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

by Anita Claire

  Jessica’s jaw drops, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  Megan looks at her, “Can you say anything else.” Jessica looks at Megan and shakes her head.

  Hita folds her arms over her chest and questions, “Why would she want that?”

  I frown, “Well, she is an exhibitionist.” With a shrug I add, “She thinks it will make her a celebrity, like Kim Kardashian.”

  “She’ll need Kim Kardashian’s mom working it behind the scenes if she wants to make real money,” Megan states.

  “Yeah, Kris is the power behind the Kardashian Empire.” Jessica adds.

  “I think celebrity sounds wonderful until you have to live a celebrity life and have all these people commenting on your every move and following you around.” Hita declares.

  “Cassie is one of the few people who would truly enjoy not only the spotlight but living under a microscope.” I explain.

  Caroline has brought vajazzled up on her iPhone, “They don’t have too many pictures.” she states.

  “How many women would want their vajazzle to appear across the internet?” Kami asks.

  I laugh, “My roommate for one.”

  Chapter 11 – Princess Reconnaissance

  By Friday, I’m in a great mood as I head home and out to happy hour. Work is going well, Mark and I are zeroing in on the offending code. I park at home and I text Zach that I’m on my way.

  As I lock my front door, I see Zack walking up the sidewalk looking down at his smartphone. He looks really good in his warn out jeans, T-shirt, and unzipped hoodie. Eventually, he looks up, focuses in on me, and gives me a warm smile. We meet; he gives me a light kiss on my lips, my jaw tingles with the memory of our kiss this past weekend. Before the kiss gets good he backs away and says “You’d think we’re exhibitionists the way we keep on kissing in the middle of the street.”

  I smile back at him, “Then I guess at some point I need to invite you inside.”

  He slowly nods as his eyes go very dark. He clears his throat and says, “I guess we should get going.”

  Now I’m wondering if we’re going to meet his friends or if we’re heading back to my place.

  He grabs my hand and walks me to Steins. As we enter the bar, Zach places his hand on my upper back, guiding me past the front hostess as he tells her, “Our friends have a table.”

  The warmth of his hand spreads a tingle up my neck and through my shoulders. With his other arm, he waves to Kevin and Sean, making them move so he can sit down next to me. Kevin and Sean each have a beer.

  Zach looks at me, tilting his head towards my ear he says, “Can I get you an apple cider again or do you want something else instead?”

  “Apple cider would be great.”

  Catching Sean’s eye, I say, “You missed the big race last week.”

  Zach laughs. “So did Kevin.”

  Sean picks up on it. “What stroke?”

  With a smile on my face, I say, “Fly.”

  Sean winces as he says, “Ouch, Kevin, you let him beat you in fly?”

  Kevin shakes his head. “A moment of weakness.” Then with a cocky look and a tip of his chin toward Zach, he adds, “Next week, I’ll get my revenge.”

  “You can always dream.” Zach retorts with a bit of a smile that shows off his dimple.

  “What’s Kevin dreaming about?” Amanda says from behind me.

  Turning, I smile at Kevin’s girlfriend as she joins us.

  “Kevin was just explaining how he failed to beat me on Tuesday.” Zach says with glee.

  Amanda rolls her eyes, giving Kevin a direct look. “Did you order me a drink?”

  Kevin responds, “I’m not ordering you a drink until you get here. You complain if the ice is melted.”

  Amanda shrugs then says warmly to me, “Nice to have you join us again, Juliette. Did you have a good week?”

  Taking a deep breath, I lean back and say, “Yeah, this is the first time since I’ve been working at my new job that I can truly say I’ve had a good week.”

  “What are you working on?” Zach asks.

  “I spent the week working with one of the senior guys, we have a re-entrant library problem. It was a bit of a rollercoaster, but we think we found the offending code.”

  He shakes his head, “Re-entrant library problems can be a real bear, lots of tedious work to uncover the problem.”

  I nod my head in agreement, “Yeah, we had to go line-by-line.”

  Amanda pipes in, “I don’t even know what you two are talking about. What’s a re-entrant library?”

