The Sinful Obsession

Chapter 9

Amy had thought that they would only be there for 15 minutes, tops. But they’d been there for half an hour, and she still wasn't in any rush to leave. She guessed these office parties had always wracked her with anxiety and awkwardness because she wasn’t particularly close with any of the people she worked with (not even close enough for 'work friends’), so of course it was a million times worse when she went to office parties with her coworkers all by herself.

She knew a lot of it was Jake, though. Most of it, probably. If she had ever brought Kylie to an office party like this, she knew she wouldn't be as comfortable as she was right now.

Jake just had a way of easing her mind without even trying- just being there was always more than enough to make her feel calm and actually okay.

Really, if Amy had brought her best friend, Kylie would have made her feel less uncomfortable at this office party.

But Amy brought her boyfriend, and Jake made her feel comfortable at this office party.

It was actually nice. A bit banal, but nice. The same way watching a rerun of Full House when it came on TV felt nice.

Plus, everybody loved Jake. Which of course she got.

She thought that most people might have felt upset or a bit jealous if they brought their significant other to a work event for the first time and all their coworkers paid more attention to their significant other than their colleague over the whole time they've worked together.

She thought most people would have been a little irked or a slight bit jealous of their coworkers being instantly taken with their partner like everyone was obviously instantly taken with Jake.

But she actually felt pretty proud.

It’s not that Amy was in favor of the concept of trophy wives and trophy husbands, but here, at her office party, where everybody loved Jake and she was feeling so proud at that- yeah, he was definitely her trophy boyfriend. At least, for the next 30 minutes he was.

He kept his arm around her the whole time. Or really, she kept her arm around him the whole time, and he followed her lead.

Because while they were normally pretty PDA-y, a work environment (even at a casual function) was a bit different.

And Amy still bragged about how she was voted Most Appropriate back in grade school.

But no, she'd wrapped herself around him like they were just out and about. And he really liked the weighted feeling at his side while she leaned into him, pulled him closer and held on, so they were literally attached at the hip.

His favorite part about that night was her smile.

He loved seeing that she was actually having fun. That she was actually happy and was having a good time. Genuinely smiling, and laughing too.

That was his favorite part. How much Amy was smiling. The best part of the whole night.

“Um, no, I haven't been told that before,” Jake replied, trying to be as polite as possible while trying to scan around to see if Amy had come back yet. Someone had pulled her aside and she told Jake she’d be right back because someone needed her help finding something, and he told her no problem and he’d go get them two cups of punch.

He was kinda regretting that now. Because now he was trapped in a conversation with a woman Amy worked with whose name he didn't really catch, and it was starting to get uncomfortable.

Actually, that was a lie. It started to get uncomfortable a good two minutes ago. It was very uncomfortable currently.

“Here, let me take those off your hands,” she offered for the second time, and she actually reached out for the cup in his left hand.

Jake almost spilled it on himself with how fast he pulled away when she actually touched his hand.

“No, no, thanks, I'm like, super thirsty right now,” he maintained, then proceeded to gulp down half the cup. It felt kinda awkward since he apparently wasn't used to drinking from a cup he was holding with his left hand, but it still didn't beat how awkward this conversation had gotten.

He didn't want to make a bad impression on Amy’s coworkers, especially since he wasn't sure if this lady was like Amy’s boss or something, but this was getting really weird now.

“Did you see where Amy went?” He looked over her head, not really expecting a reply. “She promised she would be right back.”

“Oh, no problem. Don't worry about it. I keep saying we need to do something about the filing room, and at least implement a new system, but as you can tell going through that horror that still hasn't been done yet,” Amy chuckled, walking back to the main room with Steve after helping him navigate the mess that was their filing system. He had only been working there for a few weeks, and just looking at the filing room was overwhelming. She was very familiar with the, once again, awful filing system, so when she heard Steve asking someone else at the party for help finding something he needed for a specific weekend project she offered to go with him and help him find it.

It had taken almost 15 minutes to find just two forms, because even though Amy was pretty acquainted to the horrible organization they had going on down there, it was still a chaotic mess.

Steve thanked her profusely, and she found herself glad that she was actually there at the office that night so she was able to help him.

He was a nice kid, and was telling Amy how he just graduated from college 6 months ago. (He was also from out of state, but from Baltimore, not Chicago like she was). They actually kinda had some nice bonding on their scavenger hunt for those papers, and Amy was glad she got to know him better (and definitely empathized with him growing up with five older siblings, when she told him she had seven older brothers he just said 'I’m so sorry’).

“Thank you again. You're a total lifesaver. I can't believe I let these slip by me. I don't know what I would've done if you weren't here. Thank you so much.”

“Glad I could help,” she smiled.

