of day. Yet, I reminded myself. There was a first time for everything.
This new job would be my chance to finally make a difference.
Hammer peeked through the window into the ideas room. “Do I have to bribe you to get entrance so I can read the stuff? Maybe add a few notes of my own?”
I laughed. “Non-employees are welcome to submit their ideas through our company website. There’s a whole tab and form for it.”
We made our way quickly through most of the boring areas—workstations, cubicles, areas like Human Resources, Risk Management, etc. But the warehouse… that’s where the fun began with the experimental and prototype equipment.
“So your new wife is the cute redhead who helped you show us around?” he asked later, then added with a laugh. “Kirill’s going to be bummed.”
The Russian cosmonaut who had been hitting on her? Well, so much the better, then. The guy was built like an oak tree. Against my better judgement, I might have been tempted to take a swing at him for his blatant flirting with Kat during the tour. The dude had a steel pair, that was for sure.
“I doubt he has trouble finding willing single women,” was all I said. As usual, nothing to give away the violent tendencies of my thoughts regarding that matter. Yeah, I could envision smashing his head like a melon every time he leered at her but that was unproductive.
“How about covert operations or special forces?” I changed the subject back to what we’d been discussing before—my new project. “A twist on the first person shooter format. Instead of running around just shooting whoever you want, like with Battle Royale, it could be covert agents amongst the friendlies. You’d have to figure out who the undercover agents were.”
He nodded. “Not a bad idea. I don’t know much about covert operations, though. But Noah is a big fan of DE, too. And he was an Army Ranger. He might be able to help.”
I scratched my chin and mulled that over, then we pulled out the VR equipment and played a quick FPS game. He, naturally, won.
“I don’t know what guns these virtual weapons are supposed to be imitating but I’m an even shittier shot with them than with the real thing,” he laughed. “There’s a reason I went straight to test pilot school right out of the Air Force Academy.”
I laughed as we removed our helmets, goggles, game paddles and gloves.
He threw me a sidelong glance. “Tough gig, marriage. Especially when you work together.” He sighed.
Dude. Tell me something I didn’t already know.
“How long have you been married?” I asked, mostly to deflect. He seemed willing to talk though and building relationships was important in business. Might as well run with it as long as it didn’t get too personal. Hammer was a nice guy, and I genuinely wanted to get to know him better. He might be my ace in the hole when it came to dreaming up a new and exciting game for this new platform.
“I was married. Past tense. The beginning is the fun part. The stuff that comes after…” he gave a rueful shrug.
“Have any advice for a newbie?” I didn’t feel like getting into the fact that I wasn’t actually a newbie. But that first time had been short and rough and I chose to ignore that part of my past most often. It had taught me one thing, though. Marriage—real marriage, not this fake farce—was definitely not for me.
Good thing Kat and I understood perfectly going into it that this would definitely not last. There wouldn’t even be time to mess it up.
Hammer tilted his head thoughtfully, his expression deadly serious. It almost made me feel guilty. “Give each other breathing room—especially when you get home from work after a long day of seeing each other under stressful circumstances. Just let her breathe.”
“So your ex is an astronaut, too?
He shook his head. “A scientist, but we were in the Air Force together before I joined NASA. Before—” he cut himself off, frowned at something that only he could see, then just shrugged “Before we split up.”
I frowned. He had a weird way of talking about his ex. I expected bitterness or negativity there but there was none. “Seems like you’re on good terms with each other. Are you two still friends?”
He shook his head. “Haven’t seen her in years. Just hear things…. The military world isn’t really all that big.”