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started?”
    “No,” Dex said.
    “Come on, Dex. You’ve been on some kind of dry streak with women for what seems like forever; then this chick shows up and steals your ability to function. Spill, or you know we’ll get nothing done.” Regina settled into a chair and looked at her watch. “Three minutes. Ready? Go.”
    In an effort to shut them up, he admitted, “She’s a friend from when I was younger. She’s in town looking for a job.” Or running from something .
    “Old girlfriend?” Regina asked.
    Only in my dreams .
    “First fuck?” Mitch added.
    Ellie would never be just a fuck . “No and no.” Dex spun a chair around and straddled it. “What’s the final date?”
    Mitch and Regina exchanged a glance that sent a pain through his gut.
    “Shit. Same day?” Just another thing to add to his perfectly fucked-up state of mind.
    “Looks like it,” Regina said.
    Dex pushed from the chair and sent it spinning across the hardwood. “Why the hell would they do that? They have just as much to lose as we do.” He fisted his hands. “The same day?”
    “We can delay. Go out a month later so we’re the next big thing,” Mitch suggested. In the gaming world, there was always another game on the horizon, which gamers referred to as the next big thing .
    “Or a few days early to capture the audience first,” Regina added.
    “If we go late, we piss off our fan base. If we go early, we run the risk of losing out because if anything happens—an error code that everyone is slammed with, or any fucking thing—then they’re the next big thing. We need ample time to test the game to ensure it has no glitches. We’re nearly there, but nearly isn’t good enough.” He paced the room. Things were so much easier when he was developing smaller games without so many people relying on him. He’d developed three games to date, none of which had failed, but Dex didn’t believe in luck, and he knew that in a world of graphics and codes, anything could go wrong. Fully testing games before releasing them was vital. Thrive had a three-tiered testing process. World of Thieves II had gone through two tiers already, which meant it was probably fine, but releasing without completing the testing was risky.
    “Preorders are off the charts.” Mitch set his feet on the floor. “If we have issues with our product, we’re busted.” His eyes searched Dex’s. “Listen, Dex, there’s no chance of that. We’ve gone through two beta test runs already, and we’re testing right through delivery. The glitch they uncovered sixty days ago was fixed in twenty-four hours.”
    “You’re smarter than that, Mitch.” Dex glared at him.
    “Listen, we could be screwed either way, so let’s just make a decision and go with it.” Regina chewed on the end of her pen.
    Dex threw his hands up in the air and blew out a breath. “Okay. We play. Period. I believe in our product, and unless you know something I don’t, then fuck it. We stay on schedule and release on the same day so our fans remain happy and we don’t skip the last testing round. And, Mitch, I want another trailer out.”
    “We just ran one,” Mitch said.
    Dex let out a breath. “We need something to feed the fans and build more hype now that we’re releasing on the same day as KI.”
    “Who are you gonna pull to get that done, and what am I gonna do to fill their shoes?” Regina asked.
    “Review copies go out next week,” Mitch reminded him.
    “We’ve got the conventions but not before the release. We’ve got a slew of interviews and podcasts coming up.” Regina pulled up the calendar on her phone. “You’ve got a few good ones this week and next.”
    “The PR department’s been hot for weeks building buzz and pitching the game to the press. The forums are going ballistic with excitement, but they’re also buzzing for KI’s game.” Online gaming forums could make or break a game’s release. The more positive reviews the game received, the more gamers