Page 74 of Debugging Love

Morgan and Kayla are still in the breakroom. Morgan lays eyes on me, and her expression goes from casual to concerned. “What’s wrong?”

Her face is fuzzy. “Nothing,” I hear someone say. I can’t feel my mouth.

“You look flushed. Did you just see a centipede?”

“No.”

I bypass them both, grab a plastic cup, hold it under the water dispenser, and press the blue button. Blue for cold. Like my nails. I am cold. Calm. Professional.

The water goes down like it should, freezing my insides, adding weight to my body, allowing it to slowly descend. I go for another cup, pour it down my throat.

As soon as I turn around, they bombard me with questions.

“Are you sick?”

“Did you throw up?”

“Do you need me to drive you home?”

“Did Chance delete your code?”

He deleted my reason and common sense. And that’s a problem.

“My stomach hurt for a bit,” I lie, “but I’m fine now.”

“You still look a little weird,” Kayla says.

Great. Chance’s weirdness rubbed off on me.

“Sit,” Morgan says, patting the table.

“I can’t. I have a lot of work to do.”

“Bruce is in charge,” Morgan says. “It’s a free day. Don’t make the rest of us feel bad by being responsible.”

On cue, Bruce walks into the breakroom juggling a ping pong ball. “Skittle Pong in the main conference room in five,” he says without looking away from the ball.

“What’s Skittle Pong?” Kayla asks.

Bruce catches the ball and peers at Kayla through his glasses. “It’s Beer Pong, but with Skittles.”

“Why not beer?” Morgan asks jokingly.

“Because no one drives drunk on my watch. And no one works either. So if you don’t play Skittle Pong I expect you to waste your time doing something equally unimportant. That’s an order,” he finishes in a booming military voice.

Morgan and Kayla look at me. “Are you going to play?” Morgan asks.

“We don’t have to act like hooligans every time Christopher goes on a management retreat,” I say.

“But we can, so we do,” Kayla says. She hops up from her seat. “Skittles are gross. I’m going to go play Animal Crossing.”

“You brought your Switch to work?” I ask.

She looks over her shoulder. “Yes, it’s play day. So go play. I think I saw Chance in the conference room.” She flashes me a mischievous smile.

“I don’t care where he went,” I say to the empty void where Kayla once stood.

Morgan scrutinizes my face.

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