Page 38 of The Heart of Winter

"That’s… a college campus?"

"Yes. I have a lecture there."

I’ll admit, that threw me for a loop.

I started the car and pulled into traffic. Should I start some small talk with my snitching, hateful boss? Nah, I shouldn’t.

"You work at a college, too?"

Yeah, I failed.

Winter was quiet, possibly having similar objections, but then he let out a soft huff.

"I wouldn’t call it work. I do it at your father’s request."

For a second, I didn’t understand what he meant. Winter wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was fixed out the window.

"At his request?"

His reluctance to talk absolutely saturated his energy, but he still explained, his tone forced into patience:

"Your father occasionally asks me to give guest lectures at different college campuses. It’s meant to help recruit talented students for DevApp."

"What’s the topic of this lecture?"

Fuck! Why did the words keep flying out of my unruly mouth? I didn’t really want to talk to him. He most likely shared my sentiment. His jaw tensed slightly as he threw out with a slight grunt,

"Effective AI Implementation Methods in Game Development."

"That actually sounds really interesting."

"At DevApp, we pride ourselves on combining human creativity with the power of AI to create an ethical and efficient work experience."

That sounded like a slogan, he memorized. I noticed that he said ‘we’, as if, in some way, he identified with the company’s mission and saw it as his own.

Winter had worked for my father almost from the very beginning, when the company was still small, just starting out, so in a way, he was a co-creator of it. I recalled what he had said during our memorable first meeting in his office.

Either him or me.

Resigning because of me would’ve been a difficult decision for him.

But the worst was yet to come.

"That’s an interesting topic. I’d like to sit in on it. You wouldn’t mind if I stayed?"

Yep, I actually said it. Did I have a death wish? Possibly so. Hanging around in the lion’s den much?

I sensed rather than saw Winter’s surprise, but he just shrugged slightly.

"I don’t care. It’s an open lecture. Anyone can attend," he said in the same aloof, dismissive tone.

"Great."

Maybe my father was right. Was it a game? I knew Winter hated me, partly for just being who I was by nature, and partly because I was the boss’s son. So why, for some reason, did I feel a strong urge to bask in his prickly presence a little longer? It made no sense, went against all logic and reason.

Masochistic? Possibly.

A form of silly activity because I was bored in this job anyway. It looked like, without my full consent, I was playing some weird, risky game with my own self-preservation instincts.

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