Tied

Chapter 31

Monday morning was normal, Grant and Mia got up showered, got dressed, made coffee and headed off to work. Grant told Mia he would go shopping after work and she could stop by her apartment and then head over. Once Mia got to the office it was a busy day, Mia was not sure why Mondays always seemed busy but today was pushing the limits. She ended up eating a cup of soup for lunch because there just was not time to go out to lunch.

At about 5:30 Mia finished up for the day and headed to her apartment, where she packed enough clothes for at least a week, maybe more. Then she headed to Grant's house where she found his car in the garage. When she entered the kitchen, he was in the process of putting away the groceries, but he stopped and kissed her several times before letting her go unpack. He told her dinner would be ready shortly, they were having a salad with chicken and so it would not take him long to put it together.

She unpacked quickly and headed back to the kitchen where Grant was putting the finishing touches on the salads and soon, they were eating. They talked about their respective days and Grant told her that his father had made the announcement to the company about retiring and his mom was getting excited about moving closer to her "babies". Mia laughed at the thought of Grant, Gavin and Gabe as babies, but she knew Grace loved her boys and wanted to be closer to them.

After they cleaned up the kitchen they headed downstairs, where Grant surprised her by watching the cooking channel and Mia made some phone calls. She checked in with Thad and found out his mother was about the same, the doctor was telling them it would most likely be within the next week or two. Mia whispered to Grant about asking Thad to dinner and he agreed so she asked him over for Thursday night. She asked him if he was seeing anyone and to feel free to bring them. When that call was done, she called Jade and chatted with her for a while. Once her calls were done, she laid on the couch with her head in Grant's lap and watched TV with him until they went to bed.

Tuesday was a busy day as well and Mia ended up working late. She called Grant in the afternoon to let him know and he assured her it was no issue. But the team was having an issue with some of the numbers they were getting and worked until almost nine o'clock. When they finished, they were pretty sure they had a case of theft/fraud happening at the company they were auditing, so Rebecca was going to report it to their manager in the morning. When Mia got home, Grant asked if she was hungry and she was, but she was also tired, so she asked if he had something simple like the egg sandwich, he had fixed that weekend. He whipped her up a quick sandwich that she ate and then they headed to bed.

Wednesday was stressful because Rebecca, Mia and their manager had to go talk to their client about the possibility of fraud happening at his company. It was a mid-size company with a lot of long-term employees and the president did not want to believe it. By the time they were done showing him what they found, he agreed it was happening and asked them to see if they had determined who it was. Rebecca and Mia already had figured it out and so they explained who it was to him. He was not happy but at least it was not a long-time employee. They suggested he call the police if he wanted to prosecute and gave him the documentation he would need. They had caught about $100,000 worth of theft/fraud, but there could be more. The manager said they would have to get a special team in to find it all.

By the time they finished it was almost five so Mia went straight to Grant's house, he was not home yet, but she got changed into leggings, matching over sized T-shirt and sneakers. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and texted Jade and asked if they needed to bring anything. Jade responded no. When Grant arrived, he changed into jeans and a polo shirt, and they were ready to go. Mia grabbed what she needed for the games, and they were on their way.

Jasmine had prepared barbecue pulled pork for sandwiches along with coleslaw and baked beans, she had pulled some of the pork out before putting on the sauce for Susan just in case and Susan was very thankful. Once everyone had eaten and the group cleaned up the kitchen, it was game time, so everyone headed to the living room. Mia pulled out the That's what she said game, read the read the rules and they began. The game ended with everyone laughing and cracking up, to the point some had to stop for a moment to be able to read the answers. The first game went to Jade who of course bragged about winning. The second game was much more contested with Matt, Mia and Jade all neck and neck at the end, but Mia won much to Jade's disappointment.

They then moved on to the find it game, Mia had brought a stopwatch and soft fuzzy balls and explained that they would play in groups, the partners of your opponent would hide a ball on your body and then your partner would have to find it. To make it harder, the person who had the ball hidden on them was blindfolded so they could not tell exactly where the ball was hidden, if the hider acted like they were hiding in multiple places. They did have another woman hid the balls on the women, but the other team told them where to put it.

The first group was Jasmine/Jade, with Susan hiding the ball on Jade, Matt/Gavin, with Jasmine hiding the ball on Gavin and Susan/Mark with Matt hiding the ball on Mark. Grant was manning the stopwatch. When it started there was a lot of laughter as finders felt all around their partner's bodies. Susan had hidden the ball at the back of Jade's neck under her hair and Jasmine was not even getting close. Jasmine had hidden her ball in one of Gavin's socks and Matt patted over his socks and missed it. Matt's spot was the best because Mark was wearing tight jeans that had some rips and he placed the ball inside one of the rips. Susan looked at his jeans visually and did not see any bumps, so she started looking at other places. Jasmine found Jade's ball first, but it still took almost two minutes. The other two continued to look, Matt found the next one and Susan finally gave up and Matt showed her where he had hidden it.

The next pairs were Grant/Mia with Jade hiding the ball for Jason on Mia and Jason/Paul with Grant hiding the ball on Paul. Jason had Jade put the ball in Mia's waistband while Grant put the ball in Paul's coin pocket in his jeans, behind the silver dollar he always carried there. When the time started Jason went to all the spots others had hidden just in case someone tried to trick him, then started patting Paul down. Grant put his hands under Mia's top and felt her shoulders, under her arms, pinched her nipples for fun, then ran his fingers around her waist band and found the ball in about 30 seconds. Jason kept looking but eventually gave up because he had felt something in the coin pocket but just thought it was the coin.

Jasmine went to get dessert and coffee and Susan offered to help. They were back quickly with everything, and the group just relaxed and chatted while they ate. Jade was surprised Grant found the ball so fast and he said there were limited spots, and he just went at it systematically. Paul thought the objects should be harder so they would be easier to find, but Gavin said he liked being searched so the soft balls worked for him. The group was just chatting when Mia's phone rang and when she saw it was Thad, she got up and excused herself. Grant and Jade both followed.

While Mia and the others were gone, Jasmine explained to Mark and Susan a glossed over version of what had happened and how sick Mia's mother was. Jade came back first and quietly told everyone that Beverly had passed away. When Mia and Grant returned, everyone expressed their condolences, but Mia just nodded and said, "It is OK, it was expected, and I got my chance to say my piece." Grant thanked Jade and Jasmine and said they were going home. Everyone gave Mia hugs, and she thanked them, but was glad to be leaving.