Chapter Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Seven
Stella had almost forgotten about Sprint Week, but when she walked into the Yellow Sparks office on Monday morning, tension was thick in the air.
Everyone was speaking in hushed whispers, and even though Stella arrived ten minutes early, there were people already working.
Stella wasn’t sure if they were trying to learn how to use Sparky now that they were being forced to do so, or if they just wanted to get a head start on their twenty posts so they could be done with their week by the end of the day.
Stella saw Max’s friend/coworker (employee?) Rashid walking around the content team, seemingly answering people’s questions.
He genuinely looked happy to be there, probably glad that he could finally talk about his expertise instead of sitting around for his office hours, waiting for anyone to show up with a question.
Stella wondered if he knew about her and Max and, if he did, what he thought about it.
Thankfully, she had enough common sense to know she couldn’t ask, so she avoided eye contact with him and continued on to her desk, where Effie and Katy were already working.
“Good morning,” Stella said in a singsong voice that she knew Effie couldn’t stand.
Both Effie and Katy threw up a hand to wave in response.
Clearly they were in the zone. Stella knew she should also get her head in the game, but it was difficult for her to muster the energy.
In truth, Stella had always hated Sprint Week.
She’d never been the type of person to do something without overthinking and overanalyzing it first (asking Max to fuck her at Red as Sin aside).
She was the same way when it came to her writing.
She’d only barely gotten her “Eleven Places to Lose Your Virginity in New York City” post up before the end of last week and was steadily watching its performance, hoping it’d do well enough for her to continue the series.
Not that she could do that this week, though.
This week was for posts that wouldn’t need editorial approval, and if she went rogue with the next post in her virgin series, as she was calling it, Melanie wouldn’t fire her (probably), but if it flopped, Stella would have to deal with Melanie reminding her why Stella should always heed her advice.
Despite the fact that Melanie had no writing experience prior to being hired by Yellow Sparks (unless you counted the captions she’d add to her Tumblr GIF sets), she was quickly promoted to editor, which made her believe that she was incredibly talented and always right.
Stella believed she was a white woman who’d failed up.
Either way, whenever Melanie gave Stella feedback, she spoke as if she’d been in the business for decades and knew all there was to know about creating content, and not someone who’d only worked at the company a year longer than Stella and had far fewer bylines to her name.
The last thing Stella needed was Melanie thinking she did, in fact, know best, so the virgin series would have to wait.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t really champing at the bit with any other ideas, but she opened up the Yellow Sparks CMS and attempted to get to work.
She’d told Effie she would use Sparky, but the more she thought about it, the more she decided against it.
Stella knew it was highly unlikely she’d crack the top three and earn some prize money.
The closest she’d ever gotten was fifteenth place, and honestly, she still didn’t believe Sparky would be all that helpful.
Sure, she could work faster, but would her work be any better with the AI?
She doubted it. Plus, there was a part of her that couldn’t help but feel like it was somehow cheating to use it.
Like she was putting her name on someone else’s work.
So in the end, she decided she might as well do her best on her own. At the end of the day, it wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway.
The first day of Sprint Week flew by, and Stella only looked up from her computer when Effie began to poke her incessantly.
“Oh my God, please get away from me.”
Stella rolled herself out of Effie’s reach and then blinked as she took in the fact that the sun was now down. She pulled herself back to her desk and grabbed her phone.
“How is it five thirty?”
Effie shrugged. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
Stella glared at her and then looked around the office. Unlike most days, there were still plenty of people milling around or working, although Katy was nowhere to be found. That was the power of Sprint Week she supposed.
“How many posts did you get up today?” Effie asked, drawing Stella’s attention back to her.
Stella sighed. “Only two. You?”
“Six,” Effie said. “I was aiming for ten, but I figure I should be done by Wednesday. Maybe even Tuesday if I don’t go through and check Sparky’s mistakes.”
“How bad is it?” Stella asked. “Or is ‘How good is it?’ the better question?”
“It’s fine. I asked it to pull a list of the top fast-food chain brand logos, and it pulled the Cheesecake Factory and Red Lobster, which are not fast-food chains, but it got everything else correct.