  I smile, “A library call in programming is a function a programmer can use instead of having to write out each feature. For example ‘Print’. I don’t have to know what printer the user has, I can just say ‘print’ and the library call ‘print’ will know what to do.”

  “So, that was the problem?” she asks.

  I can hear Kevin chuckle as I answer, “There are a lot more calls than print. The call that we believe is causing us all the problems is one that reads a substring inside of another substring. That library call has its own memory so that it can manage a pointer and keep track of where it’s at. The problem is, the same library call is used many times in our code. We think someone wrote code that doesn’t make sure the pointer’s been reset, which can lead to the memory getting corrupted. It’s being used by multiple processes at once, and the pointer doesn’t have time to reset, so it’s giving out an impossible answer and causes the program to stop working. That’s why it is so hard to find the error. Sometimes the memory is fine, periodically there are too many threads using the same call and then there’s a problem.

  The server who takes our drink order interrupts my explanation. I give Zach a quick look. He catches my eye, tips his head and leans into me. Cupping his hand against my face so that only I can hear him, his breath tickles my ear causing a shiver to run down my neck and jaw as he says, “It’s the first time a technical explanation has ever turned me on.”

  My breath catches as I hear someone yell, “Snow!” Turning, I see Kelly, one of my college girlfriends, heading to our table; beer in hand. Isabelle and Meredith—two more college girlfriends—along with Meredith’s boyfriend, Sam, following behind.

  Really, now! Things are getting hot with Zach and these idiots show up. Is this some kind of cruel joke? Have my girlfriends obtained the magic power to interrupt me just when it’s getting good? As I roll my eyes and shake my head at Kelly, she gets a devious smile.

  “Hey, move down, make room.” Kelly instructs, as she pulls up a chair and sits at the head of the table. Kelly is a force of nature; she has a wild head of curly red hair and blue-green eyes. At six feet tall with a lean feminine build, she’s an amazing athlete, and has a way of personally making a statement.

  After introducing everyone, I secretly give Kelly the evil eye.

  Zach looks at me. “Why does she call you Snow?”

  Now I’m cringing as Sam gleefully jumps in with a wide smirk. “These ladies,” he points, “went as princesses to the Halloween parties their freshman year.” He then puts his arms around Meredith, pulls her tight against his chest, kisses the side of her face, and says. “I was a lucky guy, I caught myself the sexiest Cinderella anyone has ever seen.”

  Looking at Kelly, I butt in with a mischievous grin. “Guess who Kelly was?” The guys give me a completely blank stare. Knowing the different princess names must be on par with knowing styles of shoes or brands of purses for a guy.

  Amanda jumps in her seat and claps her hands. With a big smile on her face, she points to Kelly. “I know, I know! Kelly you had to have been Merida.”

  Kelly gives me the eye, and then focuses her attention on Amanda. “Very good, you know your princesses.”

  Narrowing down on Isabelle, she eyes her golden brown hair. With a point of her finger, she contemplates, “With your name, it has to be Belle.”

  Kevin, Sean, and Zach are watching us like we’re aliens speaking Klingon. Probably t
he way Amanda feels when they talk sports, cars, or technology.

  While Isabelle nods appraisingly, “She’s way too good at this. We should make her an honorary princess. What would you say, Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel?”

  Amanda’s eyes light up as she gives a series of little claps. “Rapunzel!”

  Meredith laughs, “We’ll have to get Jennifer to make her one of those see-through dresses.”

  Sam laughs, “You women sure made a stir, all the guys in my fraternity wanted to catch themselves a hot princess.”

  Kelly laughs, “Those dresses sure weren’t made for the pre-school set.”

  “Oh, come on,” I say, “They weren’t slutty.”

  Sam just chuckles, “Yeah, but they sure weren’t nice.” Meredith playfully slaps him. “Hey, behave yourself.”

  Sam laughs, “You all made quite a scene. There were a couple of betting pools to see if any guy could nail all of the princesses.”

  Isabelle laughs, “Yeah, we know. That’s why we decided to make sure no one ever won.”

  Amanda turns back to me. “Snow, for Snow White.”

  With a bat of my eyes, I theatrically say, “I had my own personal entourage of seven very short men.”

