Page 39 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

I looked up as if she’d startled me. “Yeah, sorry, I didn’t ask your names earlier.”

I took a step toward them, and Cora followed my lead. The woman scooted over on her sofa, making room for us. “I’m Milly. Quality Assurance lead.”

I sat next to her. “I’m Taylor, content marketing…”

I turned to introduce Cora, but she was already leaning in. “And I’m Cora, Marketing Manager.”

Goldie watched our interaction with a small smile. I met his eyes, but he didn't move to introduce himself.

Another guy waved. “I’m Hayden, an engineer.”

Hayden was cute with a very thin build and ruffled black hair. He pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, smiling at Cora.

I tried not to laugh at how obvious he was being and returned my focus to Goldie. “And you?”

I was going to get my answer even if I had to drag it out of him.

“Lane, also an engineer.”

Lane. Lane. I finally had a name! He was Goldie no more! Well, unless people were around. I didn’t want word to spread I was infatuated with a coworker. Our company was pretty big, but rumors spread quickly.

Four

“Well, thanks for letting us join you guys. We normally eat while we’re out, but the deli was slammed.” Cora explained.

Milly grinned. “We eat down here on most days. As long as we can get away from our desks. You’re welcome to join us anytime.”

She was quickly becoming one of my favorite people. It would be good to have another in with their department.

“That’s so nice of you. I’d like to get to know more people outside of our department.”

Cora nodded. “I know everyone on our floor and a few names and faces from the sales team, but other than that and upper management, I don’t know anyone else, and I’ve been here for three years.”

Hayden laughed, a bit too loudly. “I know what you mean. I’ve been here for over two years and rarely leave our floor.”

“We should do more activities with other departments, so we can get to know each other,” I said. It wasn’t the first time I’d had such an idea. But I’d only worked here for four months, and I didn’t want to insert myself into a place I didn't belong, so I never brought it up with Matt. But I would now.

“It was better a few years ago. We only took up two floors and it was easy to know everyone. It’s great that the company’s grown so much, but you definitely lose a part of the camaraderie when that happens,” Lane spoke so confidently that I found myself nodding along with everyone else.

“How long have you worked here?” I asked.

He looked up as if he had to think about it. “I was employee number eleven. It’s been almost five years now.”

“Wow. That’s insane. How did you find out about the company back then?”

I expected him to say he was family friends with the founders or something. That was the only thing that made sense.

“Paul and Robert came to my college and did a presentation about their idea. They gave us access to the backend code and challenged us to find flaws, and I was the only one who did. They offered me a position when I graduated.”

I was impressed. “That’s incredible.”

Milly nodded. “He’s being modest. He makes it sound like they went to a local college to find help. He was at MIT and in a very tough program.”

I tried to hide my shock. I didn’t want him to think I was going to fangirl over him or anything. “MIT? Really?”

He looked down and nodded.

“I think you might be the smartest person I’ve ever met.” The words left my mouth before I could think about them.