《Stepping Through》We Play the Game – 04 – Add Ten Dollars an Hour
Advertisement
“It’s kind of the sport I was made for, I think,” she told him. “I mean, what sport out there, if you’re a girl, is it the object to throw things at people and try to hit them? Maybe Yukigassen, but that’s not the same. Who’s afraid of getting hit with a snowball? But a blocker in the head-”
Tina stopped there, thinking maybe she’d revealed a bit too much about herself that might not fit in an office environment.
But Devon was just look up at her, not judging it seemed, just looking.
“The sport you were made for,” he repeated in a voice that almost sounded pleased.
It was not the reaction Tina usually got.
“Does that sound weird to you?” she asked.
Devon shook his head.
“I’m familiar with destiny,” he told her in a way which did sound a little weird to her. “And are you playing now? Still?”
Tina shook her head.
“No, the league I was in folded in the spring.”
“Why?” he wondered.
Tina let out a breath, reached for her large seven up, then withdrew her hand.
“When we lost our space due to Board of Ed cutbacks.” There was a wistfulness to her voice Tina couldn’t suppress. She missed it. Murderball kept her on her toes. And God she loved to win. “Every time the Tories get into power its cut, cut, cut.”
“Would you like to play again?” he asked. “If the opportunity presented itself?”
“Sure, in a heartbeat,” she told him. “Why not? Got a spare couple of gyms you aren’t using? Recruiting for a professional murderball league? Is that why you tracked me down?”
Devon laughed. It wasn’t at all high pitched. It was a good laugh. She liked it.
Advertisement
“Not exactly,” he told her. “No gyms and no league I’m afraid.”
Tina pulled the Diet 7UP over and took a sip from the straw. Glanced back at the dwarf, wondering what he’d look like without the beard. Young? Maybe not. He had some line on his face, forehead, between his eyebrows. She pegged him to be anywhere from his late thirties to late forties.
“Anything more you want to know about me?” she asked, pushing the drink away from her again.
“Not for now,” Devon told her. “Although it would be good to know when you are available to start.”
She was taken aback for a moment. That was fast.
“You want to hire me, then?” she asked, then kicked herself internally for sounding so surprised.
“Well…” he offered in a tentative tone. “I admit you aren’t my first interview, but you are the best I’ve had and that’s good enough. It’s not like I can put off hiring indefinitely. Can you start Monday?”
Monday? It was Thursday. Monday. Wow. Awesome!
“Yeah, I guess so,” she said tamping down her enthusiasm. This was too good to be true right? “ You still haven’t told me much about the work I’ll be doing, or how much I’ll be paid?”
She realized that she hadn’t asked this at all for some reason. Maybe she just liked the guy and he was offering a free lunch. Had she even expected the job offer was for real?
He seemed to consider her questions for a moment.
“Well, how much were you paid for your best job,” he said first.
“Seriously,” she asked, staring.
“Certainly, he replied.
Tina told him.
“Add ten dollars an hour, and an opportunity for added commissions that I earn from my clients as well,” he told her. She felt like a balloon had inflated in her chest. This was totally too good to be true. There had to be a catch.
Advertisement
“What about the work?” she asked, tensing for the hard letdown. “What exactly are you going to want me to do for that?”
“As I said, administration and research. Starting with office organization. It does involve a lot of trade secrets,” he confessed. “So when you come in on Monday, well go over that and have you sign an NDA. Are you OK with that? I do have all the business paperwork if you want to check that my company is legit. Is Monday fine, then?”
“Absolutely. Where’s your office?” she asked.
“Scarborough,” he told her, then winced at her non-verbal reaction. No, it wasn’t a positive one. She prayed it wasn’t Agincourt or further out. “My apologies, but the cost of office space in this city is staggering. It is near a subway station, if that helps.”
It would, she supposed.
Tina shrugged, resigning herself. The pay would be worth it.
“Scarborough isn’t so bad,” she replied. It’s not like it would be Woodbridge again, or, she cringed a bit, Brampton.
“Here is my card.” Devon reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out the small grey rectangle and passed it over to her.
It felt heavier, more solid than it she thought a business card should. Less flexible than the usual cardboard ones she was accustomed to. The address was clear on it. Along with his Seeker of Antiquities title in flowery gold script. There were some symbols embossed on the background, nothing she recognized. Maybe Viking runes, she thought to herself.
