I think I made it through free and clear to our desks until Christina pops out of her office. “David, Zoe, can I have a moment with you two?”
I search around the room for Zoe, and when our eyes meet, I see something I’ve never seen in her before. The expression of disgust she normally gives me is gone, but what I’m getting instead is even more confusing.
Is that empathy? What the hell?
I stand up, and she does the same, and we head to Christina’s office together.
“Yes, Christina?” she says, her voice a little more cheerful than normal, almost like she’s forcing it to sound that way.
“Shut the door. Sit down,” Christina says, typing away on her laptop and not looking in our direction.
Zoe and I glance at each other, wondering what’s going on, then sit. Glad to see she’s just as confused as I am at least.
Christina finishes what she’s doing, then looks up at us. “Have you two spoken?”
“Yes,” we say in unison.
She shakes her head. “No. I mean, have you spoken about what happened yesterday?”
“Yes. I explained?—”
Zoe interrupts me, “David fully explained the situation, and I was wrong in freaking out the way I did.”
I raise my eyebrows in surprise but try to hide it when Christina turns her attention to me for confirmation. I’m not sure what to say, so I stay silent.
“Then you guys are good?” Christina asks.
I look at Zoe because that’s a question for her to answer.
“Yes, we’re good.”
Christina turns to me again, and I nod.
“Okay. I’ve mentioned that she’s a good friend of mine, and many don’t mix business and pleasure for reasons that we all know. It’s important to keep her happy and ensure we’re giving her the best service possible.” We nod, so she continues, “Do you have your trip planned?”
I speak up to answer since I did the planning. “Yes. We leave tomorrow, come home Friday.”
“Great. Remember, you represent me on this trip. I expect the utmost business professionalism when you are with the client and in the hotel.” She eyes us both, and I have to hold back my laugh. She obviously doesn’t realize just how much we hate each other, so there are zero worries about anything happening between us that might be deemed inappropriate. “This is a work trip for the entire time, and I expect each of you to treat it that way.”
“Absolutely,” Zoe is quick to answer.
“Yes, you have nothing to worry about there,” I respond after her.
“Good. You’re excused.” Christina goes back to what she was doing before we walked in.
Zoe and I exit her office, still not saying a word to each other.
If this is how the entire trip is going to go, Christina has absolutely nothing to worry about, unless by ‘work trip’ she meant her employees wouldn’t speak to each other. In that case, we’ve got that covered.
Zoe
I rush back to my desk, desperately needing as much space as possible between David and me. Before I sit down, I lean over to whisper to Jana, “I can’t do this.”
She stares at me as she follows me back to my desk and waits for me to sit before responding, “What are you going to do about it?”
“What can I do?”
I look up and see David is watching me, so I instantly drop the upper half of my body faster than any normal person would, pretending to fix my shoe. Only when Jana laughs do I realize how ridiculous I just looked.
