When it comes time for presentations again, I sit on the far side of the room, putting as many chairs between me and Vlad as I can.
Our company’s head of security—a giant eyeball creature I can’t remember the name of—gives a brief talk about not letting anyone without a company badge into the office buildings to prevent more would-be saviors of the mortal world. I’ve been working from home enough that I didn’t realize this was becoming more of a problem, but I also can’t really give it much thought.
My attention has been creeping back to Vlad every ten minutes or so, just to check that he doesn’t look like a storm cloud of invaded personal boundaries. He looks fine, I think. About as well-pressed and ironed as he usually does. He definitely uses those hotel ironing boards. I can’t really tell though, because every time I glance back at him, he catches me looking and a shudder of awkwardness threatens to bury me.
I switch seats for this morning’s presentations and sit next to Kathy for a change. I can’t take much more of Deanna’s endless positivity, how she’s going to go for another run later, so she’ll have energy for tonight. It’s also more behind Vlad’s chair, so he won’t see me turning around to look at him so much.
Kathy acknowledges me with barely a grunt. She probably thinks I’m here to harangue her for MR reasons.
“How is it only ten a.m.? Kill me now,” she grumbles, and it’s a bit refreshing to find someone as miserable as I feel.
“No, me first. I’ve been to more of these than you,” I return. Kathy conceals a chuckle in a sigh.
“Alright, no meetings for this morning,” Lily announces, flouncing up to the front of the room, holding a little clipboard with the trip’s itinerary on it. “Get ready, everyone, for a team building exercise!”
There goes any shred of hope I had for surviving the rest of this trip.
Kathy rolls her eyes and sighs. “See you in hell.”
“I'll send the meeting invite.”
We’re hardly the only ones groaning, and it seems like this caught most people unawares.
Lily continues on, “Don't worry, they’re not the usual icebreakers everyone’s done a million times before. We put a lot of effort into finding some unique ways to learn more about your coworker’s strengths and how to work more effectively together. Now, I want everyone...”
I squint at her a moment, not really listening. What exactly is her job title, again? Is she employed here or is she just always within haunting distance of Soven, little clipboard and three pens tucked into her little blonde bun?
I don’t think I want to know, because honestly anyone who has mastered her level of organization kind of scares me. She sent me a spreadsheet once when I first started working here, and I immediately took that I knew how to use them off my resume.
The first icebreaker is attempting to get everyone in the room to count to thirty. I guess that means there’s thirty people here, so you would think that it would be easy. But when two people jump to say a number at the same time, it all starts over again.
Unsurprisingly, this takes like a half hour to get through, and it’s only stressful if you’re paying attention. I don't think we actually make it through the whole count, because at some point Lily decides this is more time than she allotted for, and we need to move on.
“Ok, for the next exercise, we're going to try an arm puzzle!” Lily announces, and quickly starts dividing the room up. She clicks to a slide with directions and a picture showing a number of humans and monsters standing in a little circle, all holding hands with two random people across from them. I have a sinking feeling that I know this one.
“I don’t have...arms...” Kathy starts to mutter to herself, because her “arms” are really more wings with clawed hands. It may look like she has elbows that bend in the same spot a human’s would, but the bone structure inside is totally different.
Before I can suggest that this game is skippable, Kathy is, unfortunately, being pulled into another group. I blink and realize that everyone grouped up pretty quickly while I was standing around looking for a way out. If that’s not a summary of my entire life, I don’t know what is.
Lily’s hand lands on my arm, and then there’s her too-bright smile, guiding me over to the other side of the room. There’s little hope that this is going to be any better than trying to stay awake through another four hours of meetings.
“This group could use one more,” she tells me, and when I look up, my face bursts into red at the sight of stone-carved wings.
8
There are a couple others in our group, but I direct my gaze to my shoes as I shuffle to stand in a little circle with them. I fold my arms and try not to look like I’m clutching myself, so that my facade of casualness won’t unravel, even as I feel it slipping out from under my sweaty palms.
Even concentrating on the floor, I still feel the minute temperature difference from standing in his shadow, the way his wings hover inches from my skin. I breathe in his cologne, the subtle scents that make me think of hiking up a mountain, breath clouding in the cold air, and clinging to fir trees.
It's hard to resist glancing at him, and when I do, I catch him looking at me.
I turn my head away fast. He saw me looking at him.
And he was looking at me too.
After a few heart pounding moments, I sneak another glance, and he's looking away now too. I stare a few moments too long, too obviously, and he catches me again. This time I don't look away. I should. He smiles a little, and I return it.
“You’ll have to introduce me, I haven’t met enough of the other office,” Vlad says to me, breaking our staring contest to glance at the others in our group.
