Friends First

That he did. Just as she could hear his own breath growing shorter and huskier, she could feel herself about to lose control again. "Come with me!" she grunted, grinding her hips up against him as best she could.

"Now!" It was all he could say as he finally burst through. Mary Beth threw her arms around him and pulled him down hard on top of her as she also came yet again.

A tender silence prevailed for a joyous minute or two, neither of them daring to say a word as they remained intertwined on the bed.

"I guess you're not supposed to date coworkers," Robbie finally said.

"Whoever said that never worked in a place like this," Mary Beth replied. "You think we ought to keep it under our hats?"

"Let's tell them tomorrow." Robbie still hadn't quite forgotten what the next day was.

"Why tomorrow?"

"You'll see, I promise."

Robbie didn't like the look she gave him in response one bit. But, he reasoned as he pulled out and excused himself for another shower before dinner, at least now Mary Beth would know what she was missing if she was playing him.

To his immense relief, he realized as he turned the water back on, he no longer had any real suspicion that she was.

Saturday morning found Jed on breakfast duty as usual. It was Dawn's turn to suffer through being his only coworker, but this time she welcomed his speculating about what would happen come lunchtime. "Has Mary Beth told you just what she's going to tell him when we're all together?" he asked.

"No, and I wouldn't want to spoil it for you if she had." Dawn was glad she had an excuse to walk away as she said it, so he couldn't see the look on her face.

Breakfast ran late, and Dawn and Jed stayed in the kitchen after it was over. It was all hands for lunch, and Geoff was the first of the others to arrive. "I come bearing intelligence," he declared. "Barry says he saw Robbie and Mary Beth going into her room together last night."

"Wow, she's really takin' one for the team," Jed said. "I owe her a favor. Maybe I'll let her sleep with me. Once."

"How big of you, Jed," Dawn said, feigning amusement.

"I've been told I am, as a matter of fact," Jed grinned.

Barry and Chad came bounding in then, both echoing what Geoff had already reported. "Go easy on the guy from now on, huh?" Barry said. "I mean, you're even now."

"We'll see about that," Jed said. "And how well he takes it. Where are they both, anyway? Not like them to be late."

"We've still got a few minutes," Chad said. "Or does your plan depend on when they get here? You do have a plan, don't you?"

"I wanted to cut the poor guy a little slack and get it out of the way before Pam gets here," Jed said. "But if I have to do it with her there, I will."

"I think -" Barry began, but Geof shushed him and pointed at the kitchen door. Once it was silent, they all heard Mary Beth and Robbie chatting as they approached.

It was still unusually quiet when they arrived. "A hushed welcome, guys?" Mary Beth asked. "Wow."

"Welcome both," Jed said with a grin. "Robbie, I believe Mary Beth has something to tell you for the occasion."

Mary Beth looked terribly uncomfortable. Seeing the look on her face, Robbie wanted to cry. So it was all a joke after all? At the same moment he was aware that none of the others would even look at either of them - except for Jed, who was giving him that same evil grin he remembered so well from the bullies in high school. Robbie swallowed hard and willed himself to keep a straight face through whatever was about to happen.

"Oh, all right," Mary Beth said. "Robbie, we might as well come clean, word's bound to get back to Pam sooner or later."

"Come clean about what, exactly?" Jed sounded, looked and felt like the wolf that had just caught a prized sheep.

Mary Beth took Robbie's hand, and he braced for the worst humiliation of his life.

"Come clean about Robbie and myself," she declared, pulling him closer to her. "We're in love, and I know Pam isn't going to like it, but there's no use in our hiding it! Come here, Robbie." She turned and slipped her arms around him, and they kissed in full view of all their colleagues. Robbie's head was swimming with relief and pride and defiance, and he was only just aware of Dawn clapping and cheering the scene.

"You're happy about this?!" Jed demanded of her. "Didn't you tell Mary Beth? You said you did!"

"I told her, all right," Dawn said.

"She told me Robbie was just as interested in me as I was in him, and I ought to let him know because he was too shy to reach out on his own," Mary Beth explained, turning back to face the others but still gripping Robbie's hand. "And I'm sorry, Robbie, but she was right."

"Can't deny that," Robbie said.

"You lyin' bitch," Jed seethed at Dawn, pounding the table.

"Jed, calm down," Geoff said. "Women lie to us all the time, you see, and-"

"Geoff, would you shut it?!" Dawn snapped. "Mary Beth, I'm sorry. The guys had an April Fool's trick up their sleeve, and I was supposed to tell you to play along. But when we got to talking about Robbie and you said you really did like him, I just couldn't do it."

"You fuckin..." Jed stood up and kicked his chair away from the table.

"Language, please!" said Pam, who had slipped into the room unnoticed. Robbie and Mary Beth looked at each other and reasoned that she must have seen them holding hands. Since she didn't comment on the matter, they didn't pull apart. "Jed," Pam went on. "Do you want another month on breakfast duty?"

"No ma'am." Jed looked at the floor like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Then don't let me hear you talk like that again." Pam took up her spot at the head of the table, and the others sat down except, as usual, for Geoff. "It's looking like another busy lunch shift, I'm afraid."

"I think we ought to have Jed and Robbie both in section A," Geoff announced.

