Office Date Read online

  “Sorry!” I shake my head. “It’s just they’re right there, and I have eyes!”

  She looks down at my dick. “Sorry, it’s just right there, and I have eyes.”

  “Touché,” I grumble and do a slow turn. “Look, I’ll get the door, you find some protein bars or something, and we’ll meet in the kitchen.”

  “Fine.” She rolls her eyes.

  “Fine.” I mimic her voice and then nearly trip over my own feet as I run into the living room and pull open the door.

  Dustin stands there in a blue shirt, polka dot tie, and jeans. “You’re going to be late.”

  “I know; we’re hurrying.” I run my hands through my hair as he looks past me and then back at me. “Isn’t this Ivy’s apartment?”

  “Yep, be down in a few; thanks bye!” I shove the door in his face, panicking a bit as Ivy runs down the hall in black joggers and a matching sweatshirt. She grabs her slides by the door and then goes into the kitchen.

  “Protein bars, protein bars, protein bars.” She looks around the pantry, grabs something, opens the fridge, tosses me a cold brew, and then grabs her sunglasses and purse. “What?”

  I realize I’m just standing there like a shirtless idiot, but damn, I’ve never seen a girl get ready so fast. “That was fast.”

  “I can be fast.” She smiles.

  I know we’re in a hurry, but I can’t help it. I stroll over to her, pull her against me and kiss her on the mouth, it’s hard, brief, and random as hell, but I can’t help myself anymore.

  “Wh-what was that for?” Her lips are even flushed.

  “Just think of it as a participation trophy, you know, from this morning.” I wink, earning a shove from her. “Let me run across the hall and grab a shirt, then we can go.”

  “Could have used the same shirt from last night, but…” She looks away, cheeks pink.

  “But then I’d have to explain why I have dried—”

  “Ew, gross, just go.”

  “Wasn’t ‘ew, gross’ this morning,” I grumble as she shoves me out of the apartment and into the hall.

  “Not the time to discuss; just grab a shirt; I’ll wait here.” She shoves the food into her purse along with her unopened cold brew. I’ll never fully understand why every girl I know seems to take after Mary Poppins when it comes to their bags.

  She probably has a first aid kit in there too.

  Hell. after these last few days, we might need one.

  I open my door and run down the hall to the master, grabbing the first clean shirt I can, an old vintage band shirt that’s really soft and won’t look dumb with my gray sweats. I grab my ADIDAS slides and hurry back out into the hall.

  Ivy’s staring at her phone in horror.

  “What? What’s wrong?” I immediately think it’s bad news.

  She glances at me, then back at the screen, and finally, she looks back up at me. “Please tell me you liked Nickelodeon when you were a kid.”

  “Who didn’t?”

  “Oh, thank God.” She turns the phone to me. “Because according to this text from Anderson, who’s already downstairs waiting with everyone else… Max just mentioned nostalgia and already handed out team shirts.”

  “Oh great, do I even want to know?”

  She scrunches up her nose. “It appears we’re going to be the Silver Snakes.”

  “Why does that sound familiar?”

  “Because…” She sighs. “It’s from Legends of the Hidden Temple.”

  I freeze. “Ivy, wait—”

  “Come on, we have to hurry.”

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Nausea comes over me in waves.

  “You already puked up everything last night. Let’s go!” She starts to tug at me, but all I can see is his face.

  The nightmares.

  The T-shirts.

  “No, Ivy, like for real, I’m freaking out here.”

  “It was just tequila!” she says.

  “It’s not the tequila.” I’m ready to hold onto the elevator to keep from having her shove me farther. “It’s Olmec.”

  “Olmec?”

  “The rock temple guy—he’s terrifying, and his little minions, I may have um, when I was very small, very, very, very—very small, wet the bed after falling asleep to reruns on Nick at Night, my mom said I woke up screaming, ‘Olmec, Olmec!’”

  Ivy’s eyes widen. “Jack, I need you! We’re a team, and who the hell is scared of Olmec!”

  “His voice is loud, and he captures people in his temple, Ivy! I don’t know what’s more terrifying!”

