[90 weeks ago]
@theanswerisno:
Team up with me
@pancakesareelite:
You’ll be better off teaming up with a more seasoned player. I don’t want you to lose this tournament
@theanswerisno:
What happened to all that talk of “we are undefeatable together”?
@pancakesareelite:
When did I say that?
@theanswerisno:
You haven’t, but you totally should.
I resisted the urge to lay my head face down on the sixteen-seater mahogany table. The other engineers were late. Or maybe I was a few minutes early. But this was my first meeting with all themanagers since taking on this potential role, and I had to make a good impression.
But I was exhausted.
“Rough night, Carden?” Anders asked as he stepped into the room and rubbed his stomach.
“Sure,” I replied, frustrated that my frustration was showing even when I tried hiding it.
But it was a rough night. I’d stayed up late in an attempt to catch up on my emails before this meeting. I overslept. Missed my run. Ran out of meds and had no time to refill my prescription. I was completely thrown off.
The other managers filed in and took their seats, some already bragging about their interns.
I sat thinking about what I’d say about Elizabeth. I’d been on-site and in so many meetings that I hadn’t been able to properly guide or evaluate her since she started.
When I’d stayed quiet for too long, Anders turned to me. “How’s Gordon-Bettencourt coming along? Caught her putting on makeup yesterday when she should have been working. Not that I’m complaining.”
Around the table, faces broke into silent smirks.
“Not that we’re complaining,” the head of urban design said. This earned a quiet chuckle from some of the others.
“Gents, seems like a good time to remind you about Simucon’s strict policy against workplace relationships,” Anders said, still grinning.
“Simucon also has a no-nonsense approach to workplace harassment.” My tone brooked no room for argument. “She’s coming along fine. Eager to learn, picking up concepts quickly, although her first attempts are generally sloppy. She seems to be in a rush.”
“Probably trying to catch up to the others. She’s a few yearsolder than them,” the senior engineer in Bridges said before raving about his interns. “She started at UCLA in her twenties, dropped out after a couple years, then took time off. That’s when she was all over the tabloids. At some point, for some reason, she transferred to San Diego State and continued her studies. Rumor has it, there was some family drama.”
“What happened?” Anders asked, leaning in.
“Can’t seem to find the specifics,” the engineer continued. “With that much control over the media, they’ve been able to keep it hush-hush.”
“They haven’t kept anything else about her quiet. Her entire dating history is online, and it’s long. She certainly had fun in those years when she quit engineering,” Anders said. “Heard she even dated Rupert Bryan—you know that star from that superhero movie.”
Richard nodded. “I heard about that. And Axe Nilsson, the racer. I wanted to ask her about it the other day, but thought it was better not to.”
I didn’t know any of that, and I didn’t need to.
“You’re right,” I snapped. “Because it’s none of our business. Unless you’d like it if we all started poking around your upbringing, marriages, affairs, and divorces.”
