17
C ruz 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, Ma?y flashed across the screen, and he excused himself from the table.
“Hey, Ma?y,” 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 the businesses 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 at Aficionado for 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 fair of 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.
P aetyn sat at his desk at Aficionado . 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.
“Hey, Angel.”
“Hi, baby,” she responded.
“How was your day?” Paetyn questioned, leaning back in his seat.
“It was good. I made an Instagram page for the shop, uploaded some photos of the space and my work, and made appointments to meet with sign makers at the beginning of next week. How was yours?”
“It’s been okay. I’m working on some desserts to add to the menus for Father’s Day.”
“Have you chosen any yet?” Erin asked.
“A few. I need about four more.”
“Well, I won’t keep you from it. I was calling to see if you were free Friday or if you’d be at one of the restaurants.”
“I don’t have any plans.”
“Do you want to go out with me? We can spend the day together if that works for you. Just the two of us.”
“Of course, Angel.”
“I’ll text you tomorrow when I know what time.”
“Sounds good, baby.”
They spoke for a few more minutes before hanging up, and Paetyn returned to choosing desserts. It took him another forty-five minutes to decide, but when he did, he sent the selected items to the correct restaurants.
Paetyn went to the kitchen to check on his back-of-house staff. He’d told them to get him if they got overwhelmed, but it seemed they had everything under control. He didn’t like hovering in the kitchen at his restaurants for long periods. He found that if the staff were newer, they tended to get nervous around him. Even if they’d been there a while, their subconscious would mess with them and cause them to mess up on simple dishes.
He left the kitchen and stepped into the dining area. Many patrons turned their attention to him, smiled, and waved, some attempting to flag him over. Paetyn decided to make his rounds to the tables, checking on the guests and staying only a few minutes at each one to not keep them from their meal but to give those attempting to get his attention the face time they wanted.
I t was after one thirty in the morning when Paetyn made it home. He’d stayed for a bit to help the kitchen close down. He went to his bedroom and into the bathroom. As the shower heated, he removed his clothes, put them into the hamper, and placed his shoes by the door so he wouldn’t leave them on his way out.
He entered the shower and stepped under the water spray, running his hand through his hair before grabbing his shampoo. He washed and conditioned his hair before grabbing his towel and body wash.
When he finished his shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and grabbed another one, running it over his hair. He took his shoes and went into his bedroom. After putting his shoes away, he retrieved a pair of boxers and stepped into them. He moisturized, placed both towels into the hamper, and got into bed.
He sat with his back against the headboard as he scrolled through the emails confirming that his general managers and chefs received his containing the desserts and recipes he wanted them to use.
Paetyn looked through his schedule for later in the day. His was never as jam-packed as Cruz’s, and he tended to have more freedom and leeway to get what he needed done. It was one of the perks of his career path and having a competent staff.
Once he had reviewed it, he put his phone on the charger, turned off his bedside lamp, and lay down in bed.
His mind drifted to his date with Erin. He was curious to know what she had planned, but he figured he’d enjoy whatever it was because he’d be with her. He was happy she was comfortable enough in their relationship to want to plan something for them to do.
Paetyn turned onto his side, closed his eyes, falling asleep a few minutes later.
E rin searched for different things she could do with each of her men during their day out. It was the first time she would spend one-on-one time with them, and she was excited. She didn’t mind when they all went out together, but she didn’t feel like she was at a point where she could divide her attention evenly without having to think about it. She wouldn’t have to worry about that this weekend.
She wanted to spend the day with each of them. She knew that Saturday would be better for Cruz because she didn’t want him to leave work early for what she planned. Paetyn was also a bit freer with his schedule, so she’d wanted to spend Friday with him. Chayse was meeting her at the shop Sunday to take more pictures for her, but she’d been prepared to reschedule with her friend if Sunday worked better for either of her boyfriends.
Noon was her ideal start time. She wanted them to do a few things together, ending with dinner. However, she didn’t want the day to seem rushed if she planned the first thing she wanted to do later than that. Erin also didn’t want to do the same thing with them besides dinner.
She didn’t want to do anything too generic and wanted to choose things she thought they’d both enjoy. It took her a couple of hours, but she was able to determine what she would do on each of her dates, except for the restaurant they’d go to. Aside from Paetyn’s and the few she’d been to while visiting before she moved, she wasn’t too familiar with others. She hadn’t gotten around to trying any new ones. She figured she would let them choose.
Erin set her laptop on the coffee table, grabbed the remote, and turned the television on. It was eight thirty, and she was free for the rest of the evening, so she decided to find a movie to watch.
She was an hour into the action movie she’d settled on when her phone rang. Glancing at the screen, she picked it up.
“Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, Bug. How are you? Still settling into your new place well?”
“I’m good, Dad, and I’m settling fine. It’s different from Florida, of course, but I like it. I’m looking forward to the snow this winter. How’s work?”
“Same old, same old. If you’re free next week, I was thinking about flying in for a few days for Father’s Day if nothing comes up.”
“I’d like that, Dad,” Erin responded.
She hadn’t seen her father in person since Christmas. He’d video-called her on her birthday, and they talked on the phone at least once a week, but she missed seeing his face in person. It was hard being so far away from him and her grandmother, but living with him or moving every year or so to follow where he was stationed was not what she wanted to do. And while her grandmother lived in a retirement community, Erin had thought about moving closer to her at one point.
Since losing her sister and mother, she’d had an issue being apart from people she cared about. When she was still seeing one, her therapist told her it stemmed from the trauma, causing anxiety about being alone or left behind to manifest. He’d called it autophobia, and Erin hadn’t known what she felt was an actual medical disorder until that day.
“Great. I’ll book a hotel room and send you my flight information.”
“You don’t have to book a hotel. You can stay with me. I don’t mind sleeping on my couch for a few nights.”
“I’m sure you don’t, Bug, but I mind. So, I’ll be booking a room.”
Erin decided not to argue with him because she got her stubbornness from him, so she knew he wouldn’t change his mind. Instead, she told him about the plans for her shop and asked him if he was seeing anyone yet. She made it a point to ask every so often when they spoke. Her father hadn’t seriously dated since her mother died, and Erin wanted him to know that when he decided to, she would support it.
They spoke for about an hour before saying their good nights and hanging up. Erin looked at the time before turning off the television and entering her bedroom.
She went into the bathroom, started the shower, and washed her face as it heated up before stepping in.
After her shower, she dried off, rubbing her body butter into her skin before slipping into shorts and a tank top and getting into bed. As she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, she made a mental note to text Cruz and Paetyn in the morning.