Page 25 of Cocky Tech God

“Nice to meet you, Lydia,” I said, watching.

“You, too, sir.” She opened and closed the door, muffling Joy’s cries from the other side.

“So sorry about that.” Calista waved me over to the couch. She sat and her gaze leveled on me until I joined her. “I think she might be teething. Or something.” She laughed nervously. I’d never seen her, a powerful CEO, be so flustered.

“She’s a baby. There’s no handbook, am I right?” I patted her knee. It was so weird to think a year previous, she and I had been screwing like rabbits every chance we got in between panels and parties. Now, it was like seeing an old friend.

“No, there isn’t. But seriously, can’t you develop an app for new parents.”

I chuckled. “And what should this app do, exactly?”

She put a palm to each her of her cheeks. “Everything.”

“You’re doing fine,” I said because that’s what people say. But also because I knew it was true.

“Oh, you’re useless.” She flicked her hand over the side of my thigh. “I should ask Lucia Mendez. I bet she would develop something using her AI technology.”

The mention of Lucia’s name made my heart quicken.

“I suppose she’d be the one to do it.”

Calista paused, her sharp blue eyes taking me in, assessing me like the calculating businesswoman she was. “I think you should watch out for her.”

“What do you mean?”

“No offense, but I think if she can survive the three/four-year mark, she might actually be your biggest competitor.”

I sat back. The thought had crossed my mind. She was already my competitor for the Morgan Financial Holdings’s contract. And her name had already been on the lips of some of the people I networked with that evening.

“You might be right.”

“What do you know about her? Are you acquainted at all?”

Were we acquainted? I didn’t even know how to answer that question. Yes, we were acquainted. We were more than acquainted. We were… Images of our first night came to mind. Breaking her rules. I couldn’t stop thinking about breaking her rules. If tonight went as I expected, I’d break every one of them. Over and over. Maybe even come up with some new ones and break those too.

“Hansen?”

Calista’s voice jolted me from my thoughts.

“Yeah…I know her. We both are in the New York Technology Professionals Society, so yeah, I see her all the time.”

Calista’s eyebrow raised. “Oh, she lives in New York?”

I nodded. “She does.”

The silence grew, and for the first time I didn’t know how to fill it. I was good at chit chat, banter, talking game, if you will. But this time, I was blank. I didn’t know how to talk about Lucia.

“And?”

“And yes, she’s going to be a force. I know it.” I rubbed my hands together. “She just needs to get a reputation. Now that she’s at the conference, I don’t think it’ll be hard. Already people have been talking about her.”

“She did make quite a stir at the first panel of the conference.” Calista laughed, and just then Lydia came back with a now-quiet Joy in her arms.

“She just needed a new nappy.” Lydia walked to the couch, ready to unload the baby in someone else’s arms.

“Want to hold her?” Calista asked me, her eyes large and warm blue—a contrast from her normal piercing gaze.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

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