  Kelly breaks in, “Yeah, right, I think you’ve confused yourself with Olivia.”

  “Ok, well my alter ego had this wild entourage of seven short men, skipped classes, and was really bad at math.”

  I can hear Zach chuckling in my ear.

  Turning my gaze on him and his friends I ask, “And what about you guys?”

  Zach smiles. “Do we get to choose which princess we dress up as?”

  “Really?” I say in mock shock, “I had no idea you guys swung that way.”

  Meredith leans in and tells the guys, “You have to shave your legs before Jennifer will make you a dress.”

  Zach turns to Sean, “Hey, dude, you’re already there.”

  Kelly’s eyes light up as she asks Sean, “You cycle?”

  I watch Sean nod as my imagination goes wild and I can’t help but add, “I’ve seen you guys in speedos, but just thinking of you guys all dressed up in sparkly gowns…” I chuckle. “Anyway, how do you guys all know each other?”

  Kevin answers, “We swam together at Cal.”

  “By the way, where is Austin? He’s usually with you.” I ask.

  “Yeah, he’s caught at work. He doesn’t know when he can get out.” Zach replies.

  Kelly interjects while giving Sean good eye contact, “Next week’s Thanksgiving, are you guys heading home or staying around here?”

  Meredith jumps in. “Sam and I are having an orphan Thanksgiving. If any of you guys don’t have a place to go, you can eat with us.”

  “What time do you want people to show up?” Kelly asks.

  “I figure drinks start at noon, turkey on the table no later than two p.m.” Meredith responds as she looks at Sam for confirmation.

  “I’ll be there for drinks at noon. Even though my mom will kill me since I won’t want to eat anything by the time I make it to their house.” I explain.

  Meredith gives Amanda, Kevin, Zach, and Sean a questioning look. “I wasn’t kidding when I invited you guys. If you don’t have plans, we’d love to have you join us. It’s always a lot of fun.”

  Amanda pipes in, “I was still figuring out what I was going to do, so yes, I would love to come over.”

  Zach shakes his head. “My folks live in LA. I’m expected at my Aunt’s house.”

  Sean shakes his head. “I’m from the East Bay. I’m expected at my parents’ house.”

  Kevin looks conflicted. “I’m from San Diego,” he and Amanda lock eyes. “Can I get back to you on that? I’m still not sure what I’m doing.”

  Meredith smiles at Amanda. “What’s your e-mail, I’ll add you to my Evite, just update it to two if Kevin can make it.”

  “What should I make?” I ask.

  Meredith laughs. “I figured from working at one of those tech companies that provide you with three meals that you’d have forgotten how to cook by now.”

  “I’ve been working there for less than two months, you’ll need to give me a few more months before I completely forget.”

  “Bring those stuffed mushrooms I like so much.” Kelly requests.

  “Stuffed mushrooms it is.” I respond.

  Kelly adds, “Now, if you were one of my cycling friends those mushrooms would be real interesting.” She then looks me up and down and shakes her head, “But I guess margaritas are going to have to do. Damn Juliette, we’re going to need to get you toasted if you’re going to show up at your mom’s house and finally give your sister an earful.”

  I bark out a laugh as I explain to Zach, “My sister behaves like she’s Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.” Then I think that analogy probably means nothing to him so I add, “Or like that coach over at Rutgers who got fired for throwing chairs at his players, though my sister’s more the verbal kind of abuser—anyway, having a few drinks is probably the best way to deal with her.”

  Kelly cuts in, “All this talk of food is making me hungry, I had a huge training ride this morning.”

  “What, haven’t you eaten since your ride?” I question.

  “Oh, I ate, I’m just hungry again.” She tells us.

  “Chinese?” Sean suggests.

  “Chinese works.” Sam says in agreement. He seems relieved that he’s not stuck at happy hour with just us princesses. He’s been the only guy with us so often we started to call him Mr. Big Love. Sam then offers to run over to Hong Kong Bistro and put our name in.

  I can feel another presence as I turn around and see Austin.

  Zach says, “Austin, my man, just in time, we’re going to head out for Chinese.”

