Page 5 of Due Dilligence (Takeover)
“Yeah?” He glanced over and his heart stopped.
Fazil stood there, balancing his open laptop in one hand and holding a Starbucks coffee in the other. He’d lost the suit jacket, but not the tie. “Is now a good time? Stephen said you were the procedure guy.”
Yes. No. Never would be the best time.God, why is he still so beautiful?Todd cleared his throat. “Yeah. Pull up a chair.”
Fazil set down his coffee and laptop before dragging the guest chair over. Next thing he knew, Fazil was sitting there, close enough their shoulders nearly touched. Yes, he was real. The heat, the scent, and the sound of Fazil’s breathing all proved that. “What do you want to know?”
Fazil brushed the keys of his laptop with his fingers before answering in a voice that was too deep to be entirely professional. “Everything.”
God, those eyes. Dark and full of the emotions Todd didn’t want to contemplate.You’re the one who left.“I’m notThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
Fazil’s smile was worse. Sharp and sweet, highlighted with a bit of a blush. Thankfully he looked away. “Well, how ’bout we start with the procedures you’ve written, then I’ll figure out what’s missing?”
“That I can do.” He brought up the procedure folder and walked Fazil through it all, from development to testing to bug fixes to releases. Everything he’d been able to collect and write down when he’d heard Anderson’s team had been hired. Didn’t matter if this was a mission to save them or sell them—something had to be done or they were all out of jobs.
The process of creating all the procedures had helped. They’d known how they did things was dysfunctional—the right hand never knew what the left was up to—but codifying what they did had pointed a spotlight on the deficits.
He hadn’t scraped the surface of what he expected Fazil—and Sam Anderson—might want. Two jobs back, the company he’d worked for had undergone ISO certification. The amount of paperwork had been madness. He put all the files on a thumb drive and handed it to Fazil. “It’s all yours.”
Their fingers brushed and he nearly dropped the damn thing. A flash of heat and a cascade of memories. Those lips, those eyes, that skin.
Fazil’s breath caught. “Thanks.” He stuck the drive into his laptop. “Do you mind if I sit here while I look at these? In case I have any questions?”
Yeah, he did. There was that desire again, to grab that dark tie and either throttle or kiss Fazil. He couldn’t decide which one he wanted more. “Sure. My cube is your cube.” He opened the window he’d been working in before Fazil had arrived.
Surprisingly he slipped back into the groove. Oh, he knew Fazil was there less than an arm’s reach away, but rather than distracting, his presence soothed, like a cool breeze on a hot day. Just as it had so many years ago.
“Hey, Todd?”
Like that, he snapped back into a world not made of Python syntax and statements. Fazil’s voice tickled through his limbs and down into his balls. He glanced at the clock. At least forty-five minutes had passed in his trance. “Yeah?”
“Do you have any documentation on the open source code you guys have used?”
His expression probably answered that question, since Fazil sighed and typed something on his laptop.
“It’s one of the things I’ve hounded people about, but...”
“Never enough time?”
His chuckle was ever so slightly bitter. “Been there, done that, huh?”
“Oh yeah.” Fazil sipped his coffee, though it had to be cold by now. “Many times. But that was before Sam hired me.”
So many things Todd didn’t know. Words slipped from his head, vanishing completely with the need to draw close to the man who had once been his best friend. He gripped the armrests of his chair.What happened, Z?
Before the pause grew more awkward, Fazil set his coffee down. “Anyway, nice job with this. It’s all well organized.” He gestured at the screen.
A barb lay in the little turn in Fazil’s voice. “You sound surprised.”
There was that lovely flush again, this time accompanied by a swallow that bobbed Fazil’s Adam’s apple. “I guess I am. I don’t remember you being... so neat about things.”
Todd snorted. “The mechanic’s son thing made everyone think I was a slob. Greasy rag and all.” His amusement fell into pain. “I thought you knew better, Z.” Had Fazil changedthatmuch?
Fazil’s blush deepened, and he looked at his hands. “I... You weren’t a slob. I didn’t mean that.”
He bit back theThen what the hell did you mean?Because the cube had ears. So many ears. “Do you remember my dad’s garage?”
Fazil got that faraway look. “Yeah.”
