Page 26 of Ideal Life

And then she had a meeting with Omni’s external law firm’s employment attorneys to talk about the four-year “golden handcuffs” agreement they wanted her and key Ideal Life employees to sign, which was a guarantee that they would continue working for Omni for four years once the acquisition was complete.

By late afternoon, Talia’s brain had been reduced to the consistency of mushy peas. She returned to her office and slumped into her chair.

Before she dove back into more work, though, she wanted to check in on how Sam was doing. But when she opened up the tournament live stream, his name wasn’t on the leaderboard anymore.

“Oh no…” Talia opened another tab to look at the complete standings.

Sam had been eliminated about an hour earlier, ranked at forty-eight.

She texted him immediately.

Talia: Hey, just getting caught up on the tournament. Sorry to see you’re out, but you’re still top 50. How did it feel?

Sam: Was off my game today. #48 means I’ll take home $6,000, though, so not bad for a day’s work.

Talia chewed on her lip. He was right: $6,000 wasn’t bad as a general matter. It’s just that the Bay Area was astronomically expensive (unless you’d bought a home in the early ’80s like her parents had, before the region became the heart of tech). After taxes, Sam’s winnings would only keep him afloat for a couple of months. Talia had, in the past, tried to convince him to play in more tournaments, but he’d said that wasn’t how he wanted to spend his time.

Sam preferred being at his decommissioned lighthouse turned bookshop, helping tourists find the perfect beach read and locals pick the right novel for their upcoming book club. It made him happy but nowhere near break-even (last year, he’d been tens of thousands of dollars in the red). Bookstores were a razor-thin-margin business, especially here. Last year, a prominent local chain had had to declare bankruptcy. Poker was a necessary subsidy for Sam’s shop.

Which was why, as Talia looked at his text and his name on the tournament rankings, she thought, What if I rewound just a little bit and let him play the losing hand again? Maybe he would make a different choice and he wouldn’t get eliminated, and then he’d be able to creep up a little higher in the standings. Every place you inched up meant a jump in how much you’d take home in winnings.

But then she remembered what Sam had said—Promise me you won’t change my life on purpose.

She sighed.

And even though she really wanted to help him, she kept her promise instead.

Talia

Jody and Jonathan Segovia, twins who were both engineers at Ideal Life, sent a poll out to the entire company about which film to watch for movie night tonight. Of course, most of the employees would still be working at 8 p.m., but that had never stopped everyone from having fierce opinions on what the film pick ought to be, even if they weren’t going to watch it. In any case, a lot of the Ideal Life team would pop in for at least a few minutes to grab a slice of the free pizza that the company sprung for.

Talia herself looked forward to the monthly movie night poll. She drummed her fingers as she stared at her computer screen.

The Avengers: 35%

Hackers: 20%

La La Land: 8%

Free Guy: 18%

Ocean’s Eleven: 19%

She wasn’t surprised at the current voting. Either of the tech-related movies, Hackers and Free Guy, could have been a winner, but because there were two of them, they were splitting the vote. Talia could see the appeal of Ocean’s Eleven, too, to the cerebral audience at Ideal Life. La La Land never had a chance (although that was definitely Jonathan’s suggestion, since he loved a good musical and choreography). And The Avengers, well… that was just relaxing, pure fun, which sounded pretty great at the end of a long day.

Jody and Jonathan were making their rounds through the floors. “Movie night in conference room A tonight—don’t forget to vote!”

“Where are you ordering the pizza from?” George from marketing asked.

“Delfina?” Henry said hopefully.

Jody clutched at her heart and staggered; her brother may have been the musical theater lover, but she was the drama queen of the two. “Henry! George! I am mortally wounded. Are you suggesting that you come to movie night not for our excellent taste in films or for the companionship of your fine colleagues, b-but for… the pizza?”

George grinned and tilted his head. “I mean…”

Jonathan laughed. “Fine—we’ll order from Delfina.”

“Woot!” Henry said. “Then I’m in. Voting now.” He spun in his office chair and clicked on the poll.