Work Text:
Kate is running late. She wishes she could pop into one of those early 2000s movies where the beautiful, whimsical young woman hops from room to room while getting ready all while holding a piece of toast in her mouth. The woman always manages to look gorgeous and put together by the time the scene ends. Regrettably, Kate wakes up a little hungover in 2024 to her muffled alarm ringing somewhere in her flat. There is no time for graceful hopping—she managed to bang her knee on the living room coffee table. There is no time for a perfectly warm piece of toast—the overripe banana will have to do. Kate rushes through a condensed version of her usual morning routine, she’ll have to sacrifice a few comforts if she wants to be acceptably late. She doesn’t have time for her meticulous tea routine, or a warm shower—she settles for water and a quick and cold shower. Kate especially does not have the time to think about what happened last night or who it happened with. Unfortunately for her, it is all she can do on the train to work.
****
“Did you sabotage this for us?” Anthony whirls around to face Sophie. “I want a redo. Ben, ask for a redo on grounds of sabotage.” He bangs on the table.
“I saw the emcee step outside. I’m gonna ask for a redo,” says Kate and she’s rounding the table before Ben can say anything else.
“Wait for me. There’s more legitimacy if more than one person complains,” Anthony grumbles and hurries after Kate.
****
“Let me do the talking, okay? We can’t just gang up on him and demand a do over from the get-go,” Anthony instructs as they walk past a couple doing a terrible rendition of ‘Lay All Your Love on Me’ on the stage.
Kate makes a little “hmm” noise that she knows will irritate Anthony.
“I know you’re doing that on purpose,” he replies. “You just want to rile me up, so I blow this.”
“I did no such thing,” Kate explains as she stumbles past a group blocking the exit. She should not have had that last drink. “Either way, it seems like you’re doing a perfect job at riling yourself up. I just want a real chance at winning one of those little trophies.”
Kate doesn’t let Anthony get a word in once she spots the trivia host standing a bit aways away from the busy pub entrance. She knows Anthony is trailing behind her by the way his feet pound the floor—always making his presence known.
“Hi. Hello Tim, was it? I’m Kate,” Kate introduces herself to the unimpressed looking young man. “I was just wondering if you’d be willing to, I don’t know, do the whole trivia round over?”
“Timothy, excellent job with the hosting tonight. We have reasons to believe that another team cheated,” Anthony jumps in. “Actually, it was more like sabotage if I’m being honest.”
There is an awkward pause that keeps growing the longer Tim just stands there seemingly absorbing what they said.
“Okay,” Tim starts. “Let me get this right. You want me to go back in there, strip this other team of their win, and run this entire trivia night all over again because you two believe you were cheated out of a plastic trophy and a free round of drinks?”
Anthony can sort of hear how ridiculous it sounds now that the host laid it out like that. Kate though seems to be winding up for something else.
“It’s about the principle of the thing, Tim,” she practically yells. “If this is allowed to happen then the entire thing is reduced to a sham of a championship. How can this not bother you? Don’t you have anything to say?”
“Do any of you have a light?” Tim jokingly asks. “Listen lady, this is just a side gig and nothing about it is worth you two hassling me over it. If that’s all I’m gonna go find a light since neither of you are any help and I’m finally going to head home.” Tim turns away and walks off across the street and into the night.
Kate is still staring at the retreating Tim when Anthony starts laughing behind her. She wants to be mad at him finding the entire situation laughable when he was just as up-in-arms about it as she was not that long ago.
“Stop laughing,” Kate whines. “So much for taking the lead back there. Stop laughing.”
“It’s not that,” Anthony wheezes out. “I really did have a light but watching him slowly lose it and you get worked up was infinitely funnier.”
Kate has no explanation for what she does next, all she knows is that she needed him to shut up and this was the best way to go about it in her slightly buzzed mind.
“What the hell,” Anthony yells while holding his upper arm. “Was that truly necessary?”
“Shit,” she mutters. “Shit, shit, fucking shit. I’m gonna lose my job, aren’t I? I can’t believe I caused bodily harm to the CEO of company I work for.”
“Calm down,” Anthony replies. “You’re not getting fired for this. And bodily harm is a bit of an overstatement when all you really did was just catch me off-guard.”
Kate takes a few deep and measured breaths to center herself. She knows she’s competitive, but Anthony has this ability to push her buttons and get these embarrassing reactions out of her.
