“Things?”
“I saw you leave my apartment building together. He had his arm around you.”
“He was probably holding me up. I drank a lot. Can we get back to work and not speculating about my private life?”
Winona flushed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“You’re not being rude. Just remember where we are, okay? This isn’t high school.”
Winona took the hint and went back to analysing the scant information Blutecc had provided. It wasn’t much, but in some ways it was a blessing. They had no ideas of their own to compete with whatever FG came up with. If nothing else, it lowered the possibility of creative conflict. “Pull together some logo designs,” Jonah said absently. “The story boards can come later. For now we need to build an online presence that gets people excited.”
“Excited about what, though? There isn’t even a website to route it back to.”
“Yes, but if we can create a profile for the app store, we can send their social media traffic to the app’s pre-order link.”
“They still need their website to function, though.”
“It will.” The voice came from the doorway.
Jonah glanced up and caught his first glimpse of Sacha since they’d parted ways that morning. His breath caught, but he tried to ignore it. The dark smudges beneath Sacha’s eyes weren’t his concern. They couldn’t be if they weren’t even friends.
He didn’t deny you were sleeping together though. Present tense. He still wants that.
But Jonah didn’t. Not without the friendship benefit. He hadn’t realised it until Sacha had taken it away, or maybe not until Sacha had appeared right now in his office, but it was a hard fact.
I can’t just sleep with him. I need more.
So does he.
Sacha cleared his throat.
Jonah caught himself staring and returned his gaze to his computer screen. “Your boss said you’d brief us, but unless you have more than we got from your development team there’s probably no point.”
“Who do you think is my boss?”
“The executive who came to see me this morning, maybe?”
“He is not my boss.” Sacha ventured further into Jonah’s office. “He is a marketing man with no brain.”
“What brings you to that conclusion?”
“He cancelled space with the regular agency. He thought we’d never be ready before I even got here.”
Jonah forced himself to look up again. “What about you? What do you think?”
Sacha shrugged, flickering his gaze over Winona as if he wished she wasn’t there. “I think we can be ready if we do not waste time on other things. The website is built. It will hold if the app functions well enough to handle most traffic through the host platform.”
“And will it?”
“Maybe. I need more time.”
“How much?”
“Two weeks.”
“From today?”
“If you say so, Jonah Gray.”
Forgetting Winona’s silent presence beside him, Jonah frowned. Don’t whole-name me if we’re not friends. You don’t get to do that.
Sacha met his glare with blank eyes. “Blutecc shuts down the day before Christmas Eve. I will have a functioning app by then that we can soft launch and upload for pre-order through a product page.”
“We can build that for you within a few days. We just need your boss—whoever that is—to sign off on the graphics. If we get you some concepts by the end of the week does that work for you?”
“Of course. We are not in a position to be difficult.”
“I’m sure that wouldn’t stop you,” Jonah retorted, then regretted it. This wasn’t about them—whatever that was—and Sacha had the right to do his job in peace without passive aggressive smites. “Anyway, leave it with us. We’ll do our best to create something that reflects what you’ve put into the project.”
“Vodka and black coffee? Maybe not.”
Sacha backed up and disappeared before Jonah could respond, hidden by the closed blinds of Jonah’s office windows.
Jonah sighed, wishing he could track him across the floor and see where he went for no reason more than he wanted Sacha in view for as long as humanly possible.
He was wrong about me. I am greedy.
Greedy for him.
I can’t get enough.
Considering how badly their day had begun, it was a scary thought.
13
Sacha received the email from Jonah’s office at the same time as the rest of his team. It came through during their morning meeting, four hours earlier than they were expecting it.
A hush fell on the room as those with devices to hand scrolled through the content.
Sacha had an iPad. He retreated to the alcove with it, hiding away in the one place he was fairly sure Jonah couldn’t see him from the FG side of the floor.
Not that he’d ever caught Jonah looking his way. No. It was only Sacha who spent all day staring at the glass like a fool.
He opened the email from Flash Gray. It was signed off by Winona. Jonah’s name was nowhere in sight. But somehow Sacha heard his voice in every word he read, and saw his face in every crisp, polished design that filled his screen. Black and pink. Bold. Sexy. Strong. They were perfect. Scrolling through them reminded Sacha why he’d signed up with Blutecc in the first place: to preserve the earnest legacy of the start-up that hadn’t survived.
This is how it was meant to be.
The meeting Sacha had walked away from was still going on. He returned to find Helga fighting for a budget increase to rebrand the entire operation using the concept FG had created. There was enough unique content there for the entire app, the website, and a social media campaign.
But the finance department shook their heads. “We can’t throw more money at this project until we know it can deliver. We’ve covered the design fees. Until we have a proven interface, supported by a functioning website, we can’t authorise any more funds.”
Sacha had already been paid for his services. It had been a stipulation he’d insisted on before he’d arrived, to avoid meetings like this centring around his own renumeration. It shouldn’t have mattered to him that the project was out of budget, he’d do his job regardless. But the notion of leaving unused artwork by the wayside felt so wrong he couldn’t stomach it.
He met Helga’s gaze across the conference table. “Later,” he mouthed.
She glared.
Sacha looked away. He made his excuses and exited the meeting, craving coffee and his long overdue dose of Jonah Gray. Instead he found an empty break room and a coffee machine that hadn’t been refilled since he’d done it himself at dawn.
There were no sweet treats to be found either. Sacha thought about ducking out to rectify it, but he had too much to do. If he was to justify the extra money Blutecc would be paying FG, there wasn’t a moment to lose.
Sacha watched the water drip through the coffee machine, transfixed by the gurgling sounds as his mind strayed to the work he’d abandoned to attend a meeting that had ultimately gone nowhere. Helga’s team had taken over the website, but the structure was still rickety enough that Sacha had to triple check them at every stage.