Page 9 of Hard to Forgive

“We’ll go over that when the rest of your team arrives. They should be finishing up orientation in fifteen minutes.”

Orientation? New hires.

Oh, we were going to get a shitty project. It was going to be something boring. It was going to be something basic. Multiple new hires on one team never boded well. You had to work up to the more interesting projects.

I hoped Conner was having better luck with his team assignment. Maybe he’d even get on that dating app or the health tracker. Meanwhile we’d probably be on some todo list application or worse, an application version of some store’s already established website as they attempted to become competitive in the digital age.

My fingers started to tap against the desk. I quickly pulled them away from the hard plastic surface and tapped them on my legs instead. It was quieter if nothing else.

The rest of my team seemed to be getting settled. One of the two men had already gone over to the other and pulled up a chair, striking up an easy conversation. I watched in amazement. No matter how good I got at faking confidence, I had always struggled at being the first to initiate a conversation. The night before had been an anomaly brought on by alcohol and Eli.

Now that I thought of it, most of my moments of bravery were brought on by some combination of those two factors. I almost wished I had one of them now. Then maybe I could relax and get to know my new team instead of staring at the door, dreading the moment the rest of the team arrived and we got sentenced with whatever tedious project we were going to get.

My phone vibrated against my leg.

I pulled it out and read the latest texts in the group thread:

Eli

Has anyone heard from Jonas today? Or last night? Did he get murdered?

Eli

Jonas, signs of life please?

Jonas

alive and well and working

Eli

Everyone else? Status checks?

Holden

u saw me 5 minutes ago. do i need to answer u?

Eli

Smart ass.

Seb

Think that means hes okay Eli

Seb

How was your night J

Matt

kill me now please

Seb

Matts alive can vouch hes still on my couch

Jonas

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