“Just go back inside, Anthony,” she whispers. “I’m going to sit here and sober up a bit before I head home.”
Anthony knows it’d be easier if he just did as she said but he’s also not going to just leave her out here by herself.
“Kate don’t sit there it’s gross,” he pleads. “Come on get up. I’ll wait with you until your car arrives.”
He holds his hand out to her to help her up and Kate finally takes it once she realizes the mysterious looking puddle near her foot. There’s a slight miscalculation though because Anthony pulls her up just a little too hard and Kate lifts up just a little too quickly and they both stumble into each other. It has left them in this awkward embrace.
****
“Good morning, Mister Bridgerton.”
Kate tenses when she hears Dunwoody’s greeting—this morning was out to get her. She unclenches her jaw a bit when the lift doors finally open and she manages to hop in with the few other employees who must also be running late. Kate should not have celebrated so soon because the doors are just about to slide closed when an arm shoots through and the doors slide open again to allow Anthony through. She hears him greet the small group on the lift as they ascend to their respective floors. Between the lobby and the 25th floor, Kate has shuffled around the lift to allow people to get on and off and it has left her standing next to the person she was hoping to avoid for the foreseeable forever. They don’t say anything—they didn’t say much last night either—the closer they’re squeezed together. She sucks in a breath when she feels the back of his hand slowly graze her own—an accident. They each take a corner of the lift once the last employees get off on the 18th floor, it’s just them and the faint sounds of their ascent for a just a bit longer.
Anthony clears his throat.
“Don’t,” she says.
“I wasn’t,” he replies.
“Good because that is the last thing I want to talk about,” Kate mutters.
She can see his wry smile in the reflection off the doors.
“You’re kinda talking about it though,” Anthony snorts.
Kate crosses her arms and taps her foot. She knows she looks childish, but she doesn’t care. All she really wants is to be in her office where she can lose herself in endless work and not think about the man currently standing next to her.
“Fine,” she snaps and presses the big red emergency button that brings them to a jarring halt.
“What the hell are you doi-,” Anthony goes to restart the elevator.
“Stop it,” Kate feels a surge of confidence akin to the one last night. “We will talk about it just this once and then we go our separate ways. Last night never happened.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
Her hands are wrapping around his neck at the same time his wrap around her waist. Anthony’s lips are hot and unyielding against her own. Kate can taste the mint from his toothpaste where last night all she could taste was the hint of alcohol. She grabs a handful of his hair and guides his mouth away from her neck and back to her mouth.
“Are you a fucking teenager? Stop trying to leave a hickey you jerk.” Kate manages to work the top of his button-up loose enough to hold her hand against his neck. His pulse is racing.
“Shut up.” Anthony pulls her closer and then against the wall of the lift. His hand is slowly inching up her leg and under her skirt when a voice rings out from the speaker on the panel wall.
“This is Bridgerton Group security services. Is someone in need of assistance?”
Anthony goes rigid—not like that, although. He slowly withdraws his hand out from under her skirt and clears his throat.
“Apologies, I must’ve bumped in on accident.”
“If emergency services are not required, then just press the red emergency button again and the car will restart. Have a good rest of your day.”
They take what remains of their ascent making themselves look presentable again. Kate has just finished righting her skirt and Anthony retying his tie when the doors finally open to the 25th floor. Kate steps off first, she can hear Anthony’s steps following right after her.
“Wait, wait, wait,” he rushes out. “Kate, please.”
“What?”
“Okay,” he starts, looks around before he settles his gaze back on her. “Do you want to not talk about this again, like after work over drinks?”
She swallows and is suddenly unsure of how exactly they got here. A part of her knows what saying yes to drinks with Anthony Bridgerton leads to—she got a taste of it him last night and just a few moments ago—and it’s such a bad idea. But there is a bigger part of her—the part that got a taste of him last night and just a few moments ago—that wants to say yes.
“Or we could pretend it never happened and go into our respective offices and keep to ourselves,” he attempts. “We’ll go back to being just coworkers.”
Kate is shocked to realize how much she doesn’t want to go back to being just anything with him. For the first time in so very long she is allowing herself to truly want something and this man who she has argued with every day for over a year is who she wants it with.
“We were never just coworkers, Anthony.”