Page 1 of Torrid Love
CHAPTER 1
Roderick
“I’ve had it up to here!” my business partner Lochlan (Loki) Berkshire shouts, barging into my office.
“What now?” I ask, shifting my eyes from my iMac Pro screen—and all the priorities demanding my attention—and stare at the very tall man standing in front of me.
“This younger generation is useless! Useless!” Loki’s hands go flying over his head and land in a loud thump against his thighs.
“Says the twenty-nine-year-old,” I chuckle.
Loki squints his furious hazel brown eyes at me. “Don’t you dare compare me to Mr. Woo-woo Pixie Dust, Rod,” he warns.
“You kill me with that nickname,” I chuckle.
“It suits him! He’s a chronic complainer who lives in an imaginary world where money grows on trees and gold paves the streets!”
“Auburn Sorrel is at it again.”
The irony is both names mean reddish brown. Our blue-eyed replacement video-director-slash-producer is as blond as a Viking—the complete opposite of me.
“He’s driving me to drink.”
“Our temperamental temp is on another one of his legendary rants?”
“Yup.”
“Let me guess. ‘His chakra isn’t aligned with the volume of work we demand’, or is it, ‘His qi isn’t responsive to extra hours’, or ‘Working more than three hours a day is poisonous to the soul’, or maybe ‘He refuses to be a slave to capitalist bullies’?”
“All of the above! The idiot can’t fucking decide!” Loki shouts again.
“The guy is delusional. And lazy.”
“Exactly! My parents instilled work ethics in my sister and I. We don’t expect to coast by like Auburn.” He’s right. His parents are amazing. I wasn’t as lucky. “Whatever happened to taking pride in an honest day’s work?”
“Where did he drop the ball this time?” I ask.
“Have you seen Unmerciful Fury’s video?”
Auburn is working on the video for the group’s comeback song.
“Not yet,” I respond.
“It’s crap. I mean, a five-year-old could’ve done a better job… even blindfolded.”
“Yikes.”
“How the hell did Auburn manage to graduate from film school with such mediocre editing skills? And who on God’s green earth are these people who gave him all those glowing references? Lies, I tell ya.” Loki jams his hand in his dark brown hair and pulls hard.
He looks like he’s about to blow a gasket.
“Not everyone has our high standards,” I remind him.
“Apparently not.”
“I thought Auburn was supposed to make all the changes the band required and include our feedback. We sat down with him on Tuesday and spelled it all out… for three hours.” I honestly thought I was going to put a bullet to my head at some point. It was excruciating.
“He did!” Loki’s face is beet red. “His third take is still garbage.”
