It might not be that bad

As he walked down the hallway toward her office, Shylock couldn't quite believe his luck. He knew he wasn't an outstanding columnist, just answering the most interesting letters that were delivered to his desk each week, but maybe that was why Prichard had asked him to undertake this little favour.

Was it really fair that Adrienne should have an office? Shylock had to suffer in one of the cubicles on the main floor where both silence and concentration were impossible to come by. It was no wonder he took more and more of his work home with him. He supposed it was because she was a real reporter and probably had proper qualifications, even if she had made a couple of unfortunate mistakes.

He paused when he got to the door, and tried to figure out how he was going to play this. Nobody liked being micromanaged and as he knocked, Shylock wondered again whether he was being punished for something as well. Or, maybe the universe just hated him.

While Gilbert Prichard went back to work, he just hoped that the two reporters could work together as they were supposed to on the upcoming story. Of course, Adrienne had received no word of this, and was sitting at her desk when the knock came. Looking up from her paperwork, she was grateful for the break and stood up to answer the door herself rather than just calling out or opening it with her wand.

So her heels clicked a bit across the floor, and she pulled the door open, only to find the one person she had recently been talking about with Selwyn.

"Oh," she started without thinking. Recovering herself, she stood up straighter. "Hi. Come on in."

Stepping back, she left the door open as she returned to her desk, hopping up onto the top of it in an attempt to feign nonchalance. "What's going on?"

Shylock paused in the doorway to appreciate the scene before him. This was not playing out the way he'd expected it to.

The idea of Adrienne perched on a desk waiting for him to explain why he was here hadn't featured heavily in the ways this could possibly go. Admittedly, his sources were biased, but from the impressions he'd gleaned, it didn't seem in character for her.

Still that was what he had to work with. It was time to make this work. He closed the door behind him then stalked over to sit in the empty chair.

"Good question," he replied. "Gilbert Grape wants me to assist you with fact checking."

Adrienne crossed her ankles and gripped the edge of the desk with both hands. She watched him as he closed the door and crossed the room, impatient to know if he was there for work purposes or because Selwyn had said something. Her eyebrows lifted at his nickname for their boss, but she covered it up and nodded rather than commenting on it.

As much as she was sure Gil wouldn't appreciate the name - and regardless of the fact that she wasn't entirely sure what he meant by it - it was the least of her worries right then.

"Alright," she agreed, swinging her legs forward and back a little bit. "I'm writing about the event happening with the school in the states, since a group of students from Hogwarts are heading over on exchange. I was about to look at the classes taught there and which kids were going."

She glanced back at her papers, unsure what else to tell him. She certainly didn't know how to bring up that topic she was meant to discuss with him, so Adrienne decided to leave the conversation up to him if he wanted to bring it up.

Ah, this was somewhat more familiar territory.  Leaving every uncomfortable thing unsaid was Monroe's favourite trick. Since Shylock didn't particularly like his brother it was easy enough to let it go, but that wasn't an option here.

"Sounds riveting," he said, in a completely bored tone.

He wasn't completely sure how to cajole Adrienne into speaking frankly. A couple of possibilities had wandered through is head, from flirtatious to irritated. The disadvantage being that Shylock really didn't know her well enough to avoid offending her. Much as he hated it, perhaps blunt was the best approach. She liked Selwyn well enough, and he was about as blunt as it got.

"So, shall we address the elephant in the room now, or would you like to take me out to lunch for that?" he suggested.

Okay, maybe a bit flirtatious. It was hardly his fault.

Adrienne pursed her lips and glanced towards her file cabinet when he responded, sounding underwhelmed. She couldn't blame him, but that didn't make her job too much easier.

He spoke again, though, and she felt herself tense up before letting out a nearly relieved sigh. In fact, she very nearly let out a laugh, but caught herself because she knew it would sound somewhere between panicked and unconcerned or uninterested. The latter two, at least, were not applicable.

"Well, I think it's obvious that neither of us will get much work done if we don't discuss it. Not while we're in the same room, anyway," she conceded.

