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1. I was stubborn as hell and wanted to decline the job just to stick it to Owen for ruining my sister’s party.
Even though the single “no” reason was compelling all by itself, the weight of the “yes” reasons was too much to ignore. And somewhere in my gut, butterflies were flying around at the thought of accepting Jude’s offer.
The front door opened and Phil stuck his head in. “Hi, your Tesla is blocking our car.”
“He’ll move it in a second, Phil!” I snapped. “Give us a minute!”
He quickly retreated back into the driveway.
“I want a ten percent bump on the starting salary,” I said. “And twice as many RSUs as Melinda mentioned. Like you said: I have valuable experience building a cryptocurrency from scratch. You guysneedme.”
Jude nodded thoughtfully. “I think we can do that. Any other demands?”
I searched for more things to ask for, but came up empty. The wordyeswas on the tip of my tongue, begging to be unleashed.
In the end, I didn’t need to say it out loud. The look on my face must have been enough because Jude nodded once and said, “Be at the office tomorrow at ten.”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” I said.
Jude opened the door and stepped out. “We’re a tech start-up, and we have a lot of work to do. There’s no time to waste. Oh, and dress more casually tomorrow. Whatever’s comfortable for you. Your clothes were fine for the interview, but heels are too much for day-to-day work.” He smiled over his shoulder at me. “Welcome to the team, Amber.”
10
Amber
The CalTrain rumbled along the tracks as it headed north, up the peninsula toward San Francisco.
I was a nervous wreck. Not just about my first day on the job, but about seeing Jude again. I spent all night tossing and turning while thinking about him. And when Ididfall asleep, I dreamed I was back at the rooftop bar with him, sharing a Seven and Seven with two straws and flirting about which programming language was more erotic.
The research Jude had done on me felt like a violation. I doubted it was legal. Using his position of authority at a company to track someone down to their house. Not to mention the credit card info fromMarcello’s. In any other context, it would be a cautionary tale of obsession and stalkerish behavior.
But I didn’t really see it that way. Jude was curious about a gap in my resume, so he had started tugging on strings until my story fell apart. Going down the rabbit hole with a hacker’s curiosity. I knew the feeling because it reminded me of something I would have done if I were in his position. And Iwasimpressed he was able to find out so much about me. Jude wasn’t just some tech-bro or script kiddie punk. His hacker chops were substantial.
Walking through the front door into ACS felt like returning to the scene of a crime. Melinda was seated at the same desk, and she stood up when she saw me and came around the side as if nothing had happened yesterday.
“Let’s start over from scratch, shall we?” she said with a smile. “I’m Melinda. Welcome to Advanced Crypto Solutions.”
“Amber Moltisanti,” I said, shaking her hand. “I’m here for the Senior Computer Engineer position.”
The two of us giggled at the silly theater of it all. Then Melinda said, “I have quite a bit of paperwork for you to go over, if you’ll follow me…”
I sat with her at the front desk and began signing documents. There was a lot of it. When we got to the formal offer letter that listed my salary and benefits, I struggled to keep a straight face. Even before taking into consideration the RSUs, my salary was far more than I had expected.
I signed my name quicker from that point on.
After that, Melinda gave me a tour of the building. I had already seen the main room with the open floorplan and various desk configurations, so she showed me the kitchen. The cabinets were stocked with cereals, breakfast bars, and candy. The fridge contained every kind of milk I could imagine: whole milk, two-percent milk, skim milk, ultra-filtered milk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk, cashew milk. Even something called hemp milk, which I decided I was not going to try. There were also shelves of pre-wrapped sandwiches of every variety.
“The computer terminal there is connected to every restaurant on this side of the city,” Melinda explained. “Everything you want delivered is covered by the company. And if you want anything else stocked here, just let me know and I’ll take care of it.”
I pointed to a cabinet. “I see Frosted Mini Wheats. I’m good.”
The break room was adjacent to the kitchen. It looked like the hangout area of a dorm room: couches, televisions, pool tables, foosball, and even a row of vintage arcade machines.
The gym was down another hallway. I didn’t know anything about workout equipment, but it looked better-stocked than some of the professional gyms I had seen around the city. “My boyfriend helped choose what equipment we stocked in here. He’s not working right now, so he needs little tasks to keep him busy.”
An unemployed boyfriend living in this city,I thought.Melinda must make quite a bit to make up for that.
Attached to the gym were two locker rooms with showers, a hot tub, and three gendered saunas: male, female, and non-binary. The next room over was a laundry room with washers, dryers, and shelves full of ACS-branded clothes. Melinda tossed me a sleeveless tank top and made a joke about how they would be getting better swag soon.
