XOXO: A Bundle of Cozy Novellas

Owen

OWEN

Owen watched Edmund Lake hurry out the doors and disappear around the corner to the employee parking lot. Owen’d only been with Canopus a few months, but Edmund was one of his favorites. He always made the effort to talk to Owen—and not as if Owen was just the help, either; he was genuinely nice, asking Owen real-life questions and seeming to care about the answers. Edmund seemed to see him. It was time for him to admit Edmund was his favorite.

Someone cleared their throat, breaking Owen from his musing.

Ugh, Owen thought as he smiled automatically at the man standing in front of his desk. The person who was not Edmund. Leo “Boomer” Deveraux waited for Owen to acknowledge him, an unpleasant curl to his lip. Leo was one of Jude Collins’s toadies, and Owen couldn’t stand him, but he had to be nice or Leo would rat him out to Jude. Owen didn’t think Jude liked Leo much either, but that didn’t stop Leo from hanging around asking for favors.

“Leo, what can I help you with?” Owen could not bring himself to use Leo’s nickname, he just couldn’t.

“Was that Edmund Lake scampering out of here?” Leo looked toward the front doors. “He could use a personal trainer, or a dietician.”

Owen’s hackles rose. It was obvious in how Edmund carried himself and the loose clothing he wore that he was self-conscious about his appearance. Maybe in the past Owen would’ve mocked the same as Leo, but Owen had learned the hard way that pretty didn’t mean kind or intelligent. Edmund was kind and smart, traits Owen found very appealing. Whenever Owen saw Edmund coming, he couldn’t help but smile.

It irritated him that some Canopus employees talked about Edmund behind his back as if being heavyset made Edmund less of a person. Owen knew from paying attention to conversations that Edmund was a rising star at Canopus; he was super smart and had produced several apps before Jude convinced him to come aboard as a freelance developer. A zillion people had downloaded them. Edmund was already a successful man; he didn’t need Canopus—they needed him. Leo must be jealous.

“I wouldn’t know. Did you need something?” Owen raised his eyebrows and donned his best please-quietly-fuck-off face.

“I’m hoping to speak to Jude.”

“I’m sorry,” not sorry, not at all, “he’s in a meeting with London for the next…” Owen checked his desktop, even though he knew exactly how long the meeting was going to last, “at least an hour.” Informing Leo he couldn’t see Jude was incredibly satisfying. Owen tried not to let his smile leak onto his face. “The next availability he has in his schedule is next week. I’m happy to send you a meeting invite.” Owen waited expectantly for Leo’s reply.

Reluctantly Leo agreed to a meeting with Jude next week but then stood at the desk for a while making small talk. Owen was certain he was waiting to see if Jude would emerge from his office—trying to catch Owen in a lie. Eventually he mumbled an excuse and wandered off toward the kitchen area.

Jude Collins might be a monumental asshole, but he spared no expense when it came to his employees, and the staff kitchen was no exception. Every day it was stocked with fresh fruit and veggies, there were several coffee makers and an espresso machine, and three days a week he paid to have food trucks come and park out front so his employees could have lunch for free. He was also considering putting in a small gym, saying it was the least he could do given the hours the Canopus staff put in. Owen had a hard time hating him when he knew things like that.

Just as Owen was thinking about getting up and grabbing another cup of coffee for himself, a loud crash sounded from the kitchen, followed by vehement swearing. Owen stood up from his chair so fast it shot out behind him and thumped against the wall opposite—Jude’s office wall. He winced, hoping Jude was wearing headphones.

In the kitchen he discovered a disaster. There was coffee splattered everywhere, as if a pot had somehow exploded. The carafe itself lay in pieces on the linoleum flooring.

“What happened?” Owen asked Leo. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Luckily,” Leo snarled. “Some genius left the carafe too close to the edge of the counter and look what happened.”

It wasn’t funny how Leo seemed to be accusing Owen of being behind the mess. When he’d made coffee less than an hour ago, everything had been as it normally was. He wouldn’t be so foolish as to leave anything close to the edge of the counter.

Owen darted to the sink and opened the doors underneath; Leo hadn’t started to clean up the mess at all—he obviously expected Owen to take care of everything. Grabbing the paper towels, Owen opened them and pulled a wad off the roll. He knelt and, careful of the broken carafe, began to mop up the mess.

“Oh, hi, Jude,” Leo said.

Owen froze and then went back to cleaning up, grinding his teeth as he did so.

“What happened here?” Jude asked, his tone authoritative and scaring the general crap out of Owen as usual. So, no, Jude hadn’t had his noise-canceling headphones on.

“Somebody left the coffee pot on the edge of the counter, and look what happened,” Leo repeated.

The temperature dropped twenty degrees. Owen had to force himself to keep mopping up the mess. He felt like fucking Cinderella, and Leo was his evil stepsister, except there was no prince and no fancy shoes. And no singing birds either.

“Owen.” Jude uttered his name with what sounded like disdain. Sometimes it was hard to tell with his boss. “You have to be more careful. If you’re careless in one area it bleeds over to another, and that’s how secret projects are leaked out to the competition.”

Really? A broken coffee carafe would lead to the downfall of Canopus? Conspiracy theory much? Owen opened his mouth to explain it hadn’t been him who dropped the pot but snapped his lips shut, realizing nothing he could say would change Jude’s opinion at this point. This was when he had no trouble despising his employer.

“This kind of thing can’t happen again.”

Owen’s face heated with anger. Without looking at Jude, he grabbed another handful of paper towels to finish cleaning up. Leo had managed to humiliate him in front of Jude, exactly as he’d planned.

“Yes, sir.” Owen ground out. He needed this job; he needed the paycheck. He couldn’t get fired this close to the holidays.

“See that you get this cleaned up, and then come to my office.”

“Jude, do you have a second…” Leo followed Jude out of the kitchen while Owen seethed and continued cleaning up the coffee explosion.

The jerk had done that on purpose, both to humiliate Owen and to get Jude’s attention. If Owen was fired because of this, he was going to slash Leo’s tires. Okay, imagine slashing the tires of Leo’s pretentious high-end electric car. It gave him little satisfaction.

By the end of the day, Owen was almost ready to quit instead of being fired. The only thing keeping him there was the fact he had bills to pay—and one of them was his portion of his great-great-aunt’s care in Wenatchee. The money Owen added made sure Pearl had a larger room and a companion who came to visit once a week, taking her to the store or wherever she wanted to go, to the park or even to the movies. Owen would do anything for Pearl, including put up with Leo Deveraux and Jude Collins for the time being. Maybe after the first of the year he’d look for a new position.