His jaw clenches slightly, and after an instant, he turns to the oldest of the guys. “You owe me ten bucks. She doesn’t have a beard.”
“Actually—”
As soon as I realize what the bearded guy is about to say, I panic and let out a loud, forced laugh, determined not to let him repeat my stupid joke. Not a third time, and not in front ofthatman. “Haha! Yeah, no!” I loudly say. “No beards here!”
The others do their best to contain their amusement while the elevator guy—our boss—stares at me as if my IQ is in the negatives.
Today is not my day. I can’t catch a break.
“Well, as entertaining as this is, I have to leave you nerds,” Dakota explains, freeing us from the awkward tension. “But before I go, Lex, this is Andrea Walker, your newest full-stack developer, vagina-bearer, and slayer of scripts. Andy, this is Alexander Coleman, head of development, co-owner of the company, killer of joy.”
Since I’d researched this company before applying, the name is familiar. But while I saw pictures of his business partner, Kevin Langley, I never stumbled on a photo ofhim—not that I looked for it. The elevator guy isn’t just in a high position; he co-owns the whole thing.
Once the door closes behind Dakota, the broody hunk tells me to choose one of the free desks. When I reach for the empty one just in front of me, he stops me with a harsh command.
“This one’s mine. Pick another one.” I nod, biting the inside of my cheek so I don’t say something about his abrasive manners. Dismissing my ire, I turn to another spot between two guys and settle my bag on the seat. When I spin back to the boss, he’s looking at me with an intense, disapproving stare.
His confusion about my appearance is becoming offensive. I clear my throat, hoping it’ll snap him out of it. “Is everything alright?” I ask with diplomacy.
“I didn’t expect you to be so…” he trails off, looking for the right word.
“Womanly?”
“Young. From your results on the test, I expected someone with at least a decade in the field. How old are you?”
“Twenty-six. But I have been coding for over sixteen years now, so I do have a decade of experience—just not in the field.”
He remains unimpressed. “Having fun setting up a website for you and your friends is nothing like what we do here.”
A twinge of anger rises in me, and my eyes narrow.What the hell?!“I can assure you I am well aware of that,” I say, mustering my best amiable smile. “As you may have seen with the tests I aced to get here, I’m quite competent.”
One of his eyebrows moves up arrogantly. “Are you sure no one helped you with those? Like a friend or your older brother?”
Oh, now he is asking to be put back in his place. I violently quench my urge to react to his provocation and stay level-headed. I’m not into letting people walk all over me, but I really want this job, so I can’t possibly get into an argument with my boss on the first day.
We’ll see about tomorrow.
“My brother couldn’t differentiate C# from PHP.” A few of the guys chuckle behind me. Ignoring them, I continue, “If you have doubts, by all means, test me again. I’m certain I can manage whatever you’ll throw at me.”
It only takes him three seconds to think about it before he turns to one of the guys. “Brian, what’s the script you’ve been stuck on for the last iOS update?”
Whispers erupt among the dev team. I’m about to face a challenge harder than I imagined, right? Luckily, I have a quick brain to go with my quick mouth, so I’ll teach this man a lesson.
“Are you sure you want to give her that one?” the guy to my left asks. He’s wearing a bold red jacket that suits his dark complexion well. Of all of them, he’s the one who looks the most put together—cleanly shaven, neat edges, and impeccable style.
“Well, you heard the lady: she can manage anything. And since you five have been stuck on this for two weeks, we might as well let her take a crack at it.”
They nod and look at me, seemingly sorry for what’s about to happen. Again, someone needs to gag me for my own good.
With a deep breath to summon my confidence, I sit at my chosen desk between the blond guy who used sign language and the red jacket guy. “Hi, I’m Mason,” the latter greets me before pointing at my neighbor on the other side, “and that’s Joseph.”
“Hi, I’m Andy,” I greet back with a smile, signing the words with my hands for Joseph, who grins in return.
“We have a shared server, and all our work is backed up daily,” Mason explains. “You can use the script on the server. If you mess it up, we can always get it from the backups.”
“Thanks, but I won’t mess it up.”
“You go, girl,” he chuckles.
