Even Odds (13 page)

Isabel generally didn't mind
staff meetings. Will kept them brief, informative, and cheerful, plus he usually had them catered from one of the local bakeries. Since she'd been back from DiceCon for only a few days, though, and she hadn't gotten a lot of rest during that time, she would rather hide out in her cubicle than deal with people.

Which she was currently attempting to do, if Matthew would just leave her alone and stop needling her to join them.

“Come on. Staff meeting,” he said again, popping up from behind her cubicle wall like some incredibly intent version of Whack-a-Mole.

Isabel looked up from her screen and grimaced. “Is it completely juvenile for me to say I don't wanna go?”

“Yes. And it doesn't matter.” When Isabel didn't answer, Matthew continued. “Look, getting back from a con is always rough, and they gave us Monday off. But it's Friday now, it's been almost a week, and you have to stop being so sour. Whatever happened at DiceCon is over.” He rested his arms on the wall of the cubicle. “Besides, Will's announcing the new hire.”

“I don't care about the new hire.” She was lying, of course, and now just being petulant.

“Bullshit you don't care. You're going to be working with the guy.” Matthew gave her an affectionate tap on the back of the head. “Come on. If we're late, there won't be anything but bran muffins left.”

Isabel sighed. He was right, of course, since Matthew was generally right. She'd been moping all week, but was blaming her perpetually foul mood on post-con blues. She wasn't ready to admit it had anything to do with her guilt about Caleb. Her curiosity about the new hire was greater than her reluctance, though, and with a final halfhearted groan of protest she let Matthew pull her to her feet.

The conference room was packed when they arrived. Isabel took one of the last blueberry muffins off the tray of pastries—oh good, looked like they were Sugar Rush baked goods today, her favorite—and found an open seat. Will was sifting through his notes and reviewing a few documents, but when he saw that Isabel and Matthew had arrived, he smiled at them.

“All right! So good to see everyone. I know we all have things to do, so I'll be brief. This morning I'm going to review the results from our DiceCon team, and then I'll talk about our new creative manager.”

Isabel picked the paper off her muffin and listened as Will explained the preorder and sales numbers from DiceCon, as well as projections for what this might mean for the future. She'd been at DiceCon and had helped prepare this report, so she zoned out a bit during the speech, mentally recapping all the work that awaited her back at her cubicle.

When Will changed subjects, though, she tuned back in.

“I'm pleased to announce that I've hired a new creative manager. He'll be overseeing the art team and working closely with Isabel on upcoming projects. His name is Caleb Portland, and he's actually in the process of relocating right now, so he won't be starting until the beginning of April.” Will started passing around documents to be distributed among the group. “I'm handing out copies of his résumé so you can see what he's done. It's quite an impressive list of skills.”

Caleb Portland?

Will continued speaking, but his voice sounded to Isabel like it was coming from the end of a long tunnel. A bite of blueberry muffin was stuck in her throat, refusing to go down. The name couldn't be a coincidence. She could hear him like it was yesterday, shaking her hand and introducing himself.

Caleb Portland. Like the city.

Oh god.

Isabel felt like she'd just been plunged into a bucket of ice water. The cold rushed outward from her belly into all her limbs, shocking her senses. Understanding blossomed in the midst of confusion, her mind making connections even before she knew she had questions.

He'd known their company, even though they weren't in the big leagues.

He'd played all their games. He hadn't been trying to make friends; he'd been doing recon. That must be what he was trying to tell her on their last night together when they were standing out in the snow. She'd told him it didn't matter, and he'd let it go. The asshole had known the whole time he was going to be her coworker, and he'd just let her go on thinking they were having a fling and would never see each other again.

He'd gotten mad at her for using him for a stupid scavenger hunt? He'd been using her all weekend. She would never have acted as wanton and carefree with him as she had if she'd known he was going to be working with her, this man who'd seen her moan and beg for him. The cold feeling vanishing, she felt hot, her embarrassment flooding up to her face.

She took a copy of his résumé from the pile being passed around and stared at it, feeling flushed. She couldn't read this right now. When the meeting adjourned, she got up and practically ran from the room.

