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Oh shit.
She hated games and got lost driving home at least three times during the year we dated.
She also got lost at Wal-Mart and one time, at a corn maze for kids, asked a five-year-old for help who then in turn thought she was trying to kidnap him, yelled stranger danger causing the entire place to shut down and the fire department and police to show up.
No. No. Not gonna work. We were already losing before starting.
I almost raised my hand and begged to change partners, the past between us was too much to get through, add in a maze, and me being her partner on top of being her boss, no.
Max continued completely oblivious to the fact that every single intern looked ready to puke and every single superior wanted to quit, we’d already done our time in his weird games and while they almost always went viral and made the news, they took away from real work and were oftentimes dangerous, despite all of those actual facts—other companies started their own games to follow suit so now it was almost like this corporate TikTok challenge only worldwide. I swear on my dear sweet grandma, bless her crotchety soul, that Max Emory could take over the world if he had the time. Imagining him with a giant red button actually kept me up at night.
I crossed my arms and attempted to pay attention again, despite having Bri standing next to me. She hadn’t changed her perfume, damn it.
Max grinned and held out his hands. “Dustin will pass out red folders with consent forms, an NDA, and you know the accidental death form where we aren’t liable as a company if you have a heart attack out of fear, and I assure you that has never happened, we’ve had a few close calls, but the interns were past thirty-five and we all know that’s when things start to go downhill.”
Wow, how encouraging.
Max waited for Dustin to hand out the folders, then adjusted his tie. “The first game begins in five minutes. Again, this helps provide a good company culture and also gives you an opportunity to earn more money. We’re so happy you’ve signed on this year. Please read the documents and sign them as fast as you can. If you look at the bottom of your folder, you’ll find a key to the Emory Hotel properties where you’ll be staying for the next year for free, just part of a company bonus we always include. If you fail the games, you’ll still of course work for us but won’t get the prize money set at, a record high of one hundred thousand dollars on top of all of your student loans getting paid off, if you still have them, and if you don’t, a marginally large down payment toward a car or house. And not to quote Hunger Games…” He laughed. “But may the odds be ever in your favor.”
Shit. The odds weren’t even close to being in our favor by the look on Bri’s face when she stared at the folder and pulled out the documents, hands shaking.
Part of me felt bad because I knew she wanted to pay off her loans, but another larger part of my brain and heart told me it would be better off if we lost right off the bat, because a week by her side would probably kill me, even if she was cruel and hateful, I’d still remember the good times and all it would take would be one smile in my direction.
I was weak.
Unable to armor myself against her charms.
It was impossible for me to be selfish, I could put on an act, but at the end of the day, all I’d ever wanted.
Was to be by her side.
I never wanted to be her hero, the knight in shining armor, I wanted to be the partner that helped bury the body, the one you called when you were in prison, the one you weren’t afraid to pee in front of, the guy that changed a lightbulb not because she wasn’t capable but because she wanted to stare at my ass.
I wanted to be the one that was her biggest cheerleader and I’d thought it was enough to let her live her own story. I just didn’t expect her to write me out of it.
Chapter Four
Bri
Shock would be one word for it.
The other? Horror or maybe it was terror, wait were those the same thing? I was too panicked to actually think about Webster’s Dictionary all I knew was that if Ace’s name was in it, the actual definition would be gorgeous, capable, and the sort of guy who never needed to mansplain anything.
When I bought an Ikea shelf, he straight up looked at me and said he’d be in the living room. I had to actually beg for help and even then he read the instructions and said. “You can do this, it’s good for you to know how to screw.”
Double entendre, but I loved that he didn’t take over, on top of the fact that I knew in my soul if I begged him to just do it so I could sit and drink wine, he would. But no, he wanted me to learn on my own, he wanted me to be independent, he wanted me to have freedom, maybe that was why no guy ever compared. Despite knowing my past, knowing my depression and failed attempt to end it all.
He never once treated me like I was fragile—rather, he treated me like I was strong, not made of glass, but steel, refined by life. Ace thought higher of me than I thought of myself, that’s probably where my insecurity crept in when everything happened. You can’t love someone else fully when you aren’t able to love yourself—and I had trouble most days doing just that. The self-doubt was so strong, the guilt, the shame, the constant wondering when he was going to find someone who was whole. What day would it be, I always wondered, when he’d wake up and realize the person sleeping next to him was a chaotic mess of broken pieces of glass she continuously cut herself on in order to remind herself that she was nothing special? That she didn’t deserve him?
I shook the errant thoughts away. Therapy had been huge for me, and maybe if I hadn’t been an idiot and deleted him from my phone and life—I would be able to look at him in the face and at least apologize for ruining one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. But that meant telling him the truth, not just about my own feelings of self-loathing, but of what happened and why it set me off.
What if he looked at me the way I looked at myself that day? Like I messed up, like I wasn’t good enough to even do that.
Interns suddenly scrambled around me, one ran into my shoulder and nearly fell onto their ass. Clearly, they were pumped about their new apartments within the Villa of the main hotel.
Several grabbed their phones and started taking pictures and video of their key cards, going immediately to social media and posting how lucky they were to be getting a free luxury fully furnished apartment plus a paid internship—I’m sure they left out the whole but also you must go through gaming hell in order to power through part.
Others were starting to meet their partner, the bosses, that unbeknownst to them, suddenly found out they were participating.
