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Zara nods appreciatively. “You know I keep turning down offers for Nathan and Max? The whole of Silicon Valley is desperate to take them away from you…”
“Doesn’t surprise me. They’re two of the best engineers in the country. I assume you’re also still getting plenty of offers for Olivia, too.”
“Oh, yeah.”
I turn my sights back on my superstar, briefly wondering what she does with her spare time. Does she live here in the city? Does she rent? I think her parents are Sacramento natives, so it’s possible she still lives with them. I remember she has several brothers. A big family. Do they all stay in the same house, or are the boys out of state? Maybe I should ask her all these questions instead of trying to guess from a handful of lines in her resume.
“My God, Will, you’re into her,” Zara says, and I instantly shush her.
“You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Oh, but I know what I’mseeing. Dude, you are interested, to say the least. But you know you can’t make a move on the girl. Your stock value will drop.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes at that statement. “I know…”
“You shouldn’t do anything before the FEMA bid, that’s all I’m saying. Let your stock value go up in anticipation and let the tabloids cry with hunger for a few months. Come November, once the money is in on all sides and you sell your shares like we agreed, you’re gonna make a second fortune. That’ll put the space program back on track.”
“Zara, you’re not telling me anything new at this point. It just irks me that the market itself is so frickin’ volatile and dependent on my personal life. It’s ridiculous…”
“No more ridiculous than the entire NFT trend but hey… crazy times, right?” She chuckles, then starts flipping through her smartphone. “By the way, you’re up three percent since Olivia joined the company. Soon enough, the vultures are gonna start circling, so you should tell her to be careful. Eventually, they’ll find out where she lives; they’re gonna try to approach her, too.”
I nod slowly, watching Olivia as she gets up from her desk and walks over to one of the massive east-facing windows. Every time she passes by the potted cactus she calls Pepe, I see the hint of a smile fluttering across her lips. It brings her a smidge of joy, and I like how that makes me feel. Her wellbeing seems to be directly connected to mine, though I’m not sure when the fusion happened.
“She’s been made aware,” I tell Zara. “Besides, she’s bound by a pricey NDA and certainly smart enough to know to keep her mouth shut with anyone outside the company.”
“She has four brothers, and her parents. Surely she’s likely to talk to them about this. Don’t you want me to reach out and get each of these people to sign something, as well?”
“Then you might as well go up the entire family tree and email their seventy-year-old aunt from Fort Lauderdale, too, while you’re at it,” I reply dryly. “It’s fine, Zara. They wouldn’t know what to tell the press, anyway, beyond ‘Olivia works for this tech company in Sacramento.’ I’m not worried.”
Zara laughs lightly and glances out the door once more. It’s getting repetitive and therefore I assume it’s with purpose. In the meantime, Olivia is back at her workstation, typing away and completely oblivious to the outer world.
I’ll have Alina bring up some lunch from the cafeteria for her. She keeps forgetting to eat, I’ve noticed. Then again, there’s a lot I’m noticing about Olivia that I wouldn’t see about anyone else. I like watching her, studying her, figuring her out.
“What’s going on?” I ask Zara. “You’ve been eyeing the door repeatedly.”
“Oh, Lilian Darcy is on her way,” she replies, a smile teasing the corner of her mouth. “It’s why I came over, actually. She mentioned she was going to drop by the office today.”
“Hold on. Zara… do you have the hots for Lilian?”
“Maybe.”
It’s my turn to laugh. “Oh, wow. Okay. Listen, the divorce is gonna be painful and messy, but if you present yourself as an adequate shoulder to cry on, she might just take you home.”
“That is precisely my intention.” Zara giggles, her gaze lighting up when the elevator doors ding open and in comes Lilian. “There she is.”
Despite her diminutive stature, Lilian is the kind of woman whose fiery personality can fill an entire room. Today she’s wearing a dark green tweed pencil skirt, paired with a white linen shirt and a black lace bra that’s barely hinted underneath. It’s her conquering look—I’ve seen her wear something similar whenever she wanted to reassure herself that she could still turn a head or ten. She has certainly succeeded in turning Zara’s at this point.
“I didn’t think I’d see you here so soon after I hired Olivia,” I say as Lilian comes into my office and drops her purse on the edge of my desk. “I’m not giving her up.”
“Yeah, I saw how committed she is. The girl’s got her head so deep in work, she didn’t even see or hear me say hello.” Lilian sighs, only half-feigning disappointment. “I could throw a million dollars at her feet right now, and she wouldn’t give a damn.”
“I guess you came all the way out here for nothing,” I reply.
Lilian cocks her head to the side. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not here for you.”
“Oh?” Zara and I ask at the same time.
“Well, your brilliant lawyer here has been going on about introducing me to an expert divorce litigator,” Lilian says, looking straight at a surprised Zara. “I figured I might as well take you out to lunch and talk more about it.”
