Page 8 of Waiting for It

“Where’s the boss?” Chase whispered, when the clock ticked past 8:30.

I shrugged. Good question. Luke was never late.

When he finally stepped in front of the group a couple minutes later, his brow was pinched and his lips drawn in a thin line. A smile flickered across his face when he glanced at me.

My stomach did little a series of little flip flops.

“Someone looks like they’ve been force fed shit this morning,” Chase muttered.

Luke’s glare said Chase hadn’t been as quiet as he’d intended.

“Sorry for being late. I was talking to Zach.” Luke’s voice carried across the room without a problem, and all the chatter stopped. Zach was one of the two company owners, and not the one who usually dealt with developers. If he was taking up Luke’s time, odds were it included bad news.

“This won’t take long,” Luke said. “You know I’m always as direct with you as I can be. Full transparency and all that.”

And now the flips in my stomach had turned into gnawing edges of tension. Something was wrong, and Luke hadn’t been able to stop it. I rarely saw him like this, but when I did, he never had good news.

He always went to bat for us with management, but some things couldn’t be diminished or erased. How badly this launch had gone, for instance.

Luke scrubbed his face. “I know crunch has been hard on everyone, but I have to ask you to hold on a little longer.”

In the history of the company, this was the first time employees had been asked to do something like put in sixty- to eighty-hour weeks, for months on end, to meet a deadline. In the past, a couple of days at a time or an extra weekend here and there was the most anyone saw. The overtime was voluntary and paid, but our team was so invested in this game, we’d all agreed.

Rinslet was careful with their launch dates. They never made one public until they were ready to release, because they refused to miss a launch. This game was done six months ago. Everyone had signed off, alpha and beta tests were solid, and we were ready to go. And then everything fell apart. QA started failing. User acceptance testing. They were minor issues at first, but with each problem we fixed, more of the game broke.

Chase raised his hand. Which—okay? This wasn’t that kind of an environment, and he’d never been a wait for my turn to talk kind of person.

I didn’t think it was possible, but Luke’s expression grew darker. “Hughes.”

“Your people are the best”—Chase nudged me lightly—“but my programming skills aren’t going to make anything better for anyone. What do you need me to do?”

Sell the big bosses on going easy on us?

Luke sighed. “That’s where full transparency comes in. Management is watching us closely. If we don’t get this right, other people may be brought in to help.”

“And that’s... bad?” I could spin up another dozen developers in a day, and more staff would be wonderful.

Chase tensed. I actually felt the slight tremor where his arm rested against mine. “Help to fill the gap left by anyone who won’t be here.”

A wave of murmurs rolled through the room. Rinslet was going to fire people if we didn’t pull this off. Most likely starting with Luke and me, since we were overseeing development.

“Are you threatening us?” someone else asked.

Luke shook his head. “No. I’m telling you the way things are. I can’t guarantee jobs—yours, mine, anyone’s—if we miss this new deadline.”

Here in Salt Lake City, there were only two big game developers—Rinslet and Digital Media—and working for DM meant full-time crunch and a lot less understanding from management.

I didn’t want to find a new job. I liked working here. With good bosses and great benefits. With Luke. With Chase.

Losing my job was definitely more terrifying than whether or not I had someone fun and sexy to watch during meetings.

My lips tingled with a ghost of a memory of Luke’s kisses and the intensity in his. It was going to take a while to pretend I didn’t want that again.

“I have faith in you guys.” The strength and confidence were back in Luke’s voice. “You’re going to rock this release. Back to work, and remember to clock all overtime.”

The meeting broke up, and I headed back to my office, Chase walking next to me.

“I’m guessing this means you don’t have time for lunch,” he said.

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