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)
Wow!
Bri shrieked when he reached for us and said in a bored tone, “I’m going to write you up for, for… for—“ He kept spinning and then the rope managed to get tangled around his arm and neck. “—Max!”
He looked like half a chicken.
“Huh.” Bri took my hand. “Poor Dustin. I hope he gets bonuses for doing this.”
“He does not.” Dustin looked defeated. “But…” He added with a smile. “…he did buy me a brand new Bugatti last year.”
“That’s what a bonus is.” Bri explained.
Dustin shook his head. “It said Just Dust—in on the license plate.”
“Hang in there.” I joked.
Bri cackled out a laugh while Dustin glared at us. “Just go!”
I jumped first and waited for Bri, she almost didn’t make it, but I caught her hand and heaved her up. We were running out of time. She grabbed the rope. “On three I’ll push, then jump.”
“Okay!”
“One. Two. Three.” I pushed her toward the platform, she jumped, her foot sank into the water but she managed to crawl up.
I had no time to think, I took the biggest start I could get without falling off the platform and swung toward her.
Her eyes were big.
Huge actually, waiting in anticipation.
I would not lose this for her.
I landed on the platform but started falling backward. She reached for my shirt and tugged me, then kissed me.
We’d made it.
But we had no clue if we won.
So we waited, covered in sweat.
We didn’t have to wait long, by the time the other office mates made it to Dustin, he’d untangled himself and fired them—aka managed to get them so stressed out they both slipped and fell off the conference table.
“Huh, that was wildly uplifting for me.”
Max laughed. “Told you.” He nodded toward us. “Our winners are the newly minted couple, Bri and Ace.” He turned toward the other employees who were watching from the windows. “And for your participation, you’ll all get a ten-thousand-dollar bonus, see you Monday.” He turned to us. “And you two, follow me.”
I should have known he would go all out and have a giant check the size of a car waiting. He wrote in Bri’s name and then handed me a smaller check with a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus.
I wasn’t complaining.
“Everything”—he nodded to Bri—“will be on your next paycheck since I really just wanted to write a giant one, and Ace, that check is actually real.”
No. Shit.
“So you can deposit that anytime.”
“Um…” Bri raised her hand. “Actually, Max, I’m super thankful for this and it would help so much with my student loans, but I was wondering, how, um, how much is that penthouse? If I put this as a down payment or part of it, could Ace and I live there instead of the employee apartments or make payments or—“
What the hell was she doing? I wasn’t complaining; I wanted to live with her, going back to my place sounded so depressing, but that was a penthouse, not an apartment, it was almost three thousand square feet.
“I’m sorry.” Max’s face fell. “That penthouse is already taken and even if you could add both your combined winnings, I highly doubt you could afford a payment on a two point five million dollar loan.”
“Right.” Bri nodded. “You’re right, sorry I don’t know what I was thinking, hey at least I tried. I’m trying to get better about asking and—“
“—Good thing I already gifted it to you the first day, damn imagine how embarrassing that would have been if you guys hadn’t kissed and made up. You know what’s so great about my job? Other interns turning into matchmakers. Apparently, you went to school with the last two interns that came through here, put them through hell, I think you guys were invited to the wedding but broke up before you could go. Anyway, they transferred to the New York branch, but they’ll be back for Christmas. It was their idea once they looked through the interns participating in the games, if anything, you have them to thank for the torture.”
My mouth dropped open.
The penthouse was ours and some of our friends from forever ago set us up? What?
“All in a good day’s work. God’s work,” Max said seriously. “Come along Dustin, there’s work to do, oh and your key cards work for the penthouse, I’ll have your things moved. See you Monday!”
“Did that just…” Bri pointed at Max and Dustin as they walked out of the room. “Did that just?”
“We own a penthouse,” I said out loud. “Together. We own a multi-million-dollar penthouse.”
“And we’re together.”
“I think we should sit for a bit.”
We both stared at our checks, then at the door.
“Actually,” I tucked my check into my pocket. “I think we should go upstairs… you know, freshen up a bit.”
Max and Dustin suddenly appeared again, I knew it was too good to be true, was this a test?