“We have to stop this,” John groans, clutching his stomach. “I’m getting too hungry. I want them so bad I’d go and line up for them.”
“Insanity,” Connor says. “No cookie is worth the hassle.”
“What’s insane isyousayingthat,” Ben says, as if Connor’s words go completely beyond the pale.
“What are you guys talking about?” I interrupt as I come to a halt beside them.
Connor grins. “Krumes.”
“Who now?”
Martin boggles. “Thebakehouse.”
I shake my head. “No idea.”
This sets them all off immediately. Martin mimes the sound of a bomb exploding, while the other three pile into the elevator with exclamations ofwhat do you meanandbest cookies in the worldandhave you been living under a rock?!
Apparently, yes I have.
Anyway, the stand-up is uneventful: it turns out Sven likes Connor a lot, and the two of them get into a sort of heated brainstorm about whether he can help Engineering do something that’s frankly way above my pay grade and therefore too boring to listen to. Blah blah data pipeline blah blah machine learning blah blah API. You get the idea.
“Anything to add, Annie?” Connor asks just before the meeting wrapsup.
I glance up quickly; I’m a rabbit caught in a snare. Connor is watching me with what I can only describe as an extremely reprehensible twinkle. The man has an instinct for the second I tune out of the conversation. He always, always knows.
I’ve spent the last five minutes doodling a picture of a small castle into the corner of my notebook. Obviously, I have absolutely nothing to add here.
“I’m going to take some time,” I say, adopting the air of a great thinker. “Really process what we’ve been discussing here. Before I give my opinion.”
Sven seems satisfied with that. The meeting adjourns.
“Dickhead,” I murmur, as we file out of the room.
Connor only grins. “It seemed like you were working on something pretty full-on over there.”
“I was taking notes,” I say loftily.
“Were you? That’s great,” he says. “You can send the meeting recap across to everyone.”
I smack him on the arm with my notebook and continue walking.
—
“What did you think of that ask from the customer services team?” I ask Connor when we’re back at our desks.
He’s already tucked into a pack of Skittles. He keeps them on him at all times. “I think it won’t work.”
“Even if we just imported the data? They say they can getit.”
“Even then,” he says.
“I think you’re wrong.”
“Why does that not surprise me, Annabelle?”
“Would it really be that hard?”
“I get it,” he says, smiling. “You fix one line of code and now you’re ready to build a whole dashboard.”
