Lois had tried to focus on the cup of coffee sitting on the table instead of whatever Clark was saying or doing. She quietly fixed the drink, adding sugar and creamer before stopping to look at the mess she had made of the packets. There were too many sugars opened and not enough creamers. She counted and recounted what she had done a few times, brow furrowing in worry as she realized she’d made the coffee to Chloe’s specifications and not hers. She stared down at the offending cup, hand dropping away from it as though it had burned her. She couldn’t drink it now, couldn’t even stand to look at what she had done. Coffee had been one of their rituals, an addiction they had both cultivated during their teenage years and had been going on strong ever since.
Her stomach felt queasy and Lois gripped the edge of the table to steady herself for a moment, the sound of Clark talking again forcing her attention back to him. She turned around, focus moving to his mouth and for a moment she couldn’t quite make out what he was saying to her, just saw the movement of his mouth as he spoke, but soon enough his words started to make sense and her gaze fell away.
She knew all too well what he probably wanted to talk about and had no desire to hash it out with him, but if it would get to him leave her alone and get back to the numbness of work then Lois knew she had no choice but to endure it for a few moments. There was something about the way he said please that tugged at her deep inside and had her looking back into his eyes. Part of her wanted to let him in, to tell him what was going on in her head and let it all out, but she squashed that quickly enough. Her walls were up and it would take a lot for them to come down.
“You get two minutes,” Lois snapped, brushing past him and out the door that led to the hallway. She walked out into the middle of it, glancing back and forth to make sure no one else was around. “Is this private enough for you?”
They shouldn’t have been anywhere together in private at work. It sparked too many murmurs from their colleagues, fueled the fire for the jokes and gossip at the paper spread like wildfire. Lois crossed her arms across her chest, glaring at him as she waited for him to talk and get this conversation over with. “Clocks ticking.”