as my number one priority. Which is it then? I’m perfectly capable of doing all these projects, but that won’t get UA released on time if I’m busy with forecast and budget assignments.”
Match point. Melody.
He balled his fists and his lips pursed to a thin line.
No one in the room dared to move. It was like everyone collectively held their breath to see what Ian was going to say next.
He panned the room to look at everyone’s faces. Jagger and John looked down at their notebooks, feigning an attempt to look busy. Avoiding eye contact so they wouldn’t get called on to actually do any work.
Ian inhaled a long, deep breath. “Nolan,” he said on the exhale.
His nephew straightened his posture. He had on a red-checkered shirt today, making him look like a picnic basket. “Yes?” he gulped.
“You’re good with numbers. You’ll work on this and Melody will supervise.”
Nolan’s laser beam glare shot right at me, which I returned at double intensity. Hey, I wasn’t happy about this either, Mister Intern.
Ian moved on to other lengthy and boring announcements before I could ask any questions. As soon as the meeting ended, Ian sped away to his next appointment.
The room vacated instantly, and Nolan shot me one more glare of death as he stormed out. Kat walked over to me. “Congratulations, I think?”
“Thanks, I think?” I shrugged. Being on the production team on a game originally conceived as a joke wasn’t exactly something I envisioned in my five-year plan.
People who were there for the next meeting streamed in and one of them handed Kat a notebook. She flipped through it and tucked it under my arm. “It’s yours, it’s got a bunch of budget and monetization notes in it for the new game.”
Opening the notebook, I pored over the detailed notes on budget and forecast assumptions and ideas for how to present the information. Small and neat penmanship, a few hand-drawn doodles and quick calculations in the margins. This notebook belonged to a quant whiz. Someone smart, confident, and fun. Was it weird I found this sexy?
“Hey! That’s mine!” A large hand snatched the book from my hands. Glancing up, my terrified eyes met Nolan’s narrowing ones.
As he held his notebook tight against his chest, heat flushed to my face.
While I struggled for words, he continued. “You know, this is actually worse than the alleged mug theft. This is intellectual property you stole.”
I placed my hands on my hips. “Hey, at least it’s still intact, you BROKE my mug, remember?” This intern really knew how to get under my skin. “Someone found your notebook and thought it was mine, so don’t flatter yourself and go blaming me for stealing your stuff. Stop kicking a dead horse while it’s down.”
He burst into laughter. “I don’t think that’s how that saying goes.” Amusement flickered in his warm brown eyes, momentarily distracting me from annoyance.
Deep breath, Melody. “Okay, whatever. I’m sorry for reading it. You can flip through my notebook if you want, but there’s no valuable IP there. It’s got some messy meeting notes and a to-do list the length of a football field.”
He raised an eyebrow and held his hand out. I handed over my spiral and crossed my arms.
“Wellll—” He pulled out his glasses from his shirt pocket and adjusted them so he could peer down like a distinguished librarian. “It looks like you desperately need a new car. Your 401(k) forms should have been turned in a month ago. And you really shouldn’t put your computer and network passwords on a Post-it note in here. Shady people at this company steal notebooks.” He smirked as he handed my spiral back to me. “I’ll send you a meeting request to go over the budget. Yet another thing to add to your to-do list.”
Nolan’s phone buzzed. “Crap. It’s Ian.” He texted while speed-walking out the door, cutting our conversation short.
Rude.
Just when I thought he wasn’t so bad, his climbing approval rating took a nosedive.
Waiting outside the conference room were a few midlevel guys I remembered from the meeting. They formed a circle around me, in a nonthreatening way. Some were even smiling.
One of them took a step forward. “Those things you said in there, when you called out John and Jagger . . . those two loser guys always steal people’s work and get credit for it. On behalf of all of us, thank you.” He fiddled with his hoodie zipper as he stepped back in the circle with the others.
The entire