Regina Hart - The Love Game

“Fair enough. I’ll accept your offer. Thank you.”

“Good.” Tyler seemed relieved. “How soon can you start?”

Iris arched a brow at his anxious tone. “I take it you haven’t postponed your product launch?”

“No, we haven’t.”

Of course not. “Then I’ll see you at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you, Iris.”

Had she actually gotten a smile out of the product developer? “Enjoy your afternoon, Ty.”

Iris disconnected the call, then restarted her car. Something told her she’d have an uphill battle with Anderson Adventures’ vice president of product development. Tyler didn’t appear to impress easily. But that’s what she’d have to do to ensure the success of this account and future client recommendations.

This was the opportunity she’d been working toward. She had until eight o’clock tomorrow morning to come up with a detailed plan for the product launch—and another to avoid being distracted by Tyler Anderson.

* * *

“Why do we need an internal launch?” Tyler sounded as if he needed more coffee.

Iris’s gaze moved from his irritated ebony eyes to the large silver-and-black mug beside her new client’s right hand. Should I suggest he get a refill? No, that would probably offend him.

She sat back on the cushioned chair at his conversation table and refocused on their Friday-morning meeting. “I’m sure details of ‘Osiris’s Journey’ have been kept from most—if not all—of your employees to prevent leaks.”

“That’s right. We don’t want the public—or our competitors—to hear about it in advance.”

“Most successful corporate campaigns grow from the inside out. Before you launch your latest game nationally, you should give your employees a sneak peek. It’s a morale booster.”

“Foster sends a companywide email before each release.” Tyler noted something on his electronic tablet. “But since I’m handling this launch, he’ll probably want the message to come from me. I’ll check with him.”

That was more than a lot of companies did but still not enough. “Your employees should know about more than just the game. Tell them how you’re going to launch it—key dates, media outlets, talking points. They’ll share that information with family, friends, members of their community organizations. It’s free word-of-mouth advertising.”

“We can put that in the email.” Tyler continued typing.

“With all due respect, Ty, an email’s not enough.” Iris watched his long, elegant fingers move across the tablet’s keyboard. The sight was distracting. She raised her eyes. “The majority of company emails aren’t read. If you want employees to receive your message, your best bet is talking with them face-to-face.”

They locked gazes. This was their first disagreement—and the first item on her agenda. If she had to debate each of the four topics with him, it was going to be a long meeting. She glanced at her coffee mug. I wonder if I should get a refill?

Tyler finally nodded. “Those are good points.”

“Thank you.” Iris wanted to pump her fist in victory. She settled for handing him another sheet of paper from her manila project folder. “This is a draft schedule of your internal launch, including tasks. I’ve also emailed it to you. We can review it once we’re done with the other agenda items.”

“This is a lot of detail. When did you put this together?”

The admiration in Tyler’s tone made Iris pause. “Last night.”

“Thank you.” Those two words expressed more than gratitude. She heard respect, appreciation and relief.

“You’re welcome.”

Thankfully, they moved through the rest of the agenda at a much faster pace. At least until they came to the media interviews.

“Why do I have to do so many of them?” Surly best described Tyler’s tone.

“I’m going to pitch your release to these outlets—print, as well as broadcast and podcasts. That doesn’t mean all of these venues will agree to an interview.”

“Our previous marketing consultant just sent out press releases. We’ve never done pitches before.”

“That’s not a good enough reason not to do them now.” How much had their previous consultant charged to attach a release to an email and hit Send? Iris cringed just thinking about it.

“Don’t you think this is going overboard?” Tyler gestured toward her media proposal.

“Not at all.” Iris was firm. “Your three most recent product releases have been on the list of the top-ten most popular computer games for almost a year. Candidly, I think every media outlet all over the country will jump at the chance to interview you. We should do as many of them as we can.”

“I can’t be away from the office for weeks at a time.” Tyler looked harassed. “We’re working on other games.”

“We’ll only do what your schedule will allow. Some of these can be done over the phone.” Iris checked that item off of their agenda. “You showed me some of the features of ‘Osiris’s Journey.’ I’m not familiar with computer games but I was impressed by yours.”

“Thank you.”

“But it’s not what I expected.” Iris’s eyebrows knitted. “Why did you create the game?”

Tyler seemed deep in thought as he sipped his coffee. “We designed ‘Osiris’s Journey’ to introduce teens and preteens to Egyptian mythology.”

“Osiris is considered the king of the afterlife.”

Tyler nodded. “For example, he’s credited with the harvest and renewal of crops, the flooding of the Nile, the rising and setting of the sun. The game is a series of battles between Osiris and his brother, Seth, who murdered him and cut his body into fourteen pieces. Seth is the god of storms and the desert.”

“It looks like an exciting game. I’m glad that you included Osiris’s wife, Isis, as well.”

“Isis is critical to Osiris’s story.” Tyler’s deep voice quickened with enthusiasm. “After Seth cut Osiris’s body into fourteen pieces, Isis searched their kingdom until she found each one. Then she used her magic to put him back together and bring him back to life.”

“I’m familiar with their mythology. It’s such a bittersweet love story. She was really devoted to him.” What would it be like to have someone love her that much? Sometimes she wondered whether she’d ever find love, true love.

Iris set the thought aside and moved on to the next agenda item, social media. “I couldn’t find Anderson Adventures on Facebook or Twitter. Do you have those accounts?”

“No.” Tyler looked as though she’d asked if he’d ever traveled off planet.

Iris’s eyebrows knitted in confusion. “You sell computer games. Your audience is on the internet. Anderson Adventures needs to get on the social media bandwagon—Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram—”

“Slow down.” Tyler held up a hand. “We don’t have the staff to maintain those sites.”

“I can get us started for now.” Iris watched him lower his hand. “We’ll discuss your hiring college interns to maintain the sites once I’m gone.”

“All right.” But he didn’t sound happy about it.

“You’re a computer gaming company.” Iris swallowed back her growing agitation. “It’s critically important for you to be active on social media. Your customers are there.”

“We’ve never had a marketing consultant tell us any of this before.” Tyler stared down at the meeting agenda as though it was a death warrant. “This partnership is going to change the company in ways I’d never imagined.”

“That’s a good thing.” Iris surrendered to her indignation. “Your previous marketing consultants should have set up your social media platforms. They should have given you a plan on how to run it. What were you paying them for?”