Page 32 of The Game

“Yes! Was it okay? I realized I should have brought Damian with me to video me arriving and …”

She shakes her head. “It’s a brilliant shot. I’ve reposted it to Adam’s personal account. Maybe we could shoot some more behind-the-scenes footage. I’ve got some of the guys putting the kits together.”

“I should have brought Damian to meet you.”

“What even is all this social-media stuff?” Adam says, waving his arm around.

“None of us understand TikTok, boss,” says a man with a beard standing to my right.

“This is Keith,” Adam says, “and Sean, and Chris, Don, José.” He points to each member of his team in turn.

“I’m the only woman in the office,” Susie adds.

“Yeah, but you do the work of six people,” Don mumbles with a grin.

“You’re basically our mascot,” the guy next to him says. Sean, I think.

I open my mouth, but Susie gets in before me, “Not sure we should be talking about women being mascots in a professional company, Sean.”

Sean flushes and starts stammering an apology, but Susie rolls her eyes at me. “Welcome to my life working with a bunch of engineers.”

“Don’t be engineerist,” Don mutters, and Susie punches him in the arm. He howls. “Workplace abuse!”

“Guys. Can we try and look at least semiprofessional for Anna?” Adam says, swinging around as a grin splits my face. These people are adorable.

“This is Chico, who did the graffiti mural, and Andy who’s going to do the photos for us today,” Adam adds. Chico waves, but Andy blushes to the roots of his hair, steps back, and crashes into a light.

“He’s a bit of a tennis fan,” Sean whispers.

“If you have all finished being lunatics, maybe we could do some test shots?” Chico says.

Susie directs Pepper and me over to the mural, and I bend down to fuss over the dog while Andy takes a few pictures. Keith has his phone up, filming everything.

“Looking good,” Andy says. “Sean, can you bring over some of the toys?”

Sean brings over a small dog made of electronics and metal parts and sets it on the floor, and Adam comes to stand next to me as Pepper sniffs it. When it starts to move, she stares at it for a couple of seconds, tilting her head quizzically to one side, and then she barks.

The dog does a backflip, and Pepper goes berserk, down on her haunches, growling and barking like mad, circling around and around. Everyone begins to laugh: Chico, Andy, and Susie all double up. I put my hand on Adam’s forearm as I start giggling. The solid muscle flexes under my fingers, and when I glance up at him, his head is tipped back and he’s laughing uproariously, too,and all the noise makes Pepper bark more and more. I stare at the joy on his handsome face. He hunches over, and when he straightens, water is leaking out of the corner of his eyes. He puts his hand over mine on his arm and squeezes.

“This is priceless,” he says, wiping his eyes with his other hand.

What a lovely guy he is.

“Can I turn it off?” Keith says, stepping forward, and still grinning himself as Pepper carries on growling.

“Was that a success or a failure?”

“Who cares?” says Susie. “I got some amazing footage. Never mind people making this themselves as a kit, I think we should put it up, ready-made, as dog entertainment and find out if it sells.”

“More like human entertainment,” Keith says as he bends down to switch it off, and Pepper comes back to me and hides between my legs, looking uncertain. I don’t want to move my hand from where it is under Adam’s, but I have to give her a stroke and a fuss.

“You silly,” I say, bending down to ruffle her fur. “It’s stopped moving now.”

Adam crouches down, too, fondling her soft ears, still grinning. “Well, that’s the most fun I’ve had in about a decade,” he says drily, but an odd expression flits across his face.

What? What has he been doing for the last ten years of his life? Surely his business hasn’t been in trouble all that time? And he has close friends, like Janus. The people in his company also seem lovely. Why has he not been having any fun?

My solitary car ride home does nothing but fuel more questions, so when I get back, I call Janus, but before I can get anything out, he wades right in:

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