Page 3 of Free Agent

My face was already hot, heart racing.

Not again.

Not another headline.

Not another picture.

Ha.

If only it really was that simple, to just wish away whatever the rest of a headline declaring “Montgomery Rudolph Caught—” said.

He wasn’t a receiver.

Whatever he caught was undoubtedly going to be some bullshit.

“Can you send your sketches to my email, please?” I asked Tionne after clearing my throat. “I’d like to see the notes. I won’t have any at this stage, I’d just like to see them. Curiosity.”

Her eyes were wide with fear as she nodded. “Yes ma’am, of course. And I… um… I’m sorry. I had lunch at my desk, and I was browsing, and I saw it, and I just clicked?—”

“Please,” I interrupted, waving her off before she could continue stammering. “You have nothing to apologize for. And please don’t call me ma’am. It’s just Rori.”

Without giving her a chance to say anything else, I walked away.

Not because I was mad at her, I just desperately did not want this whole room of people to see me crying over Monty.

Again.

As I backtracked through the hive, chatter was noticeably lower, and all eyes were on me, on the back of my head as I passed.

They’d all seen it.

Shannon had seen it.

A guess that was confirmed when I stopped walking at the door to my office and turned to see she was right on my heels, eyes full of concern.

“Are you okay?” was all she asked, after a moment of us just looking at each other.

Not all she wanted to ask, but all she did.

Shannon and I were friends—good ones, in fact—and she was my lead developer, but not that kind of friends not quite yet, where she could say, “fuck him, I hate his ass” to me.

It was bubbling under the surface though, I could see it in her eyes.

“I’m fine.” I nodded, even though the damn taco felt like a charcoal briquet, still smoking, in my stomach now.

Was this why he’d sent lunch? ’Cause he knew what was coming?

“I know I said I wasn’t leaving until later, but I think I’m going to head out shortly,” I told Shannon. “I’ll submit my code to the repository when I wrap up, can you?—”

“Have the team finalize, test, debug, deploy?” she finished for me. “Of course.”

“Thank you,” I said, stepping back into my office. The smell of the tacos had permeated the room, and what I would’ve found pleasant was nauseating to me now. The bag was going straight to the trash.

“And… Rori… by the way…”

My head whipped around just in time to catch the mischief on Shannon’s face, an attempt to lighten the moment, and I held up my hand.

“Nope! Don’t you fucking say it until that update is deployed.”

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