"Darling?!? What?!?" Gray exclaimed in his head.
"Come, have a drink with me before we go home!" Verona said with a once again oddly loud voice that looked like everyone could hear.
Gray and Verona sat down at the bar together and Verona scooted her seat closer to Gray. She leaned in close to him, Gray couldn't help but notice how good her perfume smelled, and her usual business suit was without the jacket revealing a bit more of her skin and her hair being loose made her appear much more relaxed than what Gray normally saw.
"Sorry, I've been hit on by every guy in here and I have a feeling the rest just need a few more drinks to try as well." Verona whispered to Gray.
Gray kinda understood since he looked around and saw that Verona was the only woman in here and all of the other men were looking at him with jealousy. "Don't worry, DARLING, I'll keep them away." Gray said, making sure to enunciate 'Darling'.
Verona pinched Gray's side and said "I will end you if you ever bring that up to ANYONE" while maintaining a friendly smile so as not to look angry to the onlookers.
"Your secret is safe with me!" whispered Gray, then Verona released her claws.
Gray waved down the bartender and said "I'll have what she's having."
Verona looked at Gray oddly and said "You don't even know what I had."
Normally Gray would go with the cheesy one-liner and say something like "I'll like it no matter what since you are drinking it as well." or some other almost stalker like line. Instead he just smiled at her, looked into her eyes, then looked at her glass. "You had a Coke."
"Ok, how did you know?" asked Verona
"First, your breath doesn't contain any hint of alcohol, second, there is a straw and nobody drinks alcohol from a straw unless it's a fruity drink or margarita sometimes." said Gray
"Ok, then how did you know it was Coke and not some other pop or water even?"
"Your tab next to the glass says '2 Coke' on it." said Gray.
"Wouldn't that clue be enough? Why the other two?" asked Verona.
"I just wanted to pretend like I was deducing it, that's all." said Gray smugly.
Verona laughed at this, maybe even a little harder than what she should've, but Gray just sat there and smoothly took a sip of his Coke that the bartender brought him trying to play it cool. This is the first time Gray has ever seen her laugh... and he understood why... it was obnoxious! It was fine at first, but she started doing a loud nasal whooping that would occasionally devolve into what sounded like a goat screaming in short bursts.
"That's... unexpected!" said Gray.
Verona wiped away the tears that had formed from her laughing and said "I know, I'm sorry, I never laugh because of it but what you said just really threw me off as I always thought you were just a little creep."
"I'm not a little creep! I'm a normal guy that is sometimes a little creepy!" said Gray
Verona started to laugh again but calmed herself before it got out of control.
The two started talking like normal adults, which is uncommon for Gray as he usually likes to just make nothing but jokes. Verona ordered another drink, but this time asked for a Captain 'n Coke. Gray started to think that maybe he was going to have a very lucky night.
Verona quickly threw a bucket of cold water on this by saying "Not a chance for you, I'm just here to relax."
Gray pretended to not play innocent and said "What are you talking about? I'm just here now because you asked me to be! Speaking of which, why me? Any one of those other guys might be nice enough to play along as well!"
"One, I somewhat know you from work so if you tried anything I could get you fired. Secondly, I'm confident I could kick your ass if that wasn't enough to stop you." said Verona with a playful smile.
This made Gray laugh and he thought he heard Verona mutter "...and you are a good guy." while he was laughing. Gray was smart enough NOT to ask what she said though.
__________
It was going on 10 pm at this point and Gray and Verona had opened up enough to each other that they were swapping childhood stories even when Verona finally asked. "Oh hey, did you hear what is happening to our company?"
Gray was perplexed as he honestly hadn't been keeping up with anything related to work so he imagined his work email box was ready to burst. "No, what's going on?"
"Apparently when Alterra Online was under development, they had used our company to help with the programming." Verona stated.
Gray thought that this by itself didn't sound strange as their company specialized in Software and Databases. "Ok, what's so big about that?" Gray asked.
