SERENDIPITY
TEN
Taylor, Chad and Troy walked into the Christmas party a little late, it was around 7pm when they arrived. They'd missed the main bus which the company had hired for staff from the Oakland branch because Taylor was fussing around with the after hours team, making sure that the supervisor who was covering for her was across everything – it was only his second shift supervising. They had elected to walk the couple of blocks from their office to the BART station to get across the bay, and then to cab charge to the venue, saving a bit of time due to the chaos of traffic during peak hour, especially on a Friday evening during holiday season. Troy was nervous, he had fussed with his hair and asked multiple times if he looked ridiculous, questioning if he should've worn a suitor whether just blue jeans and a button down and sports coat would've been more appropriate than his shirt and sweater combo. Taylor and Chad exchanged knowing looks – Troy wasn't the type to care about impressing the execs or managers. His nerves were about one person and one person only.
When they arrived at the venue, they split up with separate tasks – Taylor claimed them a table, Troy headed to snag them all a drink and Chad beelined for one of the servers bringing around canapes, loading up with some goodies, before regathering at the table Taylor had snagged.
"Honey, don't listen to what I'm about to say," Chad opened upon his return, speaking to Taylor, before looking at Troy. "Bolton, don't turn around straight away, but check out the the smoking hot girl in the green dress by the bar. She looks like your type."
Troy rolled his eyes, but casually turned around to where he had his back to the direction of Chad's gaze, spotting a group of people, including a petite girl with brown hair in an updo, wearing glasses and a cute green dress which had silver sequin decoration along the waist and also along the neckline. Troy nodded approvingly but wasn't particularly interested and turned back to Chad and Taylor.
"She's cute," was his casual assessment.
"Ah, let me guess, with a name like Montez, you're looking for a sort of olivey complexioned dark haired girl, right?" Taylor said with a smirk.
"You said it, not me," Troy remarked.
"Oh hey, there's Jason with her!"
Troy glanced around again, now seeing someone turn back from where he'd been grabbing a drink refill from a server and handing it across to the girl in the green dress. Chad gave Jason a small wave and a head nod in greeting.
"Maybe she didn't come," Troy said glumly, turning back to his beer.
"You can ask him now, he's headed over," Chad said. "With two hot girls now, seriously, how does he manage to pull not one but two hot girls?"
Troy looked up again, semi curious about the second hot girl who had appeared, and blinked. The second woman who was accompanying Jason was undoubtedly one of the hottest women he'd ever seen. She was wearing a seductive red dress which accentuated her hot body in all the right ways. Troy thought to himself that she had to be some kind of a receptionist.
"Hey guys!" Jason greeted the trio. ""How does after hours run if you guys are here?"
Taylor laughed, she and Jason kissing on the cheek in greeting. She wasn't about to confess that she'd nearly not come, not wanting to leave her team behind. "I've no doubt that the team can manage."
Chad shook Jason's hand, and then so too did Troy. He was avoiding looking at the woman in the red dress, for fear that he'd blatantly leer at her hotness. He did give the woman in the green dress a friendly smile.
"Taylor wanted me here with her tonight more than she wanted me to do my shift, so I swapped," Chad said, squeezing Taylor on the hip
"I never work tonight," Troy pointed out."So I was in the clear from the beginning."
He looked up when the red dress hottie let out a strange gasp, cocking his head at her.
"Ladies, I believe you all actually somewhat know each other," Jason said, directing the comment to his companions. "This is Taylor McKessie, Chad Danforth, and this is..."
The woman in the red dress spoke – and with one word, it all suddenly made sense.
"Troy."
Troy's eyes widened, he snapped his head up, looking straight at her. He knew her voice – even with just one word.
"Gabriella."
