KNOW MY NAME | Anthony Lockwood

𝟐𝟑 ┆𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐖𝐎

.𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑛𝑦.
.

I opened the door to see George standing there with three bowls of his ghormeh sabzi put on a tablet for transport.

He slides into the room before I once again closed the door behind him. He set the tablet down onto Lockwoods desk sitting down in a chair beside the said desk.

"Thanks. Looks great", Lockwood smiled at George changing his frowning posture to a one with gratitude. I nodded sitting down on the ground after grabbing a bowl for myself.

"No, it doesn't. It looks like I cooked it in an active volcano", George scoffed shaking his head. Lockwood grimaced as he grabbed a bowl himself.

"Doesn't matter how it looks. It tasted amazing", my muffled voice spoke towards George while one hand held the bowl and the other my fork.

"So, I've got the whole story now", George explained grabbing the newspaper from under his bowl. He gave the newspaper to Lockwood who took it instead of his meal.

"And so had the rest of London, I presume", I mumbled grumpily eating while George nodded confirming my words.

"'Rouge' sounds pretty cool", Lockwood mused and I looked at the header scoffing in disbelief.

"'Blamed for blaze' kind of takes the shine off it", I mused pursing my lips shaking my head as Lockwood briefly glanced down at me.

"Oh, great. They called me Andrew Lockwood", Anthony groaned giving the paper back to George who shook his head.

"I hardly think that's our biggest problem. We've had a bunch of cancellations", George answered looking straight at Lockwood who let himself fall against the back of his chair.

"And DEPRAC will be furious", George reasoned once again making both mine and Lockwoods gazes snap towards the dark haired one.

"We'll be fine. I'll fix it", Lockwood reassured him taking a fork of the meal taking a bite of it.

George shifted uncomfortably in his seat making me slightly nervous. "Okay. But it's just not that", he began swallowing.

"I think something's wrong with Lucy", he explained holding our confused gazes as I began frowning at him.

"Okay, I know you didn't really get to warm up with her yet, but-", I began being cut off by George once again shaking his head.

"She had a bath with her clothes on", George cut me off making me frown.

"Girls are funny about baths", Lockwood retorted not sounding convinced and I slapped his knee with my left hand making both look at me.

"Well, I don't bath with all of my clothes on", I reasoned with him frowning myself as George pointed at me.

"See! It's not funny!!", George exclaimed pointing at me with both hands making me slap them both away. "Ever since you hired her, thing's have gone downhill. What if she's unhinged?", George asked him.

I scoffed knowing these exact words, without the question, were the words making me want to leave the agency days ago.

Lockwood laughed. "She's not unhinged", he smiled.

"You're hardly the best judge of these things", George frowned at his employer and friend crossing his arms leaning back in his chair. "You need normal people around you", he added raising his eyebrows at Lockwood.

"You really think you're normal?", Lockwood asked laughing at his friend. George shut his mouth stopping.

"If you were, you'd have stayed at Fittes, and we'd never be friends", Lockwood smiled and I nodded along silently agreeing to that statement.

"You know, everyone pretends they've got things under control", He added leaning forward onto his desk.

"DEPRAC, the big agencies", he elaborated for us giving examples as I munched away on my lunch listening to him. "It's all a facade", he added then. "The world's mad, and normal never fixed anything", he explained further proving his points.

"We understand that. It's our USP", he nodded towards us and I stopped chewing for a moment thinking about it then munching further on the lunch in my lap.

George looked a bit unsure of what to say. "You get way too lost in the research", Lockwood began speaking to George now more sincere. "But you find the gold that everyone else misses", Lockwood smiled as George bit his lower lip briefly.

"And, yeah, Lucy can be a bit...quirky, but she's one of us", Lockwood then smiled down and me. "As well as you are one of us, Evie", he smiled and I returned it.

"I'm sure of it", Lockwood stated to George, but the dark locked one was having none of it shaking his.

"She burned down a house. She's going mad. You need to fire her, Lockwood", George urged his friend and I sighed emptying my bowl placing it in Lockwoods hand which he held out for me to grab my empty bowl.

Lockwood looked really unsure of what to say as he placed my bowl back onto the tablet. "Let me...sleep on it", he sighed.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you", George sighed nodding taking the three now empty bowls with him leaving me and Lockwood to get ready for bed which he did in the bathroom cleaning himself I assumed.

I laid down on the couch sighing in content of the warm embrace of my soft sheets. I closed my eyes as I heard the door open and seeing Lockwood coming in with his dirty clothes in hand wearing only grey sweatpants. It was after all pretty warm outside.

"Evie?", he asked whispering as he threw his dirty clothes into a basket.

I looked at him with tired eyes yawning. "Mhm?", I hummed as he walked up to his bed.

"Would you...well...can you sleep with me for tonight?", he stuttered facing away before getting into his bed under the covers.

I looked at him with wide eyes. "I mean sleep beside me?", he cleared his throat while his face turned a deep shade of red in embarrassment.

I smiled sitting up before throwing the covers off my body walking to the left side of his bed shuffling under them. He smiled gratefully before turning off the light on his nightstand.