The scene… Frank is at his desk at LBLaw and down the corridor Natasha is at hers
“Surely everyone knows or at least those that matter” thought Frank as he toyed with his e-cigarette. “What am I meant to do… walk round the office wearing a rainbow badge?”
He thought about the number of times he had talked about his partner and what “we” had done at the weekend. Ok so maybe he had not always (ever) used Anton’s name and Anton obviously hadn’t come along to any of the firm events when “other halves” (that horrible expression) had been invited. And anyway, as he had chatted it through with his sister the other evening, he was pretty happy with the way things were. Right now, working out how to have the conversation with his Mum and Dad over in Reading in two weeks’ time was a bigger priority.
Natasha realised that quite a lot of her off-line thinking time was taken up with Frank. What should she do? Anything? He seemed more than ok at work and everything seemed fine outside work. But …. There was a problem, well not really a problem just something that left her feeling uncomfortable. She was fairly certain that Frank was gay – and of course that was ok. Even as she thought it, it sounded horribly patronising. But it was ok! And surely better if it was all out in the open – for Frank and everyone else. Frank would probably really appreciate it if she talked to him about it. Oh God – that sounded even more patronising!
She could fairly well anticipate the reaction of her fellow partners in the department – Steve would be surprised and delighted and Kat (who had the emotional intelligence of a washing machine) would not be at all interested as long as he could get his utilisation figures up and his WIP down. Everyone else would be just fine and life would go on the same. Natasha decided she would have a word with her brother – he was in HR at one of the big four accountants. She wasn’t sure that made him the fount of all knowledge but she needed to talk to someone.