Chapter Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Seven
Stella spent the majority of her extended weekend thinking about Max and his story.
He’d been caught up with a project at work for the rest of the week and then one of his friends was having a birthday party.
He’d invited her to come, but she felt like meeting his friends was a strictly girlfriend thing to do and they still hadn’t defined the relationship, as Effie put it.
Although Stella was feeling more and more like it was time to have that conversation because it certainly felt like Max was her boyfriend.
They spent all their time together, spoke multiple times a day, and most importantly, he felt like hers and she didn’t want to share. So why couldn’t she just tell him that? It was like every time the words came to her, they got stuck in her throat and all she could do was swallow them down.
Now it was Monday, and she felt like she’d wasted her whole long weekend doing nothing except watching K-dramas and talking to Max on the phone.
“Why do you look more exhausted than when I last saw you?” Effie asked as Stella slid into her chair. “Ew, don’t tell me you were doing it all weekend.”
“ ‘Doing it’?” Stella asked. “Really?”
“Would you like me to say sexual intercourse instead?”
Katy, who’d been diligently working at her computer across from them despite it barely being nine a.m., raised her eyes from her computer and looked between them both before turning her attention back to her screen.
“Thanks for that,” Stella said.
Effie smirked, giving away her true glee.
“You’re very welcome. And you haven’t answered my question.”
“I only ‘did it’ that night after tacos,” Stella said, her voice lowered. “And the next day. But that was it.”
After Max talked about his birth mom, Stella was expecting he’d drop her off back at her apartment and leave.
But when it became clear Chelsea wasn’t home, she had invited him up and one thing had led to another and he didn’t end up leaving until sometime in the early morning when she was half-awake.
She hadn’t seen him since then, but they’d talked every day and she was going to his place after work today.
“Then why do you look ran through?” Effie asked.
“Okay, ran through implies I’m having sex with multiple people, which I am not,” Stella said. “And I just haven’t been getting the best sleep, I guess. Now can you leave me and my dark circles alone, please?”
Effie opened her mouth to respond, but Katy gasped, drawing their attention.
“What?” Effie asked.
“Holy shit!”
“What?” Effie asked again.
Katy looked from her to Stella.
“You won!” Katy said.
“Who you?” Stella asked. “Me?”
Katy nodded, and Effie grabbed for her laptop.
“Holy shit,” she said. Then she turned the computer to Stella so she could see it. The Sprint Week results.
Hello, Yellow Sparks family!
Thank you all for another incredible Sprint Week! The numbers this time were incredible, and I’m so proud of the work you all accomplished together. But I’m sure you only care about one thing, so here are the results:
1. Stella Johnson—1,456,990 views
2. Eric Schmidt—1,003,405 views
3. Effie Thomas—999,450 views
4. Gregory Jacobs—995,320 views
As always, you can find the full list of everyone’s stats below, with more details about all the posts that went up last week. Congratulations to the winners! Eric, Effie, and Gregory, please stop by my office sometime today to claim your prizes.
Best,
Miles
Stella read the email, then read it again.
She’d won! She had actually won! Stella was pretty sure she’d never won anything in her life, but she had won this, and all on her own.
She scrolled down to see the post traffic and almost smiled when she saw “Ten Zodiac Sign Pairings That Should Totally Be Together—and Ten That Absolutely Should Not” was number one.
She knew that would get people talking and sharing.
“Why does he say for only Eric, Effie, and Gregory to claim their prizes?” Katy asked, pulling Stella out of her thoughts.
She looked up from Effie’s computer to see Katy scanning her screen, most likely reading the email again.
Stella had been so excited about winning she hadn’t even really thought about that, or why there were four winners instead of three.
“Fuck,” Effie said, huffing out a breath. “Stella didn’t use that Sparky shit. Her posts don’t qualify for the prize money.”
“Wait, what?”
This came from Clay, a guy on the content team who walked over, along with a few others.
“Stella, why didn’t you use the robot?” Katy asked.
“I didn’t think I’d actually win,” Stella said defensively. “Besides, if I had used it, maybe I wouldn’t have won. Who knows?”
“Wow, so just because you didn’t use the AI, he’s really not going to give you anything,” Frankie, another member of their team, said. “That’s kind of fucked.”
“Yeah, but those were the rules,” Katy said. “He can’t just change them now.”
“The fuck he can’t,” Effie said. “Stella’s posts got over four hundred thousand more views than Eric’s. She deserves the ten grand. She earned it!”
“Hey, now! It’s not my fault she decided not to play by the rules,” Eric said, piping up from a row over.
“ ‘Play by the rules,’ he says,” Effie scoffed. “If anything, Stella played by the rules by not using Sparky. She just proved that we’re better off without it.”
There were murmurs of agreement, and Stella took in the crowd that was now forming around them. Clearly this was becoming a thing, and somehow she found herself at the center of it.
“Stella, you should say something,” Effie said.
“Say what?” Stella asked. “These guys are right. Technically, I don’t qualify to win. I knew the rules, so what can I say?”
“Stella, it’s ten thousand dollars! You’re really going to let them rob you of ten grand? At the very least you should talk to—” Effie looked around the group, who were all watching them now, and then pulled Stella away to the kitchen area, much to the discontent of everyone around them.
“You should tell Max about this,” Effie whispered once she confirmed no one was around. “He’d fight for you.”
“We’re not supposed to talk about work to each other,” Stella said. “And I don’t want him fighting my battles for me. If I have Max talk to Miles and Miles actually gives me the money and then everyone finds out, they’re going to think I only got it because I’m sleeping with Miles’ brother.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Effie asked. “Miles can’t give you nothing. I refuse to accept my prize if you don’t get something, too.”
Stella softened at that, grateful to have a friend who’d give up her prize money in the name of what was right.
“You don’t have to do that,” Stella said.
“Yeah, but it’s the principle of the thing,” Effie said. “And I’m going to tell Eric and Gregory they better not take that money either. If we don’t all get paid, no one gets paid. Period.”
Stella’s eyes began to well up and she quickly shut them, trying to hold it together.
She didn’t even know if Eric and Gregory would agree to this, but she had a feeling they would.
This was her team. Maybe they weren’t all her friends, but at the end of the day, she spent most of her adult life in this office with these people, and that meant something.
“Right, okay,” Stella said, shaking it off. “Thank you, Effie. And I’m going to try talking to Melanie. You’re right, at the very least I have to say something.”
“Atta girl,” Effie said. “And if she refuses to help you, we got you.”
Effie held out a fist, and Stella rolled her eyes but bumped her fist to Effie’s.
“Okay,” Stella said, rolling back her shoulders. “Time to do this, I guess.”
“You got this,” Effie said, patting her on the back. “Just talk to her with the confidence of a mediocre white man. That always works for me.”
Stella laughed. “Noted.”