Love Like Salt by Noja Lina
General Release Date: 7th February 2023
Word Count: 47,774
Book Length: SHORT NOVEL
Pages: 180
Genres:
CONTEMPORARY,ENEMIES TO LOVERS,EROTIC ROMANCE,GAY,GLBTQI,VALENTINES
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Book Description
Love doesn’t always have to be sweet or feature something grand. Like salt in food, it’s the small, often-overlooked things that actually enhance the experience.
Theo wants to join the workforce. He participates in marketing competitions to gather enough confidence to do that, but loses against Zack, a freshman in the Management Department. They both hold a grudge and glare at each other on campus, especially when Zack takes the last serving of Theo’s favorite meatballs at the canteen.
However, due to the budding romance between Theo’s classmate Maya and Zack’s roommate Will, all four of them team up for the next marketing competition, brieFEST. As if creating a Valentine’s Day campaign proposal for table salt wasn’t challenging enough, Theo also has to deal with Zack’s annoying tongue clicking, various tensions between teammates, his own competence-related insecurities, and—worst of all—an unwelcomed, growing attraction toward Zack.
Meanwhile, the team still has to finish a project that stands a chance of getting first place at brieFEST. How will they do that within a month with so many things going on for all four of them?
The only solution is throwing spaghetti at the wall—and hoping something sticks.
Reader advisory: This book has a scene of public sex.
As he got ready for bed, a knock came at Theo’s door, so he went to open it, freezing when he saw Zack with a backpack and his laptop.
Casually, Zack asked, “Do you offer sanctuary to refugees fleeing from PDA?”
“Uh, sure,” Theo said, stepping aside so Zack could come in. “Is Maya still in your room?”
“Yeah. As the beers kept getting emptied, the flirting got more hardcore. Although I minded my own business, being a third wheel was getting annoying, and I couldn’t concentrate on making pack designs.”
“You’ve already started on that? We don’t even have our brand yet. You can get some rest and do those some other time.”
“We have a working name and tagline. That’s enough for me to make some drafts.” Zack sat on the floor, crossing his legs and opening his laptop. “I’d like to not go back to my room until morning and spend the night here, if that’s okay. I’ll be working for the better part of it anyway, then I can just sleep on the floor. If the light from the laptop bothers you, I can sit over there.” Zack pointed toward the other end of the room, where the door was.
“Or…you can sleep on my bed when you feel like it,” Theo offered, making Zack raise an eyebrow. “By that, I mean you can have my bed and I’ll text my roommate to see if I can sleep in his.”
“No need to bother with that.”
Even so, Theo texted Pete to ask if he could use his bed. His roommate replied fast, saying it was fine as long as he changed the pillowcase afterward. Then, Theo showed the text message exchange to Zack like their sleeping arrangement was a done deal already, and there was no use arguing further about it.
“Can I see the pack design drafts?” Theo asked.
“If you want, but they’re only rough sketches, so there wouldn’t be any real point.”
“Then”—Theo paused to gather some courage for the next question—“can I see your proposal for the employee-retention campaign?”
Zack furrowed his brow. “Why? You still wanna check if it was a legit win?”
“I wanna see how it was better than my team’s proposal, so I’ll know where I should improve,” Theo admitted, and he could tell Zack was studying his level of sincerity.
He must’ve passed, because Zack agreed. “All right. Then, I wanna see your team’s proposal, too.”
This time, Theo frowned. “Why? So you can criticize it?”
“Yes. But that should be something you seek out if you really wanna improve. Also, it’s been established today that there are still things for me to learn, too.”
They sent each other their presentation files, but Theo hesitated in opening Zack’s. It was scary thinking that his proposal might be very different and a hundred times better, because such gaps would indicate that Theo was way behind Zack in capabilities and it would shake his confidence harshly. Even so, he opened the presentation and began reading.
As Theo went over the file, his unease morphed into confusion. Zack had also conducted interviews with employees from the audit company, he’d identified the same problems and detailed similar solutions to those that Theo’s team had. There was an overarching difference in the presentations, though, but Theo couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was. He just felt that there was an air of professionalism to Zack’s proposal that likely put it above all the other afterschool-project type of proposals the jury must have seen.
