Page 3 of Power

Jason wrapped up his meeting with us by offering more specifics on features that we needed to polish. There was so much work to cover and not enough time if we were to meet the deadline next week. Usually, mergers took months to be completed, so it was alarming that this was happening by next week. I did not know how we would finish the software in time, but it seemed like we didn’t have much of a choice.

After Jason finished speaking, he disappeared into his office and didn’t resurface for the rest of the day. The rest of us spent a good twenty minutes venting our frustrations to each other. The room was filled with hushed chatter. Eventually, we all recovered enough to resume working. I busied myself with my assigned features. If I were going to finish everything by next week, I would need to pull a lot of all-nighters. I couldn’t waste any more time complaining about the acquisition. Every waking hour that I could work was valuable now.

At around six o’clock, Natalie pushed her chair away from her desk and massaged a kink out of her neck. My back felt stiff from sitting all day too, but I didn’t have time to get up and stretch.

The office was still full, despite the time.

Nat stood up and walked over to my desk. Plopping her butt down on my desktop, she exclaimed, “Let’s go get wasted!” My desk neighbors all looked up at her, annoyed that she’d broken their concentration. Nat either didn’t notice or didn’t care that eyes were on her.

I was glued to my laptop screen and kept typing furiously. “I can’t. I still have so much more I need to work on for tonight.” There was no way I could spare any time to go out drinking.

Not liking my answer, she slammed my screen down, shutting my laptop. I gaped at her. “What the hell, Nat?”

“No. If we’re going to be working like mules for the next week, then we should have one last hurrah. Plus, after next week, we may not even be working together again.” Her expression turned solemn.

That last part made me sad, too. It was a definite possibility that neither of us would be working at Sethi Tech. We would have to search for jobs elsewhere and be forced to go our separate ways. She was my best friend in the city, and the possibility of not seeing her every day formed a pit in my stomach.

I would probably regret giving up coding for the night, but she was right. We needed one last hurrah together before shit got real.

I scrunched my eyes closed, already remorseful of my irresponsible decision. “Give me five minutes to wrap up.”

She pumped her fist in the air, bopping on my desk with excitement. “That’s my girl!” she beamed as she added a shoulder shimmy to her bopping.

Chapter III

Amelia

Nirvana was packed. The club was overflowing with people swaying to the deep thumping of music. Beautiful women showed off their toned bodies while moving to the rhythm and grinding on equally sexy and firm-bodied men. The crowd thrashed us back and forth as we pushed our way through the dance floor.

Luckily, we had time to change our clothes before arriving. We stopped at Natalie’s apartment to freshen up after work. I didn’t own any clothes worthy of clubbing, so Nat was generous enough to loan me a form-fitting rose gold dress with the thinnest spaghetti straps I’d ever seen. It was too short for my liking, but she had insisted that it was appropriate for the evening ahead. She also loaned me a pair of too-high strappy black stilettos. As if the dress and shoes weren’t enough, she did my hair and makeup too. I looked like a totally different person. My eyes were smokey and my lips were glossed in a rosy-pink color. My hair was set into soft waves that were still touchable and flowed down my back. I wasn’t used to this version of myself. I’d never metthisAmelia before.

Nat was perfection in her black-sequined miniskirt and silky top in the same color. She had long legs like a model and just the right amount of cleavage to fill out her top. She was always the first one noticed in a room, with her bright-orange hair and sun-kissed skin.

We made our way to the upper level of the club and found our other co-workers. Ramone, Dave, and Jen were already waiting for us at a table, drinks in hand. Nat ordered us all a round of shots when the waitress passed by. I wasn’t much of a drinker, but I knew Nat wasn’t in the mood to hear my protest. She was on a mission to let loose tonight and was taking all of us down with her, too.

“Can you believe that Sethi Tech bought us over?” Ramone shouted over the music. “I guess it was bound to happen eventually. The Sethis acquire nearly every promising startup.”

Dave took a sip of his drink before replying, “I hear those Sethi brothers are into illegal shit, like drug dealing.” Everyone stared at him, eyes wide with surprise. As if for effect, he took an even longer sip of his Jack and Coke, without offering any further information.

Nat punched him hard in his arm, mid-sip. He choked and coughed to clear his throat. “You can’t just drop a bomb like that and stop talking, idiot! Explain yourself!”

Dave rubbed his arm while scooting his body out of Nat’s line of fire. He continued, “Well, it’s just that I heard some of my friends who worked at another startup talking. The Sethis acquired their startup months ago. They said that the brothers liked to scope out places that deal with tracking software. I assume it has something to do with keeping tabs on people who sell their stuff or their competition, if the rumors are true.”

“So, our new bosses are drug dealers?” I asked in disbelief. What was I supposed to do with this information? I loved my job, but if I continued working there, I’d be involved in shady business too. Should I start searching for a new job out of principle? Maybe I would be a part of the group that got laid off, so I wouldn’t have to worry about handing in my two-week notice to a bunch of gangster drug dealers. They probably did not handle rejection too well.

“Yeah, but those are just rumors,” Jen said, trying to calm us down with her skepticism. “It seems a little unbelievable that drug dealers would be so heavily involved with all these startups without anyone going to the police. They’ve been acquiring businesses for a while. They would have been caught by now.”

“All I know is what I’ve heard. That’s all.” Dave raised both his hands, signaling us to not shoot the messenger.

“Thank fuck! Our shots are here!” Nat interrupted. The night was finally about to start, according to her.

She grabbed the glasses off the tray before the waitress could do it herself and slammed one in front of each person. “Drink up!” Everyone downed their shots in one gulp, except for me. The smell had my guts churning. Nat grunted with distaste at my hesitance. Impatient, she suddenly pinched my nose and tipped the glass to my mouth, forcing me to swallow it. Warm liquid rushed down my throat and warmed me all the way to my belly.

She let go of my nose as I coughed to clear my throat of the burn. “Hey! I would have done it on my own!” I managed to sputter. I wiped the streams of spilled booze from my chin with the back of my hand.

“No, you wouldn’t have, ya flake,” she said and winked, flashing me her most charismatic smile. She was so damn pushy, but it was hard to be annoyed with her.

Then her eyes went wide as she zoned in on something over my shoulder. I turned around to see what she was staring at.

---