“Motion carries, meeting adjourned, demons aren’t vampires so no more meetings until the sun comes back up.” Gisele stumbled back toward her room.
Luke looked like he was going to say something, but then closed his mouth. Morgan thought extremely hard about how much she wanted to put her head back on her pillow soshe wouldn’t think about how she wanted to hear what he had been about to say. Because if they had that conversation, it needed to be with his shirt on.
Luke and Rix padded back into the living room, leaving Morgan to slip into uneasy dreams about job interviews with a panel of sentient avocados.
17
Ihad no idea human children were so advanced,” Luke said, frowning at his laptop.
“Why are you even looking at anything involving human children?” They certainly weren’t going to sign a kid up for a Deal; with the Ravenfell presentation tomorrow, this was hardly the time to get distracted.
“I’m trying to figure out which House GreenField is contracted to so I can figure out how much more trouble we’re in, and I’m looking at the LinkedIn profile for Tim’s ex-roommate,” Luke said. “His name is Hawk? Isn’t that a bird?”
“Ugh, that dude. Doubt his parents named him that. Go on.”
“Anyway, his two-year-old wanted a new toy and told his dad that it would be more expensive for Hawk to miss an hour of work dealing with the kid whining than to buy the toy in the first place. Apparently he learned negotiation from listening to his daddy on sales calls,” Luke said, scrolling to a picture of a stuffed purple squid. It looked slightly maniacal. “When I was that age, I was still trying to gnaw off the limbs of my broodmates: I definitely wasn’t learning sales techniques. No wonder humans are such good negotiators.”
Morgan rubbed a hand over her face. “We’re good negotiators because welie, Luke. Which is what this Hawk guy is doing. His toddler absolutely did not figure out his hourly rate. At least half of the people who regularly post to LinkedIn are lying through their teeth.”
“So this next lady’s sister isn’t actually dying of cancer?”
Morgan peered at the post and cringed. “Given that she’s trying to use it to make a Very Special Point about management skills, no. Or she’s the worst sister in the world.”
Luke’s Slack notification popped up. He groaned.
“What does Brad want now?” Morgan wasn’t sure how they were supposed to finish prepping for the Ravenfell presentation if they kept having to stop to answer Brad’s increasingly unhinged requests.
“He wanted to know if the guy in the lobby with the lighting rig is here for an interview.”
“I didn’t set up an interview,” she said, suddenly concerned Brad had bypassed her and set up his own interview.
“No, I think they’re our new neighbors. I got the construction people evicted, and the lease was taken over by something called an immersive theater troupe?”
She tried to picture what kind of show would want a half-completed construction site and decided that, as long as they didn’t drop goo on her head, she didn’t care.
Slack pinged again. “He also says that since Sam Bankman-Fried had a one-ton block of tungsten in his lobby on a plinth, he needs a one-ton block of something cooler. He’s suggesting iridium.”
“We don’t have a lobby. We’re sharing a space with thirteen other startups and a mediocre cafe. And apparently an immersive theater.”
“I don’t think he cares.”
“What would we even put it on? It would break the floor.” She waved a hand. “I know, I know, you don’t think he cares.”
“I’ll suggest we postpone that until we have an architect to design a lobby that’s a sufficiently impressive setting.”
“You’re getting disturbingly good at managing him,” she said, with a little admiration.
“Years of not getting fired by Bel’aliol.”
“If you got fired, would you try to get a similar job at another House? Or do something totally different?” she asked idly.
He stared at her. “I’m starting to think we mean different things by the word ‘fired.’”
She thought that through a bit and winced. “What would you have wanted to do? If you hadn’t been in debt?”
He leaned back. “My sire was a soul-power repair technician, so I’d always assumed I’d follow in his claw-steps, but afterwards there wasn’t any money for the apprenticeship fees.” He caught her ill-disguised expression. “I wouldn’t want to do that anymore. Not after meeting you.”
She deliberately jumped back a topic. “Bel’aliol is like Brad?”
