afterwards was more suitably light-hearted.
“So, my ma went mental, I stayed out the house for most of the days and quite a few nights too, if you know what I mean, ‘fore I left for ‘Lundun’. And – let me tell you, when you start poor and unemployed in one of the biggest cities in the world, you stay that way. Went to prison, and so on and so forth, and got out at twenty-one. Went to college. Boom, story done.”Autumn blushed a bit at his story. She got what he meant. However, she was distracted by the way he kept looking at his wrist.
“So, what is on your wrist that is gonna bite you in the ass? You keep looking at it like it’s going to attack you.” She looked at him and sipped her now cold coffee and made a face.
“Ugh… I guess we’ve been out here a while.”Brandon unrolled his sleeve down over his tattoo and put out his cigarette on the bench, drinking the rest of his coffee quickly.
“I guess so, yeah.”“Okay, I get it… I crossed a line. Sorry. We all got secrets.” She took another long drag off her cigarette and then put it out as well.
“Doesn’t bother me, just… I think I’ll leave that for another day,” he said, ruffling his hair tiredly.
”Though if you were really keen finances or the technopaths could probably work it out for you. Like Sherlock Holmes or something.”“I’d rather have you trust me enough to tell me on your own. I’d like to be friends, not just co-workers who get along for the sake of work.” She blushed a bit. What was she saying? Did he even do the whole ‘friends’ thing?
Brandon tilted his head to the side, and smiled.
“I’ll take you out for a pint, then. I save all my best and most thrilling stories for the pubs,” he said, completely oblivious to Autumn’s predicament.
”How does tomorrow evening sound?” She looked at him and smiled a bit and then paused. Was he asking her out on a date? Nah, it was just going to be the two of them talking and drinking. Not a date.
”That’ll leave me hungover – at work!” He let out a theatrical gasp and pushed himself up, throwing his empty coffee cup in the bin.
”How can I refuse? I’ll be there – text me, aight?””Will do. Till tomorrow evening then.” Autumn stood up and smiled, tossing out her own coffee cup, and cigarette butt. She had a bit of a blush as he walked off, and she opted to wait a minute or two before heading back in, not wanting to smell too much of smoke.
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