Kaem panicked a moment over the fact that he hadn’t even looked at the menu, but then he realized he always ordered the same thing at Molly’s anyway. He looked up at the waiter and said, “The Korean barbecue tacos for me, thanks.”
The waiter took drink orders and left.
Kaem tried to think how to start a normal conversation with Ronnie, however, before he opened his mouth she said, “Go. Talk to them.” She winked, “I’ll still be here when you get back.”
Kaem stared at her a moment. He didn’t want to go, but felt like he should.
It would be polite after all.
He closed his eyes for a second, then decided to take Ronnie’s advice. “Thank you,” he said, standing. “You’re right that I should. Her parents are nice people and I owe them a couple of minutes.”
She twinkled at him, “To say nothing of the girl you’re pining after. I must admit I’m not sure what she’s thinking. She mostly looked pissed when she saw us, but you can’t make it worse by being nice.”
Kaem rolled his eyes, turned, and made his way over to the Vaii’s table. As he arrived, they were already looking up at him.
Mr. Vaii stood.
Shaking his hand, Kaem said, “Hello Mr. Vaii. It’s very good to see you again, sir. I’ve realized it’s almost a year since I met you and Ms. Vaii at Arya’s graduation.” At this, he glanced down at Arya and saw she was still giving him an intense narrowed-eye kind of look. “Um, hi Arya.” Uncomfortable with the way she was semi-glaring at him, he turned to her mother and—remembering it wasn’t done in their society—suppressed his instinct to reach out to shake her hand too, making a tiny bow instead. “And hello to you, Ms. Vaii. It’s very nice to see you again.” He did his best to give Arya an admiring look despite the arrows her eyes were shooting back, “Your daughter’s been doing an amazing job of managing the finances of our company, digging us out of a couple of holes that could’ve been big problems. I’m in awe.”
Mr. Vaii said, “When you say ‘our’ company, does that mean that you two are shareholders? I looked on the web and it says a ‘Mr. X’ owns Staze.”
Kaem glanced at Arya, not wanting to say something different from whatever she’d already told her parents.
She rolled her eyes and said, “Kaem and I each own one percent of the company, as does that Mr. Schmidt you met. Essentially, all the rest belongs to Mr. X.”
“Ah, well,” Vaii said. “If they’re paying you a good salary, and of course if the company does well, you could come out smelling like roses, eh?”
Kaem gave him a smile, “That’s the hope.”
Vaii said, “I saw something in the news about staze having a product for hospitals?”
“Um, yes. It has a lot of potential, as long as it doesn’t run into regulatory problems.”
Vaii opened his mouth but his wife stilled him with a touch to his hand. She smiled, “I thought you’d be dating my daughter by now?”
Gibbering inside, Kaem forced a smile and waited for words to come to mind. “Um, yes. Actually… I love your daughter with all my heart. However, she doesn’t feel the same way about me…” What’re you doing?! he asked himself. After a frozen moment, he said, “So, I’m trying to find someone to take my mind off of her.” Stop talking! he thought. He made a tiny bow to their shocked expressions, said, “It was good to see you again.” He turned and walked back over to Ronnie, thinking, I can’t believe I told them I loved Arya! I’ve never even said that to her!
Ronnie looked at him a moment, grinned, and said, “Holy crap! Now you look like you just committed murder!”
“Kinda,” he said weakly. “Probably killed four years of imaginary love.” He tried to smile at Ronnie, she was, after all, a possible replacement for Arya.
Ronnie leaned forward. “Tell Aunt Ronnie the story. Let’s see if there’s something we can do to resuscitate that imaginary love.”
Thinking she was just trying to be kind by letting him ventilate, Kaem tried to turn the conversation from Arya to Ronnie, but she persisted in asking to hear his story. To his intermittent dismay, Kaem found himself telling Ronnie of the ups and downs of his relationship with Arya, how she seemed to be pushing him at Lee, and an abbreviated version of his disastrous date with Dez.
Throughout, she listened intently, asked insightful questions, and made comments that cut to the heart of each issue.
