Tied

Chapter 16

Grant and Mia struggled a little bit Monday morning because neither was a morning person, but they made it. Since neither normally ate breakfast before work, they simply had coffee, Grant gave Mia a key in case she arrived home before he did as well as the garage door opener for her side of the garage. When they were getting in the car, he stopped her and made her promise not to answer any calls from unknown numbers and not to listen to any messages until she got home that evening. Mia resisted a little, but she truly did not want to take calls from her mother, so she agreed.

Once she was at the office, she also told the receptionist to take messages instead of passing calls through to her desk. Rebecca stopped by and said her mother had told her about meeting Mia and they chatted for a few minutes, then Mia said she was not taking calls and was focusing on the deadline they had for Thursday. Rebecca thought that was a great idea and was going to suggest it to others on the team, and then said they would all meet in the conference room at one o'clock to go over what still needed to be done.

Mia was heads down all morning, stopping only to get coffee and make a pit stop, she oversaw the inventory part of the audit and while it was in good shape the company had not gotten her all the information she needed, so she was on the phone a lot with her contact there. She had put her cell phone on vibrate only, and she had received several calls from unknown callers, and they had left messages, but she did not listen to them. She also got a call from Jade, one from Jasmine, one from Grant and one from Grace, all of which she answered, but kept the calls short. She did mention to Jade that she did not bring her lunch and she did not know if she would have time to run and get something, so she was most likely going to have a cup of noodles for lunch.

At noon the receptionist called her and said a handsome man was in the lobby waiting for her, Mia asked her to get his name, and when she found out it was Grant, she hurried to reception area. When she entered the area, he walked over and hugged her and kissed her cheek but was careful to still maintain an air of professionalism. He told her he brought lunch for them, and she escorted him back to her desk. They were finishing up when Rebecca stopped by to ask a question and Mia introduced her to Grant and told him that her parents had been at the party on Saturday. Reminding Mia of the one o'clock meeting Rebecca left and Mia stood up and hugged Grant and said, "Thank you so much for lunch, but you did not have to do it." Grant smiled and said, "I wanted to do it. I am not going to be home until almost seven tonight, how about I stop and pick up a couple of pizzas?" Mia nodded and said, "No anchovies, and you will get bonus points if it is a white based pizza and/or has olives."

Mia moved so she was not in the doorway of her cubicle and pulled him close and kissed him, not a quick peck, but not an overly hot kiss either. When she broke the kiss, she smiled at him and he whispered, "I will buy ten pizzas if they get that kind of response." Mia hugged him quickly and then said, "Go or I will be getting home later than you will." Grant waved and walked out of her cubicle.

At the meeting it came up there were several things the client had not provided so Rebecca decided that she and Mia would make a visit to the client tomorrow to get everything they needed. They would meet at the office and ride together to the client's office. After the meeting, one of the other team members was struggling with some numbers, so Mia and Rebecca decided to work with him and see if they could help. It was almost five before they were finished, but they had solved the issue and that part of the project was now complete.

As they walked by the reception desk, Margie, the receptionist handed Mia a stack of calls to return, Mia just put them on her notebook and started to walk away when Margie said, "You have worked her for almost three years and I have never taken a message from your mother, but today she called at least five or six times." Mia shook her head and said, "I am sorry she bothered you so much, I will see about getting the calls to stop." Margie laughed and said, "She still did not call as many times as Brian's girlfriend, that girl calls every hour." Mia smiled and walked away, but Rebecca followed her and when they got to Mia's cubicle she said, "I heard from my mom what a bitch your mom was Saturday night. If you want, I can tell Margie to stop taking messages." Mia frowned and said, "Don't worry, she will stop soon, I am sure. She does not want to talk to me, she wants to tell me what to do and that is not happening." Rebecca nodded and walked away.