Kaem’s eyes turned to her wonderingly, “The Space-Gen money came in?!”
She nodded, “So, I can stop pulling my hair out for a while. It’ll probably take you a week or two to spend all of that and get us into the red again.”
Kaem turned eagerly to Morales and Contreras, “We need a legal team to help us get rights and permissions to build a space tower down near the coast. If neither of you think you can lead such a team, can you figure out who could do it for us?” He turned to Lee, “Can you fill them in on the details of what we need?”
Lee nodded.
Kaem turned to Arya, “You’ll proceed with hiring all those people?”
She nodded. “And renting the building next door,” she sighed.
“We’ll need some permanent staff down at Staze East, too,” Kaem said. He turned to Gunnar, “How long until you can put staze grates over our windows? We’ll need to hire security guards till that’s done.”
Gunnar shrugged, “I’m workin’ on it. Don’t know how long it’ll take.”
Arya grabbed his elbow and squeezed hard. When he turned to look curiously at her, she leaned close to his ear. “This is a celebration! Stop handing out work.”
He drew back to look at her eyes, saw she was serious, then blinked, “Sorry! You’re right.”
She leaned in again, “I’ve been thinking it’d be nice to announce bonuses for everyone?”
“Sure. How much?”
“I’ve worked out a table of bonuses depending on how much they earn and how long they’ve been with us. I’ll show it to you tomorrow. Tonight, all you have to do is announce that there will be bonuses.”
“No. You’re the one that thought of it. You should make the announcement.”
She frowned at him. “You’re sure?”
He nodded enthusiastically, “Go for it!”
Thinking of how selfless Kaem could be sometimes, she raised her glass again. When she had their attention, she made the announcement to hoots of delight.
As they ate their dinner Arya was once again surprised at how good the food was for such a low rent establishment. She was soon feeling a glow, both from her two glasses of wine and from the camaraderie. She looked around the table, thinking they were at a tipping point. Soon they wouldn’t be able to have pleasant little gatherings of all of Staze’s employees because there’d be too many of them. And, even if they did have a gathering, there’d be too many to know them all.
As the event began to wind down, Kaem leaned closer to her and said, “Can I walk you home?”
Temptation struck her hard for a moment, then she remembered her resolution to help Lee in her pursuit of Kaem since Arya wasn’t interested. She looked Kaem in the eye and said quietly, “If you did that, it’d break Lee’s heart. She really…” Arya abruptly pushed her chair back and stood a little unsteadily, “Oops, gotta visit the ladies’ room.”
As she rounded the end of the table she glanced at the happy group and saw Kaem’s eyes were on her. For a moment her eyes blurred and she thought she might stumble, but she made it to the bathroom. In there, she found herself inexplicably crying. A serious talk with herself got that back in control. When she finished, she dabbed at her eyes and slipped out the back way without saying her goodbyes. I’ll tell them I wasn’t feeling well, she thought.
Knowing she was unsteady, she wondered if she should call an Uber. However, after a few steps, the cool night air braced her enough that she started for home on foot.
Partway there she got a text from Kaem, “You okay?”
She responded, “Felt a little off so I started home. Feeling better now. Tell people I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye.”
~~~
Kaem stared at Arya’s response on his phone’s screen. What’s happening? he wondered. Is she really sick, or, he thought of how she seemed a little bleary, or is she drunk? Either way, shouldn’t I be seeing her home? And what was that about Lee not liking it if I took Arya home? Is Arya trying to push me off onto Lee? Doesn’t want to tell me she’s uninterested, so she’s trying to find me someone else? He shook his head, I need to get the courage to sit down and talk to her about… us.
Kaem looked around and noticed people were getting up and leaving.
Lee sat down next to him. “Wanna walk me home?”
He felt a pang but then gave her a big smile. “I’d love to.”
After they’d walked a block, her hand slipped into his. Surprised like he had been the first time she’d managed it, he thought, I probably shouldn’t ask her what she thinks is going on with Arya. He searched his skull for another topic of conversation, but all he could think of was the space tower—and talking about work was verboten tonight.
Lee said, “We probably shouldn’t be talking business, but I really wanted to ask you about how to move the tower along. Would that be too rude?”
No, he thought. That’d be great! “I’m always up for talking about the tower. What’re you thinking?”
~~~
The walk was pleasant and the conversation about the tower enjoyable—though later he couldn’t remember much of what’d been said. This time when they arrived at Lee’s door there wasn’t an Uber to deal with. She turned and looked at him, “Would you like to come in for a drink?”
He nodded, thinking, Even if I explained it in detail, she wouldn’t believe how clueless I am about this stuff.
Lee led him in and suggested he take a seat on the couch. Saying, “I’ll be right back,” she stepped around a corner into
