Page 66 of Off Her Game
“I called him. Broke up officially.”
“That went okay?”
Tori shrugged. “The other night when I went over there to give him the phone I overheard him on a phone call say he didn’t want to be dealing with me anymore. Called me some other things. So, breaking up isn’t a biggie.”
“You overheard that? You sure it was about you. I didn’t get anything like that from him. He seemed irrational to get info on where you’d be last night when I mentioned you were going on a date. I totally read he liked you off that.”
“He doesn’t.”
“I can’t believe he’d give up on the two of you dating this easily. I don’t get it.” Emma nibbled on a nail. “They’re nuts about the game. I’m a total jerk not to tell you the second I walked in how awesome it is that we’re going to offer to keep your game and make it a headliner.”
“Noah and I weren’t all fake, but based on what I heard him saying on the phone, he preferred it over.”
“Relationships and work mixed together is trouble. Maybe this is a blessing to give you a way to walk away from the emotional craziness that comes from dating your boss. This is your dream to see your game published with a big-time company. Kiss him once, you can call it a one-off thing. More than once can be a problem.”
How about a bit of sex? Total disaster.
Noah stood at the front of the midsize conference room, hands on his hips, scrutinizing everything through critical eyes. Thirty minutes before Tori’s arrival. He wanted to impress her with what they could offer. He’d already summoned the department heads to ensure their presentations were loaded and ready to go.
This was about her. And he was going to make sure it went well.
“Ready?” Jake strode into the conference room. After a busy morning of announcements, meetings, and a lot of employee surprise about the rapid launch of Tori’s game Jake still managed to come off cool and organized. Every strand of Jake’s brown hair rested in perfect place. His togetherness enhanced Noah’s irritation.
“Can’t wait to get this started.” Jake rubbed his hands together. The gleam in his eyes reflected a wolfish anticipation. “What’s wrong? Did you speak with her yesterday?” Jake crossed his arms. “I told you phone only.”
“We did some talking in person.”
“Did it stay professional?”
Noah averted his gaze.
“Aw, shit. What’d you do?”
Noah folded his arms across his chest.
Jake rolled his eyes. “I need you to think with your head right now, not with your dick.”
“You can be such an asshole sometimes. Remind me why we’re friends.” He brushed past Jake to exit, bumping his shoulder intentionally hard.
Jake grabbed his arm. “Sit.”
He yanked out of Jake’s grip. “Go screw yourself.”
“Don’t make me prove who’s the better fighter.” Jake pushed him into a chair and swung a chair to face him. “I may be an ass, but I’m the ass who made us rich.”
Noah crossed his arms. “I’m the one who had the original concept forZoneworld.Without me you’d be living in your aunt’s basement developing a concentration style game that involved shooting things, which is the dumbest idea ever.”
“I still think it’s a viable concept.”
Noah cracked a smile at his best friend. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“You’re right. It’s for toddlers. It’d suck. I could sell the shit out of it, though. Tell me what happened.”
Noah ran a hand through his hair and crossed him arms in silent communication:not talking.
Jake said, “I worried acquiring her game with your balls in a wad over her might be problematic, but the game is important to us. I know you get that and can keep it professional. Aside from her career and our need for her game, my top concern is the FBI stuff will go south before the game is ready. Tom really didn’t like us producing her game. He painted all kinds of gloom and doom. I don’t want it to go bad for her, but with that agent turning up dead, we have to figure out how to get her free of all this.”
He scrubbed a hand over his scalp, which no doubt screwed up his hair, but he didn’t care. “If this Symphis guy is smart, he’ll never let her out. She’s a talented gamer likely making bucketloads for him. If she can hook him up with the code for our games, too, that’s gold. What happens when she’s not useful?”
