"...and that, well, that's just efficient!" The room erupted into laughter, as hundreds of older men in cheap suits competed to kiss ass the hardest. Mae didn't get the joke, rather, she got it, but didn't care for it. She spotted someone else a few tables away around her age who looked every bit as bored as her, and they shared a deflated glance and a mutual shrug. Nobody enjoys a business trip, nobody likes a stale cigarette stained ceiling of an old hotel in the middle of nowhere, and nobody was interested in a 'riches to riches' speech as ignorant as whatever that guy had just delivered. She'd regretted coming as soon as she'd felt all the eyes watching her walk in, her emerald dress perfectly matched with subtle earrings for a modern business casual setting, but 'modern' this was not. She'd immediately realised why she was sent to this hellhole and not Mark or Jake; she was eye candy, a sexy mascot for the firm. The last bastion in trying to keep the business afloat. It was very uncomfortable.
When the string of bland, self congratulatory speeches came to an end, she managed to throw together a few polite nods and smiles before scurrying outside for some air. There she stood, phone in hand, in the cold afternoon. Zero signal, not that there had been any for miles around.
"What a fucking nightmare, right?"
She turned around to see the guy she'd shared a gesture with earlier was now standing next to her looking equally as drained. She laughed a single, solitary, huff of a laugh, which summed it all up better than words ever could. She was totally done and over it.
"I'm Chris and I want to go home"
"Hey, I'm Mae"
"With a 'Y'?"
"With an 'E' "
"Cool." He smiled a lob sided smile, that made her heart flutter a little. There was a cosiness to his eyes, their amber like a fireplace in autumn. He held himself like nothing in the world could shake him. He was cute.
"Are you a Chris with a 'y' or?"
"... I don't see how that would... are there Chris' with a 'Y'... I suppose th..."
"I was joking." She was blushing now, he was sweet and kind of daft. She wanted to play with his hair and call him and idiot.
They both stared out over the rolling greens of their captors; the hills which kept them there. The skyline violet and dry, heavy in the nostrils, as crickets and other critters sung to them. It'd be night soon.
"What room did they put you in?" He asked.
"306"
"ooo fancy! They have me in the basement"
"The basement?"
"I lied, they have me in the shed, I just wanted to seem cooler to you."
So, he could tell his own jokes.
She felt a familiar giddiness rise up in her as she said "well, if you really hate your room so much, you could always come and hangout in mine." She bit her lip involuntarily and he caught every second of it. Their breathing had quickened. They both knew it was on. Perhaps as soon as he'd seen her, he'd pictured them fucking. Maybe, if she felt inclined to admit it, she'd only really seen him in the sea of other guys in that stuffy room. Regardless, it was happening.
A man approached them out of nowhere, "Chris: big news. We're looking at going through with the deal, but we need some advice, mate. You see we've..."
"Tomorrow" Chris interrupted, calmly but with a definitive finality to it that made Mae want to grab and cling to his arm- so she did. "Tomorrow" He repeated.
"...Tomorrow" said the man, eyeing them both with a sly smile, before frowning, and shaking his head as if to rid of himself of a ridiculous theory.
*
The room was victorian in its dΓ©cor, almost certainly thought out by someone who prized practicality and a sense of martyrdom over comfort. No heating. One small lamp. Good luck.
She walked her way over to her travel bag and pulled out a bottle.