the balcony ••• awsten knight

eleven

may 2017

Emily makes sure she isn't late the next day that her and Awsten agree to do some more work together.

In fact, she makes sure that she's early— earlier than she normally is.

Her office is tidy and set up in the same way that they'd sorted it the first time.

She's surprised to find that Awsten is a little early, too.

He knocks on the door to her office and waits for her to call out to him before entering— she appreciates that.

Awsten and Emily work fairly well for a few hours.

He hates how stunned he is by her work and he wishes there was a switch that he could use just to turn off the admiration he feels whenever he sees what she's producing.

They end up being interrupted by the door to Emily's office being opened. Anna smiles, appearing from behind the door with a clipboard and a few pieces of paper in her hand.

"Oh, Anna," Emily tries to hold back on her annoyance over the fact that she didn't knock, once again— she never does, she doesn't know why she's surprised anymore.

"Hey, guys!" Anna grins, stepping further into the office without any thought.

"Come on in," Emily mutters under her breath— it's barely audible, but Awsten only just hears it. He can't understand what she has against Anna. She's always been perfectly nice to him.

"I have your schedule for next week," she places a piece of paper on Emily's desk, before shooting Awsten a grin.

Emily tunes out almost entirely as the two converse in a seemingly-sweet, casual conversation.

She hates the way Anna twists her hair between her fingers when talking to Awsten. It's obvious that she's flirting— or, at least, Emily thinks it's obvious, and painfully so.

It's disrespectful in Emily's eyes. Awsten has a girlfriend— Anna knows that and should respect that.

She's surprised that Awsten hasn't said anything about it by now. Whatever her opinion is of him, Emily can see that he's loyal; he doesn't seem like the type to cheat at all. He doesn't seem like he'd even look at another girl the wrong way while he's in a relationship. Although, Emily doesn't think she could say the same for his girlfriend.

She doesn't like Sadie one bit; at least she finds Awsten a little more tolerable— barely.

Anna peers over his shoulder to take a look at what Awsten is doing. "I didn't expect to see y'all actually working together," she snickers, clearly finding just the premise of it amusing.

Emily knows that Anna made the comment to get a rise out of her. She doesn't bite, though.

"Is that all?" She raises her eyebrows, working hard to maintain a semi-gentle expression.

"Yep, that's all," Anna chirps, bothered by the abrupt way that Emily cut the conversation off at its root, but she masks it. "Have a good day, Awsten," she makes a point of specifying who she's talking to, offering him a wave as she leaves the room.