Chapter Two
Juliana Caine fumbled with the heavy grocery bags in her arms. With some fancy footwork and a lot of cursing, she was able to keep everything from spilling out as she opened the door to the apartment she shared with her fiancé, Phillip. He wasn’t supposed to be home for another few hours, and she was planning a huge surprise for him. Usually, she was always the late one, running an hour or two behind his schedule and getting back from her job at Simco Systems late in the evening. Her job as one of the lead coders was demanding, but it had been everything she’d striven for during her grueling years at Caltech.
It just didn’t allow her to be home by six and making dinner for the love of her life.
However, that could also be seen as a good thing. She wasn’t known for her cooking prowess. Frankly, she was hoping that the simple recipe she’d gotten from Martha Stewart’s site would work for her. She figured that messing up spaghetti was hard for anyone, so she at least had a chance. Stumbling her way to the counter, she set down her groceries and pulled out the box of noodles and the ingredients for the homemade Alfredo sauce. As she bent low to pull out a saucepan from the cabinet, she stilled.
There was a noise.
A loud, rhythmic thumping coming from her bedroom.
The hell?
Jesus, had some criminal gotten into her bedroom, and was he doing something with her personal stuff? She hadn’t seen her fiancé’s car in the driveway, but she hadn’t had time to check the garage, either. He could be home, but he hadn’t stayed away from his own job today. Phillip hadn’t seemed sick. Could he have come home early?
“I…Phillip? Is that you?”
The rhythmic thudding sounding from their bedroom continued, and she stopped herself, unsure of what to do. Frustrated, she pulled out her cell phone from her purse and dialed him. No stranger had come rushing out of the bedroom, so at least it was unlikely a burglar was with her. As she heard the first ringtones pick up on her end, she also heard her fiancé’s phone droning out a fraction of the latest Skrillex song.
Frowning, Juliana rushed to the sofa where she found Phillip’s discarded phone.
It was next to a familiar, bright green leather purse.
Furious, Juliana rushed into the bedroom, now sure that there was no risk of finding a criminal there. Oh no. There was something far worse. Before her, her fiancé of three years was pumping furiously into her best friend—ex-best friend—Candy Simmons. Wasting no time, she crashed the saucepan still in her left hand into the wall. The drywall snowed everywhere and both of the former most important people in her life snapped their attention to her. Candy shrieked and grabbed the blanket to her chest while Phillip cursed loudly and hopped from the bed.
She snorted and rolled her eyes at his nakedness.
Yes, try lying your way out of this one, Phil.
“Christ, Juliana, you weren’t supposed to be here yet,” he said, rushing into the bathroom and grabbing his bathrobe. When he reappeared, he was mostly covered and tossing Candy her dress and underwear. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here,” she said. “What are you two doing here? It doesn’t exactly look like playing checkers, does it?”
Candy shimmied on her clothes under the blankets and then stood up as well. Juliana had to admit she was impressed with the speed with which both of them were moving. Maybe they’d been used to sneaking around for far longer than she’d thought. That could definitely explain why Phillip had delayed setting the date officially for three years.
“How long?” she asked, looking between Candy and Phillip. “How long has this been going on?”
Candy frowned and tried to step forward to hug her but Juliana shook her head and dropped the saucepan. “No, don’t try and comfort me now. You obviously don’t care, if you ever did.”
“I know…I just mean that we didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said.
“If you didn’t mean to hurt me, Candy, then why are you in my bed and fucking my fiancé?” Juliana replied. “Just give me one straight answer. How long?”
Phillip shoved his hands in the pockets of his bathrobe. “About a year, baby. We didn’t mean for it to happen, but you were always working.”
Candy nodded so hard that her head seemed like it might fly off. “I gave him a ride home during a rainstorm and things just seemed to steamroll from there.”
“They just steamrolled until he was having sex with you in our house?” Juliana asked, still not believing what she was seeing before her. How could either of them? She’d spent seven years with Phillip. Her nieces called him Uncle for fuck’s sake. Candy was the first friend she’d made when she’d moved to Palo Alto. “I don’t understand any of this.”
