Total pages in book: 48
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 234(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 156(@300wpm)
“I’ve got some work of my own to do out that way anyhow. I just thought I’d call before turning up,” I explain.
“Glad you did,” Miles drones. “I was just about to leave for the day…for the next few days,” he says, correcting himself and giving a little snort of amusement at his own words.
“Everything’s set up here anyway, so you can see how things are coming along for yourself when you get here,” he adds.
Perfect.
“Great!” I exclaim, trying hard not to sound like a kid at Christmas, but today is just shaping up to be the best day of my life.
“I’ll let you know what I think, but only when you get back. Take some time off, and we can catch up soon,” I tell Miles, who starts talking again about something else briefly.
But my eyes and attention are glued to the street map view of the address Joey supplied.
It’s a corner block, so he only has one next-door neighbor.
That’s the place. It has to be…I know it is.
I practically hung up on Miles after cutting him short with my farewell.
Multitasking or not, I want to have a good look at where Jade is and map out my quickest route before I shower, change, and head out.
But something in me feels deflated when I see her street view.
It reminds me too much of the kind of neighborhood I grew up in.
The kind of houses that all look the same, tiny, and usually overpriced rentals.
I swore I’d never live in that kind of house again when I was a kid with a dream.
I get a stab of nostalgia, which I hate. And thumbing my phone to check my other mail and messages, my heart stops when I see my latest email.
It’s her.
She’s contacting me within the same hour of speaking to me…and I’m just about to drive to Baltimore to boot.
“Resumé?” I ask myself aloud, reading the header of her mail. Opening it swiftly and skimming the attachment, I almost drop my phone.
Holy fucking shit. She is the one.
She’s a computer scientist. Majored in game development. It’s a man’s world, and she’s tried everything to get her foot in the door since graduating, but do I think I could help?
I don’t need to read another word.
Her resumé even has her home address on it. So, either way, I was destined to find out where she is today.
I’m coming, Jade.
Don’t you move a muscle.
I’m going to be there real soon.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jade
I’ve got to keep an eye on Joey, so I lock up after myself before heading back over.
Already feeling bad, he was home most of today without me even knowing.
His mom would be absolutely furious with us both if she found out. So I hope like hell it never gets brought up again with Joey’s teacher.
If I'm not gaming with Joey, I park myself in their kitchen, my usual spot for working on anything.
He’s back to his favorite online battleships game now, so there’ll be no getting anything out of him anyway.
I open up my resumé file, which I’ve already sent out to literally every major gaming development and software company. Even local and state computer stores.
Anything to find work after finishing college.
But I’ve been met with a wall of nothing since then.
My degree was supposed to be my foot in the door, but most of my other classmates have told me similar stories.
No experience, no chance.
And yeah, there’s no way to get any experience unless someone hires you, right? So it ends up eating its own tail after a while, and developers start to cry out for more programmers.
I’m almost embarrassed. Okay, I am embarrassed to even send this to Zak Templeton.
He’s the one place I probably haven’t applied to, mainly because there’s no real way to get in touch with the guy.
Until today that is.
But what will I say? I only just spoke to him a few minutes ago. Now I’m sending my resumé after he told Joey and me not to abuse his trust with his personal contact details.
But it’s the only thing I can think of as a reason to reach out to him so soon.
“He probably won’t even read it anyway,” I groan.
“Huh!?” Joey suddenly calls out from his room, followed by a loud explosion, but his mock villainous laughter drowns even that out.
He’s in his element with that game, and I’m surprised he could hear me say anything over his racket.
Apart from feeling shy about my resumé, I’m wondering if I’ll ever feel the same about gaming again.
Hear me out. I know that sounds crazy.
I mean, the thrill of seeing Zak today and reaching out to him like this?
The way those eyes of his burned into me. Seeing how casual he was but knowing how fucking brilliant he is at the same time.
Oh, and that drenched puddle between my legs whenever I think about him?