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“I know, it’s Sunday,” I said. “But it’s a new job and I wanted to—”
“I think it’s great!” My sister threw herself into my arms, squeezing me in a hug. “Working the whole weekend? Part of me expected you to find something wrong with this job and quit after a day, but clearly you’re taking it seriously for once. I’m so proud of you, big sis. I just want to punch you in your dumb face!”
“Thanks, ass-munch,” I replied. But her words stuck with me.Maybe I won’t blow up my job at ACS after all.Not to mention it would only prove Owen right. But that still left the problem of kissing Jude…
“You okay?” Michelle asked as she resumed prepping dinner. “You seem distracted.”
For a moment, I considered telling her about Jude. We generally told each other everything, and it would probably be good for me to tell her about my problems.
But I still hadn’t wrapped my own head around it yet, so I said, “I’m just thinking about all the work I have to do at ACS. It’s overwhelming coming in and trying to hit the ground running.”
“It’s good for you! You have always been the type of person who throws herself into a project and doesn’t come up for air. I remember in high school, you used to hide away in your room for entire weekends when you were on a gaming kick. Playing World of Warcraft or whatever. At least this way, it’s your career!”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I replied. “I’m going to get a little bit of work done.”
“Dinner’s in two hours,” Michelle called as I went upstairs.
I cleared some space off the edge of my desk and opened my work laptop. Now that I had designed the roadmap for the expansion, it was easy to find a small job on the task list and get to work.
But I had only written four lines of code when an instant message popped up on the ACS chat program.
Cauthon, Jude: Did you finish the function I was writing?
My heart fluttered at the name on the screen. I thought about what to say before responding.
Moltisanti, Amber: I saw that it was still open, without the changes being committed. I didn’t have anything else to do on the CalTrain home, so I took care of it.
Cauthon, Jude: Thanks. I’m normally better about closing out my work at the end of the day, but…
Moltisanti, Amber: You left in a hurry.
Cauthon, Jude: Your code is good. In my function, I mean. I couldn’t have done it better myself. We’re glad to have you on the team.
I groaned when I saw the last message. He was ignoring the kiss, and my casual reference to it. He was pretending it didn’t happen because he thought it was a mistake.
Chatting with him like this, a digital thread connecting us from across the Bay Area, made me replay the kiss in my head. The warmth of his lips on mine, soft and tender and begging for more. The way my body came alive for those few seconds. And more than that, the way I feltJude’s body lifting, rising, turning into something new as he touched me…
I shivered and pushed the thought aside. If Jude thought kissing me was a mistake, then I didn’t want to push the issue. I had already been embarrassed enough for one day, and it was kind of my fault in the first place. After all, I was the one who asked him out for a drink, and pressed him on it when he declined.
I knew I needed to clear my head, so I closed my work laptop and slid over to my home PC. A little bit of time playing Diablo would help refresh my brain. The computer was weirdly laggy as I launched the game, the graphics choppy and distorted for a few seconds before smoothing out. Patch Tuesday was in two days, so it was probably just my Windows partition downloading updates.
For twenty minutes, I lost myself in the chaotic, fast-paced gameplay. By the time I was done I had forgotten all about my troubles at work. Then, with the stone-grinding effort of willpower, I opened my work email and forced myself to focus on my job. Melinda had forwarded me a new batch of hires. Unlike today, I wanted to be prepared for these interviews.
I left the company chat program open as I worked, just in case Jude decided to message me again. But he never did. I got into a groove reviewing resumes and writing down questions to ask during the interviews, and then I switched back over to my code-writing program to finish the task I had started earlier. Before I knew it, Michelle was calling me to dinner.
My sister and I only had each other, so we always made a point to sit down to Sunday dinner together. Just like we had done when dad was alive and things were normal. Tonight was pasta with grilled chicken, salad, and crusty garlic bread. Michelle had to work on a term paper, so we ate quickly and only chatted briefly between bites, but it was still a mealtogether.
Since she cooked, I put away the leftovers and cleaned the dishes. Then I went back upstairs to my room.
I was trying to decide between doing more ACS coding or playing videogames when I saw that a tab on my work laptop was blinking. The chat program. Excitement flooded into me like fire. I had a message!
But it wasn’t from Jude.
March, Owen: Jude forwarded me the roadmap you wrote today. It’s good stuff. Maybe you’re not so useless after all.
I sneered at my screen and wrote a biting response:
Moltisanti, Amber: I think it’s cute that you’re pretending to understand the technical stuff. Like my old dachshund that used to stare at the TV and act like he understood what was going on.
