Peanut Butter and Jelly Burger

"Me?" I asked with a finger to my chest. It was a pretty stupid question considering he addressed me by name but it was unfortunately my reflex reaction.

He put his hands in his pant pockets and laughed. "Unless there's another Caroline in the office who has the best work performance so far, yes, you."

I blushed and pressed my lips together. I wasn't completely opposed to going to lunch, but the question totally caught me off guard. Plus, I wasn't mentally prepared for an awkward lunch with Pete.

"It's just, I brought a sandwich so, um, maybe I can take a rain check?" It was a lame excuse, but the truth, and it would totally buy me 24 hours.

He laughed again. I don't know what is so entertaining about my discomfort, but Pete definitely spends half of our face to face time laughing at me.

"It's not in your job description that you have to accept lunch invites from your awesome boss," Pete began with a smile. "But I'm only asking because you're doing so well. We just launched this service and not only are you getting rave reviews from our customers, but the the number of customers you've spoken to that have preordered the service is higher than anyone else. Needless to say, for the youngest one on the team right now, you are making quite the splash."

I modestly smiled at Pete but inside my head, I was doing cartwheels and pumping my fists in the air. "That many customers signed up?"

"Yes, ma'am," Pete replied as he displayed his purely white teeth in a smile. "Now, I have a company credit card and I'm instructed to take exemplary employees to lunch. It's especially encouraged when we launch a new service so we can learn what's working and not working. So, to be honest, we're supposed to spin this as a motivational reward, but in actuality, you're working through lunch." Pete smiled and looked out at the view that we have from the conference room. "We don't have to go, but there is a burger place that serves a peanut butter and jelly burger on Mondays and I'm kind of craving it." He lifted up his wrist and looked down at his watch. "I'm going to leave in about ten minutes. Let me know if you would like to join me." With that, Pete nodded at me and slowly walked out of the conference room towards his office.

I felt pretty silly after Pete walked away. Why couldn't I graciously accept his lunch invite and not act like a weirdo? I also couldn't deny that the peanut butter and jelly burger intrigued me.

I took a deep breathe and followed the path Pete had just taken to his office. "Hey," I said as I gripped the door frame with one hand and leaned off of it. "My sandwich will be great for dinner tonight. I'm ready for lunch whenever you are!"

Time for a professional lunch!

*Writer's Note* Sorry for the short post, today! Things are super hectic with me right now, but I promise you'll get to read about "the lunch" on Friday! Forgive me. Love you all :-*