Wednesday was a rollercoaster of a day. But not a normal rollercoaster. It started out with the happy shock of waking up next to Brooke while snuggled up under the sleeping bag. It turns out that the duffel bag she'd brought contained a change of clothes and toiletries, because she'd planned on spending the night with me here. She must have had a lot of faith in me forgiving her too, which had obviously been well founded. I was also nervous, because while I spooned her on the little air mattress, her sweet smelling hair was in my nose again, and I really wanted to let my hands wander. But we hadn't even had our first official date yet!

               We'd had a nice sleep, even on an air mattress, and it was wonderful to wake up with her in my arms. It was her first time spending the night, so I'd shown her the gym downstairs and where the showers were. We took adjoining stalls, both behaving even with a few glances stolen, and then got dried off and dressed. We went and got our breakfast together as well, and then went upstairs to eat it. Of all the times I'd spent the night at the office, it was by far the best time I'd had while getting the day started.

                But the thing about roller coasters is that when you reach the crest of that first hill, you go down. In this case though, the track from the roller coaster ended at a fucking boulder on the ground. I'd decided to say no to the pair of assholes running our team once they showed up for work, and it went worse than expected.

               "Guys, after the Nike project, I'm done covering for you," I told them straight up in Bryan's office.

               Jax quickly scoffed, while Bryan didn't even change expression. "No, you're not."

               "I am. I'm done working my ass off for you two to do nothing at all. You don't even pretend to work, and everyone in the office knows it. I'm done."

               Bryan finally looked up at me, a sinister smile on his face. "You know, your buddy Elliot has a new baby on the way. It would be rough on their family if he lost his job, wouldn't it?"

               "You're joking. That wouldn't work, and you know it," I retorted.

               "Of course, it would. If his performance on the pitch doesn't go well, it would be easy to lose him. And we can make sure that his performance is mediocre at best, especially if his pitch isn't the one we go with. I have a feeling you have the best one, right? You know the HR office will back us too." Bryan stated. "Everything is working perfectly as it is, so why rock the boat?"

               "It's working perfectly for you! Not for anyone else! I'd like a life that doesn't include 80 hour weeks to cover for you two not doing a damned thing!"

               "I can understand you wanting something different. But that isn't happening. Now go back and make something that wins that pitch!"

               Jax just snickered. I shouldn't have been shocked. It was just like them to keep acting like this. It was easier to threaten than actually do the work. "How long are you planning on keeping this up? Is this just my job from now on?"

               "Yes, so stop complaining." Bryan's eyes dropped back to his laptop, which knowing him was probably streaming porn.

               I guess I was going to have to do a few things a lot differently. I was sick of this shit. Leaving was still at the top, but even if I left, I was dooming everyone else to their continued behavior.

               "Things didn't go well I assume?" Brooke asked when she saw the expression on my face once I returned.

               "No, not at all.

               She closed her laptop and looked over at me. "Do you need to talk through it?"

               I took a deep breath, and then let it out. "They threatened to fire Elliot if I didn't keep doing their jobs. His wife is pregnant and is due at any time, so that would obviously be a horrible thing for them to have to deal with."

               Brooke's mouth just dropped open. "They wouldn't!"

               "They would. They wouldn't even bat an eye. Anything to keep their precious life of luxury," I snarled. "Please tell me you were adopted!"

               "I wish I was!" she groaned. "Shit. They're really going to have a hard time with me going out with you."

               "Then don't tell them," I suggested. "Make up a college friend you're hanging out with or something. They can't stop you from living your life, you're an adult now."

               "I need to move out too," she murmured. "Living at home already sucks. They can't breathe down my neck if I'm not living at my dad's place anymore. I've been meaning to do it ever since I graduated, I just haven't got around to it."

               I nodded sagely. "Absolutely. Get out there on your own, control your own life. You'll have a ton more freedom and can come and go as you please."

               "Do you like living on your own?"

               "Oh yeah. I mean, my parents were a little different. My dad is Dutch and was an attaché at the embassy in London. My mom was the same, but for the US. I guess they met at various embassy functions and hit it off. But they never tried to control anything, they always let me go live my life as I wanted. But even with all that, when I got my first job after Uni, I moved out as soon as I could. It was just a little flat, but right away I felt like a real adult, you know?"

               "Okay, that seals the deal. I'm moving out as soon as I can! I bet I could get a small condo around here." She seemed determined, and she opened her laptop up and started typing. "I might make an appointment with a real estate agent to go look at a few."

               "Good plan! A condo is what I have. There are a good amount around that have an easy commute, you'll find one," I assured her.

               "Oh! Or I could stay in an extended stay hotel or a rental until I found something to buy!" she was really getting into this now. "That way I'm out right away!"

               I couldn't help but smile at her excitement. Seeing her want to get away from her family made me even more sure about how good a person she was. It was as if they were trying to break her to make her into a female version of themselves, and she was doing her best to stop them. So even when they dragged her off to lunch yet again, she'd promised to come back with dinner again to keep helping me.

               Which is exactly what she did, showing up with some burgers just after 6pm. We had a nice dinner, and I was feeling like this was a good little system we had already. Yeah, it was hard on her from a travel standpoint, but at least now she was spending enough time in the office to learn things.

She was even doing a good job right now while looking over my slogan ideas.

               "Just Lick It." she repeated it a few times, as though getting a feel for it. "Just Kiss It." She repeated her little mantra, and I just sat and watched her do it. "Shit, I like them both."

               "I do too," I told her. "I was thinking that since the pitch was to sponsor a league or a team or a person, we could do several of those options. Maybe we do Just Kiss It for the league, and Just Lick It for Hilda. I mean, have you seen her tongue?" I turned my laptop to her and pointed at the photo I'd taken with Hilda sticking that long pink organ out. Oh shit, I mean her tongue! Organ just sounded wrong.

               "It looks like Mick Jagger's," she noted.

               "Yeah, but I think it's even longer. She does a lot of exercises with it. They all do."

               "And that was the tongue that was in your mouth, huh?" Brooke asked bitterly.

               I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Brooke, it wasn't a make out session. It was a demonstration. Yeah, it was hot, but that night in the hotel, you were the one I was thinking about in the shower."

               Her jaw dropped at that, and she turned as red as the ketchup that we were dipping our fries into. "You what?"

               "After my night there, which you saw a little of on the stream, I went back to the hotel. I'd been exposed to beautiful girls kissing all night, and I was a little frustrated. So I went back to the hotel, and I took a shower. While I was in there, I was thinking about you."

               "You... you thought about me? But... but what did you think?" she stammered.

               "I thought about you touching me in the way that my fingers were touching myself. Do you need more information than that?"

               She sat there chewing for a bit, digesting that information as well as her burger. "She gave you a demonstration, huh?"

               "Yep. She explained the rules, then she kissed me for a couple seconds, and that was it."

               "Then you should be able to give me a demonstration too."

               "Are you serious?" That wasn't going to be a demonstration, and she knew it. She might as well have just asked for a kiss!

               "Yep. I need to know the rules. I can't help as well if I'm not familiar with the rules." She grinned at me, knowing damn well what she was asking.

               But all I could think was that she was right. It also meant that I needed to get Monica to make a video explaining the rules and showing fouls. That might be pretty hot!

               "Alright. I can give you a demonstration. But we'll want to brush our teeth, so we don't have burger breath."

               "That sounds fair!"

               While I finished eating, I typed up that email for Monica, wondering what I was about to get myself into. Maybe the rollercoaster was going back up?