At nine-fifteen in the morning, about a two and a half weeks into lockdown and a week and a bit since public buildings had all shut, Ellie Foster unlocked the staff entrance of Helsham & Wolds District Council's office in Market Helsham and let herself in. She automatically headed straight to the alarm panel, finger stretched to enter the code, and stopped short when she realised it wasn't beeping. How curious, she thought, peering at the panel over her glasses and wondering who else might be required to work there at the moment. Especially when anyone who could was working from home.

As a supervisor in the business administration team, she'd been asked to take turns in working from one of the council's offices rather than home – mainly just to keep an eye on the council's estate, deal with post, perform basic maintenance checks, process things which couldn't be done on her laptop from home, that sort of thing – so she'd been letting herself in to her local site every other day since the beginning of lockdown. She lived the nearest to this particular small branch office, and worked from there when she could, so it wasn't a problem. It was a bit strange being the only person in the building now (not least because it was in a converted old townhouse, and like all old buildings it unexpectedly made random noises), but the fact that the building was officially closed meant she wasn't tied to the reception desk, so she could use the supervisor's office which had a much more comfortable chair and a PC with a proper monitor and keyboard. It was also nice to be able to walk through town into work in barely ten minutes, rather than take a forty-minute bus ride to the main offices in Waleford Bridge, where she was more often based. And not having to be in work for 8 o'clock was a bonus.

Ellie returned the building keys to her bag, sanitised her hands from the bottle at the entrance, padded along the corridor to the staff kitchen and poked her head round the door (empty, although someone had left a dirty mug on the side since she'd last been in on Monday), then emerged into the main entrance lobby. No sign of anyone. In fact, all the lights were still off, and the building was as quiet as it was when she was the only one there. Not even her footsteps made a sound in her trainers – unlike the smart shoes she normally wore. "Hello?" she called loudly enough to be heard in most places on the ground floor, and maybe some upstairs, thinking she'd just forgotten to set the alarm on Monday. When there was no response, she shrugged to herself and took her milk out of her bag before dumping the bag in the supervisor's office and going to put the kettle on. She'd walk round the building and check in a minute – but the alarm wasn't showing a fault or any sign of having been triggered, it just hadn't been live when she entered.

While the kettle boiled, she went back out and turned on the supervisor's computer, and was just noting that there were a couple of messages on the reception's answering machine when she heard a door bang and a floorboard creak somewhere upstairs. Well, that answered that question, she thought, and went back to the kitchen to fill her mug. She'd still check the building – she had to anyway – but she'd poke her head in the offices upstairs and say hi to whoever it was: in her job she knew most district council employees, at least by sight.

Tea in hand, she stood at the reception desk to listen to the answering machine, deleting both messages as cold calls from potential suppliers which could be ignored, then logged in to the computer. There was nothing much urgent in her inbox, either, so she rooted in her bag for her badge and the building keys. Pulling the lanyard round her neck, she took her tea with her and started making a round of the building. The ground floor was unchanged from Monday, locked up and secure – apart from the other mug in the kitchen, she wouldn't have known anyone else had been there – so she started making her way up the staircase behind the reception desk.

On the first floor, everything was in order and as untouched as downstairs, so she started up to the second floor. She could hear a female voice talking on a phone, then heard a door open. Ellie paused where she was, in the action of stepping round the turn in the stairs – she was very conscious that the other person probably didn't know she was there.

The unknown other person was half way through a call with a colleague, by the sounds of it. "Yeah, so I logged into the meeting a bit late, like only two minutes...yeah...and guess who was there, who I definitely hadn't expected to see...?"

Ellie was debating calling out a warning/greeting, when a youngish woman in worn jeans and a sweatshirt appeared at the top of the stairs, saw Ellie, and almost dropped her phone.

"Jesus Christ!" There was an awkward moment's pause, then the woman said to her conversation partner, "No, sorry...I mean, no, Jesus wasn't on the video call." The woman glared at Ellie. "No, there's someone else just appeared here in the building. Like creeping up the stairs. I'll catch you later." She cut the call.

