Page 59 of Not Bad for a Girl
“If I were growing that much as a person, I’d be ten feet tall by now,” I grumbled as he and Joseph grabbed their drinks and settled into the bench across from me. “But the team wants to put their trust in me, which is actually really cool.”
Joseph nodded. “But I still don’t trust that guy.”
“Are you going to go to the Zoom meeting?” Patrick asked. “It’s like you hold the weight of their whole lives in your hands. Like your fish, only they’re grown men.”
“Yeah, I have to. They’re depending on me, Patrick.”
He took a sip of his fancy mocha, and then his eyes lit up. “It’s just likeThe Fellowship of the Ring!”
I ignored that. “Also, Evan’s wrong—I gave my presentation for the S.J. account in person and succeeded. So the less altruistic side of me thinks it’d be hilarious if I let him swagger on up to the S.J. Sporting offices and say he was Indiana Aaron. But I’m not going to let that happen,” I said hastily, seeing the expression of distaste on Joseph’s face.
“Now I have all morning to stress about revealing my true self to the team this afternoon,” I said.
Patrick quickly made a slashing motion with his hand. “Ixnay on the ‘true self’ thing. They’re not ready. Just show them your face. Keep the internal dialogue to yourself.”
I swatted him. “It’s not that snarky in here.” I pointed to my head.
“Are you kidding? The amount of bitterness and sass in there would kill a lesser person.”
“Anyway,” I said, giving him a look, “there’s something I’d like to get your opinion on.” I quickly filled them in on what had happened with Shane over the past couple of days.
“I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t even know if he still works at Apollo. I keep wondering if there’s anythingIcan do to help him keep his job, but I think I’d probably just make things worse if I tried. I bet he doesn’t ever want to see me again.”
“Have you asked him?” Joseph asked.
“No, I haven’t texted. I’m sure I’m the last person he wants to hear from.”
“You might be, but there’s only one way to find out.”
“Don’t you think I should, like, give him a day? Give him a little time to miss me?”
Patrick shrugged and put his arm around Joseph’s shoulders. “I think giving it a couple of days is probably a good idea. It’ll give him time to calm down and get perspective. Let him sigh and get misty-eyed every time he sees a guppy, or a picture of Harrison Ford, or seafood, or I guess, now, sharks. Or whatever it is that makes him think of you.”
“You can make your own decisions, Ana,” Joseph broke in, “but if he were me, and if you were Patrick, I’d want to hear from you as soon as possible. That’s all.”
I nodded, mulling it over. Our relationship wasn’t as secure as theirs, obviously, so it was probably best to wait until I had things under control. I didn’t want Shane to suffer any more because of my actions. It really hurt not to be able to help his situation. Even if I knew it was Melvin’s fault and not mine, it still stung. If I came up with another (let’s face it, harebrained) idea on how to handle everything, I would want Shane as far away from it as possible. I just hoped, when this was all over, he wouldn’t hate me.
Chapter 15
It was almost showtime. I grabbed some reinforcements—a box of Mallomars—out of my pantry (thank goodness for the colder weather, since they weren’t available in the summer; I had to stock up each year before spring) and ate a few, determined to de-stress. At noon I’d be revealing my true self to my coworkers. I watched Hopper and his descendants explore their tank and tried to lose my anxiety in their fascinating little world. The babies were growing up more and more every day. Some had purple stripes, a few were turning yellow, and about a third of them had fire-red tails. None were blue like Hopper. Who knew how many different daddies they might have had. My research indicated that they reached maturity at about two months old and could get pregnant as early as a few weeks old. Yikes.
I let the cookie’s chocolate coating melt in my mouth as I watched the guppies, trying again to relax, repeating Heidi’s mantra—You got this!—in my head, and trying not to imagine my entire apartment overrun with the trillions of descendants they might have. After a few minutes, I had toadmit the relaxing thing wasn’t working. Being high-strung meant I never really knew what it was like to have my muscles loosen up. My shoulders were perpetually up at my ears. I was great at trading one source of worry for another.
I turned away from the tank and reread a message that had come through earlier on my personal email, with a link to a Zoom meeting called “OPERATIONDIANA.” I shook my head. Diana was the Roman name for Artemis. This crew was not exactly stealthy. Twenty minutes to go.
When it was finally time, I logged in, fighting my nerves, and kept my camera off. Slowly, names and accompanying little boxes appeared on the screen.Bruce Atkins has joined the call. Evan Smith has joined the call. Allen Parks has joined the call.It continued until all the boxes were visible along the side of the screen. Evan flipped his camera on, his forehead looking disproportionately large. “Hey, guys. Operation Diana is in effect. I’ve talked with Indiana, who’s on the call here. I laid out everything we agreed on, so if there’s anything you’d like to say, here’s your chance.”
Mike Mowery also turned his camera on. I remembered him from the bar. Red hair, beard, young-looking. He’d given Evan some sass that evening. “Yo, Indy. Melvin came to us with some sort of interface design he wants us to create, but it doesn’t make any sense. We can’t figure out what he wants. That guy’s a mess.”
Bruce Atkins broke in, and his image shifted to the center of the screen. I knew his name well because he had Venmoed me money for a drink when the whole misunderstanding started. That seemed like so long ago. “It obviously wasn’t his idea, and he doesn’t understand it, so we figured he stole it from you and cut you out.”
I sat back, still saying nothing. I hadn’t given any of them nearlyenough credit. They were smart, observant, and stuck in a difficult situation, just like I was.
Allen Parks cleared his throat, which moved him to center screen. “We want to make the interfaceyoudesigned. That’s the only way we can stay employed. The pitch is next week. We can keep Melvin off your back so you can present your real idea to S.J. Sporting. If he presents it, we’re toast. We can keep him occupied while we get it made.” He blew out a breath, and I realized I wasn’t the only one who was nervous. “What do you say?”
They didn’t know I’d won the pitch already. My fingers hovered over the keyboard. The moment of truth. I typed a message into the chat window.I’m on board. But first, there’s something you should know.I took a deep, fortifying breath, then flipped my camera on.
My face became the center screen for the first time, well, ever, with the Artemis team. I could see myself in the upper corner, looking impossibly young, with curls everywhere and freckles and eyes too large for my face. Across the bottom of my image was my name:Indiana Aaron.