I made a note to talk to Beck about it. He knew a lot about finance and coding and could help his sisters. Hopefully, he would give them time-consuming tasks that would keep them busy so I could work on salvaging the AstraDrone contract.
It wasn’t even clear if that company would even grant Quantum Cyber a second look. The only thing we had going for us was that it wasn’t a formal process. Mark and Finn were simply out contacting companies. I had helped Beck with proposals before for big clients, and I knew that Quantum Cyber’s rates and services were very competitive.
But it wasn’t like Beck was just going to call Mark up and be like, “Hey, we know we screwed up. Can we pretty please do another presentation?”
This situation needed finesse. And baked goods. But I couldn’t just show up at the AstraDrone office with a box of doughnuts and call it a day. Besides, Mark and Finn were probably like Beck, who rarely ate sweets. I needed Mark to have Quantum Cyber in the forefront of his mind, and that required something unique and unexpected.
Focaccia? Pizza? Pastry with a USB drive baked into it? I’d need to think on it.
“What can we make for you today?” Annie chirped to a man who had walked up to the counter.
“Aren’t you a little young to be working behind the counter?”
That voice…
Oh, fuck no!
I jumped up to accost Kaden. “Get away from them!” I yelled.
We were in the slow period of the day, and the lobby was sparsely populated. I wasn’t worried, though, because there was a security guard at the front desk by the tower entrance.
Kaden didn’t seem fazed at all.
“So this is your new babysitting job?” Kaden asked. He was about my height but rail thin and pasty.
“Do you still live with your mom?” I shot back.
He advanced on me. “I told you New York City is expensive,” he snarled, face screwed up.
The girls raced around the counter to stand protectively by me.
“Leave her alone!”
Kaden’s features settled. “It’s all right. Tess and I are dating.”
“We aren’t,” I corrected.
“You said that you wanted to break up because I lived with my mom.”
“We went on two dates, and then I told you it wasn’t going to work out,” I corrected.
“Because I didn’t have my own place,” he interjected.
“More so that you sent me two hundred text messages in the span of a week. It was too much.”
But Kaden steamrolled ahead like he didn’t even hear me, which he probably hadn’t because among his many issues was that he never seemed to listen to a word I said.
“I have a new apartment,” he bragged, “and now you can move in.”
“She’s not, so go away,” Enola snapped.
“You have to move in with me,” Kaden demanded. “I need you to pay your half of the rent.”
“Not happening,” I snapped, trying to use my most authoritative voice.
Kaden’s face screwed up in anger, and he balled his fists. “You led me on.”
“I never did,” I argued. “I blocked you on all social media platforms and told you numerous times to leave me alone.”
