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“…How close are they?” I heard Signe ask.

I glanced over my shoulder to see both of them staring at me, “Pardon?”

“The architect team,” Signe clarified, “How close are they to winning the bet?”

I grinned, “Close enough to where I practiced my dance moves before leaving this morning.” Signe laughed at that. The architect team was Zaid’s team. It was a group of software engineers who were mostly new hires, people we recruited from other software companies in the area. The goal was for them to finish constructing the bones of the newest branch of code designed for the feature Boson Motors wanted for their machines. The caveat was that they needed less than two bugs in their code during the beta trial to win the bet.

We had a farm in Northern California that was getting our very first prototypes, and Boson Motors was preparing to send the first-ever Sun Steer-powered agricultural equipment. Solar-powered, self-driving tractors were being built for that farm at this very moment.

The bet included me, the CTO, humiliating myself for the sake of company morale.

Every single time Zaid tested the code that his team wrote, it all came back performing flawlessly.

Jacqueline lifted an eyebrow at me.

Signe added, “I love that you’re willing to do it.”

“Of course,” I lifted a shoulder in response.

Jacqueline glanced down at her phone, as if bored, “Be sure to make it worth everyone’s while, for working so hard under deadline.”

I gave her a friendly grin as I replied while stepping off of the lift, “I’m happy to reward good behavior if it’s earned, Jacqueline.”

Jacqueline’s dark eyes lifted behind her glasses and met mine, her face darkening again with another flush. I froze, because the look on her face was far from amused. I panicked, wondering what I said that justified such a reaction from her.

“Be sure to tell the team they’ve been such good girls, while you’re at it,” Signe said, noting my accidental innuendo while oblivious to the glare Jacqueline was giving me behind her back.

Fuck.

“This conversation is over unless the two of you want to be written up,” Jacqueline snapped, dropping her eyes from my face and marching past the two of us before we could form a response. Her head was down, her shoulders were tugged up, and I felt like the biggest prick for making her start her day like this.

“Damn,” Signe murmured, dropping her bag on the front desk, “It’s one of those days, I guess.” I had to give it to her because even though Jacqueline threatened us, Signe acted very unbothered by it. As if Jacqueline’s words didn’t affect her at all.

I nodded, “I apologize, I didn’t mean to make it weird.”

Signe shrugged, “I’ve said worse in the office.”

I believed her. How Signe and Jacqueline were friends, I had no idea. They were opposites. Signe was friendly, uplifting, and generally happy to exist. Jacqueline was…usually like this.

I nodded my goodbye to the redhead and walked toward my office. I turned into the wing where upper management’s offices were lined up, mine being across from Jacqueline’s. I had just seen her march into her office and close the door enough to leave a crack open when two software engineers were giving each other wide-eyed looks. They had just seen Jacqueline storm in. They were on Mary’s team, but I wasn’t familiar with their names yet. We hired a lot of new employees since I started working here.

The two men stood a few feet outside of Jacqueline’s office and began speaking to each other with hushed tones.

“Remind me not to look at her wrong today,” one of them said, a blonde, white man who smirked as he glanced over his shoulder in the direction of her open office door.

“Looks like she’s in a bitchier mood than usual today,” replied a short brunette man who adjusted his shoulder bag. The two of them stopped their hushed conversation as I approached, smiles spreading across their faces, “Hey, Leo.”

I didn’t return their smiles, “I hope you’re not referring to our overworked and understaffed Human Resources Director.”

They both blinked at me, “Oh—well, what I meant was—” The blonde man jutted his thumb over his shoulder, but I interrupted his excuse.

“I know exactly what you meant,” I lifted a dark eyebrow, “Do not speak about her like that again.”

I waited for both of them to nod their heads and drop their gazes.

“You’re right,” the brunette murmured, “Sorry, man.”

I left them there, my point made and employees sufficiently scolded, while ignoring the path to my own office to rap my knuckles on the cracked open door of Jacqueline’s.