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Somehow, Teddy believed one person finding the courage to interrupt them was enough to warrant two minutes of her time. That, and true to form Emmett caught the gist of what she was offering. Top shelf Hennessy found its way into a glass just for her to keep her preoccupied while she stood on her lonesome.
Unfamiliar lips brushed against the palm of her hand and she pressed her own into a line to keep herself from laughing. And then there was the mention of her phone. Easing her hand back, she reached for the device and handed it over to her without question.
"Your number's already in there, if that's what you're looking for." She pointed out. Far be it for Teddy to bring her work phone out to something like this. The second the shot was paid for, she walked away with the complete stranger, eager to hear what she assumed was a ridiculous warning about her choice of friends.
Two minutes and a Hennessy. One hand remained on the glass while the other flipped through the contacts on her phone. Hazel eyes glanced towards her friend and the woman likely speaking unkind things about the mechanic. Hopefully Teddy would be able to see past whatever it was that the girl could think to say. There she did find her own name under the lawyers contacts, and while that brought a grin to her features, she kept scrolling until she hit a different number she assumed was in her personal phone.
Clicking call, she pressed the ear to her phone, her other hand bringing the glass to her lips as it rang.
Olivia was deep into a book when her phone buzzed by her side. Brows furrowed into the middle of her forehead, she placed the bottle of beer on her nightstand and reached for her phone.
An unsaved number appeared on the screen and briefly, she thought not to answer. The whole scam numbers debacle had her second guessing it but in the end, she pressed the green call button and placed it to her ears.
It rang for far too long, at least in Emmett's opinion, and she hadn't quite planned out a voice message if that were the case. She tapped the glass against the bar top, mouth scrunching to one side before someone finally picked up. The mechanic sat up straight. "Oh, hey. This isn't Teddy. It's Emmett. I took her phone." That part must have been obvious, but she felt the need to point it out.
"So like... what's your deal? And don't fuck around with me 'cause I only have a couple minutes."
The unfamiliar voice that came deepened the frown on Olivia's face as she listened to the words coming from the other side. She remained silent especially after the other woman asked her question.
It occurred to her then that this was Teddy's number. Most likely her personal one too. She had to remind herself that Teddy wasn't with Emmett and whatever the situation was, it was more likely Emmett's doing than Teddy's.
"I'm sorry but I don't think I understand what you're asking." She responded a little flatly. She wasn't of the mind to be rude to anyone but she also didn't appreciate Emmett's line of questioning.
To the mechanic, she gave sound reasoning and a straightforward question. For it to be returned with a flat tone and a fake apology had her groaning. Any possible interest the lawyer had in this woman was lost on Emmett, but her curiosity kept her pushing forward. "Look. I'm with your boss at a bar and every woman in a mile radius wants to sleep with her." Emmett shot back, unafraid of the hint of annoyance in her tone. "So what's your deal?"
She leaned back in her chair. "I mean, it's pretty obvious you're into her. So why aren't you doing something about it before someone else does?"
Olivia's jaw went slack when Emmett responded, crude as ever, it seemed and she frowned deeply. How did she even know about Olivia's attraction towards Teddy was anybody's guess because Olivia thought she had been subtle. But apparently not, since Emmett knew.
"Wait, you..." she started before she realised she had no idea how to even respond to such a question.
For one, who was Emmett to dictate how someone went about doing anything about their attraction towards someone. Secondly, just because she was Teddy's friend, didn't automatically mean she was Olivia's so why was she talking to her about it?
But it still remained, Olivia had no idea how to respond because she had been asking herself the same thing. Emmett brought up a very valid point. Teddy was desirable to anyone with eyes but Olivia was her paralegal. There was just no way she could even entertain the idea of being that forward.
"I don't think this is any of your business, Emmett." Olivia responded finally with the same flat tone, with a little bit of a shake there at the end. Olivia was obviously emotional but she couldn't let Emmett know she was rattled.
Emmett's eyebrows furrowed when possibly the lamest response came through the line. She waited briefly in case anything were to follow, but of course not. She raised the glass to her lips again, taking another sip of the alcohol provided to her by an ex thanks to the woman they were talking about. "I'm sure it isn't, but I'm trying to help you out here." As she spoke, she waved her glass a little, letting the liquid slosh around in the wide glass provided.
