"Does he work with you?" Sofia asks, breaking me away from my own thoughts.

"Oh, yeah." I reply quickly. "He's one of my friends." I say with a smile.

"He's also an engineer. He's also one of the finalists in the app design contest at work." Grayson adds.

"His app is really good." I say quickly, earning a small nod from Grayson.

"Natalia, are you coming over tonight for dinner?" Shane asks, taking a drink from his green smoothie. I'm sure it's filled with kale and tastes like dirt. I can only imagine so, at least.

"Coming over?" I ask, looking confused I'm sure.

"Yeah. Did Grayson not invite you over yet?" He asks, giving Grayson a look of surprise.

"I was going to." He says quickly, turning to me with his assuring words. "Shane wanted to have all of us over to his place tonight for dinner." He explains quickly.

"Natalia! You have to come!" Sofia says with excitement. "I can't be the only girl there." She adds with a little pout.

"I would really like for you to come, too." Grayson says. "You know...if you aren't doing anything? It could be fun." He says. His words remind me of what Brian had told me to say to him when 'asking him out' on a date.

"I would love to. That actually sounds really fun." I tell him with a small smile. He smiles in return and I see his cheeks begin to flush slightly. Unlike me, he doesn't try and hide it.

"Shane said he would make some lasagna. Cheese, of course. Gray hates beef." Sofia says. "But honestly, it's fine because Shane makes the best food."

Shane smiles a cocky smile at us, and I know he is absolutely loving the compliment from Sofia.

"You know, you could have it a lot more if you wanted." He tells her.

"Your cooking?" She asks with a small smile of amusement.

"Yeah. You know, when you finally agree to marry me I will make you whatever you want for the rest of your life." He smirks.

"God, he's been going on about this for months now." She tells me, rolling her eyes with a laugh. "You lost your chance. I was trying to marry you when I was like eighteen, remember?" She remarks.

"I was twenty five at the time." He replies quickly.

"So?" She shrugs.

"You were a teenager!" He says as though it was obvious.

"And you're twenty eight now." She counters.

"Okay, but it's different now and you know that."

"Oh well. You still had your chance and lost it." She shrugs.

"We'll see about that." He remarks.

As she tries playing it off, I can see that his comment has pleased her. She likes the attention and I don't blame her. "Anyways, you'll come tonight, right?" She asks me.

"I mean...if it's okay with Grayson, I would love to join." I say nervously glancing over at Grayson.

"Hear that, Gray. She would love to join us." Shane says.

"If you want to go, then I would like for you to join us as well." Grayson tells me with a small smile.

"I guess we'll see how good your food actually is, Shane." I say playfully.

Shane laughs and flashes that bright smile that i'm sure has every girl falling for him.

As we continue to talk and finish our smoothies, I can't help but have my mind drift to what Brian had said. I know he didn't mean it the way that it came out, but I can't help but wonder if he actually thinks this way or now. I mean, isn't he pretty entitled to his opinion about Grayson and I?

"Nat?" Grayson asks, shaking my thoughts away instantly.

"Hmm?" I hum in reply.

"I asked if you were ready to go back to the office." He informs me.

"Oh! Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I must have zoned out." I reply quickly.

"It's fine. I think Shane and Sofia are going to run down the street to that convenience store." He says.

"I have to get some gummy worms in my system. Especially if all I'm going to be doing is sitting in Shane's office for the next few hours." Sofia adds.

"I told you that we could take the day off." He reminds her.

"Nope. You have to work. Both of you." She says, looking pointedly at both Grayson and Shane.

"Okay, well I'm going to run her over to the gas station so she can get her candy. Do you need anything?" He asks. We both shake our heads in reply.

"See you later!" Sofia says as the pair get up from their seats and leave Grayson and I alone.

"What else do you have for the rest of the day?" Grayson asks me.

"I think I'm going to see Brian when I get back into the office. He's going to help me with my app." I tell him.

"You know I can help you if you need it." He says.

"I don't want to bother you with something like this. I'm sure you have plenty of other things to do. Things that are much more important than helping me with some app." I reply.

"That's not true." He says quickly. "I am always willing to help if you need it. I love working on stuff like that. Plus, it's kind of why I started the business. I want everyone to learn how to do stuff like this." He replies.

