A Game With The Billionaire

Chapter 15:

Jeremy:

As expected, Emma sends the email by seven in the morning, it contains the graphics plan and the mechanics plan for the game that we’re supposed to be working on together, alongside with the different storylines.

She asked that I pick the one I prefer with the subject line ‘Please respond as soon as possible’. Gosh, she’s scary when she is in professional mode.

I don’t want any of this, I don’t want her sending me freaking emails. I want us together, working on the game side by side not over the phone. This is so unfair. I am glaring at the phone as I step into Mrs. Winters’ coffee shop, the familiarity of it enveloping me so hard.

Emma and I used to come here all the time before we got into Harvard, she would be all smiles while ordering her favourite coffee and Mrs. Winters, the owner of the coffee shop, would tease us endlessly. My chest is tight as I walk over to the counter.

“Gosh, Jeremy. Why are you looking all gloomy?” Mrs. Winters says with a bright smile. Even though she is pushing fifty, she is the only woman I know who lives life all rainbows and sunshine. “The usual?”

I nod my head as she begins making my coffee. “Um...and maybe Emma’s usual?” I say, my voice hoarse.

“And what’s Emma’s usual?” Mrs. Winters raises a brow.

“Caramel latte with a dash of cinnamon, extra hot, no whipped cream.” I recite it and Mrs. Winters reaches out from the counter and smacks me heavily on the shoulder. “What was that for?”

“You broke her heart, bastard.” Mrs. Winters sighs, and I look down. “You still remember her coffee order, you know everything about Emma. Hell, both of you are made of the same soul. Why aren’t you trying to win her back?”

The words tug at my chest, leaving a bitter ache. “I’m trying.”

“Clearly, you’re not.” She shakes her head, as if she’s disappointed in me. “Jeremy, listen to me. Before I married my husband, he broke my heart once; he said stuff that turned my love into stone. I told him I’d never forgive him and maybe I meant it. But he never stopped showing up, he raced everywhere to prove he was sorry. Showed up in the rain, wrote letters, he even learned how to bake for me.”

She laughs softly. “If my husband can do that, so can you.”

“She hates me.” I say quietly.

Mrs. Winters looks at me for a long moment, her eyes soft. “Then you’re lucky, hate means she is still feeling something. When a woman truly stops caring, she forgets, she becomes numb to your feelings, but if she yells at you and says she hates you? Then she still cares about you. Now, if my husband could cross storms for me, then I am sure that you can do the same.”

I walk out of Mrs. Winters’ shop feeling fulfilled, since her shop now does delivery, so I asked that Emma’s favourite coffee be delivered to her in her office. I go to a flower shop and order her favourite flowers- lotus, and I write a letter to Emma. When I stride into the lobby of my gaming company, there’s something brewing inside of me. Hope, it seems.

“Jeremy?” I almost bump into someone but when I look up, it’s the familiar face of my cousin.

“Tristan?” I say immediately. “What are you doing here?” My voice turns icy.

“I work here now,” he flashes me a fake grin, waving his lanyard at my face. “Mom basically threatened me to work here. Hey, why the glare? I heard that enemies should at least greet each other properly.” He smacks the side of my elbow, still grinning and I cough.

“Tristan.” I say, my voice firm. Knowing Tristan, he’s the walking definition of chaos; I don’t think he has ever worked a day in his life so I don’t know why Aunt Vivi is making him work in my company for crying out loud. “We might be cousins, but whenever we’re at work. You’re my employee.”

“Whatever,” he rolls his eyes, clearly not impressed. Tristan and I don’t get to hang out much since he basically spent his childhood away from the Harts mansion but during the time that he did spent in the Harts mansion during summertime when we were little; he’s enough trouble for me.

Sneaking frogs into the pool, taking desserts in the kitchen and since we are around the same age, blaming everything on me because ‘Jeremy looks more responsible’

“Don’t worry, no one in the company knows that we are related.” He grins. “Mom wanted me to be low key, and that I should try doing things without being shown favouritism.” He says.

“Okay.” That’s an advantage on my part, at least I don’t get to see him often and everyone won’t be yapping about my cousin in my own company.

“The finance department is lit, dude.” He says, and I shoot him another glare. “So what do you do as the CEO? Design games and stuff?” he glances at game display screens on the wall. “Talk about all these cool games, cousin.”

“Mr. Hart.” We both turn and see Kade, my assistant, walking towards us. Thank goodness Kade sweeps in at the exact moment that I need him. “There’s something wrong.” There’s urgency in his voice that makes me stand straighter. Tristan and I exchange a strange look as I ask what’s wrong.

“There are bugs in the code, it wasn’t there before,” Kade says hurriedly.

“Let’s go.” I tell him, turning towards Tristan, about to muster ‘I have to go,’ but as if he understands, he nods his head twice and brushes past me. Kade and I enter the elevator, it dings before it opens into the dev department.

The dev department is in chaos. The employees are chattering, staring at their screens in distress. When they see me, they stand up.

“Mr. Hart.” One of the senior programmers says, already standing. “It’s bad, someone purposefully planted bugs in the demo build, deep into the framework. Whoever did this knew what they were doing.”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t a random error?” I ask, moving closer to stare at the computer screen. Erratic symbols flashes across the screen, bits of red code lining the monitor.

“Whoever did this knows that we are launching the demo of our new game today, maybe they want the system to overload and crash, making the public leave the negative reviews. Thankfully, the programmers caught it early on and disabled the bugs.”

“We’re trying to track the hacker, but it’s proving to be hard since our server is almost impossible to hack into.” The programmer explains and I nod, suddenly feeling feverish. I glance at the codes again flashing on the screen; it would take an expert in the field to plant that amount of code on an impossible to hack server.

Who did this?

“Let’s delay the release of our demo for twenty-four hours, okay?” I ask and she nods. Since that’s settled, Kade and I enter the elevator, taking us to my floor of the company.

In my office, I remove my coat and hang it on the edge of my seat. Kade knocks twice and enters, yapping about some video game he played last night. He's telling me about the ideas but I am barely paying attention. My phone on the table rings, and Emma’s name flashes on the screen.

“Leave.” I scramble for my phone, pointing towards the door.

“But, Jeremy—”

“Get. Out.” Kade immediately heads for the door; I inhale steadily and pick up the phone.

“Hello?” I say, adjusting my chair so that I am getting the full view of New York city.

“Why are there a bunch of lotus flowers, and a plastic cup of coffee on my table?” she asks, and it’s as if I can feel her brows furrowing in confusion.

“You didn’t have your morning coffee today, so I thought to get you coffee. Also, about the flowers. Everyone needs flowers.” I am grinning.

“Jeremy, why are you doing this?” she asks, there’s a bit of rustle in the background and I let my mind wander to what she is doing. “Getting me coffee, getting me my favourite flowers. We aren’t supposed to be acting when we are alone, I made that pretty clear.”

“I am not acting. Oh and that’s how it’s going to be henceforth. Emma Roberts.” I am grinning so hard.

“Goodbye, Jeremy.” She hangs up, and after hearing the beep button, I am still grinning so hard.