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)
What was with the cue cards, anyway? He was a billionaire, he could just have one of those teleprompters that were see-through and then burn it when he was done.
Dustin stood near the back and the rest of the employees, five teams in total, all stood in casual Friday wear and listened.
Everyone looked weary.
Even sociopath from the day before.
“His eye are bloodshot,” Bri whispered.
“From all the killing,” I muttered while Max droned on and on. “Also, did we ever find out how she killed her husband last night?”
Bri sighed. “She went with the arsenic.”
I scoffed. “So unoriginal. I’m disappointed.”
“She was a nurse too, and originally tried to sedate him with anti-anxiety meds and sleeping pills.”
“Amateur!” I almost yelled.
Bri giggled. “My exact thoughts.”
“So frustrating.”
“Yes, so frustrating when people don’t get murder right.” Her hand grazed mine. I grabbed it quickly and did a squeeze. “Twenty-nine left.”
She frowned down at our parted hands. “That wasn’t a kiss.”
“Says who?” I shrugged. “Hands kiss, what else would you call it?”
“Holding hands?”
“Oh right, but we didn’t do that, the palms met briefly for a wonderfully romantic yet brief moment, no holding at all, it was a kiss, trust me on this. I don’t make up the rules, I just follow them.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve gotten cuter with age.”
“Wow, a compliment?”
“Sorry, it slipped.”
“Ah, and I was so hopeful for more.”
“Your ears look larger.”
“That’s not a compliment.”
“I know.” She winked.
“Tourette’s?” I guessed. “Yous should get that checked out.”
She stuck out her tongue, and I immediately wanted to capture it in my mouth and taste.
“Ahem.” Max motioned to us. “Are you two done discussing your strategy for the game show, or should we all pause while you keep interrupting my speech?”
Game show?
Panic hit me square in the chest. For what? Wait, had he been explaining that this whole time? How much time had even passed?
Bri gave me a deer in headlight look.
Yeah, because that’s helpful. God, she was so beautiful.
NOT, helpful.
Look away!
“Sorry, sir.” It pained me not to salute him in that moment, and I had no idea why. He trained us too well, that was why. “Please continue.”
Max sniffed. “Didn’t need your permission, but thank you, comrade.”
Comrade? The ever-loving hell?
Bri shrugged.
The guy was lucky he paid well and was one of the best companies to work for in the US.
“All right, now that you know you’ll be on a game show, we’ll pass out the notebooks, you will answer the questions, and remember this is how well you know your co-worker after a day. Did you ask them questions about their lives? Did you really follow the handbook, page five, point two, where it’s important to know who you work with and really invest in their lives? You have ten minutes. Whoever gets the most questions right about their partner wins. Each question is one point. Ten points in total but you only gain a point if both of you guess correctly otherwise you lose that question. Any questions? Ha ha, I’ve said question at least three times, that’s funny.”
“Ten dollars. He’s high.” Bri leaned in.
I choked back a laugh. “Honestly, I think that’s just him living and breathing, must be nice.”
“Like those people who have random orgasms throughout the day and say how horrible it is, I wouldn’t mind, never mind, off topic—“
“—Oh, I think I’d like to hear about this, you wouldn’t mind… what?” I leaned in and breathed down her neck, then tugged her behind a few of the teams, and pressed a kiss to her collarbone before turning back around to face my boss.
“T-twenty-eight,” Bri whispered.
“She counts.”
“It wasn’t really that high and we’re going backward.”
“That’s true.”
Why was I suddenly shaking?
Dustin handed out the notebooks, and I went to the other side of the room with my black marker and white paper and stared at it. How well did I really know her, anyway? I never would have guessed she would walk.
But I knew her, right?
I loved her.
Here went nothing.
We were the last to go after I drew the short straw for our team, so we had the painful task of watching team after team fail, one team got negative points for arguing at the end and if we got at least two points, they’d be asked to leave the competition.
Brutal.
“Ready?” I asked Bri once we got to the stage.
She gave me a firm nod. “We’ve got this.”
“Hopefully.” I took a seat across from her.
“First question!” Max announced. “What is your office mate’s favorite genre of show to watch?”
Bri and I locked eyes and smiled, then flipped our pages.
“Crime/Murder/Mystery.” We both wrote the exact same thing.
“Wow!” Max chuckled. “Lucky guess that you guys chatted about that, the first day, I’m impressed. All right, next question. What is your office mate’s favorite food?”
We flipped our pages.
She loved tacos. It’s why I was in charge of Taco Tuesday.