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I watched their eyes widen with every swipe of Max’s thumb.
“Wowza, you weren’t kidding.” She paused on the dress that was almost completely transparent with only crystals conveniently placed to cover her breasts before it tapered into an elaborate feathered skirt.
“What do you even wear on the wedding night if that’s your wedding dress?” Jin pondered, looking genuinely scandalized.
“I would prefer not to think about their wedding night. At all. Ever.”
“Is this a church wedding?” Jin asked, cheeks looking a little pink. “I feel like I need to go to confession just for looking at that picture. I can’t imagine it’s going to go over well with the Southern church crowd.”
“Sissy in a church is too much of a fire risk for her to be married in one. Besides, she feels church weddings are for poor people,” I explained, taking my phone back from Max.
“Did she actually say that?” Maxine asked, sounding appropriately horrified.
“My mom suggested she use the church for the ceremony, and Sissy responded that church weddings are for people who can’t afford a better venue.”
“Am I speechless?” Jin pondered out loud. “I think I’m actually speechless.”
“Honestly, this is better than an episode of any of theReal Housewives,” Maxine added. “You better score me an invite to the bachelorette party.”
I rolled my eyes, snagging a cold, soggy French fry off her plate.
“You can be my emotional support dog.”
“Rude, but I’ll do it.”
I’d never admit it to her, but I did love the idea of Maxine being my plus-one to all things wedding. Max was the kind of person who could make anything fun, which was also one of the perks of being on her team at work.
“We’d better head back. I want to grab an energy drink before the alpha testing meeting,” Jin, ever the responsible one, reminded us. “Does anyone remember if the calendar invite said there would be snacks?”
Alpha testing meetings took place a week before the newest game or app was sent for alpha testing — the phase of video game production when the game was finally playable from start to finish, and all the main features were theoretically complete. The QA testers played the game and reported any errors or issues to the team. We always had a big meeting to coordinate the testers’ schedules and any areas we wanted them to pay special attention to. They were always surprisingly long, boring meetings, so the team leads and project managers usually brought in some sort of special treat.
“I heard someone say they were getting crackle cookies for this thing, but that might be something I’m just trying to manifest into existence.” Max closed her eyes like she was giving manifesting her full attention.
“What?” Jin asked, shaking his head at Max. “You’re trying to manifest snacks now? How does that work?”
Listening as Maxine explained to Jin about the power of thought manifesting, I packed up my garbage from lunch and followed them out of the cafeteria. My phone buzzed in my pocket, forcing me to shift my lunch bag around to reach for it.
Unknown: Are you free for dinner tonight? This is Holden.
My turkey sandwich threatened to make a reappearance in the elevator as I read and reread Holden’s text message. There was a five-alarm fire happening inside my brain, trying to decide how to handle this new development. Obviously, agreeing to meet him for dinner was completely out of the question. Ghosting him and then feigning ignorance later seemed like the best option. Cam’s words kept tempting me to respond, though. Not to agree to dinner, but to...I wasn’t sure. Maybe to see if I could find some of the Holden she’d spoken so highly about.
It took me almost until the start of the meeting to find the courage to respond. I decided to go for a mix of avoidance disguised as a great work ethic.
Me: Rain check? I have to be at the office late, so I’ll probably just go home and nuke whatever’s living in the back of the fridge.
And possibly a dose of awkward oversharing. I hit send and placed my phone in the box being passed around. We all had to put our cellphones in a box at the start of the meeting to remove any distractions. Joke was on the team leaders: I didn’t need to have my phone in my hand to be distracted by it today. My mind kept drifting back to the phone, wondering if Holden had replied, and if so, what he had said. More than once, I caught my eyes lingering on the box that held our devices. I didn’t understand why Holden seemed so determined to get to know me, and I hated not being able to understand something. Maybe he wanted to talk about wedding stuff? Or he felt the need to get to know me since we’d be family soon—even if only loosely through marriage?
That’s what this is, I reassured myself as the design leader ran through the issues and fixes they’d encountered during the pre-alpha stage.Your obsession is just an overwhelming desire to solve a problem.
A little over three hours later, the meeting finally ended. Did I almost knock a fellow developer over trying to grab the phone box? Yes, yes, I did. I could feel Max’s questioning, judgmental eyes on me while I dug around for my phone.
Holden: I’ll hold you to it.
Five words. I had stewed for hours over a five-word response. I didn’t know what response I had been expecting, but his brevity felt strangely disappointing. Thankfully, I didn’t have too much time to stew over his words — or lack thereof — because the other missed text quickly sent my emotions in an entirely different direction.
Sissy: The St. Jameses are hosting a gala for one of the firm’s foundations. Something for starving cats or kids. I can’t remember. For some reason, Macon is insisting I invite you. It’s black tie so you have to wear a formal dress. Formal as in does not fall above your knees. It is incredibly important that your appearance is befitting of my sister. Do not embarrass me. It’s next Saturday at 8pm at the Mansion on Forsyth Park.
Sissy: here’s a list of stores that it would be acceptable for you to purchase a dress from for the gala. A DRESS, Sutton. Do not show up in pants and flats. Please try not to be selfish.
