Casual Affair

“It’s not working!” Felicity shrieked, waving her arms wildly in the air.

Bea calmly walked to her sister with her arms outstretched. “Whoa, whoa. What’s not working?”

“The tour program!” Felicity screamed.

Bea froze. “What do you mean it’s not working?” she asked carefully. She could feel her breakfast start to rise up her throat. Scrambled eggs had not been a good idea.

“I mean the entire 3D tour part of the software isn’t working. The data and all the other information are in there, but the tour application won’t run. I’ve tried everything.”

Shit.

They were screwed without that virtual tour. It was the only way the clients could get a real feel for their work without visiting the sites themselves. Still photographs just didn’t do the work justice. Without the program, they ran the risk of missing out on some big business.

She followed Felicity back to the conference room. She saw the laptop on the table hooked up to a flat-screen television hanging on the wall, but the picture was just a giant Blue Screen of Death.

Not good.

“Did you try rebooting the program?”

Felicity huffed impatiently. “Yes. I tried that and did all of those other troubleshooting steps the help guide suggests, but nothing is working.”

“Did you call the IT guy?”

She started pacing again. “Yes, and nothing he suggested worked, either. He said he wasn’t sure what it could be without getting on the actual computer. But he can’t get here until tomorrow because he has a lot of jobs today. I have no clue what to do.”

Bea typed a few commands on the keyboard, but nothing happened. She checked the settings on the computer and did everything else she could think of—even checking to make sure everything was plugged in properly—but there was no change.

Since Felicity was already freaking out, Bea knew she had to be the calm sister. But it was difficult. She knew next to nothing about this kind of technology. Her mind was spinning like crazy, considering all the possible scenarios. But there was just no way to do the same type of presentation with so many clients without that program. The word disaster came to mind.

Through her swirling haze of panic, one face—one name—started flashing in her head in bright neon lights.

Zane.

The software wasn’t an Envision Tech product, but Zane knew computers. He used to be a software developer, so he might know how to fix it. Right?

She looked down at her watch. The clients would be there in an hour and a half. She had to at least try. She walked into the other room and dialed him.

“Well, I didn’t expect to hear from you this morning,” he purred through the line. “Missed me, did you?”

She wasted no time with pleasantries, though his voice did help soothe some of her nerves. “Zane, I need your help.” She quickly explained the situation and begged him to come take a look.

“I’m on my way,” was his response before he hung up. He hadn’t questioned anything, hadn’t even hesitated to come immediately.

That sent a lightning bolt of…something…straight into her heart.

Felicity’s hysterics weren’t helping, so Bea sent her to the grocery store to buy refreshments for the clients. With the office quiet, she could finally catch her breath and gather her thoughts.

That was, until Zane showed up.

Then she lost her breath all over again. Because he was carrying a huge bouquet of white lilies.

When did he have time to buy those?

He noticed her reaction to the flowers and beamed at her. “See. I told you that information would come in handy one day.”

To her surprise, he dropped the bouquet on a nearby table and came straight to her, took her face in his hands, and placed a deep, comforting kiss on her lips.

She was a goner.

He pulled away, grinning down at her like he hadn’t just tilted her world on its axis. “Show me what we’ve got.”

She didn’t even know if he could actually help. Just the fact that he was there playing her knight in shining armor made it seem like everything was somehow going to be okay. For the first time in her entire life, she actually wanted a savior to rescue her.

He sat down at the table and got to work, while she stood anxiously behind him. Her phone, which she’d left on the table next to the laptop, buzzed with a text. Zane automatically reached for it, and although she had the feeling he hadn’t meant to snoop, she knew he’d glimpsed the message flashing on the screen. She muttered a “thanks” when he wordlessly handed it over.