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Knowing that the photo was up on my Facebook profile grated on me. Not because it was particularly embarrassing—or at least, notjustbecause of that. But mostly because there was nothing I could do about it. Owen had gotten the best of me, and that knowledge was like an itch between my shoulder blades that I couldn’t quite reach.
The two Wills—Will Crawley, and Will Won—showed up for their first day of work later that morning. They even arrived at the same time. “I’m going to have to call you Will One and Will Two,” I said.
“Don’t you mean WillWon?”that Will said with a goofy grin.
I laughed in spite of myself. “Okay, ha ha. We’ll go by last names, then. You’re Won, and you’re Crawley.”
The latter flashed me a thumbs-up. “You got it, boss.”
Boss. It was still strange to think of myself that way. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not.
Melinda was conducting phone interviews with more candidates, so I gave the Wills a tour of the building and its amenities. Then I took them upstairs to introduce them to Jude.
“This is Jude Cauthon,” I said. “He’s the real brains here at ACS.”
Jude stood up and shook each of their hands. “Amber’s selling herself short,” he said. “She’s only been here a week and she’s already out-coding me on the side-chains. If I ever say one thing, and Amber says something else, you’re probably better off listening to her.”
After that, I showed them their cubicles downstairs. I explained that they were free to work anywhere in the building, pointing out that Dave rarely moved from the bean bag over in the corner. Once the Wills were all logged in with their systems access, I showed them the code repository and the list of tasks for them to get started on.
I sighed when I was alone in my office chair upstairs. I was a nerd who preferred to sit in a quiet room without any socializing, so showing two new guys the ropes for an hour had really worn me down. And it wasn’t even lunchtime yet.
I opened the roadmap and the giant list of tasks. A few minutes later, two of the tasks changed from black to yellow, indicating that they were currently being worked on. When I hovered over each task. I saw their names listed. They were already getting to work.
As I zoomed back out to the main roadmap, I saw it with new eyes. When I started here a week ago, it seemed like an impossible mountain of work to complete. But now that Nancy and Dave had been chipping away at the tasks, and especially with the addition of the Wills, the amount of work now seemed manageable.
An instant message popped up.
Cauthon, Jude: Your sister told me about your Facebook profile this morning. Looks like Owen got back at you after all.
Moltisanti, Amber: UGH, YES! Please tell me you didn’t see the photo.
Cauthon, Jude: I could lie to you and say I didn’t…
Moltisanti, Amber: It’s not real.
Cauthon, Jude: I know. Owen was really handy with Photoshop back in the day. He designed the original PayScale logo himself.
Cauthon, Jude: You okay?
Moltisanti, Amber: Yes. I’m just mad. And exhausted. I’ve never managed people before, and I’m already wiped out from showing the Wills the ropes. And Melinda knows about us. And we have to sign documents about our relationship and how it’s totally consensual and stuff, to cover the company’s ass. And then I have to get started on my ACTUAL coding work!
Moltisanti, Amber: So if you have anything that can make me feel better, I’m all ears.
Cauthon, Jude: Just get through the day, and I’ll make you feel better tonight. At my place.
Moltisanti, Amber: You’re right. That does make me feel better.
Cauthon, Jude: See? Managing people is easy.
Moltisanti, Amber: So you’re telling me I should sleep with Dave, Nancy, and the Wills? Got it.
Chatting with Jude made me smile, but as I put my headphones on and coded for the next hour, my stress returned. The code I was working on was more complicated than I expected and was going to take alotlonger than planned. I went downstairs to the kitchen to get an energy drink, and realized that I felt gross. I was in such a rush to leave this morning that I hadn’t showered.
I started to feel even more down on myself until I remembered the tour I had just given to the Wills. There were locker rooms attached to the gym, with showers and fresh towels.
I checked my work calendar to verify that I didn’t have any looming interviews with Melinda, then went downstairs. One of the Wills—Crawley—was already picking Nancy’s brain about some aspect of her code. I smiled at the scene and continued walking toward the other side of the building. Past the kitchen I went until I reached the sprawling gym.
I skidded to a stop just inside the door. I had expected the gym to be empty, but Owen was laying flat on a bench, pressing a barbell with thick weights up into the air. The muscles of his arms bulged as he lowered the weight, then went taut as he extended it again with a grunt.
