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Thirty-One
Dustin
I hated not being able to act. Especially after the emotional wringer of last night. Waiting to talk to Addie. Waiting for the interview with Nolan… Patience was not one of my virtues. Which was why I was in the office too early, trying to occupy my mind with anything else.
But one thing was incredible about last night, and I needed more time with Phillip to explore it. Not him so much, because I’d done a lot of exploring there, but we could always revisit old favorites and map new paths. Our shared I love yous still sang in my thoughts. I never realized how good that could feel until now.
And as soon as I got a hold of Addie, she’d hear it too. I sent her a text earlier saying I hoped she was doing okay and I missed her. I’d wait at least a little bit before I bugged her again.
When I heard Phillip come in, I didn’t look up from my work. “Hey, traitor.” It was hard to keep my voice stern.
No response.
I finally moved from behind my screen to find him staring at me, mouth twisted.
“Did I imagine last night?” he asked flatly.
I smiled. Nope. I had no patience to draw out that kind of teasing. “Not unless I did too.”
Phillip rolled his eyes, but bent to give me a quick kiss before taking his seat. He paused. “Was that weird?”
“Kind of. But weird-good. I liked it.”
“Me too. You talk to Adrienne yet?”
“No. I texted her.”
“Me too.” Phillip turned to his computer.
When I thought about what happened, I saw red. It was a shame I couldn’t go talk to Sean now.
I would be talking to Nolan, though. Probably still not a good idea to punch him in the smug face, but the impulse was stronger now than ever. I wanted Addie here, not to temper me, but so I’d know she was ok.
We got a pair of messages from Luna and Judith, letting us know Addie wouldn’t be working today. But, Luna assured us, she was doing as well as could be expected, and was just resting.
When Ivan called back to tell me my ten o’clock was here, I was out of my seat before he finished talking. I made my way to the small conference room, where Nolan was waiting. With a smile that probably showed too many teeth, I shook his hand. “It’s been a while.”
“It has. Good to see you.” His tone was cheer-flavored bullshit.
“Sorry I’m late.” At the sound of Addie’s voice I whirled toward the doorway. Her arm was in its sling, and her expression was blank-leaning-toward-sad. “I’m Adrienne.” She offered her hand.
Nolan shook it. “Nice to meet you.” Nolan smiled warmly. “Are you all right? May I ask what happened?”
“I’m not, and you may not.” Addie clipped off the words as she took the seat next to me.
I did love her. “Let’s get started. I’ve got your resume and portfolio, but tell me a bit about what you’ve been doing for the last couple of years.”
We ran through a list of boilerplate questions. Addie was quiet the whole time, and Nolan was flippant with his answers. But to his credit, they were real answers—he was treating this like an interview he had to do well on—I just didn’t like the underlying conviction that he already had the job.
“We do have a practical test part of our interview process,” Addie said when we reached a pause. She grabbed the notepad from the stack I’d brought in here, and slid it across the table along with a pencil.
“That’s right.” I stepped in to back her up. “Our players have high expectations. We need to make sure you bring your own style to the table, but can still operate within the parameters we’ve already established for the game.”
“In other words, you need good copy-ers?” Nolan’s question was smug. “I see why you’re here.”
Addie pressed her leg to mine under the table, cutting off my retort. “This is your interview, not Dustin’s. Draw a picture of our orc priest. Any of the poses from our site, or your own interpretation is fine too.”
I couldn’t hide my smirk. That was one of the designs he claimed I’d stolen.
