I give him a disgusted look, abandoning my bag on my table.“Yeah, you’ve got cool and composed going for you right now.Get out of my bag, you raccoon!”But it’s too late.He’s already found my pasta salad and the grilled chicken sandwich I brought for lunch.
He gives me a pleased look, his blue eyes lighting up despite the exhaustion.“Thanks for breakfast.”
“You’re such a leech, Joshua.If your apartment ever burns down, you’ll just move into someone else’s kitchen cabinet and emerge at night to raid their fridge.”
My friend just digs into my lunch, unbothered.“I finally got the numbers done.If you want to take a look, that is,” he adds with the nonchalance of someone who just solved cold fusion but doesn’t want to brag.
My eyes widen, and I nudge his chair away, sending him rolling halfway across the floor.He slides away, chewing happily, while I take over his laptop, studying the spreadsheet still open.The figures align perfectly.A pleased smile crosses my lips, highlighting the dimple in my right cheek.“I could kiss you right now.”
“No, thank you.”Joshua takes a bite of my sandwich.“You may be a sexy Latina, but I only date blondes.Sorry.”
Joshua is the only one who can get away with calling me a ‘sexy Latina.’We’ve worked together for far too long.Being crass with each other is how we communicate.
I roll my eyes at him.“Well, you’d better brush your teeth because Iris is going to give you a big fat smooch for meeting the deadline.And considering what you ate yesterday from the vending machine, your mouth might actually qualify as a biological weapon.”
He grins at me.“Now that I can get behind.”
“Good morning, my dears!”Flora’s cheerful voice announces her arrival, cutting through our banter like sunshine through storm clouds.
Flora Hazel is the oldest member of our team, with short, silver-streaked dark hair and bright green eyes that miss nothing behind her cat-eye glasses.She dresses exclusively in flowing garments with animal prints that somehow manage to look both eccentric and elegant on her.Today, it’s a caftan with hamster patterns.Not hamster-inspired—actual tiny cartoon hamsters printed across the fabric, each one caught in different adorable poses.The soft fabric billows around her plump figure as she approaches, smelling of cinnamon, bergamot, and the kind of maternal warmth that makes even the most hardened marketing executives want to confess their sins.“I brought banana bread!”
“Bless you,” Joshua says, reaching for a slice before Flora can set down the container.
“Did you all hear?”Flora leans in, her voice dropping to a theatrical whisper that’s still perfectly audible across three desks.“Holly says there’s a new addition joining our team today.I ran into her on my way in.”
I pause my typing.“What?Iris didn’t mention anyone new.”
“It’s the same guy Iris brought around some time before the New Year.”Steven Danton, the fourth and last member of our Branding and Strategy Division, appears, balancing a tray of coffee cups with the precision of someone who might have been a waiter in another life.With his utterly forgettable appearance—medium-brown hair, medium-brown eyes, average height and build—Steven somehow manages to blend into any background.He’s the kind of person you could talk to for an hour and still not remember what he looks like five minutes later.But his perpetual dad energy extends to feeding everyone within a ten-desk radius, and his uncanny ability to appear exactly when caffeine is needed most makes him indispensable.“We met him, Flora.Remember?You and Joshua were out in the field, Eve, taking photographs of the Aerion 108.”
His words jog my memory.
“Oh, that guy.”I blink.“I thought he quit almost immediately.He never showed up.”
“He was very good-looking,” Flora beams.“Very charming, too, and so polite.”
I push away from Joshua’s desk, gesturing towards him with my thumb.“We thought that about this one, too, before we discovered he was actually raised by raccoons.”
“I’m good-looking!”Joshua looks up from the container in his hands, his mouth full of pasta.
Flora’s smile freezes.“Of course you are, dear.But he was—What was that word you used, Steven?”
“Surfer-boy-golden-looks.”Steven looks pleased that Flora remembers.“I came up with that title.I can’t remember his name though.Cake?”
“I’m sure his name was not Cake, Steven,” I snort, taking one of the coffees he’s handing out.“Though I would be way more interested in meeting someone named Cake than whatever Ken doll Iris has found to join our merry band of misfits.”
“Not Cake.It was something else—A good name, a handsome name,” Flora agrees.“Anyway, he’s joining today.And I heard he was headhunted by Ethan Wilder himself.”
Ethan Wilder.The tyrant CEO who took over the company half a year ago and immediately started making changes.So many employees were let go.So many were demoted, including Charlotte Evans, the previous team lead.She’s now been shifted to Frank Kolinski’s department.However, despite how much pressure has fallen on our department, there’s no denying that the company is beginning to get back on its feet.
“By the way, I heard Natalie is going to go on maternity leave soon,” Flora whispers, her green eyes twinkling behind her glasses.“She’s starting to show.She’s coming back to work today, but I overheard her assistant say she’s close to five months pregnant—Or was it four?”She frowns thoughtfully, gathering her scattered thoughts.
Steven shakes his head.“I would never have thought that she and Ethan were together.”
“I heard they’ve been together for a while,” Joshua offers his input.“But I don’t care what people say.Natalie may be sleeping with the CEO, but she stands for us little people.I heard she and Ethan got into an argument when he wanted to fire someone.Imagine someone raising their voice at that tyrant.Balls of steel, I tell you.I worship her.I aspire to be her.”
“You aspire to sleep with our CEO?”I give him a bland look, arching one perfectly shaped eyebrow.
Steven laughs while Joshua sighs, giving me a pitying look.“Mind in the gutter, this one.I want her balls.”