"Well, thank you. I think I want to get help from Brian, though. At least for this. I don't want to ruin the surprise." I say.

"The surprise?" He asks.

"Yeah, for when you see my finished app. I don't want you to already know everything about it when you see it. I want some of it to be a surprise."

"That makes sense." He says with a nod. "Well, we can get back to the office and you can go and get started on that." He says, standing up from his seat.

Grayson walks with me to Brian's floor and only leaves me once the elevator doors open, revealing a floor full of people working on tons of different things. The difference between this floor and our floor is huge. For the most part, our floor is silent and peaceful. The second I walk off of the elevator I can feel eyes on me and chatter silence only a little bit. I turn around to see that the elevator door is closing and Grayson is already gone.

"Natalia?" I hear only a few feet away. I look up quickly to see Justin walking towards me.

"Oh, hey." I say with a little smile.

"Hey. What are you doing over here?" He asks with the same friendly smile. While I'm glad that the tension between us is gone, I can't help but continue to feel nervous around him.

"I'm actually here to see Brian. He said he could help me with some work that I have." I say.

"Grayson wasn't around to help?" He asks with confusion clear in his tone. He doesn't say this with any kind of snide remark. He just seems genuinely curious

"I mean, he offered but I told him that I wanted Brian to help me." I reply.

"I see. Well, Brian is in his office. You can just head on in there." He tells me with a smile.

"Thanks. See you around!" I say as I walk past him and towards Brian's office.

His door is cracked open and I can hear him from the other side. When I walk towards the door, I can see his back facing me as he types away quickly on his laptop. Right as I'm about to speak, he breaks the silence.

"I mean, it's just annoying- that's all." He mutters into his phone. I quickly take a step back, not wanting to interrupt his phone call. "I mean, it's not her fault. Her app is good, I just didn't think it was something that Grayson would ever go for." He says quickly in reply to whatever the other person is telling him.

He can't be talking about me. He isn't talking about me, I know he isn't. He wouldn't.

"I'm just annoyed because we both know that she's going to be the winner of this entire thing. She wants to try and tell me that she still think I'll win, but we both know she's going to be the winner." He says.

He is talking about me.

"I mean, I hope that my design will be good enough to at least get second place. Who knows, maybe she'll throw in a good word for me and I'll still be considered for future projects. Plus, I told her that I'd still help her with the coding work on her app." He pauses momentarily, listening to whatever the other person is saying, I'm sure. "I can't just sabotage her app, babe. I'm a team leader. Plus, she's still a friend. I wouldn't do that." He says.

He must be talking to his girlfriend. The fact that she would even tell him to sabotage my app is pathetic.

"I thought that she would have tried staying away from Grayson after what was said about her from her own team leader. I mean, the fact that they were suspicious of her having some kind of relationship with him is bad enough. I know that if she wins this, it will only get worse. I know she has feelings for him, too. She told me herself that it's starting to maybe become something more. I just think it's not as fair now. He's definitely giving her special treatment, and she's either too blind to see it or she just doesn't care. All he sees is a pretty girl who now works under him. It's pathetic, really." He says.

I can't listen to any more of this. I walk away before he can catch me eavesdropping on his conversation. I feel humiliation, anger, but mostly sadness wash over me as I rush towards the elevator. The fact that my one and only friend in the office thinks the same about me as everyone else does is absolutely heartbreaking.

He's right, though. As much as I don't want to admit it, Grayson does give me special treatment. It isn't always what people think, but I know that he wouldn't openly offer deadline extensions to just anyone in the office. But, is it so hard to believe that maybe he sees more in me than just my looks? Is it so hard to believe that maybe he believes in me as an engineer?

I take the stairs up to my office, not wanting to chance running into anyone in the elevator. As I approach my floor, I feel as though a weight is lifted from my shoulders. I look down the hall to see Grayson's office door is closed. He's working right now, I'm sure. As much as I want to barge into his office and talk about this right now, I'll have to wait. I'll get him alone tonight after dinner and talk about all of this.

Although it breaks my heart to do this, I know that I have to pull my name from the contest. Brian is right. I want to give everyone a fair chance at winning. Plus, what I said to Brian is true. I do think he'll win. I know that with my name out of the race, he will for sure win. Despite what he said and despite my own feelings being hurt, I know Brian deserves this more than anyone.

I want to make sure that he gets it.