Playing with Power - Book 3: New Adult Office Romance by Adele Huxley

day.” For a person with such a normally stoic personality, it was touching to see Amit express such sympathy. Lauren’s frustration melted as she realized they’d done the best they could.
    “Okay, alright, show me this widget problem.”
    Within an hour all the virtual fires were extinguished and Lauren finally had a chance to sit and breathe. The office had quieted, Dank Denim was no longer shouting like it was the end of the world, and Lauren tried to gather her thoughts. She leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes.
    “Lauren?”
    “Oh God, Faith, you’re killing me,” she said without opening her eyes. “What’s up?”
    “Rochelle was supposed to start her tech rotation today.”
    Ugh, I’m really not in the mood to teach someone how to code today. Eyes bleary, she rocked forward. Faith and Rochelle stood in front of her desk. She hadn’t noticed it until now, but seeing them stand next to each other she realized Rochelle could’ve been Faith’s younger sister. Blonde, petite, perky, with two perfect dimples that popped out when she smiled.
    “It’s okay. We can start later this week if you want.” She sounded almost embarrassed. Lauren realized she was taking her grumpiness out on her for no reason.
    “No, it’s cool. Sorry, it’s just been a stressful day. I’ll meet you over at your desk in a couple minutes, okay?” When Rochelle had left, Lauren whispered, “Still haven’t been able to reach Parker?”
    Faith shook her head, looking more ashamed than concerned. “We had a fight.”
    “Yeah, well, he’s alive. He’s been sending me emails all afternoon,” Lauren said pointing to her monitor.
    “Are you serious?” Faith said, rounding the desk so she could see the computer screen.
    “Yep, actually, here. He sent one just now.” Lauren pulled up the email so she could see it. “Check the time stamp.”
    (No subject)
    Just got an email from Landon DeWitt, thanking me for my time. He wants to go through some of our code base, so I’ll send over an NDA for him to sign.
    I said it before...I don’t know how you hooked Mr. California Surfboy but I’m fucking glad you did.
    Faith scrunched up her face, shook her head, and walked away. That poor girl is all sorts of twisted up over someone so inconsequential, Lauren thought.
    Grabbing a notebook and pen, she made her way over to Rochelle’s desk in the far corner of the office. She smiled brightly as Lauren approached.
    “So first of all, how are you liking things?”
    “It’s amazing,” she cooed, her blue eyes wide. “Since I started business school I’ve been fascinated with startups so to be here in the middle of one, especially while you’re growing and seeking Series B? It’s better than I could’ve hoped for.”
    “Well good! That’s good to hear. You just finished shadowing the sales team, right? Did you learn a lot there?”
    “Yeah, a lot more than I thought I would. I figured they just called people up and read a script but it actually takes a lot of skill. I couldn’t do it.”
    “Neither could I, but I’m glad we have people who can. So, using the the sales team as a launching point, let me explain one of the biggest problems young companies have. Sorry if I’m repeating stuff you already know from school. There’s always this tug-of-war between developing the technology and finding customers who are willing to pay for it. First, you have to create something to sell, right? But then, you have to sell a lot more so you can hire more programmers to create better, faster tech. It’s this whole back and forth thing. You probably sat in some meetings we had when the salespeople started selling products or widgets we haven’t actually created.” Rochelle nodded tightly and with good reason. Those had been some stressful meetings. “Right, so you can’t expect a salesperson not to sell. If they know they can close the deal, they’ll pretty much do anything they can to make that happen. It’s not their fault