"What a day," Neil thought as he dropped his case onto the hotel room bed and finally took off his tie. A full day of heavy negotiations, which had not gone exactly to plan, had left him tired out and stressed.
*ping*
"Hey, you. Good journey? How were the meetings? Rach x"
A text from Rachel. Neil didn't really feel like talking to anyone at the moment and would rather just chill out, but he guessed a reply would be polite.
"Journey: long. Meetings: crappy. Hotel: ropy."
He took off his shoes, opened the bottle of beer he had picked up on the way to the hotel, and stretched out on the bed to flick through the TV channels.
*ping*
"Not feeling too chatty? You sound tense :) x"
"Sorry, rough day. Just trying to kick back and chill a bit x"
"It's OK. Let me help with that. Put your laptop on, I've sent you a link ;) x"
Ugh. Sitting at the computer was not high on the list of things Neil fancied doing with his evening, but whatever. Maybe a bit of company would be nice. He logged into his emails and sure enough there was a message waiting for him - "Rachel is inviting you to a Zip meeting. Click here to join!"
*click*
Loading...Enable Sound...Enable Video...Yeah yeah. Suddenly, Rachel's smiling face was there on-screen. Neil couldn't help smiling back, even feeling as rough as he did. How did she always manage to look so good?
"Hey you! Wow, you do look like you've got a weight on your shoulders!" Rachel said.
"Yeah, well, some days are great, other days not so much. It's been one of those ones today," Neil told her.
"Want to talk about it?"
"Not really. I was just putting the TV on to try to take my mind off of it."
"OK, try to take your mind of it, gotcha." Rachel started thinking. "How about a game?"
"What kind of game can we play like this, on the computer screen?" Neil asked.
"Hang on, let me think. I know, Rock Paper Scissors!"
"Really?" Neil's lack of enthusiasm showed.
"OK Mr Miserable, STRIP Rock Paper Scissors!"
Neil was a little taken aback, but even in his state he had to laugh. Besides, Rachel was smoking hot. Why not! "Go on then," he chuckled.
One, two, three - Rachel went Paper, Neil Scissors.
"Yes, one to...me!" Neil stumbled over his words as Rachel, with zero hesitation, pulled her top over her head revealing a lacy turquoise-coloured bra. "Whoah, we're really doing this then are we," Neil exclaimed.
"Hell yes we are," Rachel told him. "Let's go!"
One, two, three. Again, Rachel went Paper, Neil Scissors.
"Dammit, you double-bluffed me!" cried Rachel. She pulled off a sock in mock anger.