  “Okay, okay” She calmly grabs my hand and pulls me into the elevator. “It’s going to be fine. We’ll figure it out, but we can’t lose, so you need to get your shit together.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  Her eyes narrow. “More participation trophies for your future wall if you can; at the very least, just attempt not to shit your pants if it really is Legends of the Hidden Temple.”

  “How many more?”

  She glares.

  “Fine.” I cross my arms. “But if Olmec is there, just be warned, you may hear a high-pitched scream from my general direction.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Ivy

  I don’t exactly know how to calm down a twenty-two-year-old man while he has a nervous breakdown in front of a fake temple.

  College did not prepare me for this.

  We’re wearing our Silver Snake shirts.

  He’s pale as a ghost.

  And we are one hundred percent about to play Legends of the Hidden Temple. Who knew that out of all things in Jack’s life, this would be his kryptonite? It’s like Ninja Warrior course meets OG Nickelodeon as we have to cross the water by jumping onto a line of floating rafts, run through the temple to grab the hidden treasure, and oh yeah, avoid everyone trying to “kill” us in said temple on top of beating the other teams in every relay race known alive.

  But that’s not even the worst part.

  The worst part.

  Olmec.

  He hasn’t spoken yet, but every few minutes, I see Jack side eye this giant talking rock, and I’m a bit concerned that this is going to be our downfall, the reason neither of us gets our promotion or bonuses.

  A rock.

  A stupid rock.

  “Focus.” I elbow him in the ribs. “It’s not real.”

  “Feels real, feels very real,” Jack says under his breath.

  “You were a kid!” I hiss. “You’re a man, be a man, feel your dick, be awesome!”

  “Feeling my dick sounds really bad in front of a kids’ show I used to watch with a rock scaring me… yeah, that feels wrong on so many levels. New plan, we run.”

  “No.” I grab his hand. “New plan, we listen to Dustin, learn what we’re competing in, and win so we can go back to the apartment and have… trophies.”

  Jack’s head pops up. “Real trophies or trophy trophies?”

  I roll my eyes. “What’s gonna motivate you more? An actual trophy or sex?”

  “I GET SEX?” he yells, earning almost every judgmental look imaginable from the other interns, and you know what? Who cares! I want to win, and I like him, and this is so not the time to read into things.

  “Yes. Sex. All the sex. I’ll sex you so hard,” I mutter under my breath. “So, ignore Olmec and focus on me.” I take a deep breath. “Repeat after me, be the snake.”

  “I would snake you so hard—”

  “Not the time!” I elbow him again. “Just, remember, you’re the snake. Snakes are vicious, cunning, and creepy. We’re going to annihilate every single one of them, and then we’ll celebrate.”

  “Fucking Orange Iguanas. Who even comes up with that as a competitive name?” he says.

  I snort. “Right, or the Purple Parrots, go cry little birdies into your nest!”

  Jack hangs his head. “This has gone downhill so very fast. And all we wanted was a 401K.”

  I burst out laughing. “Or to be able to afford rent, but
yeah, and now we’re competing against them. Have we talked about the Blue Barracudas? Because I distinctly remember them always winning.”

  Jack sighs. “Of course, that’s Anderson’s team.”

  “Of course,” I agree.

  We’ve been standing in this weird course for the last ten minutes while people run around. There are cameras, which, of course, means we’re getting televised to either Max or the world. Who knows at this point anymore? There’s a huge film crew as well as people moving objects around that I’m pretty sure I’m going to be jumping over or falling into.

  It’s like the Indiana Jones ride at Disney, only worse because you don’t get to sit in a nice little seat and get shoved through the thing—you’ve got to experience it.

  I reach for Jack’s hand and grab on.

  The rest of the teams left, Anderson and Jude being the ones behind us with the other two girls whose names I keep forgetting because, well, I’m focused on Jack and me, the Silver Snake Squad.

  I take a deep breath as the lights around us lower then flicker back on again, and like a bad dream, or you know, Satan, Max appears in front of us with Dustin.