"Geoff!" Pam snapped like none of them had heard her before - except Jed when he'd used Robbie's wicked French. "I've had it up to here with you thinking you're the manager! If you weren't here with your girlfriend, I'd have fired you by now!"

"Go ahead and fire him," came Dawn's voice in a low but resolute tone.

"Excuse me?" Geoff and Pam said in unison.

"I said go ahead and fire him," Dawn repeated. "I'm not his girlfriend anymore."

"Since when?" demanded Geoff.

"Since now," Dawn said. "I just can't take any more of your mind games and battle of the sexes garbage, and telling anyone who'd listen how you manipulated me into a relationship."

"I didn't-"

"Yes you did!" Dawn was near tears, but her face radiated newfound resolution. "And you never shut up about what a brilliant conquest it was! I always kind of knew it. I mean, even before we got together, I knew that's what you wanted. You were just waiting for a weak moment, and I gave you one, and then I didn't want to admit what a dumb mistake I'd made! But I'm sorry, Geoff, I never loved you like that! I tried, but seeing these two together..." She gestured to Robbie and Mary Beth. "...Now I remember what the real thing looks like. That's what I want, and I'm sorry, but we never had it!" She buried her face in her hands and dissolved into tears, and Mary Beth got up and ran around to her side of the table to comfort her.

Pam looked on in awkward silence for a moment. Then she said, "Geoff, Dawn, I do think it's for the best that I let one or the other of you go. It could get awfully awkward for the rest of the season if I don't."

"I think you're right," Geoff said. "But look, I think I've been a pretty good team leader."

"I know you do," Pam said. "Thanks for making a tough decision a lot easier, Geoff. You're fired."

"But...!" Now it was Geoff who looked near tears. Dawn, who by now had gotten control of herself, couldn't help but give him a triumphant look.

"But nothing," Pam said. "Robbie, Mary Beth, I want you to accompany Geoff to his and Dawn's room for him to pack his things up, and make sure he doesn't steal anything of Dawn's. Just be back as soon as you can for lunch duty."

"Ma'am?" Jed had one last hope of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. "Isn't there a rule against us dating each other if we weren't already a couple when we started?"

"No, there isn't, Jed," Pam said. "It's not recommended, but it's allowed. You know what's not allowed? Practical jokes like you tried to pull with Robbie, that's what."

"You told her?!" Jed roared at Dawn, who looked utterly pleased with herself despite her red eyes.

"It doesn't matter who told me," Pam said. "What matters is, I'm watching you. If you don't want to end up like Geoff, watch it." Turning to Robbie, who was standing by the door with Mary Beth waiting for Geoff, she added, "And Robbie, no more rude French, all right?"

"Sorry, ma'am," Robbie said, although he wasn't particularly.

Geoff was silent for most of the walk back to his room with Robbie and Mary Beth. Finally as they turned down the hallway where all their rooms were, he spoke. "Should've known a nice guy like me couldn't hang on to her forever," he said. "Now she'll probably go back to dating losers like she used to. She'll be sorry."

Robbie and Mary Beth exchanged amused looks but said nothing.

They both stood like sentries just inside the door as Geoff stuffed his clothes into his suitcase. With the ice broken, Geoff went on. "Since I am still a nice guy, I won't take a single thing of hers. What would I want with it anyway. But tell me, how would you two even know if I took, say, a book that belonged to her?"

"We wouldn't," Robbie admitted. "But you heard Pam." She had directed them to accompany Geoff to her office, where he would be detained until Dawn could come downstairs to see for herself if he'd taken anything.

"I wouldn't let her order me around like that if I were you, Robbie," Geoff said. "I'm never working for a woman again. Can't trust 'em at work any more than you can in love. Speaking of which..." He paused in folding his last pair of pants and looked up at Robbie and Mary Beth, "I wouldn't count on her staying with you too long, Rob. Sooner or later Jed'll snap his fingers and you'll see I was right all along."

Mary Beth was delighted to see Robbie was obviously struggling not to laugh. But neither of them said anything.

"You handled that nonsense really well," she told him several minutes later when they had deposited him safely in Pam's office. "I felt like smacking him."

"Me too, but I figured no point in kicking him while he was down," Robbie said. "Besides, now I see, all his mind games are...well, they're not funny, but the way he still believes in them kind of is, you know?"

"I think I do," Mary Beth said. She took his hand and held it openly as they made their way through the dining room, which would soon be swamped with guests but for now was buzzing with staff only. From the corner of the room, they were aware of Jed giving them the evil eye, and they both welcomed it.

"Just tell me," Robbie said as they entered the kitchen to see their table assignments. "Did you know anything about the April Fool's joke?"

"Nothing," Mary Beth said. "I thought Dawn might have something she wasn't telling me, but I never knew that was it. You didn't really think I might be mixed up in it, did you?"

"Well..." Robbie could look anywhere but at her at that moment.

"It's okay," Mary Beth said. "All those weeks of listening to Geoff, and knowing Jed wanted to get back at you, I get it."

"You do?"

"Just don't ever think I'd do a thing like that again, all right?"

"It's a deal!"

They embraced and kissed, ignoring the hoots from the kitchen staff behind them, and pulled back just in time for Pam to come in. "Thank you both for helping with that situation," she said. "Now all I ask is, try to keep your hands off each other when you're on duty, all right?"

They both nodded and laughed nervously, and Pam joined in on the laughter.