Bit 1.2

"You are a total pervert."
"I am not." This is an outrageous slur on my character. I have never done anything to justify this unreasonable accusation.
"You are." Rob is enjoying this an indecent amount. "Let's see, you have four temps in for interview, and you choose the pretty female."
"She had the best experience! One of the guys had worked on the in-house journal for the chicken farming industry! It's hardly good preparation for a career in investigative journalism!"
"You keep telling yourself that."
Thing is, yes she was very attractive and young (though only a couple of years younger than Rob and me), but she got the post on merit. In that she was the only person who HAD done investigative work beforehand.
And besides which I'm not interested.
We pushed open the door to the house. We'd never quite got out of the habit of communal living like we did when we were students. For one thing, I've lived with Rob every year since leaving Uni - I'm not sure I could cope without his unique brand of chaos in the living area.
"Oh yeah, something smells goo-o-d!" exclaimed Rob.
Flowers, meadows, happy sunny days with just her...
"I do believe that's a Lasagne you're making! Enough for us?"
"Sod off, Rob!" Kate, his sister, retorted - she was well practiced at repelling his culinary advances. "You can make your own food. Hi Remi!"
I love you.
"Hi K. He's right you know, it does smell good!"
"And I was just going to complement you on being polite, unlike my wretched brother. Maybe you can have a bit if you're lucky."
God, marry me.
"Who's the rest of it for?" Rob really does have the subtlety of a breezeblock.
"Mike's coming round."
Bastard.
"I thought I'd cook him something nice, and then we're heading out with some of his work friends".
Bastard bastard.
"Anywhere nice?" Hopefully somewhere that she hates so she'll dump the git.
"Probably go to see a film or something. I'm sure you'd be welcome to come...not sure about him though" she gestured over her shoulder at Rob who was rummaging in the freezer.
"Nah" came the disembodied voice of the bane of my existence, "I'll just stick a couple of pizzas in the oven and then we're off down the pub. There's a good match on."
Oh my life is so special. Beautiful woman, pub, beautiful woman...pub.
"Besides, I've got to grill Remi some more about this lass he's just hired. He's only hired her cos he fancies her."
oh shutupshutupshutupshutupshutup.
"That's a total lie! SHe was the best qualified candidate."
"We believe you, of course," Kate gave me an exaggerated wink. God she's perfect. " Now bugger off and leave me in peace." She turned back to the chopping board, her long flame-red hair swishing behind her.
Kate moved in with us shortly after she left Uni. Our old flatmate Pete had relocated (probably to get away from the stench of Rob's feet), and we'd decided we needed the female touch, as the house had got a bit too blokey. Rob suggested Kate, who had just finished her study and got a job in a Ministerial Department on the Fast Track, a suggestion which Dmitri and I agreed with whole heartedly, having met her a few times when she'd visited Rob, and realised she was fairly close to perfect.
However, I wasn't quite prepared for how she had actually improved. You wouldn't have thought there was much room to improve on perfection, but she'd managed it. At a basic level, she was nothing like her brother. She was funny, effortlessly witty, intelligent, passionate, and quite frankly the most beautiful and sexy person I'd ever met in my life.
That was three years ago. And she's continued to get better. I'm so in love with her it's frankly embarrassing. Not to mention depressing, especially when she has an active love life, whereas I have been, well, for want of a better word, stagnant for longer than I care to remember.