Choose (A Choose Your Own Story Adventure)

22. Cream and Sugar

"Cream and sugar would be great, thanks."

Terry chuckles. "One with cream for you and a black coffee for me—I like mine strong."

Mia forces a laugh as he walks away. Once he's gone, she turns to Therese. Her friend gives her a long eye roll, making Mia giggle. "That guy has some nerve."

"He's just being nice." Mia pulls up a spreadsheet on her computer. An object lightly smacks her in the forehead. She looks around for what it is, then looks down on her desk to see a crumpled piece of paper. She looks up at Therese, surprised.

"Are you serious, girl?" Therese asks. "Terry doesn't do anything just to be nice."

Mia doesn't reply. She knows that, too. It's just easier to deny the obvious than to face it.

Terry takes a little time before he comes back. At one point, Mia had suspected that he just wasn't ever going to return. That's too good to be true, though.

Terry hands Mia a coffee cup. She thanks him and sets it on her desk. She resumes her work, expecting for her co-worker to leave and attend to his duties. He stays put.

When she realizes that ignoring him is pointless, Mia sighs and looks back up at Terry. She gives him a weak smile. "Do you need something?"

"What?" he looks around, pretending like he didn't realize he's just been standing there. "Sorry, my bad, kind of dozed off for a second."

Mia laughs awkwardly. Therese snorts, shaking her head.

"Your cream and sugar reminded me that me and a few other co-workers are going over to John's house to watch a movie tonight," Terry says. He rubs the back of his neck. Mia stares at him, confused. Those two things don't correlate in the slightest. "You could probably come, too, if you'd like. That'd be...uh...cool."

"Is Therese invited?"

Mia can feel the daggers that Therese is glaring into her back. She doesn't look at her friend. If she's attending an event with Terry around, then Therese has to come, too.

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he replies dismissively, not looking at Therese. "So are you coming?"

"I'll think about it. Thanks for the offer."

Satisfied, Terry leaves the two girls alone. Therese sighs with relief. Mia relaxes in her chair. Her friend gives her a look, shakes her head, then looks back at her computer. Mia decides that it's better not to talk about what just happened. They can gossip about it over lunch.

The coffee is surprisingly good. She never gets coffee from work out of fear of it being cheap and watered-down. Maybe's it's the cream—it can save anything.

The caffeine mixed with the sugar boost gives Mia a jolt of energy. She gets through her work easily without having a moment of fatigue. It's the first time in a week that she successfully gets all of her work done. Afterward, while everyone else is packing up and leaving, Mia stays in her seat. She figures that she won't have this immeasurable energy any other time, so it's best to crank out as much work as possible. If she gets ahead on what she needs to do tomorrow, she can go home earlier and have plenty of time to watch a full season of Stranger Things.

Therese slings her purse over her shoulder. "Are you going home, busy bee?"

Mia shakes her head. "I have a few documents to edit and emails to answer. I'm not going to John's, so you don't have to, either."

"You just made my night." Mia laughs. "Don't stay here for too long, the office gets freaky at night." Mia shakes her head. Therese has always been suspicious about the workplace being haunted. The scariest thing about the office is how often the toilets get clogged. "I'm serious! Text me when you get home, okay?"

Mia agrees. Therese relaxes. She gives Mia a smile, turns on her heel, and leaves.

Mia hopes that Terry will just leave and not bring up the movie night again, but he walks over. She takes her fingers off the keyboard and turns in her chair to look at Terry. He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks around the empty office. "Hey, have you thought about what we talked about earlier?"

"Oh, yes." Mia leans back to show him her screen. "I've decided to stay late tonight to finish a few things. Sorry, maybe I'll go to the next one."

That's a lie. She has no intention to go to the next movie night.

Terry shrugs. "No problem. I actually have a few things I need to do, too. I'll probably stay late."

Mia raises a brow. There's no way he had any intention to stay before she said something. She shrugs and returns back to her work.

To Mia's annoyance, Terry slides a chair over and turns on a vacant computer next to her. She sighs. This is going to be a long night.

It ends up being fairly manageable. Terry will bring up an occasional conversation, but Mia keeps her responses short and her focus on her computer. She's able to get a majority of her work done in a reasonable amount of time.

"What are you guys still doing here?" Mia turns her head to where the voice is. A tall woman with a brown bob is standing in front of an opened door. Mia immediately recognizes her to be her boss, Linda.

Mia stares, stunned. She only talks to Linda during meetings or when she needs Mia to run an errand. She sounds accusatory, as if them being there is a nuisance to her.

"We're just getting some extra work done," Terry explains. He takes his feet off of his desk. Mia looks over at his empty screen and rolls her eyes. Definitely a we situation.

"It's getting late," Linda says. "I was planning to lock up now so that I could get home..."

Mia looks at her computer. There are still a few things she hopes to get done before she leaves. She doesn't want to keep Linda for longer than needed, though. Maybe she can offer to lock up herself once she's finished. Mia knows that she doesn't know Linda well enough to be trusted, but she can still try.

Mia ponders the choices. Should she stay or leave?

Listen to Linda ... Chapter 25

Insist on Staying ... Chapter 26