Page 33 of Melted by a Man

“Well, I worked at another small startup in LA before this. It was cool, but the company ended up being bought out. And the people that took it over, um…” she trailed off as she gave me a once-over. I followed her gaze to wonder what she was seeing but couldn’t come up with anything before I met her eyes again, “They wanted their employees to present a certain way.”

“That’s stupid,” I shook my head, then I dropped my forehead in my hand, “I apologize. That wasn’t professional.”

Violet grinned at me, her smile glowing as she replied, “No problem. I’m glad you all seem more relaxed here.”

I smiled at her in return, “You’ve only spoken to me so far.”

“Yeah,” she lifted a shoulder at me, “But if Human Resources is this chill, that’s probably a good thing, right?”

I did my best not to gape at her.

No one, not since starting here, had ever referred to me as “chill.”

My brother Marco has told me to “chill out” numerous times. Chill was Signe. Chill was Mary. Chill was Leo.

I was not chill.

But Violet thought I was chill right now.

And I desperately wanted to cling to that image she had of me for as long as possible, before working with me inevitably dulled it.

“I’m going to introduce you to a few team members before we head over to the all-hands meeting in thirty minutes,” I opened my phone to check the time, trying not to smile too much at Violet’s compliment, “Feel free to ask me any questions that come up.”

“Sounds good.” Violet and I stood and made our way out of the office, and part of me wondered if I was capable of becoming someone chill. If working here over time would soften the prickly personality that I had.

I thought I was already smoothing out a bit. Mariam thought I was doing better, simply by going to brunch every other week or so with Signe and the other women in the office. I didn’t socialize much outside of work, preferring the silence and solitude of my apartment after a long day. However, according to Mariam, going to brunch in the middle of the workday still counted as a social engagement.

I thought perhaps I should push myself to be better friends with these women. It wouldn’t hurt to hang out with someone at my apartment maybe once every other week, too. If they were into being couch potatoes, that is.

But what if I became friends with Violet, only to discover that she’s one of those people who was into things like hiking?

“Is this her?” I heard Mary ask from down the hallway. I snapped my head up and threw on a smile.

“This is Violet Thompson,” I gestured between the two women, “One of our new systems engineers.”

“Oh, I’m so excited that you’re here,” Mary grinned and shook Violet’s hand with enthusiasm, “We’re getting so close. We’re just working out the bugs we’ve found between Boson’s engines and this new feature we developed. I’d love to get your input once you have time to look everything over.”

“Sounds awesome,” Violet’s eyes lit up, “I love problem-solving.”

“Thank f—god,” Mary caught herself with a smirk in my direction, “We can now use two hands to count the number of women who work at Sun Steer.”

“Yikes!” Violet laughed before we continued the rest of the office tour. I pointed out where all the facilities were, including the mother’s lounge and sensory room. When we passed the restrooms, I remembered Signe’s fit about a year ago when she discovered the coin-operated tampon dispenser for the first time.

How I watched her hold her palm out to Zaid, who was CTO, waiting for him to drop quarters into her hand.

That felt like such a long time ago.

Signe definitely would have been written up if we were working at Blix, my old company.

But Violet was right; things were more relaxed here.

I needed to remember that.

* * *

“Whatchya listenin’to?” Signe asked as I approached the women at the table.

It had been a week since we hired Violet, and she had readily accepted Signe and Mary’s invitation to girls’ lunch.

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