  Eventually, as we head off for dinner, I find myself walking next to Zach. His arm touches mine, the tingle from this brief connection travels down to my fingers and up to my neck. By the time we show up, our table is ready. Zach casually places his hand between my shoulder blades as he walks with me into the restaurant and to our table. Kelly has maneuvered to be next to Sean. In about two weeks she heads down to Brazil. Knowing Kelly, she’s decided that Sean is going to be how she fills her time.

  After ordering, I excuse myself to go to the ladies room to wash up.

  Kelly gets a big smile and jumps up, “Good idea!”

  Before I know it, all the women are heading to the bathroom. No woman wants to miss out on the bathroom gossip.

  Before Kelly has a chance to steer the conversation, I poke her. “So, Sean?”

  She raises her eyebrows and smiles.

  “Amanda, Sean’s straight, right?” Kelly asks.

  Amanda’s a little surprised by this question. “Yeah, I guess so. I really don’t know that much about his personal life.”

  Now it’s my turn to be surprised. “But, I thought you hang out with these guys all the time.”

  She gives me the big eye roll. “I can tell you what car he wants, what teams he roots for, his favorite app…but family, women, feelings...?” She gives an exasperated look. “Do you know tonight was the first time I learned he’s from the East Bay? They never talk about anything interesting.”

  Undaunted, Kelly repeats. “But he’s straight, right?”

  “Yeah, I assume so. He’s never brought any women around, but he’s not always around either.” Amanda says.

  Surprisingly, Isabelle’s been quiet. She finally chirps in. “He sure is going to get one big red head tonight.”

  Amanda’s eyes get large as she gives Kelly a real surprised look.

  Smiling at Amanda, Isabelle continues. “She’s a force of nature. Sean doesn’t know what’s going to hit him. Stay tuned and watch Big Red work her magic.”

  Kelly smiles. “Oh, he’s in for a good weekend. So, Snow…Zach?” She wiggles her eyebrows.

  “Shouldn’t we be heading back? The guys probably thought we fell in or something.” I’m kind of fearful that Kelly will s
ay or do something that will embarrass me. I have no idea if Amanda shares girl talk with Kevin. I know Meredith tells Sam everything. I don’t want Zach knowing about Nate.

  Amanda pipes in. “Austin was pissed when Zach moved in on you.”

  Now, this is a surprise. “What?”

  “You know, Austin met you first, and then Zach invited you out. I think Austin thought he had first dibs.” Amanda casually adds.

  I’m totally surprised by that since I was chasing Zach. Meredith then gives me a surprised look, which all of a sudden reminds me that I told her this morning I was meeting Zach tonight. Now I know who’s behind the surprising happy hour meet up.

  “I’m heading to the table. Don’t forget to wash your hands, that was the reason we came into the bathroom in the first place.” I declare as I wash up.

  Dinner conversation is fun and lively. After dinner, we stand around in front of the restaurant before we start to head out in separate directions. Castro Street is now teaming with people. Amusingly, I watch Kelly make a full play for Sean. It looks like Kelly has convinced Sean to join her at one of the bars. On some level, I wish I had the confidence to go after a guy with such determination. When Kelly sees a guy, nothing gets in her way. I’ve always been cautious when getting involved. Partly, it’s because I want more from a relationship than a week or two of wild sex. Mostly, it’s because I want the guy to be interested enough in me to want to do the chasing. The last thing I want is to chase some guy that’s just not that into me.

  Zach hangs out with me as we watch everyone leave.

  He leans towards me, and in a low voice says, “Let me walk you home.” His breath tingles my neck, sending shivers down my arm.

  With a flirty smile, I look up at him. In a soft voice, I respond, “That would be nice.”

  As we start walking, he takes hold of my hand. The air is chilly; his hand feels warm, nice, and big. I’ve lost my voice, I can’t think of what to say. We walk down one of the quieter streets to get to my place. It feels like we’re in our own, private world.

  When we get to my place, I debate if I should ask him in. I’ve never had two love interests at once. Not wanting to go too fast with either guy, I still need more data before making a decision. As my brain reels with uncertainty, Zach continues to hold my hand. He walks me to the door.