So we left off on Wednesday night. To put this all in order, the drinks from Wednesday night helped get my thoughts together for:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/er...ation-same-old-d-pics.942/page-11#post-768343
And then it was Thursday. The plan was for me to pick up a rental car, drive it to work, we work during the day and then leave from there for the hotel. We'd do dinner as a group, go back to our rooms and that would be that.
Sounds simple doesn't it? Yeah, simple and I don't really get along.
The coworker I haven't really mentioned previously called out. One, that created a whole bunch of logistical challenges in trying to change reservations on short notice, not to mention we'd be short handed, forcing the remainder of us (so myself, my assistant and the dude from my last section) to pick up the presentation pieces. Essentially, spend every minute of the workday in close quarters hashing out a backup plan. We make it work.
So the work day is over and we begin our couple hundred mile road trip. Our rental didn't have bluetooth so we decided between the three of us to just rotate music duties. Because it's not like there's anything that could possibly go wrong there. Yep. I have to hand it to my little group here-- we at least have a sense of humor. For at least 90% of the trip, it ceased to be about enjoying the music and became about just...fuckery. For reference again, this car ride has 1 20-something, 1 30-something and 1 40-something because the 1 50-something couldn't make it.
I don't remember all of them and was only responsible for 1/3 of them, but some of the songs off the top of my head-- "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, "Dirty Little Secret" (I lol'd when the young one pulled that off), "What's Your Fantasy", etc etc. You get the idea. Have I mentioned lately that the kid is oblivious? Yeah, he's oblivious and 100% just thinking he's in on the joke.
We end up having a nice dinner where I tell my assistant about the previous night at the bar. Of course she plays it off flawlessly. That's how we do it. For a couple hours, we're just 3 friends enjoying the company. We didn't talk about work, didn't talk about how my assistant and I had so much tension at this point you could cut it with a knife. Just enjoying the ride.
From there it was to the hotel. Hotel bar was terrible (which we knew from the previous meeting last year) so we brought our own-- in this case, moonshine. I check us into the hotel. 3 rooms, 2 of which are right next to each other (Of course they are. And I swear to anyone reading this that this was not at all by request) and the other one a fair bit down the hall. We all go to our rooms to change, I also grab the moonshine and we gather in her room.
I know a lot of you will know what I'm talking about when I say this-- when there's that spark with someone, you look at things in a much different light. I had left my room and knocked on her door-- she opens it up wearing a long sleeve t-shirt, a pair of mesh shorts and fucking Uggs. If your mental image of this is ridiculous, good. It was. Inexplicably (or not as it may be), it was also the most adorable sight I may have ever seen in my life. My ex-wife had an affinity for lingerie, but even her best days from ages ago in some strange, strange way couldn't compare. And worse, it wasn't that I even wanted to sleep with her right then and there. There was just some brutally strong draw from her. Intoxicating.
So speaking of intoxicating, while I'm having this tug of war in my head, the young one comes in and we crack open the first bottle of moonshine. PSA-- while they'll all knock you on your ass, some of the flavored stuff can be actually tasty. Selling out to tourists be damned. So we kill a bottle of sweet tea moonshine. And then into a bottle of french toast.
"Before I bail, I want you to know I love you guys--you're like family to me."
And with that, the kid heads back to his room, leaving just my assistant and I.
"What the hell are we doing here? You have a whole life of your own. So do I. I don't want to be the other woman. I've been there and done that and you know we're both smarter than this. Oh yeah, there's also that thing about how WE FUCKING WORK TOGETHER!"
We kissed after that.
When I started down this whole road of actually writing this confession in more or less real time, I wanted it to be more about the thoughts and feelings going on in my mind instead of some Dear Penthouse-esque writing. So I'm going to leave the story there and bring Thursday night to a close. It's technically Friday morning by this point anyway.
To BLOODED_hands, MattB, ACB, EB64, Redcrayon and everyone else who's read this whole thing so far, I just want to say thanks. neoak and CoH, you guys too. It's been cathartic to get this all out into the open.
Wonder what we can do for an encore? Oh yeah, there's still Friday.