When he ran down, Ronnie just sat, looking at him thoughtfully. “Let’s order dessert,” she said, making Kaem realize he’d eaten his meal without noticing or tasting it. Kaem signaled the waiter, feeling embarrassed that he’d talked about himself almost the entire meal. While she looked over the dessert menu he wondered if she was going to give him a to-do list the way he did people at Staze who came to him with problems. Something he could sink his teeth into.
She ordered a key lime tart and he ordered fried ice cream.
When the waiter left, she sat and studied him. Feeling uncomfortable, he said, “Sorry I dumped all my problems on you. Hell of a thing to do on a date, huh?”
She smiled at him. “Do you want my advice?”
“Huh?”
“’Cause, in my experience, unwanted advice is rarely heeded.”
“I, uh, feel guilty asking for it, but yes, I do. I desperately need some advice. Um, don’t feel—”
“Okay,” she interrupted. “From what you told me, Arya herself told you what to do. She said, ‘if you want love, you’ve got to act and be lovable,’ right?”
“Yeah, but she wasn’t—”
“And, after she so succinctly told you what to do, did you do it? No. Instead, you’ve dated a series of other women.”
“But… she told me that suggestion didn’t apply to her!”
“Come on! It’s great advice. It applies to everyone. She gave you the recipe and you haven’t tried to cook with it. For God’s sake try being lovable!?”
“Um… how?” Kaem asked plaintively.
“Did you or did you not just tell the woman’s parents that you love her?”
“I, ah, did. Probably a mistake, huh?”
“No! But telling them that without telling her would be. Have you ever told Arya you love her?”
A silence stretched. In a small voice, Kaem said, “No, but I think it’s pretty—”
“Do not tell me it’s obvious! Do you think beautiful people hate being told they’re beautiful? Do athletes abhor recognition of their feats? You think Einstein hated being recognized as brilliant?! Tell her for God’s sake!”
“But she won’t even go out with—”
“Tell her quietly at work. Send her flowers with sappy notes. Contrive to run into her someplace and tell her there. Leave her messages. Embarrass yourself with how gushy you are. Make, don’t buy, something nice for her. Something that takes real effort.”
Wide-eyed, Kaem thought, But those are cliches! They can’t work, can they? “Um…” he began.
Ronnie cut him off again, “And if you do all that, and it doesn’t work, come find me. I think you’re sexy.”
Kaem stared at her, shocked by her sudden pivot.
She said, “You doubt me? Come on. You’ve got a handsome face and an athletic body. I’ve heard your talk on Stade so I know you’re smart too.” She looked behind her, evidently to check that the Vaii’s had left the restaurant. Then she rose, stepped around to his side of the table, bent down and kissed him. A long kiss. As if she thought he might try to escape, she held him in place with a hand that also gently massaged his neck.
In Kaem’s limited experience—a great kiss.
Finally, she broke away, said, “Wow!” in a loud whisper, and stepped back around to her seat. This was just in time for the server, giving them a goofy grin, to deliver their desserts. There was a brief round of applause from some of the restaurant’s patrons.
Kaem’s cheeks were heating, but he was thinking that Ronnie might be just as nice as Arya. Probably wouldn’t be such a hassle either, he thought.
; She leaned forward, arched an eyebrow and pertly asked, “What’cha thinkin’?”
“Um…” Kaem didn’t know what to say.
“You thinking that maybe Arya ain’t the only fish in the sea?”
I was, Kaem realized, but he was too embarrassed to admit it. He opened his mouth but nothing came out.
“So,” Ronnie said, “I said you were handsome, and athletic, and smart. Then I kissed you. Those few simple things put your brain in a whirl, eh? Made you start thinking nice things about me, and you don’t even really know who I am, do you? Just think for a moment about how a few compliments and a gesture of love might influence the opinion of the love of your life.” She looked down at his plate, said, “You gonna eat that ice cream before it melts?” and lifted a forkful of her tart to her mouth.
~~~
Ronnie let Kaem pay for her dinner but wouldn’t go anywhere else with him after the meal. She also wouldn’t let him pay for her Uber, “Don’t want you getting access to my address, you know?”
