Kiss Me in Silicon Valley: The Juliette Trilogy (The Princesses of Silicon Valley - Book 2)

by Anita Claire

  “Why not?”

  “Why not what?” I respond.

  “Why aren’t you looking for a husband?” She looks legitimately puzzled.

  I’m taken aback. Then again at twenty-four, Cassie’s already been married and divorced. She doesn’t have an education or a career. She needs someone to underwrite her expensive lifestyle. Regrouping my thoughts, I try to explain, “I just graduated. I’m still trying to figure it out. I want to have a better sense of who I am and what I want as an adult before I choose a lifelong partner.”

  Cassie stares in confusion. “…So, swimmer guy?” she finally asks.

  “So, swimmer guy?” I repeat.

  “You’re not interested in him as a husband? What, he’s just hot sex?”

  Realizing I need to explain this in terms Cassie will understand, I try this approach, “You know how Kim Kardashian went through a few brief and bazaar marriages in her twenties.”

  She nods.

  “And she didn’t have a kid until she was in her thirties….”

  She nods again.

  “If she had just waited to get married until she had chosen a baby daddy, she would have saved herself a lot of headaches from all the mess of getting divorced.”

  “Oh, I get it; you want to wait until you have a kid before you get married.”

  “Well…not exactly. But I don’t see any reason to get married until I’m ready to have a kid.” I try to explain. Then it hits me…she never asks me about myself. Very sly of you Cassie, turning the conversation back around. “Luke stopped by real early this morning.”

  “You would know; you let him in.”

  “Was I not supposed to open the door and let him in?”

  She breathes out heavily. “We had a bit of an argument. Frankly, I was surprised that he came over.”

  “Seven thirty in the morning is a little early for a booty call.”

  She gives me a nasty look out of the corner of her eye followed by pursing her lips.

  “Really? You can give me shit about kissing a guy on our front steps, but you shut down when I ask about last night’s hook-up.” I say.

  “I know you, you just want gossip.” She says in disgust.

  “Oh, don’t fool yourself, my friend. I have all the gossip I need. What I want is your explanation.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Cassie, I live here. In the wee hours of this morning, I was awakened by yet another round of your sexcapades. Around seven thirty in the morning, your boyfriend shows up at our front door. A few minutes later, when I left for swimming, I saw an SUV parked across the street, with a guy getting dressed next to it.”

  “Oh, that was Damian, he was very chivalrous.”

  My jaw drops in shock from that comment as I question, “Do you think that chivalrous means your late night hook up got your name right when he screamed it out in the middle of orgasming?”

  “Is that…a joke?” she asks with a hint of annoyance. Then all sugary, she explains, “When I heard it was Luke at the door, I said, ‘that’s my old boyfriend.’ Damian said he didn’t want to put me in an awkward situation. So he grabbed his things and left through the patio door.” She then smiles, “See? Chivalrous.”

  “Yeah, or maybe Damian didn’t want some guy punching him in the face. Anyway, that was a close call. Why were you with Damian when you’re dating Luke?”

  “I already told you, I had an argument with Luke.”

  “So you slept with another guy?”

  “It was just sex. I needed to get Luke out of my head. And Damian’s hot.”

  Sitting back on the couch, I think, wow, my head would explode if I were sleeping with two different guys at the same time.

  “How do you do that? How do you hookup with a stranger, when you are seeing someone.” I ask, truly wanting to know how she compartmentalizes.

  “Luke doesn’t know, and it made me feel better. Damian made me feel special.”

  Staring at Cassie, I wonder how her brain works—and if I could borrow it, occasionally, on the weekends, though I’d be much better off borrowing Kelly’s brain. Then again I’d get the same results.

  “Oh, Juliette, you’re just so suburban middle class.” Cassie says as she dismisses me by heading off to her bedroom.

  This is Cassie’s big put down. Any clothes that aren’t designer, any person who isn’t beautiful or rich, any value that’s mainstream, she snidely classifies as suburban and middle class.

