Chapter 11 #3
“That’s me,” she said, smiling her best. “I was thinking—we should really try to raise your PR profile, you know, more thought leadership, get your name out there. I happen to know someone who helps run the Forbes Councils. It’s invite-only, of course, but Stavrula and I go way back and you’re obviously such a luminary in your space… ”
She suddenly had his full attention.
“Jim never seemed to be able to make any headway with them,” Brad said.
It took her a moment to realize he meant Tim. “Well, let me see what I can do.”
He looked at her speculatively, then Hayley tugged his sleeve and they walked around to the other side of the court to take the next set of turns in the opposite direction.
She went back to her new friend behind the bar. It had been a nice drink, but shuffleboard was turning out to have higher stakes than she’d expected and she needed to keep her wits about her. “Can I get a seltzer with lime and whatever other fruit you can stick in it?”
Luke was coming back from his turn, which had gone wide. He muttered at her, “I think I hate this game. What if I turn the biscuit into a frog?”
She snorted seltzer up her nose at the image. He patted her on the back until she managed to stop coughing. Her nose hurt but she still couldn’t help grinning at him. “You can’t turn the biscuit into a frog.”
“I know,” he sighed. “I can’t actually turn the biscuit into a frog, it doesn’t fall under the budget criteria. What if I turn the biscuit into a biscuit?”
“American or British?”
“There’s a difference?”
“Soft and flaky or sweet and crunchy. British would probably slide better.”
“Next game.” He winked. She was glad he was here; somehow, he made it easier to have fun. Like he was giving her permission.
Hayley missed her last shot, losing them the game. Brad groaned while the developers cheered. “Best two out of three,” he declared as the staff reset the board.
“So the byline is our way in with Brad?” Luke whispered.
“Maybe. If he deserves it at all,” she whispered back.
Though anyone who used that many buzzwords in a sentence probably did deserve it. No. That was flippant and awful, and she was talking about real souls here. She needed to be sure.
“You two are sooooooooo cute,” Hayley slurred. She draped an arm over each of them. She had not been sticking to seltzer. “But, like, you need to keep it profesh, OK?”
“We’re, ah, we’re not—” Morgan tripped over her words.
Was she so obvious? An image of Luke leaning in to whisper something more intimate than plans to steal her boss’s soul flashed across her mind’s eye, followed all too quickly by an image of doing something entirely unprofessional in the phone room in the back.
She blushed. Luke inhaled sharply. Shit.
She’d worried he’d catch wind of her desires, but it was a totally different thing to have the evidence.
And worse that it had caught Hayley’s eye.
If it were obvious enough for Hayley to notice, and Luke certainly wasn’t reciprocating, that was the kind of thing that showed up in corporate training videos on sexual harassment.
Oh god. Was she sexually harassing Luke?
She blushed even harder and looked away in shame.
“Sir, I was listening to this podcast.” Mercifully, Luke turned away from her to focus on his actual goal. “Investorama?”
“With Cory and Daveed? Aww yeah, they’re the best. Did you know in a poll of early-stage startup CEOs, they’re the most-listened-to podcast?” Brad said.
She tried to wrestle her mortification back under control. Behind Hayley, Josh/Justin poked Justin/Josh with a tang. The equipment manager gave them an admonishing look.
“They were talking a lot about the importance of selecting the right investor for your company. And I wanted to know… how do you decide who’s right for Zabloom?”
Ooh, smart move. Brad’s eyes lit up and he started talking about a sea of acronyms that were only faintly familiar to Morgan. There was no way Luke knew what the CEO was talking about, but he nodded along as if he did.
Hayley stepped up and sent her biscuit skipping off into the next lane over. The QA guys next to them protested.
“Whoopsie!” Hayley said, swaying slightly.
“Maybe you should have some water,” Morgan said, guiding her over to the seats. She wouldn’t have guessed the Head of People was such a lush. She kept half an eye on Luke and Brad. Brad was talking animatedly as Luke tried to take his turn.
Vijay knocked Brad’s puck into the penalty box. Brad cut himself off mid-curse.
“I bet you’d sell your soul to keep your next biscuit in the scoring zone,” Luke said lightly.
