Page 30 of Off Her Game
8
Tori batted at her alarm without cracking her eyelids, but the electronic ringing didn’t stop. She rolled over and glared at her bedside table. The noise culprit wasn’t the alarm. Who called at 6:05 a.m. on a Saturday? Her cell phone’s insistent beeps stopped. With a relieved groan, she relaxed into her pillow. Seconds later, the noise resumed.
She grabbed the phone, recognized the number and grumbled into it, “What?”
“Tori. It’s me,” said Emma.
“It’s six something. This better be an emergency?” The blue light of dawn filtered through the apartment window. She needed five more hours of uninterrupted sleep.
“How’d the date go last night?” asked Emma.
“You’re calling for a play-by-play at six freaking a.m.? I got through it.” Kissing Noah dominated her mind. “I’m hanging up now.”
“No, wait. He wants to go to breakfast with you.”
“Then why isn’t he on the other end and not you?”Not interested in waking up yet. “I got in bed three hours ago. Need sleep.”
“Mr. Harrison had a Skype meeting this morning and it’s running late. He sent me out to contact you. They just bought a small gaming company. The sale came up really fast.” Emma took a breath. “Oh dear. It’s Conjur. I didn’t even think of you and your game…”
“What?” Tori sat upright so fast her brain swirled with dizziness. That game was her foot in the door of a new life. “Are they keeping all of Conjur’s acquisitions?”
“They’ll sort through Conjur’s backlist, but there’s so much it’ll take a while. They’ll only keep a handful. The rest they’ll let go. I’m sorry.”
Would they choose her game? With her dating the CEO, even if it was a fake relationship, keeping it might be perceived as she screwed her way into it. They had to pass on her work.
Just like that her future financial security turbojetted out the window. Man, her life sucked. Tori fell back onto her bed. “Don’t tell them.”
“Might be good if they knew. They might like it.”
“No. Promise you won’t tell them. With me and Noah dating…it’d look bad.”
“Fine. They’ll eventually figure it out, but maybe it’ll be when everything is over. Mr. Harrison says you two having breakfast isimportant.”
Her gaze caught on the tracker button on her bedside table. Her sister sucked at subterfuge. “I’m going back to sleep now.”
Emma rushed to say, “If you can’t make breakfast then he has a brunch event this morning he’d like to take you to. It’s business and socialization. Company brunch.”
“No way.” Her have to deal with both Noah and a company event on too little sleep? Uh, no.
“He texted me to say last night was good.”
“What does that mean?” Her heart pounded. “Did he go into details? The date was a bomb of epic proportions. He called me weird. I called him a sexist.”Did good refer to the date or the kiss or her in the Stadium?
“Guess it didn’t go as bad as you thought.”
She settled under her comforter and dozed off.
“Tori?” Then silence. Then Emma yelled, “Are you listening to me?”
“Sorry. Phased out. Really tired. I’m not going out today. Tell him it’s a no.”
“On the one hand, you don’t saynoto Mr. Harrison. On the other, this is a great opportunity for you to meet some people in the company and might be important for your game’s future.”
She released a sarcastic snort. “This doesn’t have jack to do with my game.”
“I can help get it out of the slush pile. Noah actually asked me about it.”
“He did? Scratch that. No. Promise you won’t do anything to draw attention to it. Noah’s kidding about interest in my game. He’s trying to make you feel good about us dating before our next date.” She rolled over and snuggled deeper under the covers. “I wanna sleep. Please.”