At one point, however, Theo came across a factual difference. “You’ve stretched the timeline to three years… But the brief said the campaign’s duration should be one year.”
“Yeah, and I told the judges that expecting something non-superficial within a year was unrealistic and irresponsible. Before you ask, yes, I worded that less bluntly during the pitch.”
Probably because Theo just stared at him, Zack elaborated.
“People don’t change or let go of grudges easily. Think about it. Our grudge lasted two months and we’re still not over it. Imagine when people have piled up frustrations from multiple sources across several years. Do you think something like a Free-Pizza-Friday will cause any significant shift in that? I know you don’t, ’cause your team also proposed systematic core changes, like reducing redundancy in work methodology and making the work schedule more flexible. Like with our ‘salt in food’ concept, it’s the everyday things that can built up either frustration or a sense of appreciation. Because we need to chip away at something negative that’s piled up, it takes time. People’s attitudes can quickly change from positive to negative, but it’s a lengthy process when it’s the other way around. It’s either obliviousness or wishful thinking to expect that this company’s problems could be solved within a year. If you go to the next slide, I have more thorough arguments there.”
Theo didn’t need to do that to know that Zack was right, but he was still stunned that someone had completely ignored a stated requirement in favor of making a more realistic proposal.
“That’s the one thing I’d improve upon in your team’s proposal,” Zack said. “Either you guys were too idealistic, thinking that results would be noticeable after only a year, or you prioritized following arbitrary rules over the laws of reality.”
“Both,” Theo admitted after thinking about it. “Thanks for the feedback.”
“I believe you meant to say, ‘Thank you for sharing your infinite wisdom, Zack-sensei’,” he said, with a playful grin.
Theo laughed. “See? Using a joking tone when saying something arrogant makes things way better—like I told you.”
“Thank you for your social wisdom, Theo-sensei.”
Ah, shit. I didn’t need to see this cute side of him when we’re alone in a room together. Gotta redirect the conversation fast.
“Why didn’t you accept the work offer, though?” Theo asked.
“Why would I wanna work for a company that has these problems?” Zack asked, pointing to the presentation on the screen. “Also, I have my own goals that don’t involve me being an employee. The first is ensuring that me and Mom can live comfortably without her having to work over twelve hours per day for that. That’s set for the next five years. Overall, I wanna manage Zelicious in its entirety, then expand it by opening stores in multiple locations and, later on, maybe turn it into a franchise. I’ll need a lot of money for such investments, so I did offer to work for that audit company as a subcontracted consultant with a fair rate. I guess they thought it was arrogant for a college freshman to value his own time and contributions like that or they thought they could do fine on their own, because they didn’t get back to me on it. My prediction is that they’ll implement my proposed solutions in a half-assed way, get subpar results and conclude it wasn’t worth taking a kid seriously after all.”
It seemed that Zack also had a cynical side to him, but Theo’s overall impression was something else. “You’re so cool.”
“Well, yeah, of course,” Zack said, smiling and looking flattered.
A phone rang then, startling them both.
“Why’s Mom calling at this hour?” he asked, referring to the fact that it was midnight, then answered. “Hello?” Again, Theo could only hear his side of the conversation. “Oh, well, thank you, but you shouldn’t have stayed up so late just for this.” Zack smiled, expressing gratitude a few more times and saying, “Happy birthday to you, too… Uh, I mean love you, too. Go get some sleep now. Goodnight.”
“Happy birthday,” Theo said when the call ended.
“Thanks. One more year to go till my age starts with a ‘two’ and people might take me more seriously.”
“Shouldn’t we be celebrating? I can call Will and Maya over, and we can do something fun.”
“That’s not necessary. Let them flirt in peace.”
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Noja Lina
New writer on the romance block, Noja Lina likes writing uplifting contemporary romance stories. These stories are centered around engaging male characters, usually dealing with personal struggles alongside love struggles.
Noja lives in Romania, specifically Transylvania. When she’s not working at her full-time job or working on one of her stories, she enjoys her one-sided love relationship with various forms of Asian media, enjoys adding another cooking fail to the collection and hanging out with friends over a cold beer.
Find Noja on her website, on Facebook and on Twitter.
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