"Hi," said Ellie, not recognising the woman, leaning on the bannister slightly awkwardly with feet on different steps. She thought she really did know most people after three years in the job, but obviously not. She'd have remembered this one, because she had very clear blue-grey eyes and a nose piercing with a stud which was a similar colour. Ellie didn't have a type, particularly, but she had a thing for nice eyes and did like a nose stud. She lifted her spare hand to wave her fingers. "I did call up when I got in and the alarm was off, but not loud enough, I guess."

"Shit, you gave me a shock." The woman pushed her very messy brown hair out of her face. "Hi, anyway. Er...who are you?"

"Eleanor Foster. Ellie. I'm a supervisor in Business Admin for HWDC," said Ellie, pushing her glasses up her nose again before putting her hand on her hips. "But unlike you, I actually work here sometimes." She smiled to show she wasn't being nasty. "I know most people who pass through, but I'm pretty sure I haven't seen you before."

"Fair enough. Good point, I s'pose." The woman grinned, looking at Ellie carefully and clocking the district council ID badge hanging round Ellie's neck. "Sam Robinson, IT. Sorry to accuse you of creeping around." She started coming down the stairs. Ellie didn't move, so Sam stopped a few steps above. Ellie decided she was a bit more than her own height, and curvier than the baggy clothes suggested. It was interesting to find a curvy woman with nice eyes and a nose stud on her watch, in what should have been a deserted building.

"Sorry," said Ellie firmly, not budging from her position halfway up the stairs. "I need to check all the floors, it's partly why I'm here. Building maintenance checks and stuff." She pulled her hair out from beneath her council badge lanyard and flicked it back over her shoulders, wondering if she'd really just clocked Sam glancing at her legs, or had imagined it.

"Ah, OK." Sam backed up to the landing, and let Ellie move past. The space meant that they couldn't quite stay six feet apart, but they tried their best. "That office on the left, that's all my crap..."

Ellie poked her head in the room and nodded. "That's a lot of crap, Sam. You working from here now?" Sam made a non-committal grunt. Ellie moved on and checked the other offices, and the toilets, then came back towards where Sam was standing on the landing. She pointed at the door behind Sam, and pulled her building keys out of her jeans pocket. "Sorry, I need to get in there, check the attic."

"There's an attic? Cool." Sam stood aside, and watched Ellie bend down to put her mug on the floor then unlock the door. Somehow, Ellie was quite conscious of Sam's gaze. She wondered if Sam had noticed that her jeans were quite tight, or if she would care either way. Sam put her hands in her sweatshirt pockets. "Can I come up and see?"

Ellie laughed, and glanced at Sam over her shoulder, liking the twinkle in her eyes – like a small child finding a secret room. "It's not that exciting, but sure." She led the way up the steep, narrow, wooden staircase into the roof space, aware in herself of the tightness of her jeans, even if Sam wasn't. At the top she checked the skylights and the space generally, and smiled as Sam had to stoop under the sharp slope of the roof – Sam was actually a good few inches taller, and where Ellie could almost stand up straight in the middle, Sam was obliged to hunch her shoulders up even there.

Sam looked around, nodding approvingly, then jumped as there was a loud rustling and scraping in the far corner. "The fuck?"

Ellie grinned and waved the hand holding her bunch of keys at the noise. "We've got house martins nesting in the eaves. They come every year. We've been told we can leave them undisturbed, although once they've migrated the property guys come in and make sure there's no lasting damage."

"Oh, OK." A slight look of something Ellie couldn't quite read – concern? relief? – slipped across Sam's face, then she shrugged and climbed backwards back down to the landing.

Ellie followed and locked the door again. "So," she said, aware that they were within six feet of each other on the landing, and that Sam had a nice face, even with her messy hair. Ellie briefly thought about bed hair, and fingered the end of a strand of her own to distract herself from taking that line of thought any further. "I'm sorry I scared you. I'm going to put the kettle on."

"Sounds good. I'll be down in a bit." Sam pointed a thumb over her shoulder at the office she'd been in, and backed in that direction, shoving her other hand in her jeans pocket.

