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A while later, Freddy heard someone calling out about something, but he couldn’t make out the details. “What?” he screamed in response as he moved closer to the steps.
“Do you want me to send this to Patrick?” Sabrina shouted down to him.
“Yeah,” he yelled back.
“Even though you told him to push the delivery to next week?”
“Yes.” Screaming up and down the stairs was hurting his throat, but he was in the middle of rotating the pizza so it would cook evenly. “We need to start the new beta tests tomorrow.”
Silence reigned, but it was followed by footsteps thumping down the stairs. Sabrina’s voice came from right beside him as Freddy dumped the salad mix into a bowl.
“I heard the yes and sent the updated manual to him using your security token, since mine seems to have gone the way of my cell phone. But I didn’t catch what you said after yes, so I hope it wasn’t important.” She reached into the bowl and snatched a crouton.
“Hey,” he complained. “You know those are my favorite parts .”
“Carb-monger,” she accused.
“Damn right.”
“What else were you saying?” she asked again.
“Tomorrow, we need to start testing Wils newest code. He thinks we should be able to give the bots subjective commands, now.”
The oven timer dinged, and Sabrina turned to pull it from the oven. “That’s right. I saw his email about that. It doesn’t feel like that was this week,” she added thoughtfully.
“It was Monday, but considering the events since, I can forgive you for losing track of the last forty-eight hours.”
Freddy pulled bowls and plates from the cabinets while Sabrina got them each a fork. “You’resomagnanimous,“ she said sarcastically.
They both grabbed food and moved to the table to eat. “What all do you need to do tomorrow?” Freddy asked. “I’ll handlethe testing, and since you sent off those updates, we’re ahead of schedule. You can spend the day making phone calls or whatever.”
Sabrina had a piece of lettuce hanging half out of her mouth and held up one finger, telling him to wait a minute, before shoving it the rest of the way in and finishing chewing. Some of the creamy dressing was left on her lip. Freddy liked to think he was modern and civilized, but he was still a guy. He couldn’t help wondering what Sabrina would look like with other creamy fluids on her lips. Stopping himself by remembering this was his best friend, Freddy pulled back from the thought. If he’d been less tired and stressed when she kissed him, he might not have blown it. If he were braver, he might try kissing her again. But neither of those were reality.
“I called my mom as soon as I got into town.” Sabrina’s response to his forgotten question jerked Freddy back into the moment.
“How is she?” he asked.
“Good. She was freaking out about the tree, but when I told her I was staying here, she forgot all about it and went into a full-blown panic over me shacking up with a guy who only wants me for sex.” Sabrina sighed.
It made Freddy smile, though. He knew he had issues with his mom. Seeing that Sabrina had her own version of them was somehow reassuring. “I promise I don’t want youonlyfor sex,“ he told her solemnly.
She chucked a crouton at him and laughed when he caught it in his mouth. “Mmm, thanks!”
“Anyway,” she said, shaking her head. “I also called my insurance and have an appointment with them on Friday, so tomorrow will be a normal Thursday at work for me.”
“Thank fuck. I hate working without you around. It’s so much,” he struggled to find the right word before giving up and going with, “work.”
“Not having you around for the past week has made my days a lot less fun as well,” Sabrina agreed.
Chapter 10: Sabrina
The next morning, Sabrina stared at an email from Brian Renner, her heart sinking with each word. Not only was he demanding that she attend the big joint meeting between Dynamic Solutions and Taylor Industries on Monday to discuss the leaked documents, but he was letting them all know that DS expected her to present information on how the leak happened. She flopped her head onto the desk, running her fingers through her dark, wavy hair to swirl it into the chaos she felt inside.
She didn’t know how it happened. The early documents came from a thumb drive Veronica Taylor had been responsible for.Not that Sabrina was, or would ever, blame Veronica. She’d been chased through the woods by a crazy stalker. Sabrina was thrilled the woman survived. Fuck the thumb drive. But the thought of showing up at Dynamic Solutions huge headquarters and letting a bunch of old dudes ask her a billion questions as she tried to explain a leak that didn’t have anything to do with her didn’t feel fair.
Then there was the question of how Taylor Industries would handle the situation. Their contract with DS depended on their ability to securely maintain the software they were working on. No way would the company fire a member of their family, like Freddy or Veronica. But that meant there were limited options for who would take the blame. Considering Sabrina’s name was listed right beside Freddy’s on all the leaked documents, she was a prime candidate. The thought of being dismissed or blamed for the leak made her stomach churn.
There had to be some kind of clue about who had leaked the documents. They knew the person had gotten ahold of Veronica’s thumb drive, and they must have access to the paper files at HQ. That certainly limited the field of suspects, but it begged the question, why. Why would someone connected with Taylor Industries want to leak their secrets?