“But—”
She stopped him with a finger on his lips. “Only if you and Arya don’t work things out.” She studied him a moment, “And don’t try my stunt of suddenly kissing her in a public place. It’s okay for girls to do that to guys, but seldom okay for guys to do it to girls.” She leaned up, gave him a peck on the cheek, and ran down the steps to her Uber.
Kaem stood, holding the cheek she’d kissed and feeling like his emotions had just been run through the gauntlet.
***
Monday morning Kaem entered Staze and, with some trepidation, glanced over to where Arya normally sat. He wanted to see her but was afraid she was going to jump down his throat. Maybe I should’ve tried to see her over the weekend, he thought. He’d thought to do it several times but always chickened out.
She was sitting in her usual chair but was talking to someone new so he couldn’t speak to her right away. This was both a relief and a disappointment.
Kaem looked around the room. No one else was looking at him so he picked his way across the room toward Felipe Torreo, the manufacturing engineer who’d been over to Christmas dinner at Kaem’s parents’ home. “Felipe?”
The man looked up and smiled, “Yes?”
“I’m looking for some help with automated robotic assembly of electronics. Do you have any experience with that?”
“Oh yes,” Torreo said, sounding a little excited, “It’s the main thing I did at my last job. How can I help?”
“You’re not busy right now?”
Torreo waved dismissively, “It can wait. Tell me what you need.”
Kaem described circuit boards similar to what would be used for the various sizes of stazers without actually specifying the components or their placement.
“Wait,” Torreo said, “you don’t know what goes on these boards?”
Kaem shook his head, “Mr. X asked me to figure out how to automate the production of the stazers. This is because, as we ramp up, he won’t be able to make enough of them by hand.”
“So,” Torreo said, frowning, “you don’t know what’s going to go on these boards either?”
Kaem shook his head, privately wondering whether he’d be able to carry this off or whether he’d have to bring someone like Felipe into his confidence.
Torreo sat studying the notes he’d made during Kaem’s description for a minute. When he looked up at Kaem, he said, “You know, one of the first things you learn in manufacturing is not to reinvent the wheel when there’re perfectly good wheels for sale cheap. I’m pretty sure Tonoy’s X3250 could build that class of circuit and install it and a power supply in a case for him.”
“Really?!” Kaem asked excitedly. Then he frowned, “What exactly is an X3250?”
“Big automated electronics assembler, not quite as big as this room. Expensive as hell. It’s hard to make it worthwhile owning one unless you need enough product that you can run it 24/7/365. Not just because of its initial expense, but also because you need a substantial team of people feeding it components and maintaining it. Most companies just send build specs to companies that do run Tonoys. Some of those companies make most of their money doing small runs for other companies. But, if you were going to mass produce millions of units it’d be worth buying your own Tonoy and hiring a team to run it.”
Kaem scratched his head. “There isn’t some smaller cheaper system that could do the same thing even if it took longer?”
Torreo shook his head, “I’m pretty sure not, though I could do some research if he wants. Of course, you could get several machines that’d each do part of the build, but then he’d wind up doing quite a bit of final assembly himself. The cheap option’s to have someone who owns a Tonoy crank them out for you.”
Wondering whether there was a way to have them made without the producer knowing what they were for, Kaem asked, “And if Mr. X were to try to do that, how would he go about it?”
Torreo, brought up a website on his laptop, “This is the website at Sircutz.” He picked a tab, “This is their device-designer app. You need to use their software because it forces you to use components their robots can handle. You just plug the things you need into their designer and when you’re done you can be sure they can build it.”
“What about stuff like proprietary chips they don’t have access to?”
“They have a list of form factors they can install. If X’s chip doesn’t fit an established form factor, he might be screwed.”
“Um… thanks! I’ll go look this over. I might be back with questions.”
“You need me to send you a link?”
“I can remember it,” Kaem said, standing and heading thoughtfully to the table where he usually worked.
~~~
A couple of hours later he’d designed a circuit on Sircutz’s system that would replicate the small version of the stazer in a nice compact assembly. He was pleased to see it’d have a smaller form factor than what they’d been using so far. As-built, it would send out both laser light and a testable microwave frequency that would let Sircutz confirm build quality. But it wouldn’t be able to staze anything until he installed firmware on the proprietary chips. He’d have those chips built elsewhere and delivered to Sircutz blank, then install firmware when they were in his possession.