She debated jumping down and going to sit back in her chair, but Adrienne felt it would seem defensive and she wasn't sure exactly how she wanted to appear to this man. "I guess I can assume that he's told you how uncertain I am. It isn't something I've considered before, and if I'm going to be quite frank about it, it sounds similar to being cheated on. I guess I should have done research before this, but I think I just wanted to hear from you first.

"I'll say, though," she added slowly, tilting her head to the side and looking away again, "that there are some aspects of the concept that I find... incredibly appealing. Even though that confuses me."

Selwyn was right. She was hot. Oh, not physically, although Shylock would concede that she was pretty enough, but there was something about her awkward honesty that did something to his brain.

"Can I ask what you find appealing about it?" he asked. "I can't imagine you've told Selwyn that, because if you had he'd have fallen all over himself to explain. So you either don't want him to know or you're still processing it yourself, am I right?"

"Or," he went on, "we could talk about the whole cheating thing. I understand why you feel like that, but it's really not the same thing at all."

He hesitated. Adrienne's problems with Kaiden were practically dead and buried, and Shylock wasn't sure whether telling her would be selfish or not.

"Processing, yes," she said. "It isn't exactly the most... kind thought I've ever had, though, I guess. Because, I mean... It would be strange, for me. And I wouldn't exactly go around telling my parents what's going on, you know? But there's something liberating about knowing that I'd have time when I wanted it. It's far less restricting than-"

She paused, lifting her eyes back to his. "He- he told you about Kaiden, I assume. I just feel like I'll have that freedom I've been denied, plus someone who actually cares - not someone who just pretended to. I'd have stability and something good, but also the time to just... go on a trip if the stuff with his family is too much, or... Well, I have no idea. But... you know what I mean?"

Adrienne brought a hand up to her hair, pulling her fingers through the curly ends as she tried to think. She wasn't ignoring his first question so much as trying to rationalize to herself why she could possibly feel both ways about the idea at once.

"I don't think I'm a jealous person," she attempted to explain. "I really don't. But... I just sort of imagine like, one day something happens and I'm not there. He has someone to go to. But it wouldn't work like that for me, and I don't want to-" she cut herself off, lips rolling together as she tried to find a decent way to explain. "I don't like the idea of being clingy."

Anger ran through him at her comment about not telling her parents, and Shylock found himself schooling his expression to one of mild interest. It was an old trick, one he barely used any more, except around his family.

Adrienne continued and Shylock shook his head.

"God, stop that, you're just making it worse," he complained, and in a moment was out of his own seat and settled on the desk beside her.

"You shouldn't wear your hair out if you're going to play with it all the time. It's undignified."

He combed his own fingers through her hair and quickly parted it into three even strands.

"You like the idea of the freedom and stability and someone who actually loves you," he said. "But his family scares you and you've still enough walls up that you don't want to rely on anyone too heavily."

Shylock pulled a loose lock of hair into the braid.

"I think you're thinking about you and Selwyn and me and Selwyn. Maybe try thinking about you and Selwyn and me? Just because we're not sleeping together doesn't mean you and I aren't also in a relationship with each-other. Kind of."

Confusion clouded her expression for a moment after he spoke, pulling her away from the topic at hand. Oh, her hair. Adrienne nearly turned to look at him, but she got the distinct feeling she would be scolded for messing up his work with it. She wasn't really complaining, though, considering it was bizarrely comforting. In fact, she let out a tiny, short sigh and let her shoulders relax as he spoke, just staring at the seat he had vacated.

"That isn't weird for you?" She asked after he had finished, holding out an elastic to tie the braid together at the end. "I mean... I guess there's a nagging part of me that wonders, like... What if something changes? Or if things get weird and he has you and I've sort of got you but it's awkward because I don't have him, so much. I'm not saying I won't have other people, because that would be quite sad. But.."

She frowned as she finally turned to look at him, trying to find the words. "What if, at some point, I wanted someone else, too? Even just for a little while. I don't know if I would. Or could. But I feel like there are rules about this that I'm not understanding or that just haven't been explained and that really bugs me. It makes it difficult to go back to his flat in the evenings, thinking he expects some sort of answer I can't give him yet."