Simulated Love (2024)

9.

Elijah

I was called for a meeting with Dean and Evan early on a Monday morning. When Dean came in, I was at the coffee machine mixing some sweetener in my coffee.

"Morning," Dean greeted. He was wearing an expensive black tailored suit with gelled hair and a trimmed beard.

"Morning, sir," Evan said, standing up from his seat to shake hands with Dean.

Dean sat at the head of the table and I took my seat next to him on the right side of the room, opposite to Evan.

"Let's get to it," I said, after taking a sip of my coffee. The slurping noise echoed around the entire room.

"I wanted to stop by to speak to you two personally about the progress of the game since I've been back in town since the last time we spoke."

"Ah, yes. The progress," Evan said, shooting a gaze at me.

"I was curious why you chose that little studio out in Thailand, Evan. I'm sure there were better submissions to not only do a better job but get more of a buzz from people."

"I thought it would have been a good idea to work with a small studio because they would be easier to control and also if things go the opposite direction, it won't be hard for us to put the blame on them. Just think, if Elijah got a lot of backlash from his bad game. A company that is known for making good games can easily fight that."

Dean nodded as Evan spoke. "I see your point. It's a good one, but we want to take more risks. It's Elijah we are talking about." He turned to me with a big grin. "You don't mind taking risks now, do you?"

"Nope." If only he knew the risk I was taking going against everything he asked for.

Evan and I shared a smirk.

"That's what we like to hear. You see, Elijah took the risk of being rude on the internet. He risked ruining the company's name to better himself. However, he made our company huge. Those are the risks I want to keep seeing."

"Right, and I can't be the only one in this company taking risks, right? You guys took a risk hiring Maggie. Now look, she's the best thing we have in media."

"Exactly." Dean clapped his hands together. "So, what do you have to show?"

"Nothing yet," I said.

He looked at me with a tilted head and a raise of an eyebrow.

"It's been a week and nothing? Not even a prototype?"

"Nope. We changed our approach."

Dean's eyebrows pulled together. "You do know that if there's no game, you lose your job, right?"

I nodded while I drank my coffee.

"I can assure you that things will be done, sir."

"The way that I want I hope." He sighed as he stood up. "Well, this was rather disappointing. I was expecting to see progress, but there's nothing." He gathered his things. "I have to get going. Good luck on the game." His eyes met mine. "Don't disappoint me."

His words were deep and challenging.

I smirked. "I won't."

~

I barged into the game development office while Chase was in the middle of eating a muffin while drawing on the iPad.

"How did the meeting go?" Chase asked.

"As expected. Dean wasn't happy, and he won't be once we finished, but who cares? I am excited to get started." I sat next to him at the computer.

"While you were at the meeting, I was thinking of some gameplay ideas."