Page 53 of Catalyst
“Thank you for getting me out of my head for a minute,” Adam whispers. He places a soft kiss on my cheek, and my insides melt.
He helps me up from the desk, and we both do our best to clean up in his office. Not the most ideal situation, but totally worth it.
“I need to get back to work.” Adam moves to sit down at his desk. I grab him by the tie and pull him back toward me.
“Not so fast, mister. I had another plan before I came in here that we are now late for. Let’s go.” I grab his phone and wallet from his desk and take his hand to lead him out of his office.
“Hold on. I can’t just leave. We have a shitstorm happening right now, Ellie. I need to work.”
“Adam, how productive have you been today? List three things you’ve accomplished this morning.”
“I’ve been plenty productive. I finalized… well, almost finalized the ad copy for the new marketing campaign.”
“Meaning you opened the already written text and read it. You and I both know it needs two more rounds of edits before it’s finalized. Try something else.”
“I cleaned out my inbox.”
“I marked all the emails you were safe to delete last week. All you had to do was click the trash can button. Next.”
“I…” His shoulders deflate. “I haven’t done a lot of anything.” His poor face looks like someone just kicked his puppy.
“Exactly. Honey”—I run my fingers through his hair—“taking today off to regroup will not make the sky fall. It’s already falling. Let’s meet up with Matthew, take some time to focus on what’s important, and come back tomorrow, ready to take on the world.”
“Okay. I’m following you.”
CHAPTER25
Ellie
“Where the hell are we?”Adam asks, looking out the window.
I wouldn’t let him drive since I didn’t want him to know what we were doing, and he’s been sulking ever since.
I pull into the almost-empty parking lot of The Fun Zone and catch Adam’s raised eyebrow in my peripherals.
“You can’t be serious.”
“That is one of my character flaws,” I tease.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
I get out of the car without responding, knowing without a doubt, Adam will follow me. There are more cars here than I anticipated for a Monday afternoon, but I’m hoping that means there will be more people here than just me, Matthew, and Adam.
Adam catches up to me right as I get to the front entrance, and he opens the door for me. The Fun Zone is sectioned off into several different areas, each one created with fun in mind. The arcade is lit up like a neon sign and playing a cacophony of sounds all vying for your attention. Next to that is the bowling alley, with six empty lanes begging for someone to come play. There’s an area for virtual reality games and an area to order food and drinks. But along the back wall of the building is our destination.
I head straight for the entrance, excitement buzzing in my veins. I haven’t played laser tag in years.
“This was your big idea? Laser tag?”
“Yep. And it’s going to be a blast.” I keep walking past the unmanned welcome desk, heading straight for the back, where Matthew told me he was waiting. When we turn the corner, we’re met with a group of adults all clad in Velcro vests and holding plastic guns.
“Hey, guys! I was worried you weren’t going to make it in time,” Matthew says. I do my best to keep my face from heating at the reason we’re late.
“Took a little more elbow grease than anticipated to get crabby pants out of his office.”
“That’s not a surprise. Was the armor necessary?” Matthew grins. The sparkle in his eyes tells me we’re not fooling anyone as to why we were late.
“Not exactly.” I grin.