When Amy got back to the main room she had to stop and think a second to remember where she left Jake. She scanned the room to find where he was waiting, a familiar smile spreading on her face when her eyes landed on him standing by the punch bowl.

His above average height made him pretty easy to spot, so it was never any trouble looking for that cute mess of brown hair in a crowded room.

Though this room wasn't really that crowded, and he was in her direct line of sight, so it only took a few seconds till that warm smile spread on her face when she found him.

That smile soon turned to a frown though, just as quick as it had come.

Because Jake was standing by the punch bowl.

So was Stephanie.

And it took 0.2 seconds to recognize how blatantly Stephanie was flirting with him right now. It wasn't even subtle.

She just kept touching him. Had her hands all over him.

She kept placing her hand on his arm, and Jake kept trying to twist away from her without being totally rude.

And there were several problems with this situation. 1- Jake was clearly very uncomfortable, and even an i***t from across the room could tell that from his body language, so Stephanie standing right in front of him should have seen that too and stopped making him uncomfortable. 2- Amy introduced Jake to Stephanie as her boyfriend that night, so come on, what the hell? 3- She just. Kept. Touching him.

Jake kept moving back, reflexively pulling away, almost flinching and

She

Just

Kept

Touching

Him.

“I’ll see you on Monday, have a good weekend,” Amy told Steve, without even looking. She was just concentrated on extricating herself from the conversation to go rescue her boyfriend from badly flirting women.

She barely noticed some sort of half confirmation as she straightened her shoulders and confidently striding across the room to the punch table. Amy narrowed her eyes, she could actually feel a snarl picking up on her lips when Stephanie tried to touch his wrist and Jake almost spilled punch on himself trying to not super obviously get his personal space back in a way that wouldn't come off as offensive.

He was so concentrated on avoiding Stephanie's 'casual’ arm touches and stumbling for an excuse to exit the conversation that he didn't notice his girlfriend suddenly standing right there.

“I- uh, really, I should, like over there,” he fumbled, hooking his thumb over his shoulder (still holding the cup of punch). “Cause, like, super interesting stuff in that corner. Heard some really great things from over there, so yeah, I'm gonna-”

Amy walked up to him and ran her hand up his back and neck, and Jake almost jumped out of his skin until he looked and saw that it was her.

It didn't take more than a moment for Jake to automatically wrap his arm around her, and Amy instantly snuggled into him, more than enjoying the surprised look on her coworker’s face.

“Hey, sorry that took so long. Thanks for waiting babe,” she said, standing on her tiptoes and leaning in to give him a quick peck on the lips.

When she pulled back she left her fingers to fiddle with his short curls, twisting them mindlessly in a maybe not so subtle claiming of him via PDA as she turned back to Stephanie with a sweet smile.

And maybe over the next couple of minutes she was being a bit more touchy than usual, and Jake was kinda looking at her with a curious expression, but not a bad one.

Amy was the one who kept up the polite small talk with her coworker, because she wanted to be all PDA-y with Jake in a very immature rub it in your face, this is mine sort of way. A very aggressive, retaliatory sort of way. She wanted to get the message through. Mindlessly playing with Jake's hair while she had the sweetest, fakest smile on her face and talked about work next week- it was very satisfying. And extremely rewarding.

After Stephanie finally made her exit, Amy cupped her hand over his ear and whispered, “You wanna get out of here?”

“Please.”

As Amy led him into the parking garage she wrapped his arm around her, which he was more than happy with, but she seemed a bit off. Quiet and stiff in that determined, tight jaw, pursed lip sorta way. He would’ve made a comment about how she was practically marching him back to the car if he wasn’t actually starting to get concerned now.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she responded, not even looking at him. Staring straight ahead.

Jake chewed on the inside of his cheek before trying again. “Did something happen? Did I do something wrong?”

Without any warning Amy flipped them and suddenly Jake found himself being pressed up against one of the concrete pillars in the parking garage that they just passed, and before he could even make a sound in surprise she had already crashed her lips to his.

He was just walking beside her one second, and the next Amy was kissing him voraciously like she wanted nothing more than to tear into him, but since they obviously couldn’t go much farther in a parking garage she was left tugging on the ends of his hair and biting him hard enough that she was sure had to hurt, but he was far from complaining. He was miles away from complaining.

Even though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she finally regained her composure and pulled away from him (the first thing she wanted to do was him ). Jake’s face was flush, lips swollen from being crushed against hers, and had confusion written all over him.

Amy wrapped his arm around her shoulder again and started walking like nothing happened.

“I may have not appreciated Stephanie’s antics tonight…” she began rather noncommittally as they fell back into pace together.

Jake peered down at her. “Who’s Stephanie?”

“The redhead by the punch bowl. I mean, she could have at least tried to be a little less obvious she was flirting with you.”

“Is that what that was? Oh my god, she was so touchy! Is that what counts as flirting nowadays?”

