With that last thought, I turn on my side and bury my face into the pillow, wishing like hell that I could still smell Alex on the fabric. Unfortunately, I made sure to wash everything meticulously and with a different detergent than I’d always used, all in an effort to purge the man from my life.
I hate love.
SIX
Alex
“What the fuck,”I groan out loud at the computer in front of me just as the door to my office opens.
I look up with startled eyes only to see Kyle walking in with no care in the world.
“Knock before you walk in.” My voice comes out more like a growl, and a lesser person would cower in fear. Not Kyle, though. The guy walks around with a constant smile on his face that I want to punch every time I see it.
“I don’t see you jerking off or anything,” he shrugs. “So a knock would’ve been wasted had I done it.”
I squint at him. “Are you speaking in riddles? Because I am not in the mood.”
He plops himself in the chair across from my desk, resting his foot on the opposite knee. The smile is still firm on his face.Nothing ever wipes that off. He is the happiest person I have ever met, and it is quite annoying at times.
“I came to tell you that I want us to hire Owen as a consultant for the games,” he says without any other introduction.
My computer now forgotten, I lean back in my chair and stare at him.
“Who the fuck is Owen?” I ask.
That seems to annoy him a little bit, but he recovers quickly, never letting it get to him.
“Owen is Zara’s brother. I placed him on one of the beta teams, and his feedback has been awesome. I think he would be very valuable as a consultant.”
I instantly start mulling things over. The last two games Kyle developed have been a huge hit with the audiences, and now that I think of it, this Owen character joined the beta team while Kyle was in the middle of the first video game. That’s also when he fell in love, and I almost ruined his life because of it, but that’s neither here nor there.
“Zara is my girlfriend,” Kyle adds when I am obviously taking too much time to respond. “You’ve met them both, and…”
“I know who the fuck she is, asshole!” I grab a stress ball from the desk and throw it at his head. Like the clown that he is, he almost falls back with the chair when he tries to catch it.
“It’s a yes then?” he asks once he’s sitting up right again.
“It depends.” My first instinct is to start running numbers in my head and figure out how us hiring someone new would affect the bottom line. It’s all about the money.
“I will pay him from my profit.” Kyle reads my hesitation correctly. “I just think Owen is really good, and now that he caught a taste of how it all works, he might want to do it for other developers. I want him to be under contract with us. Besides, it’s only a few hours a week. He has a demanding full time job that he doesn’t plan on quitting just to chat about video games.”
If I remember correctly, Zara’s brother is a firefighter, and an overall badass dude. He looks the part, too, and I have to say that I felt a bit intimidated the first time I met him despite not showing it.
“I’ll have Legal draw out an agreement,” I now tell Kyle. “With a clear specification that his pay comes out of your profit.”
Kyle rolls his eyes at me but nods in agreement. It’s not like he can’t afford it. When I started my software company, I had to raise capital, and my friends were my first stop for it. Kyle was the only one who couldn’t participate with cash, but he more than made up for it with his brain. He worked for me for free until we hit gold, at which point everyone involved became an instant millionaire many times over.
I’ve always been very careful with my money, and I made sure that no one would take advantage of the fact that I had it, never flaunting it. My first assumption was always that they were after it, and I protected that with my life. I also did the same for my friends, however, they didn’t appreciate me getting involved in their love lives to protect their assets.
To say that it backfired a couple of times would put it mildly. It got very close to ruining lifelong friendships permanently. While I apologized once it was determined that my suspicions were unfounded, I never regretted calling out Kyle’s girlfriend, Zara, or the girlfriend-now-turned-wife of our other friend, Ray.
“Anything else I can help you with?” I ask when I see that Kyle is not showing signs of wanting to leave. The tone of my voice implies that I expect him to go.
Like the asshole that he is, Kyle grins at me. “Why? Am I holding you from something?”
My eyes go to the computer screen. The browser is open, and I have theHolidatessite up.
“No fucking way!” Kyle busts out laughing, and when I turn my head, I see him leaning forward as he tries to get a better lookat my screen. “I told Zara you were gonna do this, but I didn’t really believe it myself. I can’t wait to tell her!”
