Present day.
I’m thankful for three things today: aspirins, lemon water and today being the last day I’ll have to do this team bonding thing. After today we’ll all be going home and starting our normal office work again. I’ll only have to see Grayson twice a week and if I’m unlucky thrice. I rolled out of bed and sat at the edge, trying to deal with the banging headache. We had our last activity during breakfast which was held at the cafe across from the hotel we were staying at.
I popped two aspirins in then asked for room service. Water with lemon squeezed into it, no sugar added. They asked me twice to confirm that which I shamefully did. I was given my lemon water which would surely cure my hangover.
After my much needed shower, I got ready for the breakfast gathering. All the make-up was scrubbed off and my face felt so clean. I was finally ready to put on some clothes and settled for a green sundress. I rolled on some socks, grabbed my bag, put on the sneakers and was out the door. I heard Grayson calling my name but there is no way I can look him in the eyes right now, not after the dream I had and the revealing conversation we had last night. I was hoping he could forget everything.
I arrived right on time with Grayson right behind me only to find out Grayson, Prem and I were the only ones who arrived on time. Everyone else was still hungover and going through it whilst Grayson and I were powering through it.
“Why didn’t you wait for me?” He narrowed his eyes onto me.
“I didn’t hear anything,” I lied, avoiding looking into his eyes and stared at the flower pot. The plant was so ugly, it was starting to hurt my eyes but I’d rather not look Grayson in the eyes, treating him like medusa.
“I called you like seven times. You ignored and crossed the road almost getting hit by that motorcycle,” He recalled and I winced as he mentioned that. I was rushing away from him so quickly I barely checked the road when I crossed- of course I wasn’t jaywalking, the motorcycle would’ve been the one at fault but there’s a fat chance I’d be the one in the hospital or worse with the speed he was coming with.
“Sorry, damn,” I muttered and wanted this to be over already.
“It’s too early for this,” Prem whined, putting his sunglasses on again.
“You picked the time,” Grayson reminded him as he sat down across from me.
“That was before we all got drunk last night,” Prem admitted, the words slipping his mouth. He didn’t pretend to be a saint however he always tried being a good example to everyone.
“Mr. Prem Singh, did you get drunk, boss?” I asked teasingly, his whiskey colored eyes narrowed down at me.
“We shall not talk about this. I’ll go see if they have a ginger or lemon shot for me,” Prem excused himself, finding a great excuse to leave my side.
“I vote to never drink this much again,” Grayson groaned, laying over on the table and closed his eyes.
“I think I spent half my check these five days on liquor alone,” I mumbled and rubbed my eyes. Shit, it was so bright in this cafe. They should consider getting curtains.
“Shouldn’t be that much, you are just a junior after all,” Grayson didn’t miss his chance to throw shade at me. He never did.
Third person point of view.
Mia decided to ignore his comment. Even though she had been promoted two times already he still referred to her as the junior. Soon everyone gathered around, most of them still hungover but they made it. They all ordered their breakfast then started playing the last game Prem had planned for them was a quizz. Each correct answer gained them a point. Mia and Grayson were neck to neck, Grayson being the project manager and one of the first members who worked alongside Prem meant he knew a lot about his co-workers and Mia was just a social butterfly during her internship and gained a lot of information on the people she worked with.
“I don’t know whether it’s amazing how much these two know about their co-workers or if it’s rather creepy,” Prem mentioned, looking at Mia and Grayson. They even managed to guess the name of some of the workers’ high school they attended, their pets name, kids name even. It was surprising how much they remembered the conversation from months ago!
“I’m not so sure either, boss,” Umar admitted. He never expected them to remember that he had a pet bunny. Prem thought it would be funny to add these deep and personal questions, thinking many would get them wrong but not Mia and Grayson, no.
“Oh I apologise for having such a magnificent memory,” Grayson rolled his eyes. With the memory he had he could’ve studied law or doctor even. But he loved the stem world more.
“What’s your excuse, Mia?” Prem asked teasingly.
“Good memory too,” She mumbled. She didn’t know how she even remembered all of that. Perhaps she was just fueled with the thought of winning Grayson. Especially since he managed to guess the first three correctly within a few seconds, something inside her lit, the urge to win.
“Well, I’m getting in the scores right now,” Prem was busy tapping on his tablet and making his calculating face. “Mia won this game with one point more than Grayson. The grant total… Grayson is first place with one more point than Mia,” Prem announced. Everyone was aware that there would be scores kept even though it was a teambuilding week. They assumed the price would be a week off from work, paid. And as tempting as it sounded some of them still didn’t put up much of a battle, wanting to enjoy their sort of vacation in Baltimore
“Wait so Grayson won the whole thing?” Priya looked over at Grayson, a slight smile on her lips. She always looked at Grayson that way, lucky for her no one but Grayson had picked up on it but he never mentioned it to her.
“Speaking of what’s the prize boss?” Umar wondered, catching everyone’s attention all of the sudden.
“For starters, there’s a second place as well that is in this case Mia,” Prem pointed towards the winners. “I didn’t tell anyone about the prize before because I was still finalising everything but now that the time has come I’d like to congratulate Grayson and Mia on winning a three week paid vacation to Hawaii,” He announced, everyone’s jaw dropped when they heard what the price would be.