“Jake, that’s always been what flirting was,” she rolled her eyes with a genuine smile this time (which made him feel very accomplished). “Most women are just a bit more subtle with it and have the decency not to pounce on someone else’s boyfriend.”

“I’ve never heard of that. That touching thing is weird.”

Amy chuckled. “The fact that you’ve never noticed it before means it’s working.”

“Nah, I’m totally aware,” he brushed her off. “I would’ve noticed if the whole female population was using some sorta Jedi mind trick.”

“It’s not always a hand on an arm, just some form of touching. Like when a girl leans over your shoulder to help you find something, or fill out paperwork correctly. It might not even be physical contact, but just being close to someone. It’s the equivalent of when girls pretend to be bad at pool, so the guy will come over and show her how to do it ‘right’- do that whole get behind her and get the perfect shot. That move’s always done by guys, but they don’t seem to employ it anywhere else or even notice much when they do it.”

At any other time Jake probably would’ve complained how far away Amy always had to park from her destination, because getting back to the car was taking forever , but he decided this was actually kinda nice. And maybe she was right about how when she parked in the back of the grocery store parking lot every time that meant that she never forgot where she parked her car, and maybe that was a more useful habit in this current maze of a parking garage- but he still probably would’ve complained how long this walk was taking if she didn’t have her arm around him and didn’t smell so nice and feel so warm.

“Now that you know what to look for, you’re going to see it everywhere. It’s most obvious in places like bars, being the flirting hotspots that they are, especially when they have pool tables, but it happens everywhere. It was one of the first tricks I picked up being a waitress- it was my first job, and I got that little tidbit from the more experienced servers. Touch a guy on the shoulder or elbow, and you’ll get a higher tip. Seriously, there have been studies. It’s a scientific fact.”

“Did you have a uniform?” Jake waggled his eyebrows suggestively, predictably latching onto the least important detail of what she just said.

“Yeah, khakis and a black polo,” she smirked.

“Sounds hot.”

When he was still a little reluctant to believe that touching-flirting was as widespread as she claimed, Amy only had one thing to say:

“Jake, I’ve seen it happen on you before.”

He gasped like she just accused him of some crime rather than simply (and kinda superiorly, she had to admit) stating a fact. “Have not!” He denied, voice shrill. “Touchy lady back there doesn’t count!” Jake pointed back in the direction of the elevators of her office building that they just came from, and Amy actually laughed.

“You know that nice blonde woman at your work that would help out the third grade teachers after school sometimes? I’ve seen her doing that when I’ve come to pick you up before. Cozying up a little too close helping you staple up something in the hallway,” she said, shimmying her hips for emphasis. “I’m pretty sure she stopped when she realized that we were actually dating. Trust me, Jake. She liked you. And she really is sweet. I almost feel a bit bad for her cause I just came in and swept you off your feet. You’re too nice and assume that girls that are being nice to you are just nice people, but half of them are just trying to work their way into your attractive pants,” she assured him, smacking his butt, and Jake actually jumped in surprise.

“Have you ever done it on me before?” Jake asked. He had to admit, he was pretty intrigued now. At her look of confusion, he clarified. “The touchy-flirty thing.”

“Probably,” she answered noncommittally, but he didn’t seem very satisfied with that. Amy sighed. “Like sometimes it’s subconscious and you just want to reach out and touch someone to kinda make sure they’re real and that they know you’re real too and it’s just something you do when you like someone or whatever. It’s not always an intentional flirting tactic, sometimes it just happens. And one time with someone else’s boyfriend may or may not be an accident, but she was practically frisking you!”

“Amy Sanchez, are you jealous ?” He asked with a s**t eating grin, and she was waiting for this. Waiting for him to bring that up, because she knew it was coming. No way would Jake ever not tease her about being jealous after finding out she wasn’t too happy with her coworker flirting with him.

“No,” she denied, and, at his doubtful look, “I’m not jealous! I’m not.”

“Sure you aren’t ,” Jake grinned, dragging out the syllables as if his sarcasm wasn’t readily apparent.

Amy groaned. He was definitely going to be lording this over her for the rest of the week at least.

“I’m really not,” she tried informing him again.

“You so are.”

“I’m not,” she maintained. “I’m not jealous. Not in the normal way. Like I trust you and all. And you looked so uncomfortable that I almost started laughing. It’s just… You’re mine. You’re completely mine, and it was just annoying to see her messing with you cause I’m the only one who gets to mess with you and get you all jumpy in a good way. I’m the only one who gets to bother you, and I’m the only one who gets to touch you.”

“So territorial?”

Amy neither confirmed nor denied that.

“Do you need to mark your scent on me?” Jake offered the most inviting smile, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’m pretty sure my scent is already all over you, Perry.”