  Yes, I reflect, thankfully I’m suburban and middle class.

  Chapter 5 – Sneaking Around

  When I get to my desk on Monday morning, the first thing I do is check my e-mail to see if there are any important messages. Actually, the most important morning message I ever get is from Nate.

  As an engineer I’m analytical, a problem solver, I search for clarity. Dating two guys at once is just too confusing. Feeling conflicted on who to date I asked my college friend Kelly. She said whichever guy contacted me next was the guy I should choose. When Nate texted, I thought my decision was clear. For a few days I wasn’t conflicted, I felt relieved. That was until Zach’s amazing abs hypnotized me again. Now I’m back on team Zach.

  Actually Kelly told me to enjoy dating; it’s way too early to be choosing a guy. I guess she’s right, though now I’m back to feeling conflicted.

  As I dream about Zach’s abs I get a text from Nate, he’s in the process of moving from Minnesota to Silicon Valley.

  Nate: Gave my two-week notice, not a surprise since my boss knew I was interviewing. Now the hard part, packing up and moving.

  What? Why is he sending me a logistics text? Did he confuse my number with his sister’s? Our texting relationship started out a little bit flirty but mostly just friendly. It moved to fun and exciting when Cassie stole my phone and sent him a text with a shot of my ass; which was unexpected and kind of sexy, though I’ll never tell her that. Afterwards, to keep up the banter, I actually researched texting and sexting, finding some good recommendations on YouTube. As I start writing my response I have a twinge of regret. How can I send Nate sexy texts if I’m on team Zach? Shit, how do women date more than one guy at once? This is totally confusing, even though it’s really fun.

  Juliette: Oops sorry, I can’t help you with logistics since I just dropped my phone in my bubble bath. Looks like you shouldn’t get a phone wet….

  I smile, and then stare at my computer. I need to put my energy into work; this place is way to macho competitive for me to lose focus. As a woman, I’m already at a disadvantage.

  The rest of my team doesn’t get in until ten or eleven allowing me to work for a couple hours in peace. Currently I’m helping out Mark, one of the senior guys in our group. Our software is intermittently hanging up. Mark and another senior guy, Jim, are tasked with finding the cause…and solving it. Flint, our CTO, wants them to sort out what’s really going on.

  Independently, I’ve discussed the problem with my dad. He’s got thirty years experience developing software in Silicon Valley; whereas, Jim and Mark are both under the age of thirty. Dad thinks it’s a re-entrant library problem. When I told dad our senior guys already said they looked at re-entrant calls, Dad told me they didn’t look hard enough, if they worked for him, he’d send them back to look again. As a newly minted engineer it’s not exactly credibility building to tell the senior guys I asked my dad for help, and by definition none of them will listen to me.

  With my dad’s guidance, I’ve been sneaking around behind everyone’s back attempting to solve the problem on my own. For someone who is terrible at subterfuge it’s been a totally unnerving experience. I’m sure everyone can see the guilt written across my face. The NSA is hiring engineers to work on big data, they interviewed on my campus. I could never work for a spy organization, all that clandestine stuff would scare the bejeebers out of me. Then I think back to Cassie, she would make a great spy. She enjoys subterfuge and she has no problem sneaking around.

  Without approval I
put a request in to our server team to run our kernel in debug mode. I also wrote some routines that should highlight what groups of library calls are used when the errors shows up.

  I’ve only been working at this company for a short time so I’m not that familiar with the code. This turns my ability to detect the cause into a daunting task. Since it takes about three days running our code before the error shows up, solving this problem might take a while. What I’m hoping is that I can isolate where in the code we have the conflict. If this doesn’t work I’ll need to systematically turn off sections of our code to see if I can isolate the problem. Then the hard work starts. I’ll need to run through the code, line-by-line, to see if I can replicate where it’s causing failures, which is exceptionally tedious and boring and makes me question my own sanity. Why am I risking my job to do this? It’s as crazy as sneaking into a public restroom late at night to clean their toilets with my toothbrush.