Phillip tried to touch her shoulder, but Juliana backed against the wall. “You just weren’t there.”
“Well, now neither are you,” she said, her jaw clenched tight after she finished. Taking a deep breath, Juliana pointed to the door. “Now, get out, both of you, and never call me again.”
***
Juliana hadn’t slept well.
No, that was an understatement. Saying that she slept poorly would imply that she slept at all. Maybe she had a few microsleeps, enough to keep her from going nuts, but mostly she’d lain awake on her sofa (there was no way she was going to lie on that mattress ever again) and tried not to cry. She’d failed on that account too. Tears had streamed down her face all night, and she’d tossed and turned, terrified about having to tell her mother and sister about what had happened.
God, how badly would that suck?
Her sister, Amanda, had the perfect marriage back home in Maryland. She was the wife of an up-and-coming executive for a sports apparel company. Together, Amanda and Josh had two gorgeous daughters and the nice house in the suburbs. Even with Phillip’s salary as an accountant, they’d been eking by with a modest home. The prices in Silicon Valley were just insane. She’d always told herself that was the main reason they hadn’t married and started their family yet. Now she knew it wasn’t true. Even if she’d seen the rest of her life as something happy with Phillip and their brood of kids, he had not.
Bleary-eyed and with her skin feeling as raw as if she’d been rubbed by sandpaper, she walked into the offices of Simcom Systems and fumbled to boot up her computer. The last thing she needed was to hear her name being called over the intercom, beckoning her to the boss’s office. Sighing, Juliana, shoved her chair back in and walked (almost in a straight line) to the offices of Karen Grant, the head of the company.
At forty, she was older than some of the scions of Silicon Valley, but she was one of the few women in control out here. Her smart-house technology was being installed in the homes of celebrities and royalty around the world, currently beta tested mainly in the Middle East. Ms. Grant was wealthy, incisive, and successful—everything that Juliana wished she could be. She was also a rip-roaring bitch and someone whose bad side Juliana never wanted to be on.
Showing up a red-eyed, tear-stained mess probably wasn’t going to help matters much.
“Juliana,” she said, gesturing to the door. “Please shut that behind you.”
“Yes, ma’am. What’s going on?”
“You’re getting down to business. I like that,” she said, narrowing her eyes at Juliana.
Karen was impeccably dressed in a chic black dress that would have fallen completely wrong on Juliana’s ample curves.
Some women are always put together…
“I just wanted to make sure I could help you as fast and as well as possible,” Juliana corrected.
“Again, I really appreciate that spirit, Ms. Caine. I’ll get right to it. The smart-house hardware installed in Jordan for the sheikh there is malfunctioning. He was one of our first customers, and I’d hate for him to badmouth our company or our service. We aim to serve and we aim to be the best.”
“I understand,” she said, a bit amused even in her exhaustion that Ms. Grant was giving her the sales pitch. Juliana was on the team; she didn’t need the spiel. “I was working on the 2.0 update code…”
“I think you’re the second best programmer we have here.”
Despite her crappy day, Juliana couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across her face. “Thank you, Ms. Grant.”
“Don’t thank me. It’s a statement of fact. You just need to get your butt on the company jet at noon, and then you have a week to fix everything for Sheikh Cemal Samara. The company’s reputation is riding on it.”
She left the room, not exactly thrilled to be traveling on four hours’ notice overseas. On the other hand, it would be easier to deal with the breakup and cheating if she wasn’t in the place she’d “shared” with Phillip for years. Apparently, he hadn’t been sharing anything with her. Well, it was time for a bit of a working vacation in the Middle East and to prove to her boss that she was management material. Maybe she’d finally be able to advance past lead coder, to prove herself worthy of that vice president status she’d always wanted.
Juliana hurried out of the office and back to her house, determined to pack in record time.
This is going to be the opportunity of a lifetime, just you wait and see.