No Time Like Mardi Gras by Kimberly Lang Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t appreciate the profit—he did, very much so—and he was proud of the success they’d had, but some days were just frustrating.
    Memory leaks were notoriously hard to find, but that didn’t change the fact that they needed to find this one pretty damn quick. Everyone at Rainstorm—from him and Eric down to the newest intern—was going blind examining code. If they didn’t release a patch soon, a horde of angry trolls—trolls he’d designed—was going to descend upon his office and feed him to the dragons as a sacrifice. This was not a problem he needed running up to the official launch, and the clock was ticking.
    Frustrated, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
    “Trouble in your post-apocalyptic dystopian zombie paradise?”
    He looked up to see Callie in his doorway. “The zombies are fine. It’s Dungeons of Zhorg that’s glitching.”
    Callie shook her head in mock sympathy. “I just hate when that happens.”
    “So do several thousand users,” he said, but Callie didn’t take the hint, making herself comfortable on his couch instead. He knew her well enough to know that the quickest way to get her out of his office was to let her say whatever she’d come to say. “What brings you by, Callie?”
    “I was in the neighborhood. I’m on my way to scout a possible wedding location in the graveyard.”
    Callie specialized in planning themed weddings—the more out there, the better. “The graveyard? How romantic.”
    She shrugged. “The bride wants an Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire –type feeling, but elegant.”
    “And yet that still doesn’t tell me why you’re here.” Although they’d ended badly ten years ago, Callie had rebuilt her life pretty much from scratch, and that he had to respect. Now they were in a good, but weird, place—or at least he assumed it was weird, not having any other ex-girlfriends he would now call friends. Regardless, it wasn’t the kind of friendship where she would just drop by unannounced and for no reason.
    She leveled a hard look at him. “I’ve got a big favor to ask you.”
    “Now is not a good time to ask me for favors. My plate is rather full at the moment.”
    “I know, but you know I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important.”
    There was a fine line between being the kind of guy who was there for his friends and being a complete sucker. Why did he have a feeling he was about to be asked to cross it? “You can ask, but I don’t guarantee I’ll be able to do it.”
    “I need you to take over The Ex Factor for a few weeks.”
    She had to be kidding. The Ex Factor was one of the most popular items on Callie’s all-things-love-and-weddings website. For some reason he’d never really understand, a column where he and his high school ex-girlfriend offered he-said-she-said advice to the lovelorn had proven wildly popular, and that popularity had helped Callie grow her fledging business into a success. He was glad he’d been able to help. “Absolutely not.”
    “Please, Colin? I want to go to that bridal show in Houston, and that plus everything else means I won’t have a lot of spare time. I can prewrite and load some other posts, but I’ll need someone to monitor the questions sent in for Ex Factor and answer a few.”
    He tried to appeal to her logic. “If you’re not writing your side, it’s not really an Ex Factor anyway. Put it on hiatus until you get back and caught up.”
    “It’s too popular to put on hiatus. And it’s a major promo tool for me. I might actually lose business if it goes dark for weeks. I’ve worked too hard to risk that.”
    Callie knew exactly where to aim. He’d gotten over the emotional part of their breakup years ago, but he’d lost respect for Callie when she’d blown that scholarship. Her determination to build her business and the way she’d done it had really been what had helped repair their friendship. He didn’t want to see her lose the ground she’d fought to gain. And damn it,