  As the morning progresses I sit at my desk and go through the reports I secretly ordered. Suddenly, I get a creepy feeling, a sneaking suspicion that someone is looking over my shoulder. Slowly turning around, I see Mark; he’s standing right behind me. His arms are folded, and his mouth is flat. He’s not pleased. Jumping when I realize that he’s actually there, does not help my cause.

  “Juliette, what are you working on?” Mark asks in a curious but suspicious tone.

  I will myself not to turn my monitor off, as I fantasize about bringing something else up on my screen…. In a state of dread, I stare at Mark.

  He repeats, “It’s an easy question. What are you working on?”

  Breathing in slowly, I attempt to control my fluttering heart. Quickly reminding myself that I am not doing anything illegal or unethical, I’m just not working on what I was tasked to do. Attempting to sequester my expressions, I try to blank out my face while searching for my voice.

  My only strategy is to be vague. “I’m just working on some stuff related to our project.”

  Mark stares. “By working on some ‘stuff,’ I hope you mean you’re running the test suites I need.”

  Controlling my rapid heart with another slow intake and exhale of breath, I calmly say, “Yes, of course.”

  He gives me a slow hard look. “When will you have results for me?”

  Slowly I answer, “Before lunch. I’ll get the tests to you as soon as I’m done.”

  In a very controlled manner, he responds, “good,” then heads back to his desk.

  Wanting to collapse, I try to keep my face blank. There are too many people who can watch me. Since I work in an open environment, I need to remain stoic. Turning back to my computer, I pull up my test suites and get back to what Mark wants me working on.

  Before lunch, I stop at Mark’s desk. As I attempt to drop off my results, Buddy, his dog, greets me with her typical crotch sniff. Of course, the one time Buddy doesn’t greet me was this morning, when I needed to be warned that Mark was approaching. Yeah, now you’re my friend, haven’t you heard of girl code? I silently ask Buddy, where were you when I needed to be warned? Once I get Buddy out of my crotch, I say to Mark, “Here’s what you’ve been waiting for; I printed out my results.”

  Still looking at his screen, Mark says, “Collin in the Hadoop group was asking me what we’re doing. He said that debug mode has really slowed down our test environment. He wanted to know how much longer we plan on keeping this mode on.”

  My heart literally has just stopped. After remembering to breathe, I listen as he continues.

  “It looks like the problem is causing this one kernel call to fail. If you want to find the re-entrant library call you’ll need to focus in this area of the code.”

  I’m shocked. Did he just tacitly approve of what I’m doing? Is he being supportive? Carefully, in a low, calm voice I say, “What do you recommend?”

  Still staring at his computer, he adds, “Not now, if I have some time later, I’ll point you in the right direction.”

  It’s the first time I’ve taken a deep breath since I spoke with my dad. If we now know the kernel call that’s being affected, and Mark is on board, we can solve this problem.

  Chapter 6 – Cassie Gets Lucky

  Getting home to a very happy Cassie is always a nice surprise. Smiling, she raises her index finger, and says, “Hold on.” Then she runs back to her dressing room.

  “Cassie, how long am I supposed to hold on for?” I yell after her.

  She shouts from her dressing room, “Give me five minutes.”

  Plopping myself down on the sofa, I channel surf until I come to an old episode of Burn Notice—one of my favorite shows. Cassie actually takes a lot longer than five minutes….

  Eventually Cassie yells from her dressing room, “Turn the TV down!” as she catwalks into the room wearing a flashy and expensive outfit.

  “Cassie, that’s the outfit from the other day.”

  She shrieks, then claps her hands, “Luke felt so bad about our fight that he took me shopping.”

  Incredulously I gasp, then whisper in surprise, “He took you shopping, like instead of make-up sex, you got make-up shopping?”

  She laughs, “Well, we certainly had plenty of make-up sex, too, but I told him he wasn’t paying me enough attention, and he needed to show me how much he cares. And then I showed him how that was done, by taking me shopping!”

