Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 28781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 144(@200wpm)___ 115(@250wpm)___ 96(@300wpm)
I, however, preferred pasta.
“Right again.” Max chuckled. “That’s weird, you aren’t cheating, are you?”
Yes, because we wanted to win so badly, but actually I did, for her, for her loans, so maybe I would cheat for her, but we weren’t.
“Next question, what is an office related task your office mate is specifically good at, it can be anything from work related to personal.”
That was a hard one. I was hoping she’d guess mine, but wasn’t sure I knew what hers was though.
We flipped the pages. I wrote down personable. She wrote down marketing.
“Oh, sorry.” Max sighed. “Good luck streak is over. And while he’s great at marketing, he’s even better at managing multiple people and tasks, and yes Bri is personable but according to her resume, her strengths lie in making others feel welcome, which would have given you a point had she guessed correctly.”
Shit.
“Moving on!” Max continued asking questions, so far we’d gotten five right, four wrong, and had one more in order to make first place. “What is one of your office mate’s biggest pet peeves?”
I laughed and flipped my page. “Loud Noises.”
She nodded and flipped hers. “People humming when they work.”
Max almost dropped his cue cards. “That’s uncanny! You each had it down word for word.” He looked between us. “You really didn’t cheat?”
I grinned up at him. “We just had a lot of time to get to know each other and get on each other’s nerves, might hum a bit later just to see her rage.”
Max nodded. “Good man, good man, always smart to aggravate the piranha before it bites, that’s what I always say, right, Dustin?”
Dustin stared at him from the back of the room and hung his head. Poor Dustin.
“All right, so in first place, again, we have Ace and Bri, now everyone enjoy the rest of your day off and don’t forget to report tomorrow for the next test.”
It was over. Time to go to my apartment, and for her to go to hers.
I held out my hand. “Good game.”
She frowned down at it. “Yeah, good game.” She shook it.
Our hands weren’t kissing anymore.
I hated holding hands without them kissing first.
We both started walking down the stage when Max whistled loudly. “Hey, since you won, you can stay at the penthouse again.”
“Oh no,” Bri said politely. “It’s okay, we don’t want to take advantage.”
“There’s a steak dinner already prepared for the winners.””
“So that’s penthouse number four, right?” she said sweetly. “The one we were in last night?”
“How’s your head?” Max asked. “I was concerned.”
“He’s um…” She pointed at me. Apparently, I was he. “A great nurse woke me up several times last night.”
Dustin cleared his throat behind me. “I bet he did.”
“What was that, Dustin?” Max asked.
“I’m glad he did!” Dustin accentuated every word. “And yes, penthouse number four, please enjoy yourselves and congratulations on another great win.”
I couldn’t tell if he was being kind or if he was ready to grab one of the steak knives from the penthouse and use it as target practice on us, actually, my bet was on Max.
“Thanks.” I nodded to them and held up my keycard. “I guess we’ll be going.”
“Yup.” Bri agreed as we walked out to the elevators.
I looked behind me. Dustin and Max were coming fast.
“Hurry!” I hit the button again.
“I already hit it!” Bri hissed. “I can’t make it go faster!”
“And I can’t be caught in a tiny space with the both of them. First off, Max’s ego is too big, Dustin’s anger is too palpable, and he has anger in his eyes!”
“You noticed too?” Bri asked.
“HIt it again!”
“I’m hitting it!” Bri elbowed me just as the doors opened, we stumbled in and she hit the close button like her life depended on it just as Max and Dustin rounded the corner.
“Oh. Shucks. The doors closed,” I said with fake enthusiasm. “Guess they’ll have to take the other elevator.”
“Hurry….” Bri stomped her foot.
“Dude, they’re gone.”
“No! I mean the elevator, not them! The steak might get cold, and you hate cold steak!”
Shit, I really did. “I know that. Don’t you think I don’t know that? The potatoes might get soggy too and you loathe soggy potatoes and don’t even get me started on the wine!”
We sighed in unison and said at the same time. “It has to breathe.”
We finally made it to the top floor, and both tried to leave at the same time, had the doors been narrower, we would have gotten stuck on each other as the doors opened to our floor and the long hallway to our penthouse.
I tapped the card against the door and opened it for her as the smell of steak filled the room.
It wasn’t even dinner yet; it was more like a late lunch, but I didn’t care. The fireplace was on, dinner looked incredible, and we had two bottles of wine already open on the table.