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“Yes. And not just beat them. Trounce them. Have the best couples. Hottest kinks. Most spectators. Highest profit. Most bids on silent auction items!”
He was yelling and he didn’t even care. If that’s what it took to get their attention, so be it. “What is everyone looking at me like that for? Haven’t you ever seen a man losing his shit before?”
They all looked around until finally Madison spoke softly. “Eh… please tell me that you’re handling the silent auction.”
“What do you mean, me? I didn’t handle…” Elijah’s heart almost thumped out of his chest. “You took care of that last year.”
“I handled them after they all started coming in, sure. I even made a few calls to get some more donations, but you handled the invitations to donate last year. I’m sure of it.”
Elijah’s mind raced. Had he sent the email? If it was on his list, he had. He shuffled a bunch of papers around on his desk until he dug out the legal pad with his to-do list on it.
Whew. ‘Send silent auction invite’ was on the list and crossed off.
“I already sent it out. It’s crossed off my list.”
Everyone except Madison let out a sigh of relief. “So, why haven’t I gotten any emails or mail on it yet? You were going to send that out a month ago before we even started the sign-up process. Who did you tell them to reach out to?”
That was a very good question. Elijah sat in his chair, pulling up his email. “Okay, I sent it out on…”
Elijah searched his SENT folder, but couldn’t find the email. Almost panicking, he remembered he’d used the newsletter mail service to email all of the members. Switching over to that app, he went to the SENT folder again.
Don’t panic. It has to be here.
He checked the DRAFT folder next and it was empty. What the fuck?
Then his gaze landed on the big bright red banner across the top of the screen.
ERROR MESSAGE: There was an error performing the send operation.
His heart thumped faster as he clicked on the error.
The campaign wasn’t sent because you added special characters such as a backslash or quotation mark at the start of the campaign name. Remove any special characters from the start of the name and click Send Campaign.
Elijah dropped his head into his hands, elbows on the desk. He wanted to scream, to throttle someone, only there was no one to blame for this one but himself.
I’m a dumbass.
Madison’s soft touch on his arm as she looked over his shoulder at his computer screen calmed him slightly. The pain meds hadn’t kicked in yet and for a brief moment he thought his head might explode, and honestly, how he felt in that moment, that might be okay with him. He was used to the back pain and knee pain. But this… it was too much.
“Don’t worry about it. Let us work on the list for a while while you go upstairs and lay down in one of the rooms,” she offered.
“I don’t need to lay down,” he mumbled.
Susie shoved the bourbon under his face. “Then take your medicine.”
“I’m not drinking.”
Tyler was farther away, standing with the other dungeon monitors, when he offered up, “I think you need to get laid is what I think. Hell, if I thought it would help, I’d offer to suck you off. Take one for the team and all.”
Despite the heavy weight on his shoulders, Tyler’s smartass remark made him chuckle. Elijah finally looked up to give his second-in-command shit.
“Wouldn’t you be in trouble if I took you up on that offer?”
Tyler’s eyes grew wide before finally bursting out laughing with the rest of the gang gathered around the crowded office.
He was their leader. It was time he started acting like it.
“Okay, first, while I’m not gonna get mushy, I am gonna say I’m sorry. I know I’ve been a sonuvabitch to be around lately, but in case you haven’t noticed, I really want us to win this year. Not only have I had to put up with Cook’s gloating all year, but more importantly, I’m so proud of what we’ve created here at Black Light West, and we deserve to win. I feel lucky every day when I come in and get to work with all of you, helping to give our members the private space they deserve to live out their sexual fantasies.”
Elijah paused. He hadn’t planned on making an inspirational speech, especially with a growing migraine. But he was reminded that they’d been through so much together in the last year since almost losing their good friend, Nalani. All he could do was speak from the heart.
“You’ve all become an unlikely family to me, and as much as I do want us to win Roulette this year, it can’t come at the cost of our relationships with each other. So, here’s what we’re gonna do. Madison, Tyler, and I are gonna regroup on our action item list and then we’re all gonna chip in and divide and conquer. We have a lot of things going wrong, but we are all smart, resourceful people and if anyone can pull it together, it’s us. Together.”
The raucous cheers that erupted in the small space pierced his headache like an ice pick, but Elijah didn’t complain. He was part of a team—a team that had each other’s backs. They’d work their asses off to solve all of the problems they could, and Valentine’s Day would arrive, regardless. If they won, fantastic. But… if they didn’t, they’d still succeed as long as their members had fun and they all stuck together.
Elijah’s shoulders relaxed as he made peace with the challenge ahead.
“Now, let’s get back to work. I’m gonna order in food, and everyone feel free to pour a drink on the house if it will help.”