  I’m truly flabbergasted. How do you get guys to go shopping with you, and then pay for it, especially when you’re choosing three thousand dollar outfits? Not knowing if I’m appalled, or if somehow I should be taking lessons at her knee, I turn back in shock and continue watching Burn Notice.

  Cassie runs back to change into another outfit as I stare at the TV. There’s a scene where Fiona gets upset with Michael because he doesn’t want to go shopping with her.

  Chapter 7 – Choosing Guys

  Yesterday Mark and I met in a conference room so we could go through what I’m researching. As soon as we have conclusive evidence that the problem is a re-entrant library call, we’ll bring it to Roger, our boss. Jim already proclaimed that the re-entrant libraries were clean. Mark is concerned that Jim will undermine us if he gets wind of what we’re working on.

  My insecurity runs high as I semi-secretly work on this project. Silicon Valley engineering departments are competitive and harsh environments. The other engineers are always judging you. It’s important that you prove you can cut it. Engineers who don’t pull their weight get culled fast.

  Getting caught up in my work I don’t even realize it’s lunchtime until Hita IMs me. Looking up, I catch her eye as I nod, then set up a process to run while I’m gone.

  In the cafeteria Hita and I meet up with Caroline and Kami, two other engineers. Lately, Jessica, who manages all our swag, has been joining us.

  My friends have chosen a table by the window. Through these lunchtime gatherings, I’ve learned a lot about what is going on all over the company. Of course, our favorite conversation is to talk about guys…which really means sex. Jessica has a crush on one of the project managers. She’s been all excited since she’s coordinating the swag for his next release.

  The conversation turns to me.

  “I hear from Kelly that you’ve chosen the next guy.” Hita says.

  Of course, this gets everyone’s attention. “Well, we agreed that the first guy to text me would be my choice.”

  “And?” Kami follows up.

  “And Nate texted me.”

  “But…” Hita says. She knows me so well.

  “But, Zach is just so beautiful.” I say with a sigh. “On Saturday I watched him swim fly.”

  “Really?” Jessica says, “That’s what turns you on?”

  In a reverent voice, I say, “Yeah” as I close my eyes and replay the race scene in my mind. Opening them back up I smile, “Just call me a freak, but when I see a smart, cute, athletic guy with a killer body perform in a speedo I just get turned on.”

  Everyone laughs.

  Kami just s
ighs, “Oh, I’m so that kind of freak too. I just wish I had the guts to wear a swimsuit. But with all your talk, I’ve done the next best thing. I’ve started watching heats from swimming at the Olympics on YouTube.”

  “Juliette, just enjoy. Two cute guys, get to know them, see which one you really like. There’s no reason to make a decision this soon.” Hita adds.

  “Yeah, I think that’s my new plan.” Then I say, “Though Nate’s now moving here. I have a feeling my love life is going to get real complicated.”

  Kami turns her attention to Hita. “Didn’t you have a date this weekend?”

  Hita bites her lip and gets a funny smirk across her face.

  I start laughing. I know her as well as she knows me. “Cough it up, Hita,” I say. “I bet this is a good one.”

  She covers her face with her hands; her shoulders start moving as she attempts to control her laughter.

  “Please tell me you didn’t poison another guy.” I say.

  She squints her eyes at me in annoyance, “I didn’t poison Anil.”

  With a smile I tilt my head and narrow my eyes, with a command I say, “Spill!”

  She looks at all of us, then shakes her head, her face starts turning red as she attempts to control her laughter. Finally she takes a big gulp of air, “He went to college with my friend Savi’s husband.”

  To help out Jessica I explain, “Hita’s childhood friend Savi got married last month.”

  Hita nods her head as she blurts out, “His name is Dick.”

  We all look at her confused, Caroline says, “So?”

  Hita then finishes, “It’s short for Dick Shit.”

  “What?” I ask.

  Hita starts laughing, “No shit, the guy I went to dinner with, his name is Dick Shit, well it’s actually Diksheet. But come on. What would you do if you went out to dinner with a guy whose name is Dick Shit,” she says as she holds her stomach and starts laughing again.