Matthew found her standing out in the baking Florida sun, leaning against the wall of the building, taking deep, slow breaths. He leaned on the wall next to her. “So. Caleb's a pretty unusual name.”

“Oh fuck, Matthew, what am I going to do?” She closed her eyes and shook her head slowly back and forth.

“You had no idea? He didn't tell you?”

“Of course he didn't tell me. Would I be out here losing my shit if I'd known?” She pressed both hands to her still-flaming cheeks. “How am I supposed to work with him now? After . . .” She waved her hand vaguely, not sure how to describe their three-day fling. “After all that? And you know, I liked him, too. I felt guilty the whole way home about his finding the scavenger hunt paper, and it totally ruined my first-class upgrade. I've been feeling guilty all fucking week.”

Matthew was silent. “I'm sorry, Isabel. I've got nothing.” They stood side by side, staring into the parking lot for a few minutes.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Matthew hedged. “You may not have been honest with him about the scavenger hunt, but this is way more serious than that. You're not the asshole anymore.” Isabel shot him what she hoped was a withering look, and he shrugged. “Just trying to lighten the mood.”

“No thank you.” She thrust her hands into her pockets. “Well, whatever. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he got one over on me. I'll work with him like I've worked with anyone else.”

And if she had to be doubly conservative and professional than before to make up for what had happened between them at DiceCon, she'd do that, too. Caleb might think they were going to pick up where they left off in Boston, but he was in for a rude awakening if he thought he would ever see that side of her again.

One month later

Caleb grimaced as he
got out of the car outside Players Incorporated, the humid air wrapping around him like a damp blanket. He had known it would be hot—this was Florida, after all—but he couldn't have anticipated how thick it would feel, like an extra layer on his skin. He was going to have to get one of those tacky sunshades for his car or get the windows tinted darker, something, because if this was early April then summer was going to be atrocious.

You're not in Massachusetts anymore,
Caleb thought as he grabbed his brown leather satchel off the passenger seat, shouldered it, and locked up his car. The bag's edges had grown worn in the years since he'd bought it, a splurge after graduating art school, but it still held everything he needed: his work laptop, tablet, and sketch pad, along with an assortment of pens and pencils. As he crossed the parking lot of the industrial complex that housed PI Games, it took him a moment to identify the sensation in his stomach. He was nervous. How long had it been since he'd been nervous about a job? Not since he and Henry had run the numbers on their business and realized they couldn't save it. Nerves were normal, though, even if he wasn't a guy who normally got nervous. He'd uprooted his life to move here for this job opportunity, so of course he wanted to do well, especially on his first day.

There was also the problem of Isabel.

In the month since DiceCon, Caleb had done an impressive job
not
thinking about Isabel. After he'd accepted Will's generous offer to come aboard as creative manager for the company, leading the existing art department, he'd sat down several times to draft emails to Isabel. None of them worked. There wasn't a good way to say, “Hey, remember me? The guy you fucked at DiceCon? Surprise! I'm going to be your new coworker.” If he'd saved her number instead of throwing it away, he could have called her and explained everything, but the only way he could reach her now was through her work email. The longer it went on, the harder it became to write the email, the easier it was to be distracted. Packing one's entire life into boxes and moving over a thousand miles away was a pretty effective distraction, actually.

Now, as he followed the signs to the entrance in the industrial complex, he faced the problem of having no plan at all for dealing with Isabel. PI Games was a pretty small company already, and even if he weren't being hired to work so closely with her, he wouldn't be able to hide from her altogether. She was the design manager, though, and he was being brought on as creative manager, which meant she wouldn't just be a coworker. She'd be his close colleague.

Probably the best thing would be to address it with her right away, get it right out into the open the first time they had a chance to be alone, and agree to put their fling behind them. It wasn't like they'd had any real emotional connection, after all. Looking back, it was some hot sex and nothing more. He'd been deluding himself into thinking he was developing feelings for her. He barely knew her. He'd slept with many women and had always been able to put his feelings aside to appreciate the pleasures of a warm body for a carefree night. There was no reason they couldn't be professionals about this. He kept that thought in mind as he pushed open the door and stepped into the building.

