Page 23 of The Hard Launch

“Get home safely,” I said.

“I’ll do my best.” He waved as we drove off.

“That your boyfriend?” the driver asked me.

“No. My boss, kind of.” I saw Carl raise an eyebrow in the rearview mirror.

“You got a foxy boss,” he told me. “Sounds like trouble.”

“It’s not,” I said. “We just work really well together.”

I didn’t check to see what his eyes were saying in the mirror.

With Glenn here today, I think it would be a good idea to have him do the intro at the All Hands. I know from experience that listening to the same people the whole time gets boring. It’s likely this is his last appearance in the office for a while, too, with Jen on bedrest until the baby arrives.

I go sailing into Jude’s office to tell him my idea, because that’s what I do now: I just march in there with any thought that comes into my head. Only this time Jude doesn’t nod while he listens, pushing that swoop of hair off his forehead, and build on whatever I say to make it better. I don’t even get to tell him what I’m thinking, because I make it two steps inside the door and see there’s a woman sitting on his couch. She’s blonde and beautiful, and clearly at home here because she’s kicked her shoes off as well. There’s a pair of Birkenstock clogs lying on the floor next to his Adidas.

“Oh,” I say. “Sorry. I’ll—we’ll talk later.”

I bolt from his office, thinking I hear him calling out my name, but I make a beeline for Kate’s cube. I sit on her desk and pretend to listen to what she did this weekend while I watch Jude walk the blonde through the office. She’s got this whole easy-breezy boho thing going on, like her makeup bag is just a single Chapstick. The unflavored kind. She shakes Glenn’s hand. She hugs Trevor like an old friend. Then she puts her hand on Jude’s shoulder, not that it bothers me. I’m happy for her, and her nose ring. And for Jude, and their future vegetarian children, and the yurt they’ll all vacation in.

“Have you ever been?” Kate is asking me.

“Sorry,” I tell her. “Where?”

“Toronado. The place I’ve been telling you about for the past five minutes.” She looks over at the people I’m spying on. “Why are you hiding over here? Do you have beef with Jude’s sister?”

“His sister? How do you know that’s her?”

“I mean, she used to work here. But she also looks like Jude with a wig on.”

“You ran off before I could introduce you,” Jude says when I approach my desk, feeling like a dummy for reasons I’m not willing to ruminate on. “This is my sister, Ella. Ella, this is Lacey.”

“So nice to meet you,” I say. “Sorry to barge in and then leave. I remembered something I needed to talk to CS about.”

“Is everything okay?” Jude asks.

“Oh yeah,” I tell him. “It’s resolved.”

He gives me a weird look that I ignore; instead I thank Ella for her UX revisions, which were all perfectly on point. And I tell her I like her nose ring.

I’ve got the pre-demo jitters. In the bathroom mirror I tousle my bangs, re-perfect my lipstick. Straighten my collar, smooth my skirt down. Double-knot my sneakers. Sometimes it’s helpful for me to focus on the things I can control when I’m worried about the things I can’t.

In that spirit, I go check on the configuration of the conference room. Everything is in order, but the IT guy is setting up the camera we use for webinars.

“What’s that for?” I question him.

“I don’t ask,” he tells me.

“Do you want the truth if it’s going to make you more nervous?”

I turn around and Jude is in the doorway.

“I think so,” I say.

“I had a call earlier, where I made the mistake of mentioning that we’re demoing our alpha today. So of course a couple board members said they’re interested in seeing it.” He gestures to the camera. “They asked for a Zoom link.”

“Shit. Edmund?”