The Contestant: Ex Lover Edition

The Calm before the Storm

The next few days, it was mostly business as usual. The girls in the office were gossiping about a remote job in another state Chris and I were going to be working on for the next few weeks. They've always teased that there was something going on between us. We have never gone down that road. After a few lessons in the past, I didn't mix business with pleasure. We needed to tell them something though. We kept our story as true as possible. We told the girls we were doing a big job for Josh. He was going through a big audit and needed us on site. The partners knew we were doing a show. They just didn't have the details. Chris joked that they were just excited about the exposure it would give the little firm when the show aired.

On Friday morning, my email dinged. It did this all the time. So it wasn't unusual. This email was unusual though. It was a forward from Josh. It was a contract. He typed one sentence with the contract, "See you around 2pm." Short and sweet. He must have known the contract was the most important part of the email.

I opened it and printed it in my office. It was 10 pages. I have a small printer in my office. Most of the time, I used the large community printer/fax/scanner we all printed on in the receptionist area. Karen would periodically deliver the printouts and faxes throughout the day, if we weren't quick enough to get them ourselves. I grabbed the hot papers off my small printer and immediately started reading. About ten minutes later, Chris called me.

"Hello, this is Stacey," I answered. I didn't even look at the ID to see who was calling me.

"Hey, it's me, did you get the email?" Chris replied.

"Yeah. I printed it a few minutes ago. It's a bit overwhelming," I said.

"Want to order lunch and go over it? We can order Jimmy Johns. I know it's your favorite," Chris asked.

"Now you are speaking my language! I'll order the usual. Do you need anything for your 10 o'clock meeting? I asked.

"No, I have the statements. I am good. We'll have lunch in my office. We'll make it a working lunch so we can start going through the meetings," he added.

"See you then," I hung up.

I finished two of the monthly statements I had on my to-do list, reconciled another four bank accounts and I ordered our lunch. In between, I was reading over this contract. It wasn't anything too crazy. If we sign the contract, we are contracted to finish the 10-week span of the show. Before the show aired, we had to do a few promotions for the show. After the show aired, we are contracted to do any reunion shows, talk shows or any additional promotions they requested for up to one year. We would be paid for each show in the amount of $2,000 and any promotional work we did after the show was negotiable based on the success of the show. All airfare, hotel and meal expenses were paid by the show. I mean, really this was a pretty sweet deal.

I saw Jimmy John's driver through the front window. I met him at the reception area. After I got the food from the driver, I grabbed Chris's and mine and asked Karen to deliver the rest to everyone else. The company was paying, so I ordered for everyone. There were only 8 of us, so it wasn't a big deal to do this from time to time.

Chris wasn't in his office but his door was open, so I walked in. I sat down on the chair in front of his desk. I put his sub in front of where he sits and put mine in front of me. I grabbed napkins out of his cabinet. This wasn't the first time that we had done this. I turned to sit in the chair and jumped. Chris was sitting in his chair.

"s**t, you scared me! You need a bell," I joked.

"I'm sorry!" He laughed.

"No, you're not." I laughed back at him.

"I'm not," he said.

We both laughed.

I opened my sub while he grabbed us drinks out of his mini fridge. My sub was missing tomatoes. This was definitely his sub. I grabbed his and switched them. He looked at me.

"Thanks for saving me from the tomatoes," he said.

"I know how you hate them," I responded.

We ate for a few minutes in silence. I finally broke the silence.

"So this contract... have you read it at all?"

He nodded.

"And... what do you think?" I asked.

"I think it's a pretty decent deal. I'm a little concerned about the length of it. What if they want us to do another show?" he mentioned.

"You think they would do that? Really?" I asked.

"Once they see how awesome we are, I think they won't be able to get enough." Chris joked.

"I have no concerns there. I just don't want to let Josh down if I'm terrible," I added.

"I don't think it's possible for you to be terrible," Chris said.

I could feel myself blushing. I smiled at him.

"Josh sent me a text and he'll be here with his lawyer at 2. Any other concerns? " Chris asked.

"No, it seems to be a pretty good deal," I added.

"Okay then let's get started on moving those meetings," Chris suggested.

We spent the next hour going through the clients and equally dividing them up between the staff accountant and the other two partners in the firm. We kept a few on the calendar since it was included in the contract that they would make sure we had at least 15 hours a week for his personal business. They were ones we could meet with over the phone or zoom meetings. At least they didn't expect us to completely disconnect from reality for the next 10 weeks.

Then we waited for Josh to come in and our lives to change for forever.