Page 11 of Just Watch Me

Skylar shrugged off his charcoal suit jacket and draped it over the chair next to him. “I can’t decide that for you. It’s good to see you, though.” He glanced at the door. “I know we’re here for work, and I don’t mean to derail your day, but I just wanted to say I had fun the other night.”

The worry washed from me like a roaring river after a flood. “I did too. I’ll have to get takeout there again.”

“You know where to find me when you do.”

His words surprised me, but once again, they seemed sincere. It sent warmth through me. “You got it.”

Skylar cleared his throat. “I guess we should be professional now or something.”

He’d completely disarmed me. “I guess so. Though, this is more fun than working.” I covered my mouth with my hand. “Shit. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Skylar laughed. “This isn’t a performance review, and I’m not your boss. Don’t worry. I won’t tell.”

“Thank god.” Something about him pushed through all my defense mechanisms.

“My goal today is to talk to you about what you do and your experience with past projects. I know people in the trenches are often ignored when it comes to improving things for the next project. I’m here to advocate for you. Use me.”

Is it my imagination, or did his voice drop?I shifted in my seat. I could think of about a hundred ways I would happily use him.

“That includes any ideas you have forLegion of Tomorrow.”

I nodded. I had a ton of ideas but wasn’t sure I wanted to share them. Too many reports of idea stealing floated around. Even though good ideas benefitted everyone and didn’t belong to one person, when a workplace rewarded people for their ideas, I guessed the competitiveness made sense. I studied Skylar for a moment. Something about him made me think I could trust him.

“Did you work on theLegion of Yesterdayteam?”

“I did. I joined the company partway through that project.”

Skylar asked me some pointed and thoughtful questions about what I thought had gone well and could have been better. He was an active listener and asked good follow-up questions. My ideas and perspectives spilled out of my mouth like he’d given me a truth serum.

“What aboutLegion of Tomorrow? What would you like to see happen?” He paused from taking notes on his tablet.

“We know the game is going to be huge based on how wellLegion of Yesterdaydid and the hordes of people on the internet clamoring for the sequel. I think we could do more to bring the real world into the game.”

Skylar looked thoughtful and leaned back in his chair. “How so?”

“People talked nonstop about the last game. It was the biggest thing to hit the action RPG market sinceSkyrim. If we provided a better way for people to brag about their in-game achievements on their social media, we might spark people’s competitive spirits. We could better develop our Discord integration, for one.”

Skylar’s digital pencil danced across his screen. “That’s a great idea. What else?”

I unloaded all the ideas that had been kicking around in my mind for a while. The things I would pursue if I could do more than programming.

“Have you thought about going into game design?”

I opened my mouth and closed it like a goldfish. My cheeks heated, and I looked away. “I’m happy where I am.”

“Jesse.” Skylar’s tone was stern but not demanding, firm, reassuring, and sent flames licking up my spine.

If only we were alone in the building, and he used that tone to tell me what to do. Sprawl me out on the table and—

“Jesse.” His tone was still serious, but I caught a glint in his eye.

Busted.“Okay, yeah, I like what I do, but I’d love to work in game design.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Why don’t I ride a unicorn to work?” I bit back.

Skylar’s lips twitched.

---