But…antiquities. Kind of classy. Unless of course he dealt in stolen paintings and jewelry. Maybe not so classy. She’d find out soon enough. It’s not like she was going to find work before then anyway.
“Nine AM, Monday,” he added. “Is that good for you?”
Tina looked up, into his grey-eyed gaze. Took in a breath and nodded.
“Yes,” she replied, the whole interview now had taken a dreamlike quality somehow.
“Then I will see you then,” Devon stood, offered a quick bow then headed off north into the long mall corridor that stretched out beyond him. She glanced back down at the card he’d given her. Devon Olafson. Then she noticed the second line below Seeker of Antiquities – and Recoverer of Heirlooms. This was going to be different, Tina decided.
And maybe this time different was good.
Advertisement
Convergence of Fates
After being rescued by an Assurian scientist, Fenicia Kranicar wakes up panicked, afraid and very angry. Her plans to escape must be put on hold when she learns that dangerous mercenaries are about to attack the space station she is on. The half Assurian-Saryan female will soon discover things about herself that she would never have guessed. Will the knowledge of her new powers and where they came from be enough to save her? Warning : COF contains violence, trespassing, bad language, multiple references to various matters of fandom, questionable interrogation tactics, kidnapping, arguable murder, justifiable murder, filthy murder, assault and battery, abuse of authority, destruction of private property, disorderly conduct, dismemberment, and an uncomfortably sexy mother. Cover commissioned by Jackiefelixart
8 203aka
Most people think having powers would be amazing. Not Nate. If he had it his way, he’d never use them and pretend they weren’t there. His powers, though, seem to have other ideas. Uncontrolled powers sound problematic on their own, but when people can destroy entire city blocks with a wayward glance, they become a whole new issue entirely. Nate has always felt like he’s had wary eyes watching him, waiting for him to slip up. So far, he’s managed to just barely keep his head down, but when his powers force him to step into the spotlight, he finds himself caught up in the one life he never wanted; heroism. Now, will he find a way to accept the powers he blames for all his problems, or will he crumble under the pressure? Note: I primarily upload on my website on Sundays . I'll upload here regularly up to a day after the chapters go live on the main site. Vote for aka on TopWebFiction! Feel free to join the aka Discord. In addition to my patreon, you can support aka by buying me a coffee!
8 225Orivar: Deep Black
Atara Korrell, a retired Navy captain, is called back into service after a gifted scientist loses everything. Is she serving her country? Or is she just a pawn in a great game? Orivar is a web novel series set in the distant future. Humanity has all but mastered the exotic material known as omnium, the most common of which is called orivar: the original variety. That clear crystal is a transmuter of mass and energy, and the very existence of contemporary Civilized Space depends on it. Deep Black, the first book in the series, begins a classic story of light versus darkness. A novel variety of omnium–one with the potential of sending Civilized Space crashing down–is stolen from a research station just beyond the Federation border. Atara Korrell, a retired Navy captain, is called to command the fastest starship ever made to chase the thieves and retrieve the stolen sample. Meanwhile, enemies both near and far vie for the omnium sample and the advanced technology powering her ship. Can Atara remain loyal in the face of seeming betrayal?(Cover art by Loputon https://www.deviantart.com/loputon)
8 135Amir: A Short Horror Story
"My throat became dry; my tongue felt like sandpaper scraping against the top of my mouth. My mind became fuzzy. I had no chance of survival against this, this thing, and It was toying with me. It seemed to see the fear in my eyes and laughed, the metal sounding voice screeching like nails on a chalkboard. " I wrote this when I was young, and I haven't touched it since 2019, so don't worry about it.
8 142Alit
What is luck? Is it something you're born with? Is it obtainable? Can something give luck? This short story follows a high school boy named Steven and the events that follow a fateful encounter.
8 147Rain On Me (KookV/Completed)
🏅Best Fiction Award (Eden Contest)မိုးတဖွဲဖွဲရွာတဲ့ နေ့လေးတစ်နေ့မှာ ကျွန်တော့်ဘဝရဲ့ ပထမဆုံး သူငယ်ချင်းနဲ့ ဆုံတွေ့ခွင့်ရခဲ့တယ်။ နောက်တော့ သူက ကျွန်တော့်ရဲ့ ပထမဆုံးချစ်သူဖြစ်လာခဲ့ပြီး မိုးရာသီဇာတ်လမ်းလေးတစ်ပုဒ် ဖြစ်တည်လာခဲ့တယ်။
8 100