Page 2 of Reeling in Love

“Um. Yeah. That’s a turnoff for sure.”

“And he never goes down on me. Like ever.”

“You don’t say! That’s like so amazing. I mean, when Ryan… um, well, nothing.” She blushes a little, and it’s so sweet that she still blushes when she talks about her and Ryan. “But you’re missing out, girl. I always thought you’re with him because of the ... y’know...”

She covers her tummy with her hands and whispers, “S-e-x.”

Then continues in her normal tone. “But if that too ain’t good, what’s tying you to him? You don’t share interests, friends, food habits, nothing. So I’m wondering yet again, why’re you with him?”

“Me too, Eva. Me too. I think it’s his apartment. It’s really cozy and beautiful and so close to the office.”

Eva chuckles. “You know how silly that sounds, right?”

“On top of that, he hinted he might propose. I told him I’m not keen, but you know how he is.”

Eva takes my hand in hers and creases her forehead like Rick usually does. “I know you want this, Sugar. You don’t really mean what you’re saying. When a girl says ‘no’, it means ‘yes’.”

I can’t help smiling at Eva’s impression of Rick. She does a good one, complete with his Texan accent.

“I think if he calls me Sugar one more time, I might get diabetes. Anyway, so now I’ll live in dread every time I’m near him ‘coz I don’t know when he’ll pop the question. Hashtag awkward.”

“Let me know if you need my help to make him understand. I think the hormones are making me a little short tempered. I’d be happy to blow off some steam on him.”

I smile. Eva is the worst in confrontation. She’s getting better at it, but still. I take a sip of the coffee that’s almost gone cold by now.

“Thanks. I’ll manage. You want some coffee?” I ask her.

She shakes her head. "Only water and juice for me, as per Ryan’s instructions.”

I smile. Ryan takes real good care of her and it’s always great to see them together. It even reduces my contempt of the married world.

“Great then. So, did you come over as my boss to tone down my posts? Or is there something else?”

“I don’t care much about the posts. They’re getting so much traction, it’s good. I need help with my educational product. We’re still seen as a gaming and fun company and no one thinks we can be serious. You got anything planned for our branding yet?”

Eva is heading a new division in the company. It’s for education through games and I’m helping her with branding the products.

“There are a few things I’ve thought of. As far as branding goes, I don’t like the existing product logo. It needs to be focussed on your product and not MooreGames if we want to show it as different from the company. We can keep the same brand colors with ‘MooreGames’ in a tiny font below it to show the technical connection. But focus should be on the product. See, something like this.”

I turn my screen toward her and show her the new logo I’ve been working on. She studies it for a bit.

“Um. This is good. We can work with this.”

“I’ve also connected with a few educationists in the US, UK, Singapore, and India. We will send them the beta version of the product, have a one-on-one discussion with them, and take their reaction and feedback. Hopefully, it’ll be good, and then we can use that to market it to schools. I’m also talking to a few senior educationists and scientists to be a part of our advisory board. I should have something for you in a couple of weeks.”

The smile on Eva’s face says it all. She’s passionate about what she’s doing and after seeing the products that her team has worked on, I honestly think that children will have fun learning basic concepts. I mean, she’s even made math fun!

“You’re the best, Nora. Have I told you that?”

“Not nearly enough,” I reply, smiling.

“You should ask for a raise. We don’t pay you enough. And don’t tell Ryan, I put you up to it. But without your social media marketing skills and contacts with industry stalwarts and influencers, we wouldn’t be growing nearly half as fast.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Though Ryan said the exact same thing last week when they launched their new game and so many YouTubers raved about it.”

MooreGames was founded by Ryan Moore. It’s a gaming company, and I joined here soon after grad-school as part of their social media team. Well, ‘team’, may not be the right word. I was a one-woman army. It was a tiny establishment then, and I had taken up the role because my childhood friend, Gabriel, the CFO of MooreGames and Ryan’s friend, put me on to it. It was supposed to be a stop-gap arrangement for me to get some experience before I moved to something bigger. But I loved it here. I still do. And things have only become better after Eva joined.

I enjoy my work and have full freedom as far as social media marketing goes. Isn’t it great that being on social media and posting your thoughts is part of your job description? I’m in touch with so many influencers. I love posting on my personal page as well, though sometimes lines blur, like today, where I ended up posting #ProudFeminist and #WomenAreFromVenus posts on the company page as well.

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