More, Please(44)

“I’m his assistant,” I said, feeling my stack of debt. These people had assistants; they weren’t assistants. I didn’t fit in, and I’d just admitted it.

“Livy majored in Computer Engineering at Stanford and fell victim to the economy,” Hunter added in a nonchalant voice. Many of those at the table groaned and shifted, nodding in understanding. “She tried to refuse my job offer, but as you know, I’m a man who gets what he wants…”

Mike laughed in a booming voice as a server slid a salad in front of him. “Still haven’t got hold of my company, young man! I’m holding out.”

“Not yet, no,” Hunter said, leaning back so a server could place a salad in front of him. “But you’ll retire soon enough. I don’t have long to wait.”

“Mike will never retire. He has his life in that company!” a man down the table added with a smile. “It’s like a kid, but it never rebels.”

“Oh, it tried to rebel. The economy hit us pretty hard, too. We had to make some big cuts—running lean now. Not a lot of work coming through.” Mike picked up his fork as he looked at me. “I own a construction business. I built it from the ground up. Started out with nothing but blood, sweat, and tears, and now I get jobs from all across the nation. You have to start somewhere.”

“Hear, hear.” The man down the table raised his glass.

“Olivia doesn’t do traditional assistant work for me,” Hunter said as he put his glass down and picked up his fork, eyeing his salad. “She’s no good at it.”

My mouth dropped open in disbelief as Trisha said, “Hunter! That is no way to talk about—”

“I’m not saying that as a fault,” Hunter hastened to say, raising his hands to stop his mother’s rebuff. “But when you show her a spreadsheet, she forgets about lunch plans, meetings, plane tickets—all her focus is taken by that spreadsheet. Organizing schedules is not her strong suit, which works out well for me. I have a fantastic EA for those needs. With Olivia, I hand her tasks that might take a week if I passed them to the correct department. With her, I get them in a day. I’m spoiled.”

“Code, not spreadsheets,” I muttered. Nobody noticed.

“I was never any good at organizing, either,” Mike said in a kind voice, and winked at me.

“She is working on a project with the owner of a company we are taking over,” Hunter continued in a strong voice. “They’re developing a game app.”

“A game app?” Trisha inquired.

“It’s a video game that’s meant to be played on your smart phone,” I clarified, picking at my salad. “The app will be free to download, but after a certain number of levels you’ll have to pay to continue.”

“That’s where they get ya!” a woman with bright red lipstick said at the end of the table opposite Trisha. “I play a couple of puzzle games my daughter downloaded to my phone. They’re very addictive.”

“What kind of game are you designing?” a woman with nearly white hair next to Hunter asked.

“I’ve convinced him to make it a type of puzzle game with a war theme. Violent games do extremely well right now, so we’re going to start with that. If it does well, we’ll come out with another game that is more puzzle than war for those who like nonviolent games.”

“Oh, I don’t like those shoot-’em-up games all the kids are playing.” The woman with red lipstick shook her head adamantly and reached for her wine.

“When will you release?” Mike asked as Trisha and another couple people murmured about the shoot-’em-up games.

“In about a month, I think. We’re nearly ready.” I smiled with the excitement I always felt when talking about the game. “We’ve worked really hard on it. You never know how it’ll do, of course. It could flop and then all that time would be wasted. But hopefully it won’t.”

“It won’t flop,” the woman next to Hunter said with a reassuring smile.

“Looks like you love that line of work.” Mike eyed me with a steady gaze. “Even if it doesn’t work for you, it’s a good hobby. You should always strive to do what you love.”

“Since when do you love pushing a shovel around?” a graying man with a smile said.

“I get a young buck to work the shovel. But there’s nothing like working in the outdoors. Or standing at the foot of a building that you helped build.” Mike put his fork on his half-empty plate and pushed it forward. A server came to clear it immediately. “I’ve always loved to build. To make things with my hands. What a wonderful thing to get to do what you love. Young Hunter here hasn’t realized that yet. But he will. Then he’ll really perform miracles.”