His eyes took a minute to adjust to the dimmer lighting after the bright Florida sun, but then he followed the signs down the main hallway toward PI Games. A friendly security guard reassured him he was headed in the right direction. A few turns later he walked into the main lobby. It wasn't much to look at, just a few chairs, a coffee table, and a rubber tree plant in the corner, plus the receptionist's desk. The receptionist looked up and smiled when Caleb entered. “Welcome to PI Games. Are you Caleb Portland?”

“Yes, thanks.” Caleb extended a hand, already feeling relieved to see a friendly face.

The young man shook Caleb's hand. “Will said today was your first day. I'm Anton Perez. I'm the secretary here.”

“Nice to meet you, Anton.” Anton had a warm handshake and a bright smile. He picked up the phone and pressed a number. “Will? Caleb Portland just arrived.”

A moment later a short, round, balding man with a gray ponytail burst through the door into the lobby. Caleb recognized Will Garnett from their Skype interview. “Caleb! It's so good to meet you in person.” He shook Caleb's hand enthusiastically, beaming. “I'm Will. Will Garnett. You probably recognize me, too. And you're Caleb Portland, like the city. I must say, you're taller than I thought you'd be.”

Caleb couldn't help smiling, feeling more at ease by the moment. “I get that a lot. I guess Skype makes me look short.”

“And it makes me look fat, but what can you do?” Will laughed at his own joke. “So are you all settled in? How was your move?”

“I'm still getting there, but things are good so far.” Caleb thought about the mountains of boxes still piled up throughout his apartment. At least he'd found a nice place in a good neighborhood, not too far from work, right at the edge of the city.

“Well, it's a process.” Will patted him on the shoulder. “I figured I'd give you the grand tour, show you around the place a little, and let you meet the artists you'll be overseeing. Then I'll set you up at your workstation and give you some time to get settled. I've ordered in lunch for everyone, and you can meet the rest of the staff then. Sound good?”

“Sounds great.” Will led Caleb down the hallway, narrating all the way. As Will gave an overview of the company history, Caleb tried to pay attention, but he kept worrying he was going to run into Isabel at every turn. They passed by doors that said Design and Programming, but didn't enter, and the small windows on the doors only illuminated darkened rooms beyond. Caleb had worked with enough tech types that he knew those rooms were probably always dark. The next two doors were Admin/Support and Art. Will took him into ­Admin/Support first, pushing open the heavy wooden door to the brightly lit hallway lined with more doors.

“This is where you'll find all the administrative and support offices of PI Games.” He gestured as they walked down the hall. “Marketing, IT, Finance, and HR, and my office is at the end of the hall. We got the paperwork you faxed in to HR last week, but Iris has something else for you to sign, so we'll swing by there now.”

Iris Parker, the HR manager, was a short, slender woman perhaps in her early thirties, a few years older than him, with a retro pinup style and an airtight organizational system. The one piece of paperwork Will mentioned turned out to be five, but Iris had them all labeled and color coded, making the process quick and simple. Iris herself was friendly, as had been everyone he'd met at PI Games so far. After finishing the paperwork, Caleb was finally led across the hall to the art department, which would be his home base. Unlike the tech side of things, the art department was brightly lit. The large room was divided into five cubicles and an open space with a table and chairs for collaborative work. At the sound of the door opening, four heads popped up over the cubicle walls.

Will gestured for them all to come out. “Hey, guys, this is Caleb. He's going to be the new creative manager.”

Most of Caleb's anxieties dissipated within the first hour he spent with his art team. He'd be working with two animators and two 2-D/3-D artists. After getting set up in his cubicle, he sat down with the team to review their past work, what each of them was proudest of, what hopes they had for the team, and what work they'd done so far on the new games that PI Games had in development. He'd been wondering why Will was hiring a creative manager from outside the company rather than promoting from within, but it was obvious as he met with this group that despite their expansive art portfolios, they lacked management experience. He felt more confident in his role the longer they met. He could fit in well here. The team asked about his history, so he ended up giving an impromptu gallery show of his art and animation past. Midway through, the tech guy, Vlad—“yes, that's my real name”—came in to set up Caleb's company workstation and email, and then Caleb was back to conversation with the art team. He didn't even realize it was noon until Will opened the door to beckon them all to come to lunch in the break room.

