Page 23 of Don't Game Me
Jake leaned onto the counter and smiled. “We need these re-done.” He slid the place cards and menus across the counter. “Becca is going to write down the corrections, and you’re going to have this fixed.”
“Mr. Wade isn’t in until eleven. This can’t be ready until tomorrow.” The receptionist smacked her gum and flipped through a few screens on her cell phone.
“The wedding is tomorrow.” Becca imagined her mom’s reaction when she got the news. It’d involve either a heart attack or nervous breakdown.
Jake’s gaze flashed to hers, blazing pissed-off. He grabbed her hand and squeezed in what she interpreted to be anI’ve got this.He shifted focus to the receptionist. “Charlene, is it?” He pointed at her desk nameplate. After her nod, he said, “Charlene, you will phone Mr. Wade right now. He will reprint the items of issue and have them in this box within one hour. We will not pay extra.”
“Mister, we don’t work that way. There’s a fifty-dollar reprint fee, minimum.” Charlene popped another pink bubble and licked it off her lips.
Jake dropped his charming smile. He glanced down at the menus. “These aren’t engraved. They’re laser printed. I hope Mrs. Harrison is aware these aren’t engraved. Your boss needs to load the right paper into the printer and press print. It might take twenty minutes max. Let me explain why Mr. Wade and you are going to fix this mistake within the next hour and why it’s going to look better than this second-rate crap you’ve thrown haphazardly into the box. This is the Harrison wedding. As in Noah Harrison, billionaire owner of NJ Legacy Gaming whose wedding will be featured in not one, but three mainstream wedding magazines. Tomorrow’s multimillion-dollar event will be in every New York newspaper and on all Internet gossip sites. There’s a press waiting list to get in. You might’ve thought the Kardashian wedding was big, but it’s nothing compared to the Cinderella story of Noah and Tori and the gala they have planned. There will be A-listers from Hollywood to Broadway in attendance. Mr. Wade will not want the Harrison family to mention you guys messed up their printing and refused to fix it on the day of the rehearsal dinner.” Jake’s tone implied the printing company’s death. Scary.
This must be how Jake propelled NJ Legacy to success. She loved her brother, but Noah was only a programming genius, not a people person. Noah certainly wasn’t a salesman. But Jake… Well, he did this. He got shit done.
Jake examined the menu. “This isn’t even centered on the page. What kind of shoddy workmanship is this?” He tossed the menu into the box and dramatically rolled his silver watch to glare at its face. “We’ll be back in an hour.”
7
“Hollywood A-listers?” Becca laughed as he started the car. Felt good to laugh.
He shrugged. “Charlene won’t know the difference. The rest is true. I hate the press, but they’ve dogged Noah and me for months about his wedding, ever since he got dubbed sexiest tech CEO byWiredmagazine in January.”
“Do you mind running over to the Electronics World while we’re waiting? I saw one across the street.” Becca pointed to a shopping mall. “I forgot to pack my cell phone charger. My phone’s running on fumes at this point.”
She actually needed a cord to connect her cell to the one Pascal gave her. Then she could evaluate exactly what the phone was up to and perhaps do some reprogramming. She’d have to be careful though. They’d have a safeguard to know if she messed with it.
“Sure.” Jake stared expectantly as if waiting for some sort ofattaboyoryou’re my hero. He had been amazing.
“Thanks for setting the printer straight. We’ll see if it works.”
His frown deepened. “They’ll get it done.”
She smothered another laugh. He was so used to getting whatever he wanted from his people. A wicked part of her liked throwing a little doubt his way to make him squirm. “We’ll see. This is Long Island, you know.”
As they entered Electronics World, she pointed at a section of cell phone covers. “Has to be there.”
Of course, it wasn’t.
“Let’s ask for help,” he suggested, not even making an effort to look for phone accessories.
“I can find it.” She zipped up and down a few aisles. Nothing. Jake lagged behind her.
“These places make no sense. They do it on purpose to encourage impulse buys. Let’s ask…” Jake trailed off as he plucked a game from the random display in the middle of the aisle. He turned the box over, rolled his eyes. “Cheap knock-off crap. Can’t they come up with their own ideas?” He waved the box in the air. “We should sue this company for rights infringement and plagiarism of ourZoneworld Warrior.Look, they even called itWarrior Zone.”
“I’m sure it sucks, which is why it’s on sale for sixteen dollars. I can’t find the freaking cell phone cord section. How do you know they make things hard to find on purpose?”
“I know their marketing director.” He shoved the video game back into the display rack and took a picture of the cover with his phone. He typed on his phone. “I’m sending this to my lawyer.”
She zipped down a few aisles grumbling, “I could find one faster at a pharmacy.”
Sheaha’ed when she found a small rack of cables and snagged the right one to connect the phones. Her gaze slid to a magazine display at the end of the aisle. “Holy cow. Is that you on the cover?”
“No. Don’t—” He grabbed at the magazine as she yanked it out of the rack, but he missed. His cheeks flushed.
“Sexiest bad-boy CEO?” She read, biting her lip against laughing. “Is this why you didn’t want to wander around?”
He tried to grab at the magazine again.
She twirled away and flipped to the full article on page seventy-two. “Oh my, Jake. Youarebad.” Unable to stop, she read the first page of the article in absorbed silence, greedy for secrets about Jake. She flipped through the next three pages. “You’re a dating protocol guru? This even talks about texting rules, sexy tattoos, and—” She moved the magazine close to her face to read. “You even discussed aftershave?”
