Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 42: Rock, Paper...Bed?

Chapter 42: Rock, Paper...Bed?

If anyone had asked Emily how she thought the night would end at different points during the day, each time her answer would have been different.

If she had been asked during her flight, when the crying baby had been going off. Emily would have said that things would end with her crying too, joining the baby and just letting her frustrations be known.

Had she been asked when she had first seen the angry protesters her answer would have been different too. Back then she would have said things would end with her in hospital, or in the morgue.

But never in her wildest dreams, had she even thought that the end to such a gruelling day, would be her fighting over who got to sleep on the bed with her boss.

"I should get the bed, my back would never forgive me if I slept on the hard floor," Derek said, at some point during the disagreement they had both stood up. He was now looking down at her and she had tilted her head up to be able to look him in the eyes.

"Your back?! What about my back, I was the one lugging all of the heavy things you packed. Imagine what will happen to mine if I sleep on the floor after doing something so labour intensive," He scoffed, gesturing at his bags.

"Labour intensive, please, these barely weigh anything," He said, and Emily wanted to balance the bags on his head, just to see if he would stick by that statement.

"Fine, if you do not want to see reason, then let us settle this...old school," She told him, which kick-started a very tense standoff.

"The game is three rounds, best two out of three wins. The winner gets the bed and the loser goes quietly and sleeps on the floor, no complaining. Agreed?" He nodded, and they sized each other up, slowly getting into position, a fisted hand going over an open palm.

"Ready?" He asked, and Emily nodded.

"Ready,"

"Rock, paper, scissors, go!" They moved their hands up and down in unison and then at the last minute they revealed their choice.

Both of them stared at the other’s choice in disappointment, Somehow, both of them had chosen scissors, which meant that the first round ended in a draw. The person who won the next two rounds would get the bed. Emily had to make sure that the winner was her. Taking a deep breath, she got back into position, and Derek did the same.

"Rock, paper, scissors, go!" And Emily let out a loud whoop, she had gone for scissors again, but Derek’s hand had the fingers splayed out, the palm facing down. A clear sign for paper.

"Scissor cuts paper," She told him, smiling brightly, unbothered by his glower.

"Get ready to become better acquainted with the floor," She told him as they got ready for the third and final round.

Seconds later, her celebration was proven premature, Derek’s choice of paper easily covering her rock.

"What was it you were saying about me and the floor?" He asked, his voice doing that politely condescending thing that spoke of years of high level etiquette lessons. It made Emily want to punch him, especially when he moved his head just so, looking at her the same way old people looked at the young, like she was a wet behind the ears child with much to learn.

He was not as loud as she had been, but his gloating eclipsed her own( and that was in Emily’s unbiased and very objective view). Putting her issues with his gloating aside, Emily turned her focus back to the reason that they were playing the game in the first place.

To break the tie, they ended up playing four more rounds, this one best three out of four. But yet again at the end of it, they had tied, both having worn two rounds each.

"Maybe we should just split the bed, one of us takes the mattress and the other takes the base?" She suggested, her exhaustion coming back, sapping all of the energy out of her. She needed to sleep, to rest, and soon.

It was a reasonable idea, and Derek seemed to agree because he moved over to the bed.

"The mattress will not fully spread out though, whoever takes it will have to deal with only using half of it," He said, and he was absolutely right. The room was too cramped to allow for the mattress to be completely flat, its other half would be bent upwards.

"Let’s just move it off the base first and go from there," She told him, and that was exactly what they tried to do. Tried being the key word. As soon as they tried to move the mattress, the whole structure shook, the bed threatening to give in.

It made no sense, they had both sat on the bed, and it had easily taken their combined weight. But now when they tried to remove the top part it shook like a house of cards on a windy day. Letting go, they both just stared at each other, feeling helpless, at this rate they would never get any sleep.

"Fancy another game of rock, paper, scissors?" He asked, and Emily sighed, she’d had enough of that game.

"How about this, a coin toss. We choose sides, flip a coin and then whoever’s side is face up wins," Emily felt like smacking a palm over her forehead for not thinking of it earlier.

A coin toss, of course, there would be no chance of a tie then. The coin only had two faces afterall, there was no way they could tie.

It was the work of a moment to route around for a coin. Derek did not even bother. Emily knew for a fact that he rarely carried anything that was not a bill. Luckily though, Emily had some coins in her purse and she picked one out. Standing on the side of the bed, Emily held out the tiny piece of metal. This time, there was no ceremony about it. Emily just simply held out her hand and flipped the coin.

If fell through the air and landed.

Emily stared, Derek stared.

The coin had somehow found a tiny crease in the folds and landed there...upright. It was neither heads, nor tails.

It was yet another tie.

"Let’s just go to sleep, we will share, I don’t mind, do you?" Derek, looking as done with the whole thing as she was, nodded his agreement.

"Good, I will take the first shower, " She told him, and went to grab her things, making sure to take her pyjamas with her, glad that these ones were the newer ones, not her older ones. Even if she was going to be sleeping, she still wanted to look presentable in front of her boss.