Michelle nodded, feeling like she’d made her point. “I don’t want you to whitewash this book. Don’t pretend that it’s something that it’s not, or hide what it is. Don’t ‘broaden’ the target audience—by which, let’s face it, we usually mean ‘make sure it appeals to the white mainstream.’ Aditi’s book is brilliant, it’s topical, and it’s powerful. Play to its strengths, which means talking about the diversity. Talk about the feminism. Do all that, and I promise, you’re going to sell more than you, or that fucker Sterling Knight, could ever dream.”
“What makes you so sure?”
Michelle made a tiny motion, a little understated shrug that her mother had often done before she’d moved in for the kill on a business deal. “I see the demographic patterns. I know this audience, right down in my bones. Sterling’s on the wrong side of history. Do you want Faraday to be, as well?”
Gwen grimaced, looking torn. “Okay. But you’d better hope you’re right,” she said, her tone flat.
“If I’m wrong, you can fire me,” Michelle said quietly.
“If you’re wrong,” Gwen responded, “I will.”
Michelle shrugged again. “Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”
Gwen shook her head.
Michelle nodded slightly, and then stood up and walked out. With just the slightest swagger, she realized. That wasn’t from her mother. That was pure Christina.
Her sister would be proud. And raised her head a little more as a result.
TANEESHA
They were in Marie from HR’s office again. Only Marie wasn’t there. There was a new guy. Well, two guys whom she didn’t recognize. One was wearing the business casual that was standard around Starwisp—not coder-casual, but the “I could work at Verizon” khaki-pants-and-white-polo casual. He had scruffy hair that curled a little around the collar, and nervous gray eyes. She thought she remembered him, sitting in a nearby office, the last time she’d walked up here. The other guy was wearing a dark charcoal pinstripe suit with a navy silk tie on a shirt so white it looked like the snow in Dr. Zhivago. It was nearly as cold and crisp as his pale blue eyes. His dark hair was cut like a model’s, not a lock out of place. He smiled, and she could tell he meant it to be warm. That said, it was more like a Terminator’s version of a smile: The intention was clear, but the guy wasn’t fooling a soul.
Her felt her stomach clench. Lawyer. The guy screamed legal, not the usual HR paper pusher. This guy meant business.
And exactly what business are they trying to execute today?
She glanced at Steven, who also suddenly stiffened, sizing up the situation. Were they both going to get fired or something?
“I’d like you both to sit down,” the guy in the suit said, gesturing to the chairs across from the desk. He stood, while the other guy sat. “This is Jim Cantrow, your human resources supervisor, and I’m Felix Lloyd. I’m from the corporate office in Seattle.”
“What happened to Marie?” Steven asked.
“Marie is no longer with the company,” Felix said with absolutely no inflection, even as Jim winced.
So they canned Marie. Interesting.
“First, let me apologize to both of you,” Felix said, leaning against the desk and crossing his arms. “Starwisp, as a premier gaming and entertainment enterprise, knows better than most tech companies just how serious doxing and cyberbullying can be, and treats them as such. The handling of this case has been reprehensible, and I’m here to ensure that nothing like this happens again.” He shot a quick glance at Jim. “Ever.”
Again, no inflection. The guy could’ve been talking about hockey scores. But Cantrow was visibly wilting.
Felix ignored him, keeping his focus on Steven and Taneesha. “I’ve reviewed all the information pertaining to this. We can say confidently that neither of you actively doxed the other, as you both stated.”
Steven swallowed hard enough for her to see his Adam’s apple bob. “We talked,” he said. “We’ve both cleared the air, and I think we’re better for it. We can put this whole thing behind us.”
He was worried about losing his job, she thought, even as her heart started beating more quickly. Hell, she was worried about losing her job. This guy looked like a shark, cold-blooded and efficient.
“I’m afraid we can’t quite leave it at that,” Felix said. “You did both share enough personal information about your coworkers that they could be identified, allowing for others to dox and harass them. That is against company policy, and will be put in your official work records.”
Steven swallowed again, then nodded. “If you think that’s best,” he conceded. He glanced at Taneesha.
Taneesha simply nodded. It sucked, but it could be explained. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but the guy had a point. If Christina hadn’t known Steven’s name, she couldn’t have taken it this far. Not that it was against the law to tell someone a coworker’s name, but she could imagine them getting nitpicky about “privacy” or some damned thing, and blaming it on her Still, “work record” didn’t say “fired.”
“Since this happened, we think it’s best that you two not work in the same department,” he continued, and Taneesha sat up straighter in her chair.
“Wait. What?” She gripped the armrests. “What do you mean? Which one of us is being transferred?”
“I’m here to present you with a proposal,” Felix said, pulling out two manila envelopes. He handed one to each of them. “I think you’ll be pleased.”
She cursed the fact that her hands were shaking as she opened it. She pulled out the papers, scanning them. Then momentarily blanked in shock.
“I’m getting a promotion?”
Felix smiled, a tight, joyless thing. It was obviously meant to comfort. He needs to go back to his robot overlords for reprogramming, because that’s the shittiest smile I’ve ever seen, she thought absently.
“After discussion, it was pointed out that you were a senior programmer at your old company before we acquired it. Your talents may be wasted in your current position,” he said, smooth as glass. “Starwisp is moving its mobile operations here, and they want you to take over one of the projects. It would be your game.”
She almost crumpled the papers as her hands reflexively clenched. “My… own game?”
Holy shit! That was just what she’d wanted since forever! This cyborg was fucking Santa Claus!
She stopped. But what was the catch? There was always a catch.
She glanced at Steven, who had turned paler again. “You want me to head up a portion of the new Plague expansion?” he asked, his voice shaking.