Also, a wire to one of the circuit’s capacitors, conveniently located at the edge of the board, would need to be cut before the stazer would function correctly.
They’d order the case from the company that built their current cases, complete with the fuses he and Gunnar had come up with. He designed the case with a slot for a thermite plate that could slide in under the circuit board. If someone unscrewed the case, the fuse would light off and ignite the thermite. Destazing the outer, Stade case would release a charged ultracapacitor that’d fry the board as well as firing the thermite.
He studied his design a bit longer, then ordered a test run of two small stazers to make sure they worked. Also, that it’d be easy to cut the wire and close the case; that the fuse caught when the screw was turned; and that the burnt circuit board looked irretrievably destroyed.
And if someone steals the design from Sircutz? Is it enough that it’ll be rendered inoperative by that capacitor wire and won’t have the firmware? he wondered. I’ll sure as hell have to hope so, he decided.
Done, he looked over at Arya. She was alone. With trepidation, he got up and headed her way. Sitting down in the chair she kept for people she was talking to, he said, “Hey, feel like going out for a walk?”
She looked expressionlessly over at him. “You a player now, Kaem?”
He frowned, puzzled. “What’s that mean?”
“You know. A player. A guy who dates a lot of women. Breaking hearts and carving notches in his belt.”
Kaem drew back in alarm. “No! I’ve been out with exactly four women in my whole life. That’s if I count you… and I’m not sure I can say I’ve actually been on a date with you. How many men have you been out with?�
�� As soon as he said this, he thought, No! You don’t win love by making accusations!
However, Arya froze, looking embarrassed. “Um, more than that,” she admitted. “But only because I’ve been sorting through the dregs of a dating site.” Her expression firmed, “And, I haven’t been breaking any hearts. Just dodging men who’d break mine.”
Kaem stared at her a moment, then said softly, “I love you, Arya. I’ll admit to not having broad experience with other women, but nobody I know can hold a candle to you. If you don’t want me to date other women, I won’t.”
He waited half a minute for her to say something, but she just stared at him, looking as if she wasn’t sure what to say.
Which, Kaem reflected, was somewhat better than telling him to go to hell. He finally got up and returned to his usual table. We’ve got to get a place with offices that have a little privacy, he thought, trying to control his emotions so he wouldn’t cry.
After a bit, he contacted a florist and ordered her flowers. It was a cliché, yes, but he couldn’t think of anything better. And, better a cliché than nothing, he thought.
Considering Ronnie’s advice to make something for Arya, he thought about making her a Stade ring. After all, Stade gleamed brilliantly. Then he remembered hearing about rings catching on things and tearing fingers right off hands. Deciding an unbreakable Stade ring would be even more dangerous, he abandoned that idea. For a moment he considered a necklace instead, then considered with horror the kind of injury a Stade chain around your neck could do if it caught on something. No Stade jewelry, he decided.
Well maybe if it had a breakable silver catch?
***
That evening, walking home, Arya’s emotions remained jumbled and still threatened to break to the surface at any moment. Seeing her dojo ahead, she thought, I’ll go in and blow off some steam. Even if I can’t find someone to spar with, I can wear myself out on the bags. Besides, she thought, the discipline should help.
She went to her locker and put on her gi, then entered the main room to do some stretching. During her first stretch, her eye caught on a man performing the most elegant katas she’d ever seen. They were performed with such smooth, unerring precision they looked as if they were some kind of dance or ballet, yet he wore a yellow belt and was working out with a small group of yellow and red belts. Though a red belt was supposed to be more accomplished than a yellow, none of them seemed to hold a candle to this guy. In fact, Arya had never seen anyone with the kind of body control this guy had. Not even any of the black belts she’d seen give various demonstrations. Is he some kind of high degree black belt, just wearing a yellow belt as a sign of humility? Or as a joke?
A Tower in Space-Time (The Stasis Stories #5) Page 11