Everything was perfect.

I laughed, adding to the harmony of clanking glasses and soft chatter around the room. In my own glass was a bubbly yellow liquid, with an umbrella rested against the side. A summer themed bussiness party had never occured to me as a good idea before, but now it seemed perfect.

All the most important company members were there, and I could finally propose my plan and get a promotion. I smiled at that, ready to down the rest of my alcohol, before the door opened.

I recognized his eyes as soon as he walked through the door. I froze. I couldn’t do this right now.

“John, nice to see you joined us! How about a glass, eh?” My boss, Bradford, greeted John, motioning his own glass in the air. He then looked down to John’s clothes, causing amusement to flash across his features. Then second hand embarrassment- I was assuming.

“Oh… did you not get the memo about wearing the tropical shirts?“ Bradford chuckled lightly, looking down to his own light blue floral shirt.

John’s face grew red with something between embarrassment and shame. “Sorry Boss. I… I didn’t know…” John said, before spotting me staring.

𝘖𝘩 𝘨𝘰𝘥. 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦?

“You and Pierre know eachother right?” Bradford added when he followed John’s gaze to me.

“Yes. We’ve met,” I replied, trying my best not to glare. John scoffed, turning to Bradford. “Yeah. I know him. That piece of… nevermind. Where’s the drinks?” John asked.

I turned away, trying to focus on the task ahead rather than the horrendous disease that had entered the room.

I just had to get Bradford and Pat, the CEO, talking, then I could propose the idea to both of them.

“Hey Mr. B. Need another drink? I’ll get you one. I see Pat over there is looking like he needs someone to talk to. Why don’t you tell him that joke you told me last week? The one about the cow,” I offered to Bradford, gesturing to the old man in the corner who was sitting alone.

Bradford almost responded, but a hard hand came down on my shoulder first. 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘥.

𝘖𝘶𝘤𝘩.

“No, no, no. I’ll go talk to Pat. I’ve been wanting to talk to the old guy for awhile anyways. Pierre, you can get our boss a drink can’t you? Since you’re so kind?” John said from behind me, making me internally furious.

I smiled viscously as my eyes narrowed to slits.

𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘯‘𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺?