And there was the tactless Jane I hated.
“So what’s my first duty as maid of honor, Your Royal Highness?” I debated whether to confiscate her keys or not.
“First we’ll go look at wedding dresses together. Then shoes. Then bridesmaid dresses.” She looked me up and down. “I might choose a halter in a beigey-champagne color, but that will definitely wash you out even more. If we do a summer wedding, do you think you could get a tan?”
I nudged her out the door. “Sure, maybe I’ll get Botox, too, while I’m at it.”
She squealed, “Oh, maybe for your crow’s-feet on your left eye!” I mumbled a quick “Bye!” while grabbing my apartment keys from her hand. I locked the door behind her and scurried over to the bathroom to stare at my face in the mirror. Ugh. In plain sight, small wrinkles on the outside of my left eye, but not my right.
Signs of aging. Or stress. Or both.
Damn it.
Jane texted me as I went back to the kitchen for more wine. I’m definitely doing halter dresses. I have some arm weights you should borrow.
Did she mean to type “could borrow?”
No. No she didn’t.
Then it sank in. How did I end up Jane’s maid of honor?
Chapter Seven
Asher already had his EDM music blaring on his shitty, tinny computer speakers early the next morning. It didn’t matter when I arrived at the office, Asher always made it there first. With his goddamned Starbucks.
I cleared my throat and angrily tapped my laptop keys. “Hey, uh, the music? Do you mind? We’re at work, not a five A.M. spin class.”
I expected him to comment on that. Instead, he asked, “So what do you have on Ian?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look, it’s pretty obvious that you are grossly unqualified to produce video games. So that means you have something on Ian. Or maybe you two . . . you know.” He raised his eyebrows up and down.
I glared. “I know what you’re insinuating, and Ian and I do not have some kind of arrangement. I pitched a game to him and he liked it. It’s that simple.”
Ash-hole shot me a look of contempt. “I need some air. Your presence is suffocating.” He rushed out of the room, leaving a trail of his Asher dude smell in his wake.
A loud knock on the door made me jolt upright.
“Is this a bad time?” Nolan MacKenzie stepped into the room carrying a brown paper grocery bag with handles.
Pinching my brow, I asked, “Whyyyy are you here?” A deep, impatient sigh escaped me. Mr. Intern needed to leave ASAP because I had fifty unread emails labeled “urgent” and Asher would think Ian was playing favorites because I knew Nolan. “Don’t you have intern things to do?”
He said flatly, “I’m here to go over the finance and revenue assignments.” He plunked the bag on my desk. “I brought you something. A peace offering, since we have to work together.” He reached in and pulled out my mug. Specifically, my broken caffeine mug, with riverlike cracks running down and across it, held together by poor Krazy Glue craftsmanship. “I found all the pieces and tried to fix it, but as you can see, it’s not the same.”
Nope. Not the same.
He cleared his throat. “I got you another mug from the pharmacy downstairs. It’s temporary until I get you a real replacement. I haven’t had much luck finding the same one online, but don’t worry, I’ll find it.”
Out of the bag came mug number two. “World’s Best Grandma.” I broke my stoic demeanor and snort-laughed.
He smiled in return. “Okay, good. At least you’re not glaring at me anymore.” Our eyes met as he handed the grandma mug to me, along with the “repaired” one. “On my honor, I will get you a replacement mug. And trust me, no interns would dare steal either of these, so you’re safe.”
This was a cease-fire gesture, I got that, but I just wasn’t in the mood. And I didn’t want him still here when Asher got back, last thing I needed was incessant chiding about Nolan. “I really need to get back to work.”
He frowned. “You won’t accept any of my meeting requests and we need to get our assignments done before the deadline. I looked on your shared calendar, it’s not blocked out right now.”
Jumping to my feet, I nodded my head toward the door. “Sorry, but you saw my to-do list with your own eyes. I’ll find some time later this week. Now go.”
He wouldn’t budge. “We can’t do later this week. Ian stopped by my desk and said, quote, ‘Goddamnit, Nolan, this was due yesterday!’ End quote.”