Getting her to admit anything seemed pointless, given the cramped time frame she was working with. "Like, are you even out of the closet? Just do something - or someone else is gonna take her." She paused, only briefly considering her next line. "And it'll probably be me."
She couldn't have been more annoyed if she tried after being asked if she was out of the closet. And the threat Emmett posed had her pursing her lips and considering hanging up.
She took a deep breath and finally answered. "Listen, Emmett...you have no idea what you're talking about and I'm not going to sit here and be accused of...I don't even know what you're trying to say. Just...I don't want you to go around assuming things about someone you don't even know. That's...really unfair."
Really, what was this girl's deal? Emmett squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a sigh as Olivia tried to break things down for her. It sounded like a load of denial, and there was no quicker way to frustrate the blonde. A quick glance over her shoulder, and she tried to catch sight of wherever Teddy was dragged off to, but her attention quickly shifted as the paralegal offered her final statement.
"What's unfair is liking someone and not giving them the respect or honesty to let them know." She argued back. "I've been to the office enough times to see how you look at her. I'm not dumb, as much as you like to think I am."
She heard the sigh over the phone and Olivia couldn't comprehend why she was so insistent. They didn't know each other on even the most superficial level, why was she so invested?
It was Olivia's turn to sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Briefly, she wondered why in the world she was entertaining this conversation. Emmett was clearly drunk.
"Emmett, I don't think you're dumb. I don't know you enough to have a clear assessment of who and what you actually are. But I work for Teddy. She's my boss. Telling her how I feel is unprofessional." She responded before hurriedly adding, "Regardless of what those feelings are."
When Emmett heard her name said for the third time in a row, she knew she was getting to Olivia. Or at least asking the questions that were uncomfortable. Had the assistant not been at least a little invested in Teddy, she likely would have hung up by then, or at least defused the situation a little better. And now, she actually admitted to it. Out loud. Emmett's eyebrows skyrocketed at those words, and she instantly grinned.
"There we go," she replied, apparently satisfied with that within itself. "But you know that sounds like a shit excuse to me." And with that, the mechanic drew the phone away from her ear, pressing the end call button.
With a glance towards where Teddy was taken off to, she scrolled back to her own name in Teddy's contacts, sending herself a text consisting of random emojis.
Because she left her phone behind, Teddy quickly realised she had no way to tell the passage of time. So she stood there and listened to a stranger berate and bash the mechanic for what felt like an eternity, which would probably account for a very slow two minutes. She hoped.
When she saw Emmett again, she looked like she was texting. Rolling her eyes to herself, she couldn't help the grin she wore as she made her way back over.
"Is she looking?" Teddy asked the second she was near. She didn't dare look behind her, but she assumed she'd been followed at least to keep a line of sight.
With the return of her friend, Emmett was beaming. Her gaze briefly moved to the woman she had walked away from, wondering just how badly that conversation had gone down. At the very least, the lawyer looked like she wasn't influenced by the conversation. She clicked off the phone's display, turning it over to her friend as she came back. Before she could think to ask how it had gone down, a question was posed her way, and Emmett didn't hesitate to look again.
"She so is." Her head cocked to the side. "It looks like she hates me more now." The mechanic's gaze returned to the lawyer, eyebrows quirking upward. It was so like Emmett to cause trouble, and now she felt like she was on a roll. She leaned forward, an arm wrapping around the back of Teddy's neck as she pressed a kiss to her lips. "Just to make it worse." She replied softly after, before she reached for the drink again. "Here. Have some of this fancy shit."
Teddy knew she'd land in this person's sightline. How could she not? The scathing review she offered about her friend was just too imperative not to follow through on. A hand pressed to the back of her neck and it was like a wavelength was drawn between them. Gentle hands eased themselves to either side of her face as she caught her lips in a kiss. Surely, the one way to cement that she didn't care what people had to say was to physically show she didn't care what they had to say.
She thought to point out that she could taste the heavy alcohol from her lips, but she didn't. The odd mix of that and tequila was a taste worth forgetting.
"It better be good. That was the longest two minutes of my life." Teddy pointed out. The last thing she wanted to do of a night was hear someone say such negative things for little to no reason.