“I’d sell my soul to find out where that fucking asshole learned to play shuffleboard,” Brad muttered. “Who even plays this?”
Morgan took a few steps back, not wanting to be in Brad’s line of sight while he was angry. Hayley nearly tripped into her.
“I hope Brad isn’t too mad,” Hayley fretted.
“About the puck?”
“Biscuit.”
“Whatever it is. It’s just a game.”
“Nothing’s just a game to Brad,” Hayley said darkly.
“I mean, maybe he really wants that extra PTO day,” Morgan responded, feeling uncomfortable.
Hayley snorted. “I don’t know why, they aren’t going to be worth anything by July 1.”
That caught Morgan’s attention. “What do you mean?”
“We’re going to unlimited PTO next fiscal year,” Hayley said, waving her drink vaguely. “It lets us carry less on the balance sheet. Investors like that.”
That dick. He had everyone competing for something that was about to be worthless? She felt a lot less guilty.
She handed Hayley her seltzer. “You should really drink this.”
“Awww, that’s sooooo sweet!”
Brad leaned down to grab the next biscuit.
She tried to get Luke’s eye, but he avoided looking at her.
She bit her lip, mortified. If Hayley had been right and it had been mutual, it just would have been inappropriate for the workplace.
But it wasn’t mutual: why would someone like Luke even want her?
He was gorgeous and magically gifted, and maybe he wasn’t great at his own job, but he was amazing at hers.
The only reason he would even be interested in someone as drab as her was because he felt like he had to because he owed her.
She knew what she would have thought if a dude kept making his interest clear to a female coworker who wasn’t interested, let alone a guy with power over her.
She hadn’t acted on it, though—what was she supposed to do?
Keep better control of her thoughts, clearly.
“How’s it going?” she whispered to Luke as Brad slid his biscuit sharply into the middle of the developers’ cluster, knocking one out. He pumped his fists in victory. It wasn’t going to be enough, she suspected, given Hayley’s dismal performance. And her own fairly lackluster aim.
“I’ve got the name. All we have to do is get Ravenfell on board to make all his dreams come true.
They turned him down, but I figure if I have a mysterious uncle or something and can get him a second pitch session, then after I’ve established trust, I can let him in on the opportunity and promise him a Deal to get a yes from Ravenfell. ”
“That’s awesome,” she said, feeling embarrassed.
He’d actually gotten somewhere on solving their problem, while she was too busy worrying about PTO and promotions and if Luke would ever be able to look her in the eye again after realizing she thought he was hot.
The name Ravenfell caught her attention, though. There was a reason she’d heard of them.
Brad prodded her out, and she tried her best to line up a shot. Her biscuit made it across the line but stopped barely short of the top triangle.
Justin/Josh poked Josh/Justin with the tang, and Josh/Justin whipped his up to deflect it. He parried, the other developer dancing back. The sticks clacked against each other, their use as fencing weapons somewhat diminished by the prongs at the end that kept getting tangled.
“Gentlemen,” pleaded the equipment manager as the two developers battled up the steps toward the bar. Morgan ducked as a tang whistled overhead.
“I know something you don’t know,” quoted one.
“Dude, you are too left-handed,” the other said, lunging just as the equipment manager rushed up to stop them. The first raised his hand and his friend whacked him hard in the arm.
“Ahh! Dude! Fuck!” He dropped his stick, clutching his arm.
“Do you need medical attention?” the equipment manager said, horrified.
“Eh, walk it off,” Brad said. “Ronaldo, it’s your turn.”
“I think I need to go to the hospital,” the developer said, looking down at his arm.
“Fine,” Brad said, waving his hand. “Ronaldo, you go twice.”
“I’m going to take him to the hospital,” said the other developer. “Sorry, bro.”
“It’s OK, bro.”
“Fine,” Brad rolled his eyes.
“Is this, like, workerscomp?” the other developer asked, fumbling out his phone to summon a car.
“Uh.” Hayley looked like a deer in the headlights.
“You’ll be fine,” Brad said, which did not answer the question. In a lower voice, he said to Hayley, “They all signed waivers.” He raised his voice again. “Vijay, you go twice, too.”
Ronaldo lined up his shot.