She's going to know it was you the moment she sees it,' their layout artist, Rudy, said. She'll only buy this if no one laughs,' he warned them. Stuffing the debris from his scene-setting into a carrier bag, Sam eyed his gathered staff of five. Remembering the bewildered look on her face still brought a smile to his lips. Hell, he'd even stuck her wheelie chair to the carpet. Then there was the time he'd glued all her stationary accessories to her desk. She'd gone ballistic when she found it, and it had taken him twenty minutes to convince her that the full 60,000 editions of the magazine hadn't been mailed out to their subscribers in the same condition. One year, it had been cajoling their printer to bind a single copy of the latest edition of the magazine inside out, then just casually leaving it on Delaney's desk on her first day back. Every year when she went on holidays, he came up with some outrageous stunt to surprise her when she returned. When she'd been around a little longer, she'd understand that playing practical jokes on each other was just how he and Delaney operated. She'd only been with their extreme sports magazine, X-Pro, for a month, so she wasn't up to speed yet on the office dynamic. Debbie shot him a look designed to let him know she thought he was weird. It's going to be great,' Sam said with relish. 'Delaney is going to flip when she sees this,' their receptionist, Debbie, said from behind him. Fixing one end to the doorframe, he stretched the tape to the opposite side and stuck it in place.

Highly satisfied with himself, he retreated to the doorway and began unrolling the police tape he'd wheedled from his mate in the force. To add to the CSI look, he'd rifled through her filing cabinet, pulled a few books off her bookshelf and left all her desk drawers open. Outlined on the navy industrial carpet in front of him was a classic crime-scene body outline depicting a form sprawled halfway across his business-partner-cum-best-friend's office. The smile turned into an out-and-out grin as he admired the full result of his labors from a bird's-eye viewpoint.

Smiling, he pushed himself to his feet and rubbed his hands on his jeans to clean the chalk dust off his fingers. SAM KIRK SAT BACK on his haunches and surveyed his handiwork.

Anything for You by Sarah Mayberry