It was probably the first time that the three of us went out to lunch together out of our own free will. It was strange but after spending months working together, we had never gone out to lunch together in our free time. The tense atmosphere that seemed to drift around us as we sat down together at the table in the center of the restaurant was clear evidence of that fact.

The restaurant was busy since it was lunchtime and I had never been so thankful to have all the other tables filled with people before. I had a feeling that the awkwardness between the three of us would just get worse had we been the only patrons in the restaurant on that day.

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“Umm…should we order?” I asked hesitantly after we had been staring at our menus for a while in silence.

It wasn’t like I had made up my mind about what to order but that was the only thing that I could think of to break the silence. At that point, I didn’t think that it mattered anymore what I ordered for lunch because I was sure that I wasn’t going to enjoy the food unless I could find a way to turn the mood of our strange combination of a group around.

“Yes,” Jeremy replied in short.

Richard didn’t even bother to answer or react to my question. I waved a waitress over to join us at our table and we placed our orders with her. The moment that the waitress left, silence settled between us again. I should have known that inviting Richard would kill the fun, but it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. Although I wasn’t at all convinced that having lunch alone with Jeremy could spark any rumors or cause any trouble for us, it still felt better to be safe rather than sorry. If anyone doubted anything was going on between me and Jeremy at that point, it would probably be Richard who had so blatantly raised his concern. The simplest solution to that was to prove him wrong by inviting him out to lunch with us.

“How is your project going?” I asked Jeremy while trying my best not to sound too friendly.

“Well, enough, I guess…” he replied vaguely.

“I see. That’s good…” I commented blankly.

Richard stuffed food in his mouth and didn’t join in in our conversation, but I could feel that he was paying attention to us. The conversation that I tried so hard to start died down almost immediately despite my efforts. I chewed on my food as I wondered how to strike up a conversation that could involve both Jeremy and Richard. It didn’t take me long to realize that a topic like that probably did not exist. Richard did not show any signs at all that he was bothered by the silence as he continued eating.

“It’s been a while since Project Alpha ended. It was such a challenging project, and we went through so much but now that it’s over, I find myself missing it and also the team members too,” I said before smiling.

In the end, the only thing that I could come up with that the three of us had in common was the fact that we were all staffed on Project Alpha.

“I guess it has been a while. Feels like it was just yesterday that we were out in the fields with the production team and filming crew,” Jeremy said as he seemed to recall that day.

“The dogs were really cute, weren’t they?” I asked before giggling a little.

I could still clearly remember the dogs that were part of the cast for our commercial. Jeremy nodded as he smiled at me. I glanced over at Richard and wasn’t at all surprised at how emotionless his face was.

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“It’s great that we won at the end. When we found that that our storyboard had been stolen, I almost fainted, honestly. Even though Ace and I had a backup plan, I still felt ready to faint,” Jeremy admitted with a laugh.

“Really? You both looked so confident that I couldn’t tell at all,” I replied with genuine surprise.

“Was that how it looked to you?” Jeremy asked with a small laugh.

It was the first time that he seemed to be enjoying himself even if it was just a little ever since lunch started and it made me feel slightly relieved. Richard seemed to be paying some attention to our conversation now as well.

“I really miss our team. I hope everyone is doing well on their new projects,” I said as I thought of my other colleagues.

“I’m sure they’re doing fine. We should arrange for a dinner or something so that we can all get together,” Jeremy suggested.

“Yes! That is an awesome idea,” I readily agreed while sounding very excited.

“Before you start worrying about other people and their projects, why don’t you worry about yourself and your project?” Richard reminded me before staring at me coldly.

“I guess you’re right about that, but I do have you worrying about me enough already,” I said before showing him a smile.

I was used to his cold attitude and words enough by then not to let it get to me personally. In my mind, I told myself that Richard means well regardless of how he phrases things. I also knew that he had agreed to come alone although there was no real need for him to. There was no way that I could force him so I was sure that he was here for my sake so that there wouldn’t be any unnecessary rumors.

“We better head back. I don’t want to be late,” Richard said as he placed his fork down firmly.

“Alright, I’ll get the bill,” I said with a smile.𝐟𝙧ℯe𝙬𝚎𝒃𝗻𝒐ѵel. 𝐜o𝓶

After paying the bill, the three of us made our way back to the office. The walk was pleasant with a decent amount of wind although it was slightly crowded.

--To be continued…

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