*

Sam quickly kicked the bulk of her stuff under a desk out of sight, and fished in her laptop bag for her council badge. The clumsy way she'd met Ellie hadn't been ideal – she liked to get off to a good start with pretty girls – but that couldn't be helped. It had been a surprise, as she'd been relying on the building being unoccupied. And if there were going to be regular building checks, she'd have to factor that in while she was there – but she reckoned she could probably work around that. Especially as she'd been there since Monday afternoon, with no other interruptions.

Still, Ellie seemed nice, at least. She was definitely pretty, and Sam had always had a vague secret fantasy about snogging a speccy girl, then taking the specs off and snogging her again – she didn't know why, but it was a low-key turn-on. More urgently, Ellie's arse and legs in those jeans, as she'd bent down, and again as she'd climbed up to the attic...that had been truly, truly fine. So if it was Ellie going to be doing the checks, Sam could definitely live with that.

Sam ineffectually combed her hair with her fingers and made her way downstairs.

*

Ellie spotted Sam's different-coloured lanyard straight away, and knew she should have realised that IT was a county council function. "So, how does someone from County Council end up here, then?" She passed a mug of tea across the kitchen counter, and watched as Sam added milk and two sugars. She knew that some County Council employees sometimes used the district council's offices to touchdown, and to be fair, she didn't work out of this one herself often enough. For all she knew, Sam worked here all the time.

"Well." Sam hesitated. "This lockdown's really fucked things up, and some of us still need to be around on call, you know? Normally I work in Waleford, but I'm kind of based near here personally, and thought this would be a good place to base myself workwise for the foreseeable. You know, while things are all a bit up in the air." Sam took a step back, realising that she was failing to keep her distance, then followed Ellie back out of the kitchen and sat in the receptionist's chair as Ellie settled in the supervisor's office to deal with her emails.

"Well," Ellie said, "I won't be in your way long. I'm working from home mostly, but we just need to come and check the buildings every other day. I live in town here, so I'm the nearest to this one."

Sam nodded and drank tea. "So, it'll be you I see again?" Hurriedly, she added, "If I'm here next time, I mean."

"Probably." Ellie smiled and swivelled on her chair a little so she could face Sam more, while still focusing on her PC. "Are you likely to be here much?" She glanced over the top of her glasses and realised Sam was looking at her carefully again. She flushed under the woman's steady gaze and fiddled with her hair unnecessarily, crossing her legs quickly.

Sam wondered if Ellie had caught her checking her out. Ellie's light pink jumper followed her slight figure pretty closely, and her jeans were (as Sam had already happily discovered) just the right kind of tight. Especially now Ellie's crossed thighs were pointing in her direction. She sat up a little in her chair and rested one ankle on her other knee, cradling her mug in her lap. She wondered how much to tell Ellie of her circumstances at the moment, but decided to be as circumspect as she could be for now, without being weird about it. "Yeah. We kind of need a few central points, in case people have hardware failures and need to bring something in. I thought here would be good as it wasn't likely to be busy. Control the flow, social distancing, all that. And otherwise, we're doing as much as we can remotely, and here's as good as anywhere." She watched Ellie fiddling with her specs and hair, and enjoyed the way the girl's arm was slightly brushing the curve of her small breast in her jumper. "So, er, are you staying long today?"

Ellie realised she was fidgeting, and clamped her hand between her crossed thighs to stop herself. She saw Sam's eyes follow the movement, and felt self-conscious. She could tell Sam had had a good look at her, but couldn't tell what that signified. If anything. "No, don't worry. I need to run the taps and stuff, and do a few other checks and things." She nodded at her PC. "But there's nothing on here I can't do from home, so I'll probably just stay until lunchtime, then leave you alone."

Sam stood up. "OK. I'd better get back and check my emails too, to be fair." She ran her eyes over Ellie quickly while the girl glanced at her screen. "You won't be in my way, as long as I'm not in yours." Damn, the girl had good legs.

Ellie looked back up, just as Sam was returning her eyes to Ellie's face. She wondered what Sam had been looking at, and whether she'd liked what she'd seen. "Oh no, it'll be nice to have someone else in the building." She waved her fingers. "See you in a bit. I'll let you know when I'm leaving."

Sam nodded, and couldn't decide if Ellie had picked up on her signals or not. She retreated back upstairs.