Page 24 of The Grump I Loathe
“I don’t know,” Eddie teased, “you clearly keep coming back for more.”
“Stop it.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose.
“Stop what?”
“Distracting me. Distracting everyone. This isn’t playtime. You all are here to do your jobs.”
Eddie dropped her hands to her hips, nostrils flaring. “I wasn’t distracting anyone. Did you not hear that we were working on the game?”
“Your entire,” I gestured to her, “performance could have been handled in an email.”
She huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. “Look, coming in midway through the development process is difficult on a team. Creating a unified design ethos isn’t easy, but it’s the only way the game will feel cohesive and make sense.”
Unified design ethos? When she dropped vocabulary like that, it was hard to believe this was the same woman who’d fired a bottle of hot sauce at me. She was sharp, even if she did insist on turning everything into a production.
“That’swhy I’m engaging with everyone all together, in person. Because we need to create a unified environment so that every aspect of the game is aligned, not just the narrative. The original game was perfectly balanced, and I imagine that had a lot to do with how much control Ali had from the beginning. We’re not in that situation here, but we can get there.Ifeveryone feels like part of the team.”
I released a heavy breath, hating that she made sense. “I understand your intention, but your methods are too messy. Write up your design notes and email them out. We need to keep a trail of documentation. Without it, ideas get lost.”
“What if I record our team discussions and upload them to the shared folder? That way you have your trail.”
“Why not just record yourself and email it out?”
“I think you’re missing the point of togetherness,” Eddie said. “Collaboration. There’s no better way to see how an idea lands than to get real-time reactions.”
I buzzed my lips together. She had a point. Half of our job was testing real-time reactions to our games. I just didn’t need a constant spectacle in the middle of the production floor when other people were trying to concentrate. “Fine, have your meetings, but reserve the big conference room for them, and keep the doorclosed. That way you’re not distracting the entire floor.”
She winked at me and stuck her hand out to shake. “Deal.”
Without thinking, I shook her hand and that strange twist exploded across my chest again, tangling around my ribs, interrupting the rhythm of my heart. I shoved it aside, dropping her hand, and turning to go. Before I did, I took one more look at her ridiculous business attire that fit a littletoo wellfor my liking. I refused to admit that she might look a littletoo goodin those suits. “You know your position comes with a wardrobe budget, right? Did you not read the contract?”
She ran her hand down the front of her blouse and scowled. I tried not to stare at the way her hand molded over her curves. “You said business attire,” she complained. “What’s wrong now?”
I cleared my throat. “I just thought you might want attire that’s…more to your taste.”
“Well, I’ll get right on that as soon as you email me the name of your tailor.”
I rolled my eyes. “Back to work, Edith.” I stalked away to thekitchenette, back to desperately needing that coffee. Inside, Max was already making himself a cup.
He leaned against the counter, mug in hand, as I puttered with the machine.
“What?” I asked, feeling his eyes on me.
“Oh, nothing…” He turned to face me. “You’re spending a lot of time with the new girl.”
“You mean Eddie?”
“Yes,” Max said with a smug grin. “That would be the new girl.”
I snorted. “I’m trying to keep her on task. If someone doesn’t keep an eye on her, she gets insane ideas like dragging the team off go-karting.”
“That…was actually a lot of fun,” Max said. “She’sfun. And attractive. And don’t even try to pretend you haven’t noticed. You wander by her cubicle at least once an hour.”
I huffed at the look on his face. “Don’t be ridiculous. Firstly, she’s an employee. Secondly, she’s fifteen years younger than me.”
Max grinned. “You’ve been thinking about her enough to do the math, huh?”
“Don’t you have augment engines to tweak?” I muttered.
