Blind Date with Boss

Chapter 6

Percy waited beside the elevator, waiting patiently for Annabeth to finish tidying up. She claimed she had a place in mind for dinner so he could rest easy and all he would need to do would be drive them – which Percy didn't mind considering the near-death experience he had with her last time she drove them.

"Percy."

He turned around at the mention of his name and watched as the elevator opened widely and two figures stepped out, looking him up and down. His heart did a 180 as his eyes fell on Artemis and Zoe. The latter carried a cup tray of two coffees, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were returning from grabbing coffee and he shuddered to think what awaited them this late at night that they needed coffee.

"Earth to Percy, you still with us?" Artemis reiterated as she eyed him intently.

Percy snapped back to attention as if he realised, he was being rude and he averted his gaze, "Yeah, sorry."

He promptly chose to ignore the poorly discreet snort that Artemis' secretary released and commented on the coffee tray, "Long night?"

"A bit."

There was silence and Percy wondered why they weren't going to the office, a sentiment seemingly shared by Zoe as she turned to Artemis curiously. Before she could speak though, Annabeth appeared from around the corner, her gaze focused on her handbag as she rummaged through it, no doubt looking for something.

Percy couldn't help but stare at her. She had somehow managed to change her clothes, wash her face and tidy her hair along with apply makeup in less than 15 minutes. Now he felt underdressed as he looked at his shabby and slightly wrinkled shirt and pant. He didn't even need a mirror to know that his hair was most likely ruffled and everything on his facial expression would be saying 'kill me'.

As she got closer, Annabeth began, "Hey Perce, have you seen my-" she trailed off as her eyes met the two ladies and she quickly composed herself as she greeted them, "Artemis. Zoe."

They stared at each, none betraying any emotion before Artemis asked, "Got a date, Ms. Chase?"

"Something like that." Annabeth simply responded with a smile and Percy looked at her surprised, but she simply threw him a cheeky side smirk to show she was joking.

"Interesting," Artemis looked in contemplation before she turned to Percy and said, "I am going to assume that you are accompanying Ms. Chase on her date, Mr. Jackson?"

If words could kill, Percy believed he would've been smitten down right then and there.

Her icy cold gaze practically forced him to tell her the truth, "Annabeth and I are just going for dinner. No dates."

Her expression softened and she turned to Annabeth and said, "If that's the case, I am sure you wouldn't mind us tagging along. We were just going for dinner anyway."

"We were?" Zoe asked incredulously but a quick look from Artemis shut her up. Artemis gave an overly sweet smile to Annabeth who couldn't resist reciprocating it but Percy could see from her tight grip on her handbag strap that she was not pleased with them joining.

Annabeth answered, with gritted teeth, "Sure, come on. The more the merrier."

"Wait for us." Artemis and Zoe walked in the direction of their office but not before Zoe shooting a scathing glance at Percy, which he reckons was unfair because he didn't even say anything for this to happen.

Once they were out of earshot, Annabeth's smile dropped and she muttered softly, "Well, fuck."

"You good?"

Her smile returned as she turned to Percy and said, "Yeah, everything is all good."

Even though her smile didn't reach her eyes, Percy couldn't find it in himself to comfort her because, and he hated to admit it, he was kind of glad that Artemis was coming along. He had completed the report for Artemis and everything and hadn't received a single word from her and he was worried he did something wrong. He also wanted to make sure he could clear any misunderstandings from the blind date.

"...Percy?"

Percy snapped back to attention and saw Artemis and Zoe staring at him. Thankfully, the only difference in their uniform was that they had taken off their suits and were accompanying them in shirt and tie. Definitely made Percy more comfortable with not being the underdressed person of the group. Although, he admitted, he felt guilty for thinking that when he saw Annabeth's uncomfortable look at them.

"Are we all ready?" He asked as he dug his car keys out of his pocket and once they all nodded, "Cool, lets go. Annabeth said she has a place in mind so I will put it on the GPS."

There was no response, and Percy just took the cue to press the button for elevator. He just hoped that the rest of the dinner would go smoothly and wouldn't be this awkward. He wasn't sure why Artemis and Zoe were coming along but it didn't seem like anything was changing their mind.

Thankfully, the elevator arrived in a second and they filed in silently and Percy could feel sweat forming at the back of his neck from the nervousness. The entire walk to his car was awkward and uncomfortable silence and no one could deny that this was a mismatched group to an extreme.

Unfortunately for Percy, his troubles were not over just yet.

As they reached his car, Artemis and Annabeth simultaneously reached for the passenger seat while Zoe walked to driver's rear seat. The two looked at each other and Artemis gave a cold smile, "You wouldn't mind sitting in the back, would you?"

Shell shocked, Annabeth did not get the chance to reply before Artemis opened the door and sat in the passenger seat. The blonde girl looked at Percy, her eyes asking him for help but he knew better than to involve himself with whatever civil war was going on between them. With a slight huff, Annabeth took her seat behind Artemis and looked out the window, displeased.

This was going to be a long ride.

A/N: Not too much that happened in this chapter but there is more planned stuff for later on. I will admit this is a smaller chapter than earlier ones so I am sorry about it. I hope you still enjoyed this chapter though and please give me reviews on what I could improve on if anything. Also, make sure to follow and favourite and if you need to talk to me, you can find me in Emerald Library or my server. Both links are in my author bio on ffnet.