Asher’s laugh echoed nearby. I needed Nolan out of here.
Without thinking, I nudged him toward the doorway by pushing his back. Nolan scoot-stepped along a bit, but then dug in his heels at the exit. His trim, strapping body gave a ton of resistance.
“Thanks for stopping by.” With a light shove, I pushed him into the hallway, straight into Asher.
Nolan, being the smaller of the two, ricocheted off Asher’s chest and right arm and bounced back to me. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut in.
“Nolan was just leaving,” I said, shooting him a stern look. “Thanks for the reminder about our meeting.”
Nolan pursed his lips and scooted past Asher.
Asher smirked as he took his seat. “In-ter-es-ting. Did I interrupt a spat? A lovers’ spat perhaps?”
God-fucking-damnit. It didn’t help that my face burned hot from embarrassment. Or maybe exertion—pushing Nolan out the door was harder than it looked. That guy had serious muscles packed under that checkered shirt.
Asher opened his desk drawer slowly and rustled some papers. “Ah, here it is. The employee code of conduct.” Clearing his throat, he read, “‘Employees are strictly prohibited from engaging in any physical contact that would in any way harm another employee.’”
I glowered at him as he rubbed his upper arm. “Your intern really did a number on me. I hope this doesn’t bruise.”
Staring hard at my laptop screen, I tried to ignore his distractions, but he was getting to me.
“Oh, here’s an interesting HR tidbit. ‘Personal relationships, including romantic and-or sexual, between individuals in inherently unequal positions, where one party has real or perceived authority over the other in their professional roles, may be inappropriate in the workplace and are strongly discouraged.’” He tut-tutted and continued. “‘If such a relationship exists or develops, it must be disclosed immediately.’”
He shoved the pages back into the drawer and closed it. “Just let me know when you’re ready to tell me, office roomie. It’s cute that your boyfriend brought you gifts. But not gonna lie, they’re pretty lame. Maybe it’s a MacKenzie family inside joke.”
As if I’d paged him, Ian waltzed into our office with Kat trailing a few steps behind him. Kat shot me a look that I couldn’t decipher. It looked like . . . pain? Pity? Appendicitis?
Ian sat on my desk and smiled at me. I didn’t like that.
He announced, “I wanted to get the dream team together here for a quick morning stand-up. Melody, there’s been a small change. Maggie, the senior producer who just came back from sabbatical and was assigned to lead your project, is leaving the company to work at Riot Games, so you’ll be transitioning with Maggie until she leaves, which will be in three weeks.”
“Wait. Then what happens when she’s gone?” My posture stiffened and a bout of nausea permeated through my body.
Ian yawned, like he was bored with this conversation already. “Well, you’ll basically colead with Maggie until she leaves. Then you’ll be interim lead producer until we find a replacement.”
Asher sputtered Starbucks venti coffee onto his desk. “Shit, I’ll report to Melody then?”
I gasped and said, “What do you mean by interim?”
“Well, interim means temporary. And it’s only until we find a producer to fill that role.”
Yes, I knew the definition of “interim,” asshole Ian, but to him “interim” probably meant I’d be paid the same salary to fill bigger shoes, and then when I got used to that job, he’d take it away from me with his new producer hire. And I might even have to teach that person how to do his or her job.
“The board specifically requested that we staff this game with more women, and you’re our only female producer now. After Maggie leaves, we can partner you temporarily with Rain, he’s our senior producer on Zooful Nation, to help answer any questions, but hopefully after a few weeks you’ll be running the show on your own. Asher will be on your team, too, supporting your efforts. Kat will be the lead designer. Go ahead and set up a meeting this afternoon with Maggie and Rain to work on the production schedule and deliverables.”
“Before I start on a production schedule I need to know if you’ve got a launch date in mind.”
Ian laughed. “Well, it depends if we go console or mobile.” He tapped his lips with his pointer finger. “Console would be well over a year, but since we’ve had some success developing for console and porting to mobile, I think we go straight to mobile because we need this market ASAP. You can blame the board for that, too. So, six months.”