Page 71 of My Secret Snowflake
“I thought you were in LA,” Colby says to Xavier.
“I flew back early. Did you hire a hacker to infiltrate the system and steal New Mexico’s presentation?”
Colby juts out his chin and folds his arms. “Yes. The company wasn’t going to shut down on my watch, not before the holidays.”
“They’re not going to shut down the company. They didn’t buy us to close us down,” Xavier says.
“Don’t be so naïve. They bought us for the IP. They don’t need us,” Colby says.
“They need me. They need the creative minds behind the IP. That’s the value of the company,” Xavier says. “They want more content, not just the movies we’ve already created.”
Colby waves at Iris and me. “What are these two doing here?”
“They figured it out too,” Xavier says.
Colby frowns at us. “I’ll come clean to the board and step down, if you think they won’t close the company.”
That’s quick. And not like Colby. He must have something up his sleeve.
“I can’t promise that now,” Xavier says.
“But they’ll still have you. Not so convinced of your position now?” He gestures again towards us. “We can show the internal controls worked.”
“Who else knows?” Xavier asks.
“Let’s discuss that privately,” Colby says.
“Fair enough.” Xavier turns to us. “Perhaps you can leave us now? Thank you for your commitment to the company.”
Iris and I walk out. I run my hand through my hair.That was crazy.
“At least Xavier wasn’t involved,” Iris says. “Maybe the company can be saved.”
“Let’s hope,” I say. We part outside the Cybersecurity bullpen.
I return to my office but then decide I’m going to walk around the block to clear my head.
Colby hired the hacker. That’s next-level insanity.
It snowed a bit this morning, but the sidewalks have already been cleared. My shoes crunch in the sand scattered to melt the snow. Brown branches outlined in white arch over the street.
I’m so attracted to Iris.
I don’t want to be friends.
I don’t think I can just be friends.
Maybe this is what Melody was talking about? That we were friends for too long and the passion just wasn’t there.
The passion is definitely there with Iris. It was hard not to kiss her in the closet. And she acknowledged that she’s attracted to me. I just need to persuade her that we should try dating.
Chapter eighteen
Iris
ItextSebastianthatI hope to see him at the Big Sibling event. Both of us have been in meetings nonstop with Bob preparing the board presentations since yesterday morning’s shocking revelation, but the board session went relatively well. Xavier briefed L’Etoile, so they didn’t have many questions for Sebastian or me. Except one person asked me ifIhad ever been asked to retrieve the New Mexico CEO’s presentation by Kevin. I said no.
Dream combined the book-wrapping session with the Big Brother Big Sister event to make handcrafted items as Secret Snowflake gifts. Company morale is so low that Amelia and Jazmine couldn’t get many sign-ups. Amelia couldn’t even come to this because she’s busy with crafting a memo to all employees that the company is not about to shut down. But Jazmine admits privately that they won’tknowif the company is fine until L’Etoile makes its final decision, so Amelia is working with outside employment counsel to figure out what to say.
