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Once seated at a table with a second cup of coffee and my notebook in front of me, I felt much more settled. Natalie wasn’tfriendly, really, but she was comfortably brusque. She reminded me of Editor Stevens, in a way–although Natalie’s subtle “no-makeup makeup,” low ponytail, and carefully tailored outfit were worlds away from the Editor’s bare face and oversized jackets. I watched her as she paid for her coffee and strode–there was no other word for it–back to our table.
“So. CityStyle is doing an article on Omegas In Tech.”
I nodded. “Yes, so thank you so much for meet–”
“The foundation or the concept?” she asked. Her face was impassive.
“The foundation,” I said, smiling.Was that the right answer?
“Alright,” she responded. “Let me know if you ever want to run a piece on more than just the foundation. I can put you in touch. You’re an omega, right?”
I nodded, hoping it wasn’t the scent of last night that gave me away.
“I thought so. Now… what do you need to know?”
Not one for small talk. Okay.
She answered my questions efficiently, taking small sips of her coffee, sitting very straight in her chair. It was very similar to my interview with Charlie, I thought, as I transcribed her words into my lined notebook: a bit jargon-heavy, although the technical side wasn’t going to be the focus of the interview, but full of quotable phrases and practiced
“I worked for a company… This was before Sparq. I hadn’t made a name for myself yet, not like I have now. I let myself… no. Strike that.” She corrected her words. “I was convinced by some senior management that I wasn’t ready for a more senior position. I thought they were right, because they were older and wiser, or so I thought. But then… I got the same response the next promotion cycle, and the next: you aren’t ready, you don’t have the experience.”
“You did, though, by that point.”
She nodded. “Of course. There were…peoplegetting promoted who hadn’t been there longer. And I was better than them.” She said this without blushing, or averting her eyes, as I would have done. “I should have noticed the first time and cut my losses then.”
“You said with Sparq, it was different?” I asked.
“They told me when they hired me that they wanted me for C-suite, and they delivered on that promise. It was a great fit for me.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I am very thankful for everything Sparq taught me.”
“But you left. Why?” I asked.
“I wanted to give other omegas the same chance I had,” she said, and treated me to a smile, shiny white teeth and perfectly lined nude lips. “OIT will provide that foot in the door for future omegas.”
But at the sight of it, at the twitch of her fingers around the paper coffee cut, my gut twisted. Her answer was familiar, and I recognized it… from where? Then I realized: it was Charlie’s answer, the same phrase, the same cadence… Sure, it was just a rote, cliche phrase, it could be a coincidence, but…
“That’s why you founded OIT,” I said, leaning forward. “Why did you leave Sparq?”
I had expected her to pivot again, to give me another polished answer. The quieter smile I got instead was a surprise. “Oh,” she said. “I can see why Charlie likes you.”
I smiled back, caught off-guard. My heart was already asking her “He likes me? As a reporter? As a friend? As a girlfriend?” like a middle school girl with a crush, but I tried to keep my mouth professional.
“So?”
“So.” She took another sip of coffee, seeming to make up her mind. “So–this is off the record. You can print the thing I said before in the magazine, okay?” I nodded. “I left because Sparq was about to be bought. I was CTO, and for a tech company, that’s, shall we say, a pretty fucking important position. But the guy who acquired it–Noughton, Michael Noughton–he’s an ass. He buys up companies andslaughtersthem. Sure, they’ll makehimsome money, but… they don’t tend to last long. I left, sure, but who knows how long he’ll keep squeezing it before it’s all wrung out; I would have had to leave or be part of his cost-cutting, eventually. But also…” she sighed. “Omega to omega, he doesn’t have a good reputation… amongus, at least. He’s a creep, pretty much.”
I grimaced. “Alpha?”
She nodded. “The worst kind. Anyway, I could have stuck it out, fought my battles, dealt with his bullshit for as long as the company held on… but I had already reached the top. Idid it.And you know the first thing he said to me when I walked into the room for the first meeting with him? This was at negotiations, mind you, with all the executives there. He said he’d give them more if they threw me in with the company. He would buyme, too.” She said this with a flat, expressionless voice, but the curl of her lip betrayed her fury. And how could she not be? That kind of “joke” wasn’t even acceptabledecadesago. “Anyway, I knew then that it didn’t matter whatI personallydid. The only thing that would make a difference is… sheer volume. One omega can’t change things, but a hundred? If I hadn’t been the only one, maybe I would have had someone else to stick up for me in that conference room. So… I quit. I have enough money–that was Sparq’s last favor to me, they gave me a fucking enormous severance package. Bigger that Noughton’s package would have been, for sure.” She raised her eyebrows suggestively, and I laughed. If the on-the-record Natalie had reminded me of Charlie’s polished, too-perfect interview, thenthiswas the Natalie that was friends with the Charlie whoIknew. “Omegas in Tech.” She shrugged. The casual gesture looked incongruous with her sleek hair and suit. “We’re starting a revolution.”
She was only half-joking.
Charlie
I had been hopingto see Ella again–praying, dreaming, wishing, fervently jacking off to the thought of it–sometime during the week. After all, her feet had been thoroughly off-swept by our date–fuck Jack and his pretentious French restaurants, Mrs. Sarkar had come through for me, as I’d known she would. And the night we’d spent together…
I knew from Natalie, who I had texted to ask how her interview went–a blatant attempt for Ella-related information and one which Natalie saw through immediately–that their interview had gone well, thanks, and that she liked Ella. I couldn’t get any more details from her until she had extracted a promise to get lunch the following week.Let me check my schedule,I told her,I’ll squeeze you in.Iadded a bunch of emojis just to annoy her.
Ella was busy,I reminded myself for the millionth time, and waited for the inevitable echo:unlike you.Ella had a job, a career even. Dreams, and hopes, and wishes that didn’t involve me, or have her taking cold showers. Although who knows: maybe she really,reallyliked making social calendars.
