Page 14 of A Hard Sell

“Finn!” Luka reached for his work, but then paused. “Everyone?” he asked, very casually.

Finn, of course, didn’t miss a thing. “Everyone,” he said pointedly.

Luka chewed his lip and eyed his monitor. There was nothing hehadto get done before the weekend. Working with Thomas was going well. While he had gotten a glimpse of the man behind the Big Bad Wolf, they had stuck almost entirely to work talk the rest of the week, and had been very productive.

That was not to say he didn’t feel an insistent, pervasive and intensifying attraction whenever Thomas was near. Which was most of the day. It was exhausting. How was he supposed to focus with someone so mind-numbingly attractive sitting a meter away from him? Maybe a drink or two was what he needed to unwind a bit. And if Thomas was also there, having a drink or two… Well, maybe they could unwind together.

“Okay.” He stood and grabbed the papers back from Finn so he could tidy them away. “Where are we going? Do not say Exchange.”

Finn grinned.

Luka groaned. The Bitter Exchange was a sketchy pub a few blocks away, right by the subway station, down an alley tucked in between sleek office buildings. Despite Luka’s best efforts, it had become the go-to spot for after work drinks. Sticky floors and questionable washrooms aside, the owner, Kazio, who wasalwaysbehind the bar, detested Luka. To be fair, he didn’t appear to like anyone, but his sneer turned up to eleven when Luka was near. It probably didn’t help that Luka had pronounced his name wrong for at least a year. It turned out it was ‘Kah-zho’, not ‘Kah-zee-oh’. Luka was not used to working so hard to have someone like him, particularly when it seemed to make Kazio like him even less.

“Why do we have to go there?” Luka whined.

Finn clapped him on the back. “Ten-dollar pitchers and the best wings in town! What’s not to like?”

“Were you wanting a list, or…?”

Finn gave him a playful shove and turned to charge out. “Last one there buys the first round!”

* * * *

Luka pushed open the door, casting a hopeful yet futile glance toward the bar as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. Damn it. There was Kazio. Of course. Most of the gang was gathered around their usual mismatched tables in the corner and he gave Finn a wave as he headed over to the bar. He also happened to notice there was no sign of Thomas.

Kazio narrowed his eyes as Luka approached.

Steeling himself, Luka did his best to sound cheerful. “Hello, Kazio.”

Kazio curled his lip under his pointy nose. “The usual?”

Nodding, Luka handed Kazio his card. “Yes, please. And can you please put the first round on me, please?”Fuck. Too many pleases.He made every effort to be polite, but it didn’t seem to matter.

Without a word, Kazio tossed his long, aggressively white-blond hair, and stormed off to make Luka’s Bloody Mary.

Luka leaned against the bar, taking another look at their tables. The pub was busy with usual Friday evening traffic. Most of the booths with their ragged red vinyl seats were full, and lots of people clustered together, voices raised in greeting and weekend-adjacent enthusiasm. But still no Thomas.

Kazio reappeared with Luka’s drink, plunking it down on the counter and slapping Luka’s card next to it. “Tasha will bring out the pitchers.”

“Th—” Luka started, but he was already speaking to an empty space. “God,” he muttered to himself, then took his drink and headed over to his friends.

He climbed onto an empty stool next to Rory. “Hey, bud.” Rory was a person of few words, thin with straight black hair that fell onto their forehead, and multiple visible piercings. Combined with the tattoos and a brilliant, analytical mind, Rory was more than a little intimidating at first. Luka remembered Rory’s first staff meeting with great fondness. Ilona had paused, frowning, to shuffle through some papers looking for a particular analytic from the last quarter, and Rory had piped up.

“The downloads for the PDF were up by two hundred and five percent,” they had said. Heads had snapped over. “It was one hundred and twenty percent the previous quarter.”

Ilona raised an eyebrow.

Rory had looked abashed. “I’m pretty sure.”

Ilona had flipped to the next page and ran her finger down some columns. “That’s right.” She studied Rory for a moment. “Any chance you know the click-through rate?”

Well, as a matter of fact, Rory had known. They had proceeded to rattle off any metric Ilona could ask about.

“Um.” Ilona was not often at a loss for words. She had put the papers down. “Thank you, Rory.”

Eidetic memory aside, Luka also knew that they were endlessly patient and gentle, always having time for a quick chat and a kind word.

Rory looked over and smiled as he sat. “Hey, Luka.”

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