negative shit happening and I can’t get ahead of it.” His gaze swept the room like a searchlight. “You guys can all go. Let’s meet again tomorrow, same time.” He clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Oh, wait, before all of you leave, I had a cool idea for you guys this morning! I was thinking, maybe we should change the game completely, kind of a rebranding? Like, instead of strippers ridding the world of apocalyptic threats, maybe we make this a first-person shooter game that’s called Zombies or Hobos? The player would have to determine if it’s a hobo or a zombie before they shoot. It adds some strategy to the game. What do you think? It’s a little left field, I know.”
When no one responded other than offering him looks of surprise and horror, he asked, “Bad idea?”
Joe the PR guy, Kat, and I shouted in unison, “Bad idea!”
Ian looked at Nolan, who nodded silently.
“You’d have a lot of homeless advocacy groups go after you with pitchforks,” Kat explained. “And that’s the last thing you need right now. Oh, and in general it’s a pretty fucked-up idea. Shooting humans. Some of those guys are vets, you know.”
Ian nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”
Nolan trailed Ian out the door, hanging back to talk to me before exiting. “Way to have my back in there, Mel,” he said, with resentment seeping into his voice.
I crossed my arms. “Well, look at it from my perspective. You don’t have any marketing experience, and you’re now leading two big marketing initiatives.”
He shook his head. “You dismissed me because you thought I couldn’t do something just because I’ve never done it before. Isn’t that what you’re always complaining about? People second-guessing you?” His accusation hit me like a wallop to the face.
Before I could explain myself, he was already gone.
Later, I found Nolan in the kitchen, pouring himself a coffee. “Don’t worry, I brought this mug from home. I didn’t steal it from anyone.”
Ouch.
I was terrible at apologies, but now was the time to try to get better at them. “I’m a hypocrite. You were right. I shouldn’t have dismissed you like that. You’re smart and you’re good at everything I’ve seen you do here. I’m sorry.” For some reason, I couldn’t just leave it at that. A simple, straightforward mea culpa. “But don’t fuck up the marketing stuff, please.” I meant it as a joke, but his face read not funny loud and clear.
He shrugged. “Fine.”
I expected him to say more. When he shoved his hands into his pockets and said nothing else, it was his signal we were done. The tightness remained in my chest, and the apology I offered him didn’t relieve any of that pressure. And it was all my fault.
Across the hall, Kat motioned for me to come over to her office. “For a gaming noob, you’ve managed to cause quite an epic shitstorm. You’ve even made that poor intern work overtime.”
“I know, I know.” I sighed. “What a mess. I didn’t want any of this to happen.”
She laughed. “People who cause epic shitstorms never, ever do.”
The truest words I’d ever heard.
Chapter Thirteen
Asher’s greenish-yellowish skin pallor scared me into examining the light fixtures in our shared office. Either the overhead fluorescents were so jacked up that they cast a pukey hue only on Asher’s side of the office or the lights were in working order and he looked like total vomitus shit.
“Asher? Do you still need another sick day? I’d rather you go home than breathe in your contaminated oxygen.”
He lifted his eyes from his laptop screen. If they narrowed any farther, they’d be closed. “I took a sick day yesterday. I don’t have any more PTO time, so I need to be here today, otherwise I’d need to take unpaid leave. But thanks for your concern.”
I booked a conference room for the day to get away from Asher’s germy air, because really, could I afford to get sick during this crisis, during this production crunch time? My essentials for a full day of conference room camping included a laptop, notebook, pen, cell phone, and water bottle.
Asher glanced up again, and this time I detected a half-relieved and half-smug look on his face. Before I left for the day we needed to talk about a few important things.
“So, Asher, I’m leaving now, but before I go I need to ask you something. Forgive my bluntness, but did you leak that game info to BetaGank?”