“Dude,” he says in a frazzled voice. “You’re not going to believe what I am about to tell you. I hope you’re sitting down. Are you sitting down?”
For whatever reason, I can sense the importance of his question, but I refuse to show it. Instead, I start walking faster toward my office.
“I just go out of a meeting, so no, I am not sitting.”
“Oh, you have got to sit down for this one.” He is frazzled and all over the place. I can’t imagine what could cause this. Unless…
“Are you drunk?” I ask him. “I thought you were done with day drinking now that you’re in a serious relationship and all.”
I try to present a false sense of sarcasm, but on the inside, I am jealous that my best friend is so damn domesticated lately.
“Fuck no,” he laughs. “But I do need a drink.” There’s some shuffling noise sounding from his end, like he’s typing on a keyboard maybe.
“I’m assuming this is about the latest project you’ve been working on,” I conclude. “Is it finally finished?”
Kyle is my best video game developer. His talent has always been above anything else in the industry, and when I came across the opportunity to buy a distribution company, I jumped at it. I hired him on a contracting basis, paying him well enough that he doesn’t have to look elsewhere.
“No,” he now replies. “I am stuck on this one level. No inspiration. I’m gonna ask Zara’s brother to test it out so far, maybe he has any good feedback.”
I clench my teeth in annoyance. I used to be his go-to for situations such as this one. But I can’t bitch since I am trying to get on Zara’s good side, and complaining about her brother would get me zero points.
“Okay, are you sitting down now?” he demands to know.
I smirk at that. “How do you know I wasn’t sitting down already?”
“I could hear people talking, then not talking. You’re walking down the hallway from the conference room,” he declares.
Shaking my head, I finally enter my office and slam the door closed behind me. I walk over to my desk and drop in the seat, ready to bring my laptop back to life and check on a few things while Kyle tells me about whatever the hell got up his ass.
“Okay, fucker, I’m sitting. Go for it,” I encourage.
I love face recognition, I decide as the laptop comes to life right away. I have a few irons in the fire, so I figure I should check on the stock market first. I get live updates on my cell phone, but I get more satisfaction out of seeing everything on a larger scale.
“I was checking my emails today,” Kyle starts. “And I noticed that I had a notification from theHolidatesaccount.”
I roll my eyes at that. TheHolidatesapp is supposed to help you find a date for any family or work event, revolving mainly around holidays, but you can use it for non-holiday type events. Kyle signed up for it to find a date who didn’t look like a stripper to our friend Ray’s wedding. Zara was on there looking for a date to a Fourth of July party.
They met, and they broke all the rules coming with the app. They fell in love, which in turn almost ruined my friendship withKyle as well with the rest of our group of friends. Implying that Zara was a gold digger was not my first offense.
“Dude, did you hear me?”
I realize that I was so into my thoughts, I stopped listening to Kyle.
“Yeah, man. You checked your email and found a message from theHolidates. I don’t know why that required for me to leave a very important meeting. I thought you were dying or some shit.”
“Dude!” He sounds incredulous now. “Didn’t you hear when I told you what the message was about?”
“A hot date?” I snicker. “I know I’m not supposed to talk about Zara at all, but how does she feel now that you got a replacement lined up?”
Kyle bursts into incontrollable laughter. “I swear I’d be rushing over there to fuck you up over that comment if I didn’t think this email I just got is your fucking karma.”
I lean back in my chair, rocking back and forth a couple of times, feeling like I lost the plot on this shit.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The mail fromHolidateswas with new matches based on the zip codes I added on there when I signed up.”
I shake my head incredulously. I wish he was here so I could slap him upside the head.
