Page 40 of Kind of Famous
But all I wanted to know was whether he was someone to steer clear of. I didn’t want to learn about his every past girlfriend. Not via a fan forum at least. Jaclyn might not value privacy, but she and I had different philosophies on what constituted boundaries. And here I was breaching one.
I dropped my phone in my bag and headed toward the nearest subway station. I felt like I’d already put in a day’s work, and I hadn’t even arrived at my real job yet.
The subway took forever, so by the time I made it to Midtown, I was a bit later than I’d intended. The office bustled with activity as I set up my workstation. On my way to grab a second cup of coffee, I craned my neck to peer into the corner office where a long-haired hippie sat at his desk, talking on the phone. The placard beside the door read:Lars Cambridge.The editor and head honcho of theRock Paper.An enormously influential man. A legend really. Goosebumps ran down my arms just knowing he was behind that door, probably making magic happen.
Would I ever get to meet him? I concentrated on breathing normally so I wouldn’t alert everyone in my vicinity that I was a freak and a total fraud. How had I ended up in the coolest place on the planet?
As soon as I sat back down at my desk, Byron called my name from the meeting room.
“You coming?”
I furrowed my brow. Crap. I needed to put a reminder on my phone. Not a great way to start the day. I undocked my laptop and carried it with me into the meeting room intent to listen and learn.
On the overhead screen, Ajit had pulled up a web page covered with graphs. “There was an unusual surge overnight. Nothing too concerning, but I got an alert and went to investigate.”
Dave leaned in. “Around what time?”
“Sometime after midnight. Load average was coming down by the time I logged in.”
I watched the interchange between the two developers, wondering if there was any chance an invasion of trolls in a comment section of a review could cause the servers to experience heavy load. I’d managed to optimize my own website to handle that kind of traffic. Surely a large music magazine was prepared to handle a fan war.
“This might be off base, but—” I hesitated. I wasn’t a real developer. “I’m wondering if you’ve captured the SQL and tuned the queries. What you described of the increased load last night—”
Ajit interjected. “That was actually going to be my first avenue of investigation.”
I sighed with relief. He hadn’t laughed at my suggestion.
“Would you like to sit with me while I look over the snapshots?”
I grinned at his invitation. I loved troubleshooting. “I’d love to.”
As the meeting came to an end, Byron asked me how my requirements doc was coming, reminding me my responsibilities lay in product management. The truth was, I was happy with that, too. My own site was a one-man operation, and I could do anything they asked of me, coding, testing, writing, marketing, provided they gave me time to learn.
“I should have something ready by tomorrow.”
He nodded, and I near sashayed back to my desk, so happy to have a purpose, I forgot to check my phone until lunchtime. When I did, I discovered another text from Shane.
You should skip out early and come hang out with us at rehearsal.
I stared at the words, wanting to say yes. Regretfully, I had to turn him down.Really wish I could.
That was no lie. I didn’t want to play hookie from the world’s best job, but it killed me to miss out on an even rarer experience to witness a band while they jammed out on their own music. It was like I’d scored tickets to a great concert yet envied the people with a backstage pass.
Except this time, I literally held a backstage pass I couldn’t use.
Poor me.
One glance at the office where Lars Cambridge worked reminded me that I had enough going on right here. I checked my lack of gratitude and conjured up the excitement of knowing that just sitting here constituted a dream come true.
Shane’s next text made me laugh.Dooo it!
Rain check?God, I hoped there could be a rain check.
When do you get through? Time is both dragging and fleeting at the same time. How is that possible?
Adorable.
I wrote back:I leave at five.
