She draws in her breath and her eyes light up. “They’ll call in sick and message their mates. Word will spread like wildfire.”
“And all those bloggers who didn’t get an early copy will be racing to catch up. We won’t have to buy their time; they’ll be desperate to give it to us. Fear of missing out.” Anders makes a chef’s kiss with his fingers.
“Will it work?” Ahmed questions Scarlett, seeking reassurance.
“Yes!” she says, already hooked. But she’d probably follow Anders into Hell itself.
“And we get the pre-launch budget to spend wherever we need.” Anders looks pointedly at Ramesh. It’s an out-and-out bribe.
“Risky,” Marnie observes. “If the new launch date leaks, we’re dead. But have we got a choice?”
Anders shrugs. Then he claps his hands together. “But just you watch. It’ll be fun.”
Imogen Again
I’m not the only one who’s worried about Anders’s new magical Do Nothing strategy, but we all hitched our wagons to this maverick a long time ago. Now is not the time to lose faith. We knew he was betting the company’s future onThe Obsidian Sigil.Actually, not being a gamer or knowing anything about the industry, I had always been betting on Anders, and he was betting on the game.
The meeting lasts until we break for lunch. I’m about to retreat to my desk and eat as I work but Nur grabs my arm. “No, you don’t,” she says. “You’re taking a proper break. You’ve been working flat out. Bring your food.”
So it is that Nur, Chloe and I take a seat at the table Ginny has already occupied.
“What’s with the big pow-wow?” she says. So much for trying to avoid speculation.
“Dealing with the fallout from Piotr’s sacking,” Nur interjects before I have time to comment. “You’ll be glad to hear Scarlett is now your boss.”
“Ugh!” Ginny rolls her eyes as she groans dramatically. “I’m going back to Malaysia.”
“Malaysia?” I’m confused. “I thought you were sunning yourself on some beach in Thailand.”
Ginny flushes red. It’s quite an amazing sight. The line between her skin and her hair disappears.
“She went to stay with Steve.” It’s Nur who answers, not Ginny.
“Steve?” I’m even more confused.
“How can I put it?” Nur tilts her head. “They’ve been getting friendly,” she says.
My eyebrows rise. “You and Steve? Really?”
Ginny’s colour is returning to normal. “You didn’t want them,” she says. “You said so.” There’s a hint of challenge in her words.
Given what I’m hiding from all of them, I’m the last person to judge her. People in glass houses and all that.
“I’m surprised, but not angry,” I tell her. “Steve’s lovely. I just didn’t know you were interested.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d approve,” Ginny says. “As he’s your ex.”
“Hardly! We hadonedate in a coffee shop.” I lean across and take her hand. “You deserve happiness, and Steve will never treat you like that shithead Piotr did. But how’s this going to work?” There’s an eight-hour time difference between their homes. Anders and I struggled with five hours.
“We don’t know,” Ginny says. “We’re taking it a day at a time. We don’t even know if Cerium Malaysia will work out, or if we will. In time, we’ll see.”
“There’s always phone sex,” Chloe says.
Ginny flushes scarlet again.
Oh my God. Does the entire world know how to do phone sex? Just not me?
“How long have the two of you been together?” I ask.
