Page 21 of The Revenge Game
The parallel makes my stomach twist uncomfortably.
Oh shit. I can’t do this.
I actually can’t do this.
“It’s okay. I’ll fix it,” I blurt out.
He looks at me with wide, hopeful eyes. “Do you think you can?”
“Just give me a minute.”
I pull up the command prompt and start reversing my handiwork, line by line. It’s surprisingly easy to undo hours of vengeful coding.
Justin’s reflection in my screen shows him alternating between checking his watch and tugging his tie.
“There, all fixed,” I say as I tilt the laptop so Justin can see it, running through the slides to show him everything is working properly.
He lets out a deep breath and his million-dollar smile returns. “Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me.”
His eyes meet mine, and there’s such genuine gratitude in them that I have to look away, guilt churning in my stomach.
“You’re welcome,” I reply woodenly.
“I’ve really got to run, but seriously, I owe you big time.”
I don’t get a chance to respond because he’s out the door, leaving me alone in the IT department of DTL Enterprises.
The silence in the office feels deafening as I process what just happened. All my careful planning is now undone because I couldn’t handle seeing Justin panic.
Being the bigger person should make me feel good, right?
Instead, I feel empty. Like I’ve failed Past Andrew.
After all, Justin never showed mercy or compassion toward me in high school, did he?
I’m a better person than him.
Maybe I can take some comfort in that fact?
Chapter Seven
Andrew
The empty feeling stays with me through the rest of the day.
I don’t get to escape at five p.m. to process it all either because, apparently, Friday night drinks are a tradition at DTL Enterprises.
So I obediently trot after Adam and Xander to The Drunken Duck, a pub that looks like it’s been serving ale since before America was even a twinkle in England’s colonial eye. The ceiling beams are so low they could double as a concussion testing facility.
The first person I see once I’m in the door is Kieran from Marketing.
He swoops toward us with a wide smile.
“Hey, Drew, that fix you did yesterday is working great. We’ve managed to schedule three weeks of content without a single timeout.”
“That’s awesome,” I say.
“Looks like you’ve added a techno-genius to your department,” Kieran says to Adam and Xander.
