Page 110 of Nothing to Do

THIRTY-FOUR

LEAVING HIM WAS hard. Really hard. He’d been there—in sweats he’d retrieved from a duffel bag she didn’t remember seeing on opening the door—wishing her a good day at the office. How good would it be knowing he was at home? Okay, so she might envy the furniture he sat on, but at least the prospect of him hung on her horizon. He’d be there. He’d promised to be there; they’d have dinner together. One of another string of many, she hoped.

On the island, he’d been home and they’d worked even though she’d technically been on vacation. There in her apartment, was he on vacation? Was that how he saw it? Not as glamorous or luxe as his island, but so long as he was there, that was all she needed. Hopefully, maybe, he’d feel the same way about her. They really had to talk, to look at their relationship seriously and figure it out… or give it up. The latter was definitely option B, maybe option Y or Z because it sure wasn’t high on her list of desired outcomes.

Their offices were on the sixth floor of a building in the center of town. From the outside, it all looked the same. Inside was another story. The elevator doors opened and she stepped out. Everything was different. The carpet on the floor, the paint on the walls and, huh, there was security standing by the door. Had they had their own security agents before?

A new hip-height flapping glass gate by the reception desk stood in the way of the back office. Running her employee-pass over the scanner light… klaxon. Louder than it needed to be too. Try again. What else could she do? Anika hadn’t warned herabout any new security system. On the third try, a pause with no klaxon gave hope and—an alarm blared in the air. On instinct, she ducked, like what the hell? Suddenly security was on her, two of them from somewhere, each with hold of an arm.

“What’s your name?” the first guy asked.

The intrusive alarm changed pitch to something akin to a siren.

“Shouldn’t we… turn that noise off?” she screamed over the sound just as it stopped. Huh. Okay. Clearing her throat, she tried to recover from yelling into the silent room. “Thea. My name is Thea Florin and I’ve worked here for—”

“Thea!” Anika’s voice turned her on the spot. “She’s okay. Let her through.”

The guards did and Anika beeped her through from the other side.

“What’s going on?” she asked on reaching her supervisor. “I knew we were getting a remodel but—”

“Oh, it’s the stupid new security system. They installed it ten days ago and we just can’t get the hang of it. IT say they’re on it, but they’ve been saying that for a week, so…”

“Where do we—”

A lot of previously open plan space had been shuttered up into smaller chunks. Still open plan, just with tall glass partitions. Could be for privacy, or fear of some crazy virus taking over the world. Given society today and its hangups, she’d pick door number one.

On coming to work, her main goal was to be seen by Anika to prove she’d shown up. Now that was done, goal two came into play: explain her less than high spec presentation. Would hooking up with a crazy-hot billionaire count as a good reason? An excuse? Maybe.Reasonmight be a stretch too far.

“We’re in here.”

We…?

Anika swung a right and they entered a boardroom, glass walls again, though all but the external view were opaque.

The dozen people around the table looked pleased to see her. Extra pleased, which was super weird.

“What’s going on?”

“So the contract we won that was meant to pay for these upgrades…” Anika said, leaving her by the door to go to the table. “Yeah, it’s maybe not as guaranteed as we thought.”

“Oh my God, what happened to…?”

“He decided to throw it out for bids.”

Shit. Who’d been stupid enough to…? “Revland did this? Started writing checks before the ink was on paper. That’s insane! He told us it was a done deal. Doesn’t that mean the deal is actually done? God, what an idiot.” Maybe not something she’d have said allowed before her vacation, as the faces around the table suggested. “Sorry, that’s not helpful, I’m still in vacation mode.”

“Who were you calling an idiot on vacation?” Sandreen asked.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“We have to pivot, away from the specifics and out to volumes. We have to show we can handle every project, not just this one. We want to take a holistic view. Talk in broad strokes. Future proofing.”

“While still sounding it and now.”

“Hip and groovy.”

“Okay, the quickest way to do none of those things is to use those words. Enticing the younger generation is something most companies strive for. The difference here is we’re upselling, all the time. If you want to be ready to teach the next big thing, you have to know what it is. A Plus is a telecommunications company, right?”

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