  “Welcome, welcome!” He claps his hands. He’s wearing an all-black suit and looking as debonair as ever with his brown hair slicked back. How does his wife even do this? I truly want to know. “I hope you’re all surprised with our temple!” He spreads his arms wide. “This will be the second to the last challenge you’ll face; the next one will be mental; this one will be obviously more physical as you propel your tiny little bodies through the challenge course and attempt to grab your medallions without getting caught by the soldiers or Olmec!”

  Jack flinches next to me.

  I squeeze his hand tighter.

  “Every one of you will be given a fair chance for your medallions; once you pass your challenges, you’ll enter the temple and search each room until you can complete all three pieces. Nostalgia’s huge right now, so we will be including The Moat, Steps of Knowledge, Temple Games, and finally the Temple Run.”

  “Shit,” Jack says under his breath. “That’s the worst one. They fucking chase you!”

  “Shh!” I elbow him in the ribs.

  “Is that your thing now? Just bruising my ribs?” He gives me major side-eye, and I momentarily forget he’s about ready to pass out from fear. He’s so pretty, his perfect mouth that I’ve tasted way too many times, and his effortless hair, it’s like the model hair flip that everyone wishes they could do but can’t really execute. Swear sometimes he’s in slow motion.

  I give my head a shake to get all the thoughts out. “Yes, that’s my thing. Until we win this, that’s my thing.”

  “Noted,” he whispers.

  I stand closer as Max continues to talk about all the wonderful horrors we’re about to experience. Everyone’s wearing their shirts, and we are given the choice to grab some black spandex leggings to make it easier in the water.

  Jack sighs. “That’s definitely going to show my junk.”

  “Been there, seen that.” I go to elbow him again, only to have him spin me around and pull me against him.

  My breath hitches.

  “No more elbowing the same spot. Pick a different one.” He winks. “And if Olmec kills me, know it was worth it to hold you like this.”

  I want to punch him.

  How dare he be sweet?

  Again.

  And make me fall.

  Again.

  I lift my chin. “He’s a rock. You’ll survive.”

  “If you say so.” He kisses my forehead, and I know everyone sees despite them all grabbing spandex. I know Max sees, Dustin too.

  And I don’t really care because his kiss felt warm, and it felt right.

  How did this even happen?

  He looks down at me, then clears his throat and pulls away. “We should probably get ready, yeah?”

  “Sure, yeah,” I agree, rubbing my arms up and down as if I’m in a blizzard and need to get warm again. I do a small circle, then feel a tap on my shoulder. Jack hands me the spandex. Wait, was he holding them this entire time? “Oh, whoops!”

  “Distracted?” he asks with that sexy smile of his.

  I snatch the spandex out of his hands. “Just nervous my partner’s gonna shit his pants.”

  He glowers. “Wait until you see Olmec. Then you’ll know.”

  I roll my eyes. “Yes, because rocks that talk and aren’t real terrify me to the point of a nervous breakdown in my twenties.”

  His eyes widen. “Take it back!”

  I lean forward and flick him on the chest. “Never. Now, go change.”

  Everyone’s gone into the bathrooms close by and are already almost all changed. Jack shakes his head, then wags his finger at me. “You’ll rue the day!”

  “Yeah, sure, okay,” I examine my nails. “See you in a few, coward.”

  Max walks up beside me and watches Jack walk into the bathrooms and slam the door. “He reminds me of myself.”

  I almost choke on my spit. “Ohh? Why’s that?”

  “I, too, used to be scared of rocks.”

  “Come again?” I look over at him.

  “They’re heavy,” is all he says before walking away with a whistle. Is the guy on drugs? I mean, what?

  Max suddenly stops and looks over his shoulder. “Oh and, Ivy, remember, fear is what makes us stronger. You’re going to have to push him through this, but he’ll come out better than ever, and isn’t that what partnership is all about? Life lessons? Teachable moments? Chaos? Terror?”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “What are you playing at?”

