Page 63 of Mayhem
It wasn’t until she left the shop an hour later that she realized whoever that was hadn’t called or texted her. She wouldn’t worry about it. If they wanted an appointment, they’d reach out when they could.
17
Cruz sat in the conference room with the software engineers who were working on the next update for Mask,his business security system. It wouldn’t be ready for a few months since they were still working out the kinks, but they would implement retina scanners into the program. His company already offered them as a separate security measure for two-step verification. Now, he wanted to incorporate them into the primary system.
Once the update rolled out, his customers would have the option of having a technician enable the feature, whether in person or remotely. It was easier to roll it out in segments, and Cruz was going over how he wanted it done when his phone vibrated on the table. Looking down, Maly flashed across the screen, and he excused himself from the table.
“Hey, Maly,” he greeted, standing before the floor-to-ceiling one-way windows.
“Hey, babe. Are you busy?”
“No, I’m not,” Cruz responded. He’d paused his meeting, but they could wait a few minutes.
“I wanted to know if you had plans Saturday.”
“I don’t, but I get the feeling you’re about to change that.”
Erin laughed on the other end. “I hope so. Do you want to go out with me on Saturday? We can make a day of it, just the two of us.”
“Sure, baby. Is there something, in particular, you want to do?”
“I’m going to plan it all out, and once I do, I’ll let you know what time, and I’ll pick you up.”
Cruz ran his index finger and thumb over his beard. “If what you want to do is in the city, it might be easier for me to come to you.”
“You have a point,” she responded. “I won’t keep you from your work any longer. I’ll text you when I have a time.”
“Okay, baby. I’ll talk to you later.”
They ended the call, and Cruz turned toward the engineers to catch them quickly, looking away from him. He rolled his eyes as he returned to the table. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t known some, if not most of them, were listening to his conversation. He didn’t care.
Resuming the meeting, Cruz went over the rollout schedule. It would be easier to segment the businesses by groups, placing them in categories with similar companies and rolling them out from those that required the highest level of security he offered to those that used his systems primarily to track when employees came and went.
Once the meeting was over, Cruz returned to his office to respond to a few emails he had not had time to previously.
As he responded to the emails, he drifted to his upcoming date with Erin. It was the first time the two of them would be going out alone, and she’d been the one to initiate it. Usually, he and Paetyn tended to wait a little longer before going out separately with whomever they were dating. However, Cruz wasn’t going to say no to her wanting to spend time with him, and she already seemed more comfortable in their relationship than anyone else at their current stage.
When he finished responding to emails, he glanced at the time. He needed to look at Amir’s information regarding thebusinesses they wanted systems for. He could stay at the office and do it, but he didn’t see a point since he could do so at home.
Cruz reviewed his schedule for the following day, ensuring his first appointment wasn’t until ten. He and Paetyn were having breakfast with their parents tomorrow, and he was sure the subject of them introducing Erin to them would come up again. He’d let Paetyn deal with it if it did. His mother tended to get a one-tracked mind when she’d set it to something, and meeting Erin as their girlfriend was where her thoughts were now.
At five, Cruz stepped out of his office after locking everything up. His assistant was on the phone, and he nodded to her as he walked to the elevator. He knew it would be another fifteen minutes before she left.
Five o’clock traffic was congested as usual, and it took him over half an hour to get home. He pulled into the garage and went into the house. He knew Paetyn wasn’t home and wouldn’t be for a while. He would be atAficionadofor the night.
Cruz walked into his bedroom, loosening his tie. He toed his shoes off and put them in the closet. He then went into the office attached to his bedroom to look at the number of businesses and the type of security they would require so he could give Amir an answer soon.
He knew, at minimum, that it would take a week to install the extra ones. They were all business systems, which could take anywhere from three to four hours a piece to set up. Unlike Mercury, the personal home systems that could be done in an hour to an hour and a half.
He was not going to work nonstop while he was there. It would be counterproductive, and if he tried to do more than he could in a day, he might install something incorrectly, and he didn’t need that happening.
Cruz knew he could ask Erin to go with him, but he wasn’t sure when she wanted to open her shop, and it wouldn’t be fairof him to try to monopolize her time for a month. He wouldn’t dwell on it right then. He’d have time to figure something out when he made his decision.
Paetyn sat at his desk atAficionado. One of his sous chefs called in sick, and the other was on vacation. He had the extra staff he’d hired to cover it but was there in case they got too busy, and he needed to help in the kitchen. They’d been open an hour, and he’d been in the office deciding what limited-time item he wanted to add to his menus in honor of Father’s Day the following week.
He didn’t want to add one generic item to every menu because his restaurants differed. He’d chosen six so far and wanted at least eight to ten to spread over all twenty-four restaurants. Admittedly, he should have selected earlier since his goal was to email what he’d chosen to all of his general managers and chefs by the end of the night.
His phone ringing drew his attention. Paetyn picked it up as Angel lit up the screen.
