My stomach knotted. Was there another meeting? Why wasn’t I invited?
“Aubrey.” I turned around to find Logan directly behind me. He had on a suit I hadn’t ever seen him wear; his bushy beard neatly combed. His long face had a perplexed look as he stared at me. “I heard you left for the day.”
“No,” I replied. “I was working in my office.”
“We have an important meeting and presentation today. It started at one o’clock,” Logan said, to my surprise. “Ryan sent out a message to the team. Didn’t you receive it?”
Saying Ryan’s name seemed to conjure him up. The scent of his overpowering cologne arrived where we stood a few seconds before he did. He’d also changed into a suit, though his was of winter wool and too hot for our summer.
“So you haven’t gone home,” Ryan said with a fake shock in his voice. “I told Logan you had. No one has seen you since before you left for lunch and that was almost…” He checked his watch. “Two hours ago.”
Logan took the bait and frowned at me. I quickly sought to explain.
“I took an extra twenty minutes at lunch, which I plan to stay later to make up. But the all-staff meeting notice came in when I returned, and I went to the meeting. I’ve been working in my office for the rest of the time. If I’d known about our meeting, I’d have been there—”
“Never mind,” Logan said cutting me off. “You’re here now and that’s fine.”
I took a deep breath and tried to center myself. That is, until Ryan added, “You could’ve texted, and we’d have told you what to do. Everyone else in the department made it.”
“True,” Logan agreed. He turned back towards me. “If you’re running late or something comes up, you must send a text to let us know ahead of time.”
I had to accept that was the end of our discussion. That would have been easy enough, except for Ryan’s now smug face behind him. He seemed to delight in making me look bad. Honestly, I didn’t care much about what he thought of me personally, but I cared when he shined a spotlight on mistakes to the boss while I was still a temporary employee. I made it a habit of not making them, but even little mistakes added up, especially when Ryan was around to keep score. If I had too many mistakes attached, I’d never get the permanent job, or even worse, they’d let me go before the game’s release.
Logan was ready to move on and motioned for the two of us to follow him back toward his office as he spoke. “The meeting is already in progress, as I’ve mentioned. We’d just taken a break and are ready to start the short presentation.”
He held his door open for me and Ryan, closing the door behind us. Inside his office were the last two people I’d thought I’d see. The first was none other than Mr. Emono Games himself, Gary Sato, standing out in his tailored navy suit and leather loafers. The second was, to my bafflement, Paul Crane. He was shocked too, if I’d correctly read the stare he gave before settling his face back into its regular exquisiteness. He somehow looked even better than before. His jacket seemed creased on purpose, and it wouldn’t surprise me if a few of the guys in the office tried to replicate it.
As shocked as I was to see him, I couldn’t help but wonder, what was he doing here?
The buzz level was high. The rest of the staff present included Yasmine, from HR, and three other audio people in my department all sitting together with drinks and snacks in their hands—none of whom had told me about the meeting; not even Daniel, who was a fellow contractor. So much for comradery.
I shook off the initial spark of irritation at their oversight and carried one of the empty seats over to join the semi-circle around Logan’s workspace. It was then I noticed the security guard and several power-suited men from the board seated at a table with a half-eaten buffet of catered food from an upscale deli.
Logan took his chair in the front. “Aubrey was in her office working,” he announced in a light tone.
All attention came my way, and unprepared for the sudden spotlight, I didn’t appear breezy as I’d have liked. In fact, I adjusted my glasses and gave a quick wave to them all. “Hello.”
“I’ll do a quick catch up for her,” Logan said, using me as a springboard into his next announcement. “Paul Crane is here with us today.”
“Don’t mind me, I’m just visiting,” Paul deadpanned.
They all laughed, longer and louder than the comment deserved.
“We hope for more than a visit,” Gary said when the laughter ended. “We asked Mr. Crane, who’s recently completed his and Recon’s Grammy and Billboard Music Award-winning ‘Live in the City’, to create the soundtrack for Absolution.”
My eyes grew wide behind my glasses. Paul Crane’s name finally registered in my brain. He didn’t appear like the clean-shaven, suited prince of media promotions, but it was him—the music producer and prodigy Paul Crane. He was a Who’s Who in modern electro-dance, nu-disco, and also had a name in rap and funk. There had been no escape from hearing Recon’s music this year, nor his dance music for Eagles Credit Card commercials. Paul was huge in contemporary, but in my previous classical music world, Paul was our Mozart on the piano.
A memory of Juilliard came, and I stared at my hands. The calluses on my fingers were gone, but I still remembered the pressure on them from holding the strings of my violin I used to play. And to think Paul Crane admired my playing. It floored me.
Soundtracks for games were common for successful brands, though not often did companies have recognized artists composing them. Without a doubt, getting Paul Crane to do the music could bring a lot of attention and buzz to Absolution and make it stand out amongst the other first-person shooter combat games.
The projector ran through slides as Logan commented on the game. Afterwards, he led a brief on the games progress. I tried hard not to stare at Paul, but he had the arresting pull of a magnet, that constantly drew everyone in. Every time he looked my way, his intense blue-green eyes peered as if right into my soul, making my pulse beat faster. It was unsettling and thrilling—not to mention distracting.
Knowing as much, I tried to ignore him… and for a few minutes I’d succeed, only for my gaze to fall right back on him.
It wasn’t just his looks. He had charm. He was smart and well prepared. Every comment he made about the game showed he was well-versed in the technical aspects of the artwork and craft used to create the scenes.
Okay, admittedly I was pitifully star-struck. Though the likelihood of me working with him was zero. The stars worked exclusively with the supervisors. But then, out of nowhere, Paul announced, “I’m familiar with Aubrey’s work.”
Logan sat up further in his chair and showed a genuine interest in me. “I wasn’t aware you knew Paul Crane.”
I kept my face expressionless, but my eyes met Paul’s with a plea for him not to say anything else. I’d never mentioned attending Juilliard, and now it seemed awkward to bring it up. My bosses, or my colleagues even, would question why I had to leave. Something I’d told no one.
“Oh, he saw me at college years ago,” I said briskly. “It’s nothing.”
“Attending Juilliard wasn’t nothing.” Paul’s words were a reprimand, and I quickly turned my head toward him. He held my gaze intently, and in his stare, I caught a glimpse of authority behind his laid-back veil. I squirmed a little in my seat. The start of a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. Was he amused?