Caleb felt his anxiety ratchet up all over again as he followed the artists to the break room at the end of the main hallway. They were the first to arrive. As he chose a decent-looking tuna sandwich and some chips from the catered display, he tried not to look at the door, tried instead to listen to one of the guys explaining the merits of Antonio's catering over Salvador's. There was enough seating for twenty, which was probably the whole staff of PI Games, and when the art team settled down around a round table to eat, he had no real choice but to join them. As the rest of the employees trickled in, they each came over to introduce themselves, unfamiliar face after unfamiliar face, until Caleb was so tense he thought he'd explode.

When Isabel strode in, an icy sensation ran down Caleb's spine. She scanned the room and spotted him. For a moment, she locked eyes with him, no expression at all on her face, and he felt like he'd been targeted by a firing squad. Most notably, she didn't show any surprise. Caleb felt the sense of dread in the pit of his stomach intensify as he realized she must have found out he was coming, probably from her boss. Of course Will would have let the team know who the new hire was. How could he have thought otherwise? He was such an idiot.

Her entire demeanor was different from DiceCon: stiff, formal, distant. After holding his gaze for a minute, she walked over and fixed him with a dazzling smile. He'd seen her smile before, though, and this was not a real smile. He thought of how in most of the animal kingdom, bared teeth was a sign of aggression. Isabel's smile seemed closer to that than any kind of warm welcome.

She stuck out her hand. “Hi. You must be Caleb.”

Caleb got to his feet, disoriented by the greeting, and shook her hand. “Yes. Hi.”

“I'm Isabel Suarez, the design manager. We're going to be working together.” She shook his hand once, firmly, and then released it. The touch of her smooth, cool palm reminded him of how that hand had felt wrapped around his cock, a completely inappropriate memory to have right now. That memory juxtaposed with this cold, professional image of her was more than a little jarring, to say the least.

In case matters weren't tense enough already, Will suddenly appeared, materializing from somewhere like the angel of terrible timing to grin broadly and pat them each on the back. “My two team leaders meeting at last! Wonderful. You two should spend some time together after lunch getting to know each other and talking out plans.”

Isabel started to say, “Actually, I'm in the middle of—”

At the same time, Caleb said, “That sounds great.”

They looked at each other.

Isabel turned to Will. “I'm almost done with the bonus levels for
Squish
that you wanted finished this week. I'd really like to get those finished as soon as possible.” She turned to Caleb. “No offense, Caleb. I'd love to meet up so we can get to know each other. But I'm sure you know how it is when you're in the middle of a project.”

Will dismissed her concerns with a hand wave. “You have all week for those. I'm sure they can wait until tomorrow, right?”

Isabel opened her mouth and closed it again, obviously out of excuses. She turned her lips up in another forced smile. “Of course. Can we use the conference room, Will?”

“It's all yours.” With a final broad grin, Will left them and went to get his own lunch.

“I'll see you after lunch, then.” Isabel nodded to Caleb, still the picture of professionalism, and went to sit at another table on the other side of the break room. A few more people came up to introduce themselves, including a redhead he'd met at DiceCon, Dan, who was friendly and clearly recognized him. He also met Matthew, a programmer, who was polite but distant before joining Isabel at her table. All right, then. So he probably knew the situation. Feeling on edge, and not at all looking forward to this meeting he knew they had to have, Caleb tried to tune back into the conversation his colleagues were having, telling himself his accelerated heart rate was just first-day-on-the-job jitters and had absolutely nothing to do with the curvy, stunning brunette currently shooting daggers at him from across the room.

———

When Matthew joined her
at the table, Isabel was trying to eat the ham sandwich she'd picked up, but chewing and swallowing had become exceedingly difficult. She felt herself casting furtive glances toward Caleb as though pulled to him by some inexorable force, even as she studiously tried—and failed—to ignore his presence.

“So how did that go?” Matthew asked as he opened a bag of chips.

“Thanks to Will, I'm going to meet with him after lunch and get to know him.” Isabel looked down at her food, forcing herself to eat more even though she had lost her appetite.