Page 7 of Code Mages & Empty Pages
“Oh, thanks, Luc.”
The bar was so fucking low, and I was so starved for attention that my heart fluttered as he held the coat up for me to slip my arms into the sleeves.
Mia gave me a tiny, knowing smile when I walked past her.
Stop reading into it!I tried to tell her without words.He’s just being nice.
We met Harper in the entrance hall, and together we went to a place called The Breadfather. Sunlight flooded in through the large window front, and their minimal menu offered artisanal sandwiches, craft beers, and cocktails. I ordered an elevated club sandwich with a salad on the side, and we settled on both sides of a large, communal table by the window front.
Over the course of our meal—the maple-glazed bacon and microgreens turned my club sandwich into an experience—and my colleagues’ topics, I realised that Luc and Desmond were actually cousins, and that Luc had only started at the IT department a couple of weeks before me.
“I’m so glad Carson hired you two.” Desmond took a sip of his Big Squeeze, a lemonade with fresh basil and cucumber, and nodded at Luc and me. “Things were getting a bit stressful for me.”
“I hope I’ll be of some help to the team.” I laughed off my insecurities, hoping it convinced them. The way Luc’s eyebrow cocked at me told me I wasn’t successful. Heat crept up myneck. I busied myself with my salad and promptly choked on the citrusy dressing.
“You already are,” Desmond assured me as he thumped his hand on my back to help me clear my airway. I coughed and threw him a thankful smile. “We had to pull the jobs straight from the inbox. Having someone filter them for us makes it so much easier. And you did great wrangling that MFU the other day.”
He made it sound like I’d wrestled an alligator, not just pulled a stuck page from between the print rolls when he’d offered to take me along to “learn the ropes, too.”
I’d loved it and couldn’t wait to prove myself next time a printer jam came up while Desmond was out on a job and Luc was busy ironing out the bugs in our system.
Mia laughed. “Des didn’t shut up about it. You seriously impressed him.” She gave her partner a teasing wink and reached out to smooth out the fur on his cheek. “You know, that’s our origin story. I was useless with tech before we started dating.”
“No, you weren’t useless with hardware at all,” Desmond deadpanned and both giggled over what was clearly an inside joke. Luc huffed.
“We’ve been gaming together, and I have my private IT instructor at home. I’m getting there,” she added before finishing her bowl of pasta.
“Speaking of gaming together…” Harper began. I quickly checked my phone instead of bothering with the rest of their conversation. Gaming had never really interested me. My baby brother, Owen, had texted me that morning, so I sent a quick message back.
“My brother,” I explained when Harper broke off and she and Mia gave me an inquisitive look. “He just wanted to check in and see if I’d survived the first month.”
“And what did you say?” Harper asked over her pink rhubarb lemonade.
I winked back. “Barely.”
Over the chuckles of our colleagues, we paid for our lunches.
“Dawn?” Mia asked as we said goodbye to Harper and made our way downstairs to IT. I figured she wanted a proper goodbye with Desmond before heading back to work.
“Yeah?”
“Harper and I have been thinking about starting a knitting group. Would you be interested in joining? We’re calling it Knot Today, Satan.” She grinned as we stepped through the door Desmond held open. He was always so gallant.
“Sure, I’m in.” I dropped into my chair.
“We thought we’d host at our place next week. I’m not really in the mood to go out, and the guys are planning a game night. We could have some food and a couple of drinks. What do you think?”
“Oh, that sounds great. Thanks for inviting me. I’d love to join.”
“Of course! I’ll text you our address and all the details.”
“Cool.” I waved her off and turned my attention back to my screen, assigning the next task to Desmond.
Another, smaller job was perfect for team Demon, our two Demoness colleagues who worked remotely. I ducked my head to hide my grin. Team Wolf and team Demon, that’s what I called them.
Luc spent the next three hours poring over a bug fix I’d assigned him before lunch. I checked in on him now and then, but he never moved or touched his water bottle. He didn’t even get up to stretch or have a wee.
I went over at four. Desmond had just left to deal with yet another paper jam on the third floor.
