Max sat behind reception scrolling through Adam's Instagram, he had only been here about an hour and it was a Tuesday. Tuesday's were one of the dry days of the week were there were a few Seniors clubs and Jay looked like he wanted to punch himself in the face walking back and forth to help them out. But it was on this day that the doughnut man would come to the centre as Marie knew how dry the days were.

Max started to get too far down the page, where Adam had long hair and he didn't even work here. His eyes scanned over the caption, containing a lot of hashtags which wasn't a cool thing to do anymore, or at least that's what Adam told him. Max didn't really care about that sort of thing, but really wanted a social media lesson from Adam, his was just pun central.

"Well, well, well, who's that sexy devil" Max froze, feeling the blush creep up his neck and burn at his ears and cheeks. He couldn't believe he'd been caught in the act, he never had been before. Going through his colleague and friend's Instagram's was something he did on an average basis, it made him happy when he missed them and meant he didn't miss them as much. It was nice to see how much they had grown and how much they had changed.

Adam leant down besides Max and smirked over at him. Max stayed frozen with his phone in his hand. Adam began to laugh and Adam rolled his eyes and a smile broke across his face.

"Honestly, I'm honoured" Adam laughed. "Make sure you double tap though, I need those likes"

"I doubt that, you've got 3.2K followers...is this because of your fashion blog?"

"Yeah I think so, it's not like this tennis centre's getting me followers, although the court aesthetic looks good with my theme though, ooh and all the sports brands of clothing that I wear to work are very twenty seventeen, so they look good in selfies. Also, Marie's office is very tumblr and Eddie's kind of got a big fanbase...it's not worth me quitting just yet" he laughed, exposing a perfect set of bright white teeth.

Max rolled his eyes again: "wow thanks Ad, that means a lot".

"I'm kidding! I love you guys! In fact, you know what Max, as you're my honorary stalker, and also because I'm pretty sure I've never posted a picture of you and I so...dog filter? Or am I too much of a basic white bitch?"

Max laughed and shook his head at the boy who he had known for over three years now. The strangest thing was he hadn't changed in the slightest, except his fashion had switched to fit the annual styles and in his words: "flower crowns are so twenty fourteen".

"What, we've never taken a selfie?!"

"No I think we have...it's just, I've never posted one, I think there's one on your profile, I think I might have not liked how it looked or something".

"I think we should go for the leopard eared mask one. Very on trend, right?" He looked up at Adam and smirked at the grin on his face. Adam looked very impressed.

"You understand me so well...dude, am I a macho, manly man yet?"

"Sure Ad" he laughed, watching as Adam pulled out his iPhone 7+ and loaded up snapchat, showing a much more professional and clearer picture than the camera on his own iPhone 5.

***

Layla and Jay walked out of the office with doughnuts in their hands, laughing at some stupid pun that Max had commented. Marie had took note of how close the pair of them had become and had given them some of the same shifts for them to maintain the reception desk.

But, since it was what the staff had nicknamed 'Torture Tuesday', they weren't expecting much work to be done and Marie seemed to accept that.

Jay took a bite of his cookie cream donut and groaned at how nice it tasted. Layla laughed and Jay frowned as she raised her fingers to brush away some crumbs from his upper lip. Jay stuck out his bottom lip as Layla started laughing breathlessly.

"See what I mean?" Max whispered to Adam from where they were situated across the room, around the corner. They both sat on some of the lime green sofas that were situated in front of the windows where you could see the courts, although, today they were always deserted.

Adam, who had looked up from his Apple laptop to look at what Max was looking at, furrowed his eyebrow at the pair sat behind the freshly polished desk.

"Hmmm, nah I still don't see it"

"But Ad, come on, they're flirting! We, have, to, speak, to, Sophia!"

"Calm your tities hunny, that's only going to end in explosions, but don't tell Jessie that...shit, that was dark, even for me, the prince of dark humour myself"

"Jeez Ad!" He stared at him, mouth open with a shocked horror as Adam's bottom lip threatened to form a smile.

Layla and Jay, completely oblivious to their two observers, continued to nonchalantly eat their doughnuts, Layla herself had gone for a lemon meringue inspired donut, for which she was thoroughly enjoying. Jay glanced at her, inspecting her carefully then huffed.

"What?"

"You haven't got a single crumb, not one! HOW?!" He stared at her, completely bewildered and she started to laugh again, for which he watched with a smile on his face.

"Hey Ad?" Max started again, not taking his eyes off of the pair for one second. His eyes were narrowed and suspicious and judgemental.

Adam groaned in exasperation, the back of his half shaved back of head hitting the cushioned surface of the sofa, rolling his eyes. "Yes Maximillian?"

"It's just Max, honestly, you can check my birth certificate...or ask my Mum, or Dad for that matter, although I'm not sure if..."

"Your point please" Adam gasped out, fanning himself. It was weird because, although it was only early April, it was starting to get really warm outside...and inside for that matter.

"Remember when Jay fell in love with Sophia, like right at the beginning of their relationship and when she used to laugh, he would watch her with fond eyes and a little smile on his face? One that Marie would tease him about for weeks?"