Some of the copy it put in was wonky. Like I got random stats for some reason, but those were easy enough to cut out. ”
Stella nodded. “I guess if I want to get done in a timely fashion I should just use it.”
“You’re not using it?” Effie asked. “I thought we all agreed we were going to.”
“I changed my mind,” Stella said. “The odds of me winning are slim anyways, so I figured I might as well stick to my guns and keep not using it. But perhaps if I’m still stuck here by myself on Friday, maybe I’ll give in.”
“Wow, I respect your moral compass,” Effie said, looking mildly impressed. “I will be getting that ten grand, though.”
Stella laughed. “How is it my moral compass when you were the one basically preaching about the evils of Sparky just last week?”
“Well, yeah, but I gave in as soon as money was involved,” Effie said with a shrug. “You didn’t.”
“Not yet,” Stella said. “There’s still time. It’s only Monday.”
“Maybe,” Effie said. “But I don’t think so. You have that journalistic integrity or whatever. You’re always talking about how you want to write something that matters. Meanwhile, I just want to make enough money so I can retire on the beach.”
“True,” Stella said, smiling. “But I think that is a very worthy goal. Besides, if you make enough, maybe I can retire on the beach with you.”
Effie frowned. “I will not be taking any freeloaders, thank you. Now, let’s get out of here. I need food.”
“Aye, aye, captain!”
Stella turned off her computer, shrugged into her coat, and followed Effie out.
“Wanna go to Pasta Louise?” Effie asked. “I need carbs.”
“If we go there, I have to take an Uber home,” Stella said. “There is no easy train from there back to Flatbush.”
“Yes, but isn’t the pasta worth it?” Effie asked. “Plus, Kira said she can meet us there.”
“Oh, Kira can meet us there, can she?”
Effie pushed the button for the elevator, ignoring Stella’s suggestive eyebrow wiggling.
Stella was ready to continue needling her when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.
She always had her phone on do not disturb mode during work hours and hadn’t thought to check it, but now she saw she had a few texts from Max.
Max
After waking up with you in my bed for two days, this morning was very disappointing.
Max
Probably should’ve started with hello.
Max
Hello. I missed you in my bed this morning.
Max
It’s after 5 which means you should be off the clock. I say this as I’m about to head into a work dinner but please be better than me.
Max
Can I call you later?
“Whoa, five texts?”
Stella jumped, her shoulder almost knocking right into Effie’s head.
“Jesus, relax,” Effie said.
She stepped into the elevator and Stella followed, grateful no one else was standing around to notice their tomfoolery.
“Why were you reading my texts?” Stella hissed.
“Because you were smiling at your phone so hard I thought your face might get stuck that way,” Effie snapped back. “And why are you whispering?”
“I don’t know.” Stella cleared her throat and spoke again at a normal volume. “Anyway, my texts are none of your business.”
“Right, well, are you going to see your capitalist overlord, or are you coming to Pasta Louise?”
“Capitalist overlord? Really?”
Effie shrugged. “I just call ’em like I see ’em.”
“I am not seeing Max tonight,” Stella said, emphasizing his name. “I was with him all weekend, and he has a work dinner.”
“All weekend?”
Stella was about to answer when the elevator doors opened to reveal Miles. Looking at him now, she saw the resemblance to his brother was honestly uncanny. So much so that Stella quickly looked away and scurried past him, trusting Effie would be close behind.
Of course she was, and once they made it around the corner from the building, Effie raised her brows in question.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Stella said. “I just freaked.”
“He doesn’t know you’re sleeping with his brother, right?”
“Absolutely not,” Stella said. She looked around nervously. “Let’s not talk about this here in case someone overhears.”
“Ah, yes, because the one thing people do after work is hover around the building hoping to hear some Yellow Sparks gossip.”
“You know, your sarcasm is not appreciated right now.”
“And yet, here it is, for free.”
Stella shook her head. “I’m getting new friends.”
Effie only laughed as they walked to the train.