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I laughed. That’s what I loved about Melinda: she was blunt. In a supportive way, not like Amber. Melinda had only been with us for a month, but it felt like we had worked together for a lifetime. We wouldn’t have gotten anything done without her. And she was smart as hell, too.
“She was making a scene in front of Mr. Rossi,” I said. “I had to kick her out.”
“You could have been nicer about it.”
“You don’t get to my position by being a nice guy,” I replied.
Her jaw tightened a little more. “You should still apologize.”
“Not gonna happen, Melinda.”
“I know how to read people, Owen,” she insisted. “It’s kind of my superpower. And Amber seems like the kind of person youdon’twant on your bad side.”
“What’s she going to do? Call me mean names? After cunt-waffle, there’s not much room to get worse.”
Melinda shrugged, gave me a look like I was making a huge mistake, and then left my office.
What’s with everyone trying to police my attitude?I thought as I packed up for the evening.They should be bending to my will, not the other way around.
I swung by Jude’s office to say goodbye, then paused in front of Amber’s. She was hunched over her keyboard, the terrible posture of a coder hard at work. I waved to her through the glass door, and she glanced up and actually smiled before waving back at me.
See? She’s already forgotten all about what happened.
I normally didn’t leave the office this early, but the Lakers were in town to play the Warriors. I had season tickets, but tonight was extra special: I had swapped the tickets with a friend to get courtside seats. I wanted to taunt LeBron James right to his face when the Warriors beat them by twenty points.
I called an Uber, and by the time I went downstairs and chatted with Melinda for a few minutes, it was waiting for me. I was toying around with the idea of hiring a private driver. Now that our net worth was rising along with our fame, it was risky to hop into the back of a random car with a driver I didn’t know. The only reason I hadn’t hired a private driver was because Jude said it made us look pretentious.
I didn’t think that was the case. You could never looktooimportant in this business. But still, I waited. Maybe when ACS had attained the vaunted “unicorn” status I would finally pull the trigger.
My condo was on the top floor of the Grosvenor Building over on Cal Street. Unlike the huge skyscraper where Jude had an apartment, the Grosvenor Building was only six stories, which gave it a more intimate, luxurious feel.
I glanced up at the camera outside my door, which checked my identity with facial recognitionandverified that I was alone. If I ever brought visitors back to my condo, I pre-programmed it into the computer ahead of time. That way, if someone mugged me on the street and forced me to let them into my condo, the computer would recognize it and call the police.
Being on the top floor meant enjoying vaulted ceilings and wide, airy windows. The floors were made from planks of Brazilian sandalwood, and frescos decorated the two main walls in the living space.
“Counselor - disable security,” I said.
The smooth, reed-like voice of Marina Sirtis responded from a speaker in the ceiling: “Security disabled. Welcome home, Owen.”
The whole condo was connected to a custom Home-AI that I had developed, with voice-activation commands that could be triggered from microphones in every room. The AI controlled everything from my closet door locks to the climate control to the smart-fridge grocery delivery list.
What a time to be alive.
Tux, my orange tabby, hopped down from the couch and went to the private terrace door. I opened the door for him so he could jump up onto the terrace chair and look out at the city. A few skyscrapers stretched high above me. The Bay Bridge was peeking between two buildings to the east, and due north was a little speck of land that I knew was Alcatraz Island. The sun was falling lazily to my left, and a wisp of clouds were rolling out across the bay. It would be a chilly night.
“Counselor - proximity lights,” I said.
“Proximity lights enabled,” the Home-AI replied dutifully.
As I walked through my condo, the lights automatically turned on ahead of me and flicked off behind. I had originally used ambient microphone noise to detect my position in the house, but Tux kept setting it off by running around and playing with his toys. Now it detected my location via Bluetooth handshakes from the phone in my pocket.
I opened my work laptop in my bedroom and set it on the edge of the bed. The screen flickered strangely as it woke up, but it only lasted a moment. I opened my email client. I had twenty new emails since I left the Uber and walked up to my condo.
“Fuck me,” I grumbled. “What time is it in Italy? Don’t they ever sleep?”
“It is two-fourteen in the morning in Rome, Italy,” my Home-AI replied helpfully.
“Thanks, Counselor.”
