Chapter Seven
Kris
“On the second floor they have a whole slew of conference rooms,” Lorraine said. "We’re to go there. By the elevators, they’ll have a notice board up with your names and the group we’re in today. Then we just go down the hall and look to see which conference room has our group’s name on it and go inside. Oh, don’t forget to wear the lanyard they gave you at check-in. You’ll need it to get into the lunch buffet afterwards.”
“I forgot it in my room,” he said ruefully.
Lorraine giggled. “Me, too. We’ll just have to hurry our butts up and go get them before we’re late!”
He finished his juice and looked at his half-eaten yoghurt parfait, then glanced at his Fitbit. He hated to waste food, and no doubt would be hungry well before lunch, but there was no helping it. “I best shove off now,” he said.
She pushed her chair back abruptly. “Oh, I’m ready to go now, too,” she said. He quailed at her eagerness. This was definitely going to be a problem once they got back home, he decided.No two ways about it. A terrible thought occurred to him. Had he been promoted and placed on this trip because she fancied him? Bile rose in his throat at the thought. He pushed the negative thought aside.
Surely not. Upper management had to approve, all the way up to regional. They looked at my records and approved my promotion.
If Lorraine noticed his reluctance to engage with her, she didn’t show it. She chattered all the way to the elevator and all the way up to Kris’ floor. The elevator stopped and he got out once the door opened. He turned in surprise when Lorraine also stepped out.
“Silly me! I had it in my pocket all along!” she said with false cheer, waving it about.
“Oh. Well, that’s good. I still need to get mine.”
That took all of five minutes to fetch it and ride back down to the second floor. There he was relieved to find he was on Team Limburger while Lorraine was on Stilton.
“They’re all named after cheese,” someone commented.
“Stinky cheeses, yeah,” another voice said.
Kris wandered down the hall with the rest, finding that the third door he checked had a paper sign taped to it with his team’s name on it. He pushed the door open and found around a dozen people present, including one of the managers he had sat with at breakfast with Jonas. He didn’t recognise any of the others, which wasn’t surprising since they were from offices around the world.
A cheerful man with a clipboard came in and asked for everyone’s attention.
“Okay, I’m just going to call the names on my list to make sure everyone who’s here gets credit for showing up,” he said. Two more men came in the door. “Oh, hi, I’m just doing a quick roll call. Was there anyone else out here? No? Okay.” He began to read the list of names. Everyone was present.
“Okay, great. I want to say hi and welcome. I’m Frank. This lovely lady here,” he pointed to a brightly smiling woman sat in a chair behind him, "is my assistant Lindy. Today we’re going to do a team-building exercise that builds trust. Now, I know many of you have probably never met before and work in different offices in different cities and even different countries, so heck, why would you need to trust them? It’s simple. You need to be able to trust that your counterparts have your back, no matter who they are or where they are. Know that, and as you move up and about Triborr, you’ll never feel alienated.” Lindy stood up. “Now, Lindy is going to blindfold me and I’m going to let her lead me around the room.”
The group watched as they demonstrated. After leading Frank, around the room in a circle, Lindy took his blindfold off.
“Okay, now, pair up with standing close to you while Lindy and I pass out the blindfolds. First the person we hand the blindfold to ties it around their partners, taking extra care to make sure they can’t see anything. Then we’ll switch, so it’s the other way around.”
They flew us from all around the globe for this?
“Hi, I’m Xavier.”
Kris looked up to see a man smiling down at him.
“I’m Kris.”
“Be my partner, Kris? Looks like everyone else has paired up.”
“Um, yeah, sure.
“Great!” enthused Lindy as she approached. “Everyone’s all paired up.” She gave Xavier the blindfold and gave Kris a playful wink. “You’ll get to have him at your mercy next.”
Kris laughed weakly as she walked away.
“This seems silly,” Xavier groused. “If you turn around, I can fasten it easier.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Kris replied. “I was thinking the same thing, though. I hope it gets better. Otherwise, it seems a lot of money for not much.”
