“Don’t apologize.” I watch her adjust Ivy in her hold and then flip down the top of her tank.
“Ouch.” I cringe when Ivy latches onto her nipple and Christy flinches.
“Tell me about it. My nipples are so raw they ache. I do not get how those moms breastfeed for years, even long after their kids have teeth.” I take my eyes off her feeding daughter and focus on her tired but happy ones.
“It’s supposed to be the best thing for her.”
“Millions of babies have flourished without breastmilk. She will be fine when we transition to the bottle in a few weeks.” She takes her eyes off Ivy once again to look at me. “Plus, it will be nice for Jack to be able to take over nighttime feedings for a while. I mean, don’t get me wrong—I love being a mom. But I could do without feeling like a milk factory that’s on-call twenty-four hours a day.”
“I bet,” I agree, because I can’t imagine being the sole source of nutrition and care for a tiny human.
“Okay, enough about me and my boobs. Tell me how you’re feeling and what you need to know.”
“I guess the first thing would be, how am I supposed to answer a call when it comes in?” I ask, and she laughs, then fills me in on how to properly answer the phone, how to transfer a call, and what I need to say when responding to emails.
By the time I hang up with her, I feel a little more confident that I’ll be able to handle things. But that feeling only lasts until I open my inbox and see there are over fifty messages waiting for me.
Lord, it’s going to be a very long few weeks.
Chapter 3
Righty Ho
With a latte in one hand and my bag in the other, I push through the front door of Ellis Technologies at 6:50 a.m. The ten minutes I have to spare will leave me just enough time to scan my badge and drop my stuff in my office before I have to track down Jace for the morning meeting.
One thing I’ve learned over the last few days is the guy never stops moving. He’s always on the run, going from one meeting to the next. And although that works for me, since it means I don’t have to spend much time in his presence, it’s also annoying constantly searching for him when I need an answer to something. I swear, I’m going to pick up a tracking device this weekend and slip it into his pocket without him noticing so life will be a little easier.
“How’s it going, Mike?” I ask as I make it to the front desk, where he’s sitting with a coffee of his own and a smile on his face.
“Tomorrow is Friday, and I’ll be on vacation for a week. So I’d say good.”
“Lucky you.” I listen to him laugh as I scan my badge. “Are you doing anything fun during your time off?”
“My wife and I are taking our daughter to Disney.”
“That’s exciting. Is it her first time?”
“Second, but the last time we took her, she was two. Now, she’s seven, so it will be a different experience.”
“I want to see pictures when you get back.”
“You got it,” he says as I start to walk off, then I stop and spin to face him.
“You don’t happen to know where Jace is this morning, do you?”
“I saw him on the cameras going down to the basement not long ago. You can try there if he’s not back in his office.”
“The basement?”
“Yeah, you take the elevator on your floor down to Level B, and it will let you off right there.”
“Awesome, thanks.” I give him another smile, then head up the steps to go to my office.
Not seeing Jace at his desk, I drop my stuff off, then take my coffee with me and walk right back out the door, saying hi to people who are standing around as I pass them on my way across the building to the elevator. Since my second day, when I showed up dressed as casually as everyone else, there have been no more odd looks or whispers about who I could be—thank goodness.
In the elevator, I press the button for the basement, and it only takes a couple of seconds for the doors to open back up. When I step off, I do a double-blink. The room is huge, dark, and stuffed full with dozens of couches and televisions.
“Hello?” I call out into the darkness, which seems even darker with the walls painted black. I get no response except for my heart speeding up. “This isn’t a scary movie, Penny,” I reprimand myself as I look around.
When I spot the soft glow of a light toward the back of the room, I head in that direction, then stop. I find Jace sitting on the edge of a couch with his elbows on his knees and his fingers working frantically on the controller in his hands as he stares at the TV in front of him, a pair of headphones on his head.
Since he’s distracted, I take a moment to study him in his element. I found out early on during my first day that Ellis isn’t a run-of-the-mill tech company. It’s actually a gaming business. And Jace—long before he went to college to learn how to create games—actually used to have a video gaming channel on YouTube, where he did nothing but play games and record himself doing that.
Apparently, there is big money to be made in playing games online for other people to watch, and he was one of the first to get in on that craft when he was just a teenager. Now, the games he creates are played by millions of people around the world, and his gaming platform is one of the most popular out there. Kids and adults sign up and do what he did to make money, gaming for others to watch, or compete with other players in huge competitions that happen monthly.
The guy is smart, really smart, taking something he loved doing and making it bigger and better. He’s also seriously handsome; the only thing knocking him off the hotness scale for me is his personality. I mean, I hate to judge someone only after a couple of days, but so far, his attitude leaves a lot to be desired. Though I’m sure there are tons of women who don’t care about that, so I doubt he’s hurting for female attention.
“Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?” he asks without looking at me, and I barely avoid rolling my eyes at the blunt question.
“Maybe.” I take a step closer, then glance over at the TV to see what he’s playing. On the screen, it looks like some kind of war is taking place on another planet, and he’s in charge of killing anyone who crosses his path, using a sword twice the size of his elf-looking character. “I came to find you to see where the meeting is going to be this morning.”
“The meeting is canceled.”
“Oh,” I say, and he looks up at me quickly before focusing back on the TV.
“I need you to clear my schedule through this afternoon. I’ll be out of the office most of the day.”
“Right,” I mutter, trying not to be annoyed that I’ll have to call or email probably a hundred people before I’ve even properly caffeinated. “Should I reschedule everyone for next week, since your calendar is blacked out Friday?”
“I won’t be here next week. I’m out of town.” He curses and rips off his headphones, tossing them and the controller carelessly aside. “Did you not look at the calendar?”
“No, not for next week.”
“Of course not,” he grumbles, scrubbing his hands over his face.