“And here we are at your home away from home.” Owen’s cheerful voice was a bit grating, but the man was trying to make a good first impression. Interesting how that went. It should have been the other way around, but Daniel’s résumé had spoken for itself. Trendsetters was lucky to have him and they knew it. He’d made sure of it.

They approached a polished, six-by-three-foot desk made of thick light oak. It was identical to the two dozen that were arrayed in neat rows in this section of the office, each with two large monitors that angled toward each other. There were a few people milling about, but for the most part, everyone seemed focused on their computers, earbuds and earphones shutting them out from the rest of the world. They could all be in cubicles for this.

“Jamie set you up with the basics, but if you need additional supplies, they can be found in the supply closet I pointed out earlier. Except for external hard drives,” Owen added. “If you need an extra one, you’ll need to see Laurie in Operations and sign for it.” The HR director clapped his hands together. “Did I miss anything?”

Daniel shook his head. “I think you’ve covered it all. I’m ready to dive in.”

“That’s what I like to hear. And remember, we take ourselves seriously, but not too seriously. Work should be fun.”

Owen clamped a hand on his shoulder, and Daniel fought the urge to knock it off. As the head of Human Resources, Mr. Caldwell here should know better than to put his hands on an employee without their express permission.

He let the incident pass. He wasn’t here to start shit. At least not with some straight-out-of-central-casting HR director. He had a job to do, and it required him to lie low and not make waves.

Daniel rolled the ergonomic office chair back from his desk and sat, nearly groaning at the way it cradled him. Trendsetters didn’t skimp when it came to office furniture, that’s for damn sure. He could live in this chair.

He powered on the twenty-four-inch iMacs and jerked back as a barrage of welcome messages populated the screen.

Owen’s cheerfulness should have forewarned him that Trendsetters was one of those work environments. He’d hoped for at least a day or two before he would be expected to actually interact with people. That was always the hardest part.

He’d been stoked when his new supervisor, Justin Vail, explained that the Research and Development Department was trying to get away from emails and migrate to a messaging system. Nothing chapped his ass more than a bunch of Reply All emails. And that one guy who always replied with Ditto to every email? That asshole could go jump in the river. He wouldn’t be surprised if Owen Caldwell was Trendsetters’ Ditto Guy. He fit the part.