Page 17 of Work with Me

“No one said anything about sabotage.”

“If I find out you’re fucking with her, I will kick your ass. You know I’ll do it.”

“God, Jamila.” She wouldn’t actually kick my ass. But that tongue of hers would make my ears bleed for a week.

She gave me a sample of her ass-kicking tone. “Am I understood?”

“Loud and clear.”

“I really do think you’ll be great together.”

A few more productive days like today, and they’d all realize they didn’t need me at all. Cooper would figure out I was more trouble than I was worth, and we’d have a replay of what’d happened during the IPO. But this time I’d be out on my ass. Completely, not only demoted.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

“Still there, Jay?”

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“I’ll see you in a couple weeks.”

“’Kay. Bye.”

I let my head fall forward into my hands so I didn’t have to look at my screen that showed a photo of Alicia in her cap and gown with her honors medallion and cord.

Cooper had told me to do three things: produce good code on time, earn the respect of the team, and some bullshit about working together. I’d show him. All he really needed was for me to produce good code on time. I’d do that. And I didn’t need help from fucking Alicia Diane Weber.

6

ALICIA

That morning,I’d bravely tried the Cranberry Passion Blitz. The tea package in the break room claimed it was full of antioxidants. Maybe antioxidants would help me get through a day working side-by-side with Jackson Jones.

I lifted the steaming cup to my lips while the team gathered around me for our morning stand-up meeting. “Who’d like to go first?”

“I will.” Jackson strode past me to the board, the scent of leather blowing away the nauseatingly fruity smell of my tea. But he wasn’t wearing the boots today. Instead, he had on a well-worn pair of charcoal-gray-or-maybe-used-to-be-black Converse. He moved the sticky note with the name of the module we’d worked on yesterday from the “In progress” column to “Ready for Test.” “This module was completed yesterday.”

I choked down the scalding-hot tea. “No, we didn’t finish. We still have to—”

“Correction:Ifinished it yesterday after you left. Progress shouldn’t stop when you’re not here.” He crossed his arms over his chest.

My tongue wasn’t the only thing burning. Heat radiated down from my scalp to my chest. Conscious of the rest of the team’s rapt attention, I kept my voice steady. “That’s not how pair programming is supposed to work. You could’ve checked through the code—”

“I did.”

“—or helped one of the other pairs. Remember”—I faced the rest of the guys—“we’re all on the same team.”

“Completing code ahead of schedule means we can fit extra work into this sprint and finish faster.” He plucked another sticky note from the “Backlog” column and moved it to “In progress.” Without consulting me, his partner and team lead.

A new burn started in my belly and rose up my chest. My hairline prickled with sweat, and my half-healed cut stung. Angry words caught in my throat, but I swallowed them down.Do the job, get out. Don’t rock the boat.It was what I’d promised Tiannah. I couldn’t let Jamila down. I couldn’t let myself down, either. And a shouting match with the company’s cofounder in front of our team was a no-win situation for me.

I set my cup on the nearest desk and strode to the board, pulling the guys’ attention from Jackson’s smirking face. “Okay, then, let’s hear from the other pairs.”

The rest of the guys reported on their progress from yesterday and their focus for today. Tyler and his partner had encountered a problem, and after the meeting, I pulled up a chair to their desk to help them work through it.

It wasn’t a difficult problem; more than anything, they needed a fresh set of eyes. But after I’d pointed out where they were going wrong and while they fixed it, my mind wandered to Jackson Jones.

He’d finished the code—ourcode—without me. Had I really been that much of a hindrance to him while we’d worked together? True, his brain went blazingly fast, and my fingers could hardly keep up. But I’d contributed some ideas, too. And he hadn’t snarled at all of them.

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