  Max just smiles. “Life. That’s what makes things interesting. Simply life. Glad you’ve gotten the chance to participate in our games today. Stay strong; sometimes, the hardest ones to catch are the ones we need the most.”

  “Huh?”

  “Work hard,” he adds after a heavy pause.

  I have no time to think about it as I run to the bathroom and change into my super tight spandex. My shirt, correction, my Silver Snake shirt, stares back at me, and I weirdly smile because who knew this would be my future?

  I did always love this show, which makes me laugh since Jack had nightmares and I had dreams.

  Maybe that’s what Max was saying.

  Sometimes life is just life. One person’s dream can be another person’s nightmare, can be another person’s worst-case scenario. Where I just want to propel myself into the temple, I’ve got a partner that equates that to jumping out of a plane without a parachute.

  I smile at myself in the mirror.

  Life. Am I right? Life.

  By the time I make it back, all the teams are ready to compete across the mote. They have ropes across each floatation device; they all look like rocks; the flotation devices round and brown, and now I’m worried Jack’s going to be triggered. Already he’s looking around us for Olmec as if the stone god’s just going to appear out of nowhere.

  “Focus!” I snap.

  He nods his head way too many times, then runs his hands through his golden-brown hair and takes a deep breath. “We’ve got this. Just don’t fall into the water. We get a break after each stage. Do you want to go first or me?”

  I think about it for a minute. “Why don’t you go first in case Olmec shows up randomly and starts talking?”

  His eyes widen. “Do you think that could happen?”

  “Bad idea, shouldn’t have said that out loud,” I grumble, then turn to him and grab him by the shoulders. “Make it across the weird rock rafts with the ropes dangling, and I’ll make up with you.”

  He frowns. “For how long?”

  “Ready!” Dustin shouts. “In ten, nine, eight—”

  “Long enough!” I smack him lightly on the cheek. “Now, find your A-game and destroy Anderson and Jude’s teams, okay? They so don’t deserve bonuses, corner offices, or Nespresso machines instead of whatever the hell they feed us now!”

  “Nespresso.” He nods. “Makin
g out.” Another nod. “I like this motivation.”

  “Atta boy.” I slap him on the ass. “And if you hear Olmec, just think about the fact that you can finally conquer your fears!”

  He gives me a pitiful look. I almost laugh.

  “Three,” Dustin continues, “two, one.”

  The siren goes off, and Jack just jumps onto the first raft without even grabbing the rope above him. The rest of the teams are strategizing differently, trying to go faster by having one jump to one raft followed by the other, but if you fall, you have to start over; both of you do, so I think our strategy is better.

  “Come on, Jack!” I yell. “You’ve got this!”

  He’s on the third raft. Halfway.

  He gets to the fourth just as Anderson falls off the third into the water. Both he and his partner swim back and start over. Jude and his partner look like they’re ready to beat us, though.

  I just keep yelling.

  The pressure’s on me now.

  Jack jumps onto the other platform and starts yelling for me to go, but the rafts are still moving around from him being on them; I have no choice but to grab the rope first and try to move around using whatever upper strength I have.

  “Badass!” Jack yells. “Just like that! Grab the next rope!” We’re still in first place as I swing to the next rope and lightly touch the raft, only to jump to the next one. My arms are burning as I reach the fifth rope. I slip and fall onto the raft, but it’s moving back and forth so hard that I’m getting drenched in water, and I can feel Anderson’s team, stupid Blue Barracudas, right on my ass.

  “Focus!” Jack yells. “Right on me. Focus!”

  I nod and get on all fours, then slowly get up and grab the rope. My hands feel like they won’t ever be the same as I reach for the next rope and step onto the final raft.

  Jack can’t help me or reach for me, so it’s up to me to jump onto the platform. I almost close my eyes as I propel my body forward and land on the platform next to Jack’s bare feet. “Please tell me we won.”

  He leans down and grabs my hands, pulling me to my feet. “We won!”

  “Oh, thank God. My hands are curled like I’m eighty; they burrrrn!”

  He starts massaging them and doesn’t let them go for the next few minutes as the rest of the teams make it across.