"It seems that the game development was just a trial phase and if we passed we would be purchased and brought under Alterra Corporation." said Verona
"Uhhh, so, is that good or bad news?" asked Gray
"Probably good news for a nerd like you, they were going to offer us the option of either becoming paid game testers or we could keep our existing job and eventually be phased out within 3 years as several AIs would be developed to fill the majority of our positions." said Verona.
"What?!? So basically we can get paid to play a game or keep our old job and get laid off in a few years?" said Gray.
"Yeah, and that is why I'm here at this bar... I didn't want to go to one with an AI running it and just wanted to think about it. I have never played video games, but I was told this full dive VR stuff is like you're not playing one at all but existing in another world." Verona complained.
"Well, when do they want to know?" asked Gray.
"The deadline is tomorrow morning if you would like the bonus associated with participating in the full launch of the game, but they said absolutely no later than August 1st, which is in 15 days." said Verona
"Well, personally I'd go for the play testing, why wasn't I told about this?" asked Gray.
"Yeah, I think I will too, and you were told about this but you probably haven't checked your work mail in awhile. Not that I blame you since you're on vacation for another week." said Verona.
"Heh, that's true. Thanks, I'll make sure to check my messages when I get home then." said Gray.
Gray took a drink of his Coke, probably his 4th one judging by the glasses he's left as he heard Verona teasingly say "Who said I'm letting you go home tonight?"
Gray choked and almost spit out his drink when he heard her say this causing Verona to laugh hysterically again. After hearing her obnoxious laugh a few times Gray had noticed that the other guys in the bar stopped looking at him with envy and some even looked at him with pity. Still, Gray was not expecting this at all!
"I'm sorry! I just couldn't help it! You're too honest and I wanted to see how you'd react!" said Verona while still laughing.
"Phooey, you probably couldn't keep up with me anyways, I'm known as a marathoner!" said Gray proudly.
"You run marathons?" said Verona surprised.
"No, I'm a marathon gamer, I can play for days at a time if given the opportunity!" said Gray.
"Why are you even proud of that?" questioned Verona.
"I... I don't know anymore." Gray said dejectedly while crying to himself on the inside.
Verona laughed softly at Gray's expression and then patted his head.
"Don't worry, I'm sure someone would find that impressive, if anything else it proves that you have a strong bladder!" said Verona
"Well I get up to use the bathroom and grab food, it's not like completely out of it while playing!"
"Fair enough, just as long as you take care of yourself." said Verona
"Are you my Mother?" Gray said teasingly
"Heck no, I'm actually younger than you, wait, how old are you?" asked Verona
"29." said Gray
"Then I'm definitely not your Mother!"
"How old are you?" asked Gray
"Never ask a woman her age, and I'm not telling!" said Verona.
"Ha! That means you're older than me!" said Gray teasingly.
"Shut up! It does not!" complained Verona.
"Of course it does, if you were younger than me you'd be rubbing it in my face right about now!" said Gray with a grin on his face.
"...3..." Whispered Verona
"What was that?" asked Gray
"33!" said Verona
"Sweet, so you could've been a senior when I was freshman!" said Gray.
"It's possible, but you would've remembered me" Verona said confidently.
"Brat..."
"Yep!" Verona said as she stuck her tongue out at Gray.
Gray eventually asked Verona what her opinion was about signing a NDA and she also thought it sounded like a standard procedure for a large company, but to do it while playing in a game would have all kinds of legal loopholes and may not even be considered legitimate. Verona said just read it carefully and personally she would sign it as it usually means you were about to be told something important.
"That and you need to sign it to advance the plot" said Verona
"Fair point" said Gray
__________
Gray asked Verona if she wanted him to walk her home but she declined his offer since it would mean he would know where she lived. Gray and Verona went their separate ways as Gray returned home for the second time today.
"Ahhh screw it, I'll just sign the stupid thing and be done with it! If this is my last full dive VR game then so be it!" said Gray defiantly
Having his doubts clear, Gray decided that he would sign it without hesitation since he had read it already and it didn't contain anything nefarious and looked fairly standard according to what was discussed by everyone in the class.
"I'll tell the rest of the team I'm going to sign it and we'll go with it from there!"