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“He was wearing a gray sweater. Cashmere, I think.”

I bounce again. “Cashmere. Of course, he wears cashmere. Do I own anything cashmere?”

“Not since you put it through the wash.”

“What did he say about the job? What did he ask you?”

Kain heads for his bedroom, dragging me with him when I refuse to release his arm.

“It was straightforward,” he says. “Julian conducted the interview himself. He asked about my experience with legacy systems, and we went over the launch timeline.”

“That’s it? That’s all? No coding test? No whiteboard?”

“No one uses whiteboards.” Kain peels my fingers from his sleeve so he can shrug out of his jacket and hang it in the closet. “He just wanted to talk.”

“What did he say about the DLC? Did he show you any of the new content? How much did they expand the Ember District? Will there be a pet option?”

His lips part.

“When do you start? What’s your title? Can I go with you to the office?”

Kain clasps my elbows, steering me over to the bed. “Okay, deep breath. I have something important to tell you.”

Feet still bouncing on the floor, I gulp in air and almost choke on it.

“First, they’re bringing me on as a contractor, so I’ll be doing most of my work from home. I should only have to go in for team meetings.”

I absorb that, eager for every. Single. Detail.

He takes a deep breath. “And, yes, Julian did bring me onto the project. But it’s not for debugging the game.”

Confusion washes the excitement away, and my brow furrows. “Then what are you doing?”

“I’m joining the team for forum cleanup,” he says.

My mouth flattens, and my feet still.

So, no utilizing Kain’s impressive skills.

Forum cleanup means reading through old threads. Moderating. Deleting spam.

It means Kain will be sifting through the same discussions I’ve already read a thousand times, instead of getting early access to new content.

The deflation lasts for three seconds.

Then my brain latches on to the alt-path.

Kain is working at Lantern Key Games. If Julian likes how he handles this job, he’ll assign him to future projects as a coder.

The bounce returns with force.

“And Julian picked you himself. That means something.”

Kain goes strangely still, but I have no reference for what it means. “It does.”

“What’s the office like? For real. Is it purple?”

“Yeah, it’s purple. And there are big windows, so there’s lots of natural light. They’ve got a lounge area with beanbag chairs.”