Beer, Spaghetti, and Pharmaceuticals ||COMPLETED||

Forty Five

When she shuffled to lift herself off the ground, Isaac pulled a hand out of his pocket and held it out to her. He wasn't looking directly at her, but when Alice hesitated to grab the hand, she saw him give a slight eye roll.

She sighed and accepted his hand and he pulled her off the ground, pulling his hand back into his pocket as soon as she was on her feet. He gave her a small nod, his eyes finally meeting hers, and she noticed the dark shadows underneath like he hadn't slept all week. The back of his hair was a little disheveled and the scruff along his chin looked scruffier than she had ever seen it.

But he still looked so good.

Shut up, Alice.

"You look..." she said before she could stop, trailing off, trying to figure out where she was going with that. "Tired."

One of Isaac's eyebrows raised as his eyes scanned Alice's face. Shivers traveled throughout her body under his icy gaze, but she continued to wait for his response. Any response.

So when he simply gave another small nod and stepped around her to press the button for the elevator, Alice gave a small gasp out of shock.

So many nasty thoughts ran through her mind that she wanted to yell, but she swallowed them. It wasn't like she could start a scene in the middle of the office.

Instead, she turned on her heel and marched into her office, slamming the door behind her.

How dare he?

He couldn't even say more than two words to her!

Obviously he was going to be upset with her, but hardly even acknowledging her presence unless you literally smash into them was ridiculous. It wasn't doing either of them any favors!

She thought back to the dark circles around his eyes.

He looked miserable!

He needed to talk about this, too. Whether he realized it or not.

And just like that, Alice stormed out her office again and ran down the flight of stairs and down the hallway to his office.

She knocked on his door and a quiet, "come in," sounded from the other side.

When she opened the door, Isaac's nose was still pointed to his desk, not looking up at Alice. The first thing she noticed was his hand clasped around his yellow stress ball.

As soon as Isaac raised his neck to greet his visitor, his face dropped upon realizing it was Alice standing in his doorway.

"Oh...hi," he said, lowering his neck back to his paper and pretending to look busy.

"Hey..." she said, taking a few long steps towards his desk, swinging her arms by her side. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

"I have a minute to talk about work-related issues, yes."

"Umm... it's not exactly work related..." she said, feeling her tongue dry up like a sponge. "It's 'us' related."

"Oh." Isaac paused his notetaking for a moment. "Then no."

"Isaac, you're being ridic -"

"-You know I don't want to talk about this here."

"Fine." Alice crossed her arms. "Do you want to talk at my place tonight?"

"...No."

"Then we are talking here."

Isaac put his pen to the desk and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms loosely across his chest.