Page 76 of Sparks Fly
This came from Clay, a guy on the content team who walked over, along with a few others.
“Stella, why didn’t you use the robot?” Katy asked.
“I didn’t think I’d actually win,” Stella said defensively. “Besides, if I had used it, maybe I wouldn’t have won. Who knows?”
“Wow, so just because you didn’t use the AI, he’s really notgoing to give you anything,” Frankie, another member of their team, said. “That’s kind of fucked.”
“Yeah, but those were the rules,” Katy said. “He can’t just change them now.”
“The fuck he can’t,” Effie said. “Stella’s posts got over four hundred thousand more views than Eric’s. She deserves the ten grand. She earned it!”
“Hey, now! It’s not my fault she decided not to play by the rules,” Eric said, piping up from a row over.
“ ‘Play by the rules,’ he says,” Effie scoffed. “If anything, Stella played by the rules bynotusing Sparky. She just proved that we’re better off without it.”
There were murmurs of agreement, and Stella took in the crowd that was now forming around them. Clearly this was becoming a thing, and somehow she found herself at the center of it.
“Stella, you should say something,” Effie said.
“Say what?” Stella asked. “These guys are right. Technically, I don’t qualify to win. I knew the rules, so what can I say?”
“Stella, it’s ten thousand dollars! You’re really going to let them rob you of ten grand? At the very least you should talk to—” Effie looked around the group, who were all watching them now, and then pulled Stella away to the kitchen area, much to the discontent of everyone around them.
“You should tell Max about this,” Effie whispered once she confirmed no one was around. “He’d fight for you.”
“We’re not supposed to talk about work to each other,” Stella said. “And I don’t want him fighting my battles for me. If I have Max talk to Miles and Miles actually gives me themoney and then everyone finds out, they’re going to think I only got it because I’m sleeping with Miles’ brother.”
“Then what are you going to do?” Effie asked. “Miles can’t give you nothing. I refuse to accept my prize if you don’t get something, too.”
Stella softened at that, grateful to have a friend who’d give up her prize money in the name of what was right.
“You don’t have to do that,” Stella said.
“Yeah, but it’s the principle of the thing,” Effie said. “And I’m going to tell Eric and Gregory they better not take that money either. If we don’t all get paid, no one gets paid. Period.”
Stella’s eyes began to well up and she quickly shut them, trying to hold it together. She didn’t even know if Eric and Gregory would agree to this, but she had a feeling they would. This was her team. Maybe they weren’t all her friends, but at the end of the day, she spent most of her adult life in this office with these people, and that meant something.
“Right, okay,” Stella said, shaking it off. “Thank you, Effie. And I’m going to try talking to Melanie. You’re right, at the very least I have to say something.”
“Atta girl,” Effie said. “And if she refuses to help you, we got you.”
Effie held out a fist, and Stella rolled her eyes but bumped her fist to Effie’s.
“Okay,” Stella said, rolling back her shoulders. “Time to do this, I guess.”
“You got this,” Effie said, patting her on the back. “Just talk to her with the confidence of a mediocre white man. That always works for me.”
Stella laughed. “Noted.”
Thirty-Eight
When Stella and Effie stepped out of the kitchen, Stella went directly to where Melanie was sitting at the end of their long table. Stella was certain that if she went back to her seat she’d lose her confidence to talk to Melanie about this and she had to say something.
“Hey, Mel, do you have a second?”
Melanie looked up from her computer, her brows furrowed.
“Sure, what’s up?”