Adam yawned and looked down at his flaking nail varnish. "Damn, you girls could do with some love...remind me to book a manicure Max" he looked up. "Did you say something?"

"You really nailed not listening to what I just said"

"How can you make a pun and be angry at me at the same time? Damn, no I was listening. And no, honestly I can't even remember the last time I saw Sophia since she stopped working here"

"Well he used to do it. Anyway, he's doing it now...with Layla"

Adam looked up and over to the pair again, sure enough, Jay was smiling as Layla laughed at his pathetic little pout that he had given her prior.

"I think I'm going to be sick" Adam commented, smiling to himself and back at Max.

"So you see it?"

"I guess, but Jay is just naturally incredibly friendly and you've never thought he was hitting on you or I! Besides, he's probably just trying to make Layla comfortable whilst she's still new" he said, looking down at the notifcations on his phone. "Oh look Maxie, we've got loads of likes!"

"Maxie?"

"Aww look Jay" Layla smiled, holding out her phone after she had double tapped the photo. "Isn't this cute?"

Jay looked at the picture presented on her screen, it showed Adam and Max, with matching leopard ear filters, Adam with a model like expression, staring deep into the camera and Max with a small, tight lipped smile. He nodded. "Nice, DM it to me, so I can remember to like it".

Marie came out of the office behind the reception to see the that the reception and most of the tennis centre was empty, she smiled and greeted the pair in front of her, before walking over to where Max and Adam were sat.

"Marieeeee" Adam complained, looking up from where his head was rested back again on the top of the sofa. "Please, can we get air conditioning?" he screwed up his face and dabbed his finger across his long eyelashes, with a concern that his mascara might smudge with the heat.

"We have air conditioning, Adam" she looked over his head at the empty courts behind them. "It's just not as good as it once was, I'm sorry, if you want to take it up with the big boss that's up to you...don't ask me to do it. Hi Max. Where is everyone?"

"Enjoying the nice weather I guess, literally, there's been no one here for twenty minutes now. The last guy left about half an hour ago"

"Is there no more classes?"

"No. See usually, at this time, there would be people coming to the gym or coming for a little match, but no more elderly classes. Everyone's outside"

"Okay fine" she sighed. "Layla, Jay, tell everyone drinks on me, let's go down to the pub" On appearance as she said this, she apprehend mentally and physically exhausted, nothing, in Jay's opinion, that a cold beer couldn't sort

"What?!" Max squealed, looking up with surprise. "Seriously?!"

"Yep. If you all come with me I won't take the time of your pay check, meet me back here with everyone in ten. Oh, and Adam? You go tell Eddie to take a break, he'll listen to you more than anyone else here. You can charm him out of that practise court, he's not even doing it outside for god's sake."

***

Marie checked, before sitting down, that Jessie was sat on the same side as Eddie, with Jay and Layla sat to her left and Imogen and a space for her on the right . The whole tennis centre had come down with them so they had practically taken up half of the outside of the pub space. But the landlord and lady didn't seem to mind.

"Okay well, cheers everyone!" she smiled at everyone around the table, who all looked happier than she had seen them in a while. She made a mental note to bring up the air conditioning at the next meeting with the big boss and owner.

"CHEERS!" the table repeated, all clinking their glasses together and taking a sip. Marie leaned forward to look over at Jessie, as Imogen leant back to talk to Max over her back.

"You okay?" she asked, watching as Jessie sipped her raspberry cider. Jessie grinned at her and nodded.

"That's great to hear, it really is"

Across the table, Max had his arms folded on the table, his eyes narrowed, watching suspiciously as Layla smiled at something Jay was saying. Her eyelashes were fluttering more than when they do when talking normally, and her perfectly manicured mauve nail tipped fingers kept curling around segments of her hair. She watched intently as he talked, as if he was the most interesting person in the whole world.

"Oh for god's sake Max" Adam groaned, laughing as he rested his head on Max's shoulders. "You need to calm down, I think you're over thinking this honey...?" He looked up at Max, Max frowned at him and huffed, sitting back and folding his arms. Adam rolled his eyes and smirked at him, getting a sense of joy out of annoying his friend.

"I don't think so, you wait til Sophia founds out, you know, if she were to ever find out" Max looked at Adam, a thought formulating in his head. A smile graced his lips cunningly.

"That would never ever happen, I mean it Max, don't go making assumptions until you have the evidence to do so" he said, looking at him warningly, raising his perfectly sculptured eyebrows at him and blinking his long black eyelashes. "If anything happens, we should go straight to Marie, okay?"

"We?"

"Well I'm sucked into this now aren't I? I'm a witness. If you go accusing them, I'm the one who is going to have to defend you"

"I appreciate your support at this hard time" he said solemly, his lips trembled as he tried hard to fight of his smile.

"Oh shut up you pillock and drink your damn beer" he said, reaching for his own bright blue alcopop.

---
A/N
I'm so happy and content writing this :)
I hope you like it :)

I've recently started reusing my Instagram @ campervangirl2000 so be sure to check it out!

Until next time!

-Lx