The Worst, Best Day

My ad agency had only 8 employees, plus our fearless leader, and owner; Miya. She was laid back and cool, however, she was a micro manager. The company had been in business less than six months, but we've had some lucrative clientele. For the most part, I got along with everyone on the team, with the exception of one. His name was Josh, and he was a know-it-all. One time I was working on an ad campaign, and he walked up behind me, started reading what I wrote, and said "that will never work", and walked away. No constructive input, nothing at all...except negativity. He, by-far was the most irritating man I had ever met.

Today, Miya wanted everyone to meet at 9 a.m. in the break-room. She had an issue she wanted to discuss with us. So, I got my coffee and headed there. I saw Sara, who was my favorite person at work, and sat down next to her. We've hung out on an occasional weekend night. She was fun. "Any clue what Miya wants to talk about"? I asked. "I have no idea, I heard Miss Snooty one and two chatting about it, but they were clueless too." Miss Snooty one and two were two peas in a pod who thought their poo didn't stink, and we disagreed greatly.

Miya walked into the room. "Alright, I'm sure you're all curious as to why I called this meeting. I started this company because I was passionate about the kind of ads I saw on TV. Some were cringe-worthy. In the past six months, I've seen some amazing work from this team, however, every one of you could be phenomenal! The only problem I see is that you don't work as a team. You work as individuals, and that doesn't work for me. So, we have a new, very important client coming up, and I want a unified team working on it. I have signed up this team for a team-building seminar. You leave Monday, and come back Thursday. I have drawn names of two people, and these two will carpool together, and I don't care who you prefer to ride with. These are my rules. You will get your normal weekly pay, a gas and food allowance, and I rented a mansion with 8 bedrooms for you to stay. You can pick up the name of the team member, and the address of the residence at my desk. I expect full cooperation at this seminar. Anyone causing issues may come back to their desk being boxed up. Any questions?" Nobody had any questions.

Sara and I talked after the meeting. "I hope we're paired together. That would be fun!" I prompted. Sara agreed, and told me she would go get hers, and meet me at my desk. I walked over to my desk, which was in a cubicle, but it worked well for me. I liked privacy.

I saw Sara coming back, and she didn't look happy. When she got inside my cubby, she said "I got Miss Snooty one! OMG, how am I going to survive a five hour trip with her!! I'm bringing a book for when I'm not driving." I told her I was going to get mine. I walked up to Miya's desk, and she handed me my envelope. I walked away before I opened it, and my jaw dropped! I got Josh! The most annoying man on the planet, five hours with his holier than thou attitude. Sara could tell my news wasn't spectacular when I walked back in. "Who did you get?" I showed her the envelope. She hugged me. 

It was a quiet weekend of packing, downloading a book to my tablet, and attempting to calm my nerves.

Sunday night Josh called me to get my address so he could pick me up Monday morning. I gave it to him, and hung up. We had decided we would take his car, because it was newer.

The seminar started at 10 a.m. Monday morning, so we decided to leave at 4 a.m. That way we could get there, bring our bags to the house, and still have window for bathroom breaks.

The alarm woke me at 3 a.m. and I was not feeling it, but I dragged myself out of bed, had some coffee, got dressed, and filled my water bottle. At 4 a.m. on the dot, I get a call that he was waiting downstairs. I went down, and got into the car (aka chaos car).

"Good morning, it's awful early, I'm not even sure the birds are awake yet". He laughed. I smiled in agreement. "Do you have the directions programmed into your GPS?" I asked. "Oh, darn! he teased. I knew I forgot something". After that we were pretty quiet, until about an hour into the drive. "Um, Josh, I'm sorry, but I have to use the bathroom. Coffee does that to me." He looked at the GPS, and asked me if I could wait ten minutes, because there was a rest stop coming up. I told him yes, and we pulled into the deserted rest stop. It was creepily dark out there, and only a dim light above the ladies room sign. I could picture horror movie outcomes with me visiting it. Josh looked irritated when I didn't get out of the car. He looked over at me. "Well, it won't come to you." I looked again, and tentatively stepped outside. Inside, I was freaking out. And then I heard it, a woman screaming! I quickly got back inside the car. "I can't go out there! Did you hear that woman screaming? She's being murdered! We have to call the police! Lock the doors!" I screamed incoherently. Josh looked at me, and gave me a calming smile. "Emily, look outside. There are two foxes. They're nocturnal, The male screams like that to warn off competitors for his lady. They're on a date.". I just stared at him, "So, okay, how do you know so much about foxes?" "I grew up on a farm, we always heard odd sounds and I was a curious kid." He got out of the car, walked over to my side, and opened my door. "I will be your bodyguard to the bathroom." We both laughed.

We got back on the road, and I thought to myself that he wasn't as awful as I thought. Then I hear a thump thump thump sound. "Crap!" Josh exclaims! "We have a flat tire!" We both get out of the car when he pulls over, and start putting our bags into the back seat in order to get to the spare. Josh took off his dress shirt to change it, and he was wearing a wife beater tank, and I don't know if it was lack of sleep, or hormones, but yowzer, he was giving me major heartthrob vibes! His arm muscles were firm, without being overly muscular, and his chest was bare and yummy. It was a perfect moment, until I heard the barrage of swear words spewing from his lips. "Josh" I tentatively asked "Is everything okay?" He stood up straight and glared at me. The heartthrob had left the building! "Well, the lug nut broke off and now I have to figure out a way to get the sucker off, so I would say everything was NOT okay!" I turned and walked to the back of the car.

He went to the trunk and got a torch, and I was thinking, uh oh. He fired it up, held it to the lug not for about thirty seconds, and then reached for WD-40, and sprayed it on. Then he got a rag, and twisted the lug nut, and lo and behold it came off! "That was amazing!" I hollered. He bowed, and smiled at me. He finished changing the tire, however, we had to head to the nearest tire shop because apparently you can't drive three hours on a donut. We found a town that had a tire shop, and they fixed us up.

By this time it was close to 8, and we both needed a bathroom break and food. We found a little diner close by called Gigi's Southern Eats. We walked in to a small place with retro red chairs and silver tables. The curtains were gingham red and white, and there was a jukebox in the corner playing records. A woman came over to us, she was a bit husky with red hair, and was wearing a red t-shirt and a white apron. "Welcome to my eatery. The specials are on the wall, but if that doesn't float your boat, special orders don't bother me none. Except I don't do capers, I'm not even sure what that is." We sat down, and I chose pancakes with bacon, and Josh got a Sunrise Platter (which included everything)!

During breakfast, we discussed the fact that we were never going to make it on time to the seminar. We flipped a coin to determine who was going to call and tell Miya, and I lost. We finished our delicious breakfast, and hit the road. I called Miya, and she was not happy, but it wasn't our fault. "I think we'll probably be there about noon, and they do a one o'clock lunch break, so we can drop off our bags, and head over at 2. Does that sound alright to you?" He agreed, and I took a cat nap while we drove. 

I woke up to Josh shaking me gently, "we're here, sleepyhead." I couldn't believe I slept that long! "I am so sorry I wasn't much company to you. You should have woke me." He got out his side, and opened the door for me. "It's okay, you're beautiful when you're quiet." he said with a teasing tone. "JOSH!" I got out of the car, and chased him. We were both laughing. We were standing inches apart, and he put his thumb on my cheek, gently stroked it, and kissed me. I felt it everywhere.

So, even though I thought it was going to be the worst day, it turned out to be a pretty good day, after all.