“Yes. It’s not a huge part of the game, but it is one of our best performers,” Felix said.
“But… it’s in Seattle,” he said. “Out of the Seattle studio.”
“Yes.” Felix looked at him squarely. “Is that a problem?”
So Steven was getting punished. That made sense, she realized. The optics for a white guy doxing a black girl in this industry would be wretched. He’d take the promotion and be grateful for it—or he’d be fired and nailed to the wall.
This was all to protect themselves from litigation, she realized. Marie had screwed this whole thing up, big time. They were in CYA mode. They were offering a carrot and a stick.
She quickly scanned through her paperwork.
Heading up her own game… an established property… new mobile division…
Then she caught it.
“This is a companion app?” she asked carefully.
“Is that a problem?” Felix repeated.
She kept her expression neutral. Companion apps like this were the ultimate in stupidity. They were click games. There was no coding, no revenue streams. It was the bastard stepchild of the big games.
This was a promotion—and a punishment.
She frowned. It was still hers. And they were giving her more wiggle room than they realized.
“No problem,” she said, smiling back—the same lifeless, sharklike smile as Felix’s. “I’l
l take the job.”
She’d take it, she swore to herself, and run with it.
#REBELSCUM
Aditi: Anybody here?
Elli: I am! My shift isn’t until this afternoon.
Taneesha: I am, too. Just rolled off my guy, who is snoozing in the other room. What’s going on? I’ve got a few minutes before I have to start getting ready for work.
Aditi: I wanted to bounce some ideas for this sequel. It’s starting to gel, but it’s not quite there. Also, Michelle said she had some news for me, and to stay on Slack, so…
Christina: How’s the new place going, Ells?
Elli: Good. I have to be quiet, because Alice works afternoons & nights, and I tend to work late mornings and afternoons. But she cooks really, really well. (Yum.)
Christina: That’s awesome! And the job?
Elli: Pretty good. They didn’t like some of my organizing ideas, but my first class in basic cosplay filled up. I’ve been there almost a month now. How about you?
Christina: Got a new job. Guess what it’s in?
Aditi: What? TV?
Christina: Films
Aditi: Don’t tell me… porn.
Christina: Damn it. How’d you guess?
Aditi: Seriously, tho, what’s the film?
Christina: Seriously. It’s porn.
Elli: Um…
Aditi: No. Shit.
Christina: FEMINIST porn! How cool is that?
Taneesha: There are no words.
Michelle: Aditi! You here?
Aditi: What’s going on? *nervous*
Michelle: Are you sitting down?
Taneesha: After Christina’s little announcement, I’m sure as hell sitting down.
Michelle: YOU MADE THE MOTHERFUCKING LIST.
Aditi: WHAT????
Michelle: NYT, baby! #1
Aditi: asdfasjdwtiwgitnwg!!!!!!!!!
Michelle: I KNOW, RIGHT!
Elli: Aditi, that’s fantastic!!!!
Christina: FUCK YEAH! That’s awesome!!! I knew you could do it!
Taneesha: Woot!!! Wooot!!! WOOOOOT!!!!
Aditi: Oh, my God. I’m ready to pass out.
Michelle: Couldn’t have happened to a harder-working author, and I’m proud that you’re my friend. Congrats, sweetie!
Christina: Well, that blows my porn announcement out of the water.
Michelle: Wait. What porn?
Elli: lol
Aditi: LOL
Taneesha: DYING!
If you enjoyed GEEK ACTUALLY, help us get the word out:
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Review The Complete Season 1 on Goodreads
Visit our website and join our mailing list to find out about our other series and get exclusive insider content.
Writer Team
Cathy Yardley needs to get out more. When not writing, she’s usually lurking on social media, playing Fallout 4, or watching D-list movies and adding to her unnatural mental store of character-actor trivia. She’s a fangirl of Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock, LOTR, and too many others to name. She lives with her family in Seattle. They are considering performing an intervention for her addiction to pop culture. CathyYardley.com. @cathyyardley.
Cecilia Tan writes about her many passions, from erotic fantasy to baseball, from her home in the Boston area. She is the author of many books, including the award-winning books Slow Surrender, Daron’s Guitar Chronicles, and The Prince’s Boy. Her upcoming urban fantasy series with Tor Books launches in August 2017 with the first book, Initiates of the Blood. She has edited over 50 anthologies of erotica for Red Silk Editions, Ravenous Romance, the publishing house she founded, Circlet Press, and others. Her short fiction has appeared in Ms. Magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, Best American Erotica, and many other places. She has served as publications director for SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) since 2011. CeciliaTan.com. @ceciliatan.
Rachel Stuhler hails from Rochester, NY and has worked extensively in the film business. She was a writer on Hallmark Channel’s “McBride” series and has written on a dozen more movies for television, including Lifetime’s popular Kristin’s Christmas Past and the TV adaptation of Janette Oke’s Love Takes Wing. In 2015, her first novel, Absolutely True Lies, was released by Touchstone. She continues to work in TV while living in Los Angeles and is busy plotting her next move in world domination. RachelStuhler.com. @rachelstuhler.
Melissa Blue’s writing career started on a typewriter one month after her son was born. This would have been an idyllic situation for a writer if it had been 1985, not 2004. She penned that first contemporary romance, upgraded to a computer and hasn’t looked back since. Her published works include the Under The Kilt and Dirty Sexy Geeks series, among many others. Outside of writing, Blue is a mother of two rambunctious children. She lives in California where the wine is good and, despite popular belief, is not always sunny. TheMelissaBlue.com. @mel_thegreat.
Geek Actually Season 1 Omnibus Page 49