[16th January]

The truce Ben and Anya had called had been evolving to a really good and relaxed working atmosphere over the last weeks. Ben grew more and more comfortable around her even starting to like working with the shy women who sometimes surprised the hell out of him when she seemed to forget her shyness. The main thing, though, she even seemed to like his swearing and teasing. Before he knew it, they joked around while working and he was torn between liking this and getting suspicious if she only played him and threw him under the bus the moment he wasn't useful for her anymore - like it always happened to him in the past - and he withdrew again.

For Anya this was kind of frustrating. Him changing from all fun and jokes to closing back off made her worry she did something wrong but couldn't think of what it could be.

On one day in January the landline rang and it happened to be Anya answering the phone after wrenching her overly long doctor who scarf down under her chin. She had self-knitted it somewhen because she was always cold in winter. "You reached IT, It's Anya." she hadn't realized it was an external call because frankly? Those never happen.

"This is Jerry Witting." The gruff voice greeted her "I call to enquire the state of the bug on the API you provide. We still don't get report details if we provide the report's authors ID instead of reports ID." He sounded pissed so Anya opened up the project to check for entry points. "Let me check that, just a second…" she found the file and the specified routes for report details. Funny enough there was a big comment 'Only report ID search ordered by clients wish - idiot will claim this as bug someday.' She took a second to wonder if that file really was deployed on the customer's server including this comment.

"I'm afraid this is not a bug but was not requested that way when this was specified. I'll…" She tried to sound diplomatic but Witting decided to go berserk on her "It WAS requested, stupid girl." He raised his voice "I must know it because I did so. It's always the same with you code monkeys…" - "Mr. Witt…" Anya tried to get him to calm down "No, you shut up and just listen and I'll tell you what you will do. I need this by tomorrow or I will personally make sure you are fired." He was yelling now and Anya had enough of it.

"I propose you call back when you calmed down and learned the difference between a bug and a sodding change request!" Anya slammed down the phone, blinking and breathing hard trying to wrap her head around what just happened. Ben, who contrary to Anyas sweater and scarf just wore a short-sleeved T-Shirt with Scotty on it and the line 'Oh, you didn't tell him how long it would really take, did ya laddie?' looked at his coworker with a lopsided baffled grin like she sprouted wings. Then it hit her "Fuck, what have I done… What have I done…" she leaned back in her chair, face buried in her hands, turning around "Something I would have?" Ben finally found his voice again. "Cian will fire me!" Anya shot him an evil glare to show him she wasn't in the mood to be made fun of.

"No he won't…" he smiled reassuringly "Honestly, this was awesome! Witting is an ass…" he tried to assure her but Anya didn't seem to hear him. She was still super nervous, had gotten up and walking around "I shouldn't have hung up and swore at him… I should have behaved like a fucking professional…" she scolded herself.

"You need to stop second guessing yourself… you are doing Great." he advised and deep down Anya knew he was right but she just couldn't admit it because she was so angry with herself "Go fuck yourself…" she grumbled when the phone rang again - clearly internal call by the type of ring - and Ben picked up "Pissed off IT department." He answered because he really felt for Anya. He listened for a second and hung up "Witting called Cian and he wants to see you… Cian I mean." He told her "Gnaa… and I liked that job…" she sighed but left the room, scarf trailing like Tom Bakers doctor before Ben could say something more.

Anya entered Cian's office after knocking without waiting for an invite and was immediately greeted by her boss.

"Please hear me out before you quit…" Cian practically begged while motioning to a chair before his desk. Anya frowned "I don't intent to quit…" she assured him confused "I thought you called me over to fire me!" she stated which made Cian frown "What? No!" He looked at her "Witting is the one customer I let Ben have an unfiltered go at." He explained "I lost two or three employees over the last two years because of his behavior but I can't get rid of him because of the communal contract." He was clearly unhappy about that. "We have a routing for all known numbers of him to me since a while but he must have a new one." He explained

"So, I don't have to feel bad I hung up on him and you don't want to fire me for it?" Anya wanted to make sure.

"Hell no!" Cian assured her "Not firing you!" he reassured her again. "Not Quitting!" Anya smirked in response. More relaxed Cian noticed the monstrous scarf Anya wore.

"What's with the scarf?" Cian wondered "I'm cold…?" she didn't know what else to answer "You realize it is your office too, right? Tell Ben to turn up the heat…" which made Anya laugh "I did and he did… but he already sits there in just a T-Shirt - any warmer and he would melt. That's our compromise." She explained and winked "At one of my last jobs my coworker completely didn't care at all, sitting in a warm sweater while I wore a jacked so I'm very grateful Ben went with it that far."

Cian shook his head laughing "I'm glad to hear you two get along..."

When Anya returned to the Dev Lair Ben waited with Pizza boxes sitting on the table before the couch and she rose an eyebrow at him "Isn't that the appropriate answer to 'Go fuck yourself'?" Ben smiled then added "I take it you are not fired?" he smirked and Anya slapped his shoulder with the back of her hand "You could have told me that Cian wouldn't mind me hanging up on Witting!" she grinned.

"I tried." Ben shrugged "But you were too riled up to listen…" he pointed out. Anya sighed and took a slice of pizza and made herself comfortable on the couch "True." She sat down, a silence ensued and she could practically feel Ben starting to close off again.

"Can I ask you something, Ben?" Anya took all the courage she could muster "Shoot." Her coworker looked at her curious taking a seat on the couch too.

"What is it I do, that I always piss you off with?" she tried to find words, taking a bite of her Pizza leaving Ben with a frown "What are you talking about?" he asked wary and Anya realized it perhaps was something unconscious.

"Well one minute we joke around, teasing each other and the next you are kind of… I dunno…wary maybe? Like you are unsure how I'd react…" she tried to explain.

"I do this?" he asked but it was more of a rhetorical question "It's nothing you do…" he assured her "Can we leave it with that?" it was phrased as a question but there was no doubt he wasn't comfortable to share anything more. Slowly Anya nodded "Sure... just say something if that changes… because I really enjoy what we have here…" she smiled.

Ben allowed himself a smile "Will do." He answered and noted to himself he needed to watch out for this because Anya seemed genuine. He didn't want to drive her away.