Page 72 of Code Block
"Next week in San Jose, California."
A chorus of protests went up from those in the room and on the call. The expletives coloring the air suggested the team was feeling feisty today. Claire didn't blame them. Travel was a big part of life at Caprock—especially for anything important. But even with a generous budget, she could see how living out of a suitcase might wear on people.
"Why the hell are we just now finding out about this?" Noah asked.
Simon scowled. "Exactly what we asked our MADAS rep. Jackie gave him a blistering rundown of exactly why, as one of his top corporate accounts, he should have contacted us the minute they created this course, and not as an afterthought the week before."
The room quieted again, then Noah offered, "Well. I bet that was a conversation to witness." Chuckles sounded everywhere. Their IT director had a reputation for being fierce when the situation called for it.
Simon finished typing on his laptop and hit the enter key with added emphasis. "I've sent everyone the details for the course, along with the travel info. Jake is already reserving rooms for us at the hotel where they're holding the class. It's a three-day course, so we'll be traveling next Monday, attending the class Tuesday through Thursday, then flying home on Friday, wherever home is for you."
"Noah, you'll need to head to California next week instead of Texas. Hopefully, your change fees won't be too bad." He glanced at the big screen.
"Not to worry, Captain. I haven't booked my flight yet. It's my way of contributing to our cost-saving efforts. You should thank me for saving you a bundle on change fees." Noah's smirk lit up the screen while everyone else jeered at him.
Simon waited for the razzing to die down before continuing. "Uh-huh." He smirked, then added, "I'll have Jake send you the return flight information so you can make arrangements to fly back to Houston with us on Friday."
San Jose wasn't too far from Lucinda, and Claire wondered if they'd get any free time. Maybe in the evening. Dinner with Luce would be great. Her chat window flashed a notification.
Noah R: Ugh. From a 9-hour flight to 11 hours. Thinking of flying in early. Want to join me?
Claire gawked at the message. Another quickly followed, giving her no time to respond.
Noah R: Never mind. Simon will have you all traveling together to save time and costs on the other end. The man could squeeze blood from a penny.
She typed a teasing reply and hit send, watching for his laughter on the screen.
Claire B: Hopefully we won't have to make any emergency landings.
All amusement fled his face, and her stomach knotted. Oops. She hadn't expected that reaction.
Noah R: Do not joke about that. Not funny.
No, it wasn't funny. She shouldn't have made the joke. Lucinda always warned her about putting things like that out into the universe.
Claire B: Sorry. Bad taste.
The meeting updates continued with topics she wasn't involved in, so Claire pulled up her calendar. She needed to move some things around to accommodate next week's last-minute trip. She kept one ear on what was happening in the room while she sent off emails to reschedule those and made herself a reminder to check her pill supply and prescription status for her epilepsy medication. Before all this traveling, her prescriptions automatically renewed, and she picked them up when she got a text. Now that she was a bona fide world traveler, she'd become hypervigilant in making sure she never ran low.
She caught Noah staring at the camera and winked to see if he was watching her. His eyes lit up, and the corners of his mouth raised. A quick glance around the room confirmed no one else had noticed. They were all focused on their action items as the meeting wound down. It was still their little secret. Claire's chest warmed at the thought. She liked the idea of having him all to herself.
The insistent chime pulled Claire awake. "WHAT?" she growled. The light streaming through the hotel curtains—Why did they make it impossible to close the darn things?—didn't feel like morning light. Oh, right. Claire sat up and turned off the temporary alarm she'd set before lying down for a quick nap.
They'd finished their second day of training on the new version of the MADAS system. And after two long days of reviewing database tables and discussing upcoming changes, she'd decided she was one hundred percent on board with the Caprock team's nickname. MADS was right.
She hadn't seen Noah until yesterday morning, when they'd all piled into the hotel conference room reserved for the training. Forty-one attendees, including Caprock's six, had trudged into the training room and joined the two instructors from the software company. Her heart had thumped rapidly when Noah walked in and sat next to her. But the instructors' grueling pace gave them little chance to talk. During both lunch breaks and dinner last night, the MADAS discussions over the software changes had dominated the conversations.
She had, however, caught Noah staring at her several times during the training with a speculative look on his face. And he'd thrown his arm over the back of her chair a few of times when asking a question, sending bolts of fire down Claire's nervous system. She'd caught herself reaching for his hand once, but stopped in time when she remembered the row behind her could clearly see their interactions. Whoops.
She'd thought about hanging around after today's class ended, but being out of the office for two days weighed on her. And she was exhausted. So, after confirming they were meeting for dinner in the lobby at six, she'd shuffled up to her room to catch up on any missed work emails.
It didn't help that another bug with the document system had surfaced this week. Yesterday, two files Claire had updated had reverted to an old version. Claire reloaded her backup copies, then emailed Vicki suggesting they recreate her username and see if that addressed the problem. Vicki had emailed back three laughing emojis as if she had made a grand joke.
Too tired to argue, Claire had let it go. For now. She'd made a note to bring it up with Simon tomorrow. After the fifth yawn, she'd given up and set her alarm to grab a thirty-minute nap.
Now she had ten minutes to get ready for dinner with the team. It crossed her mind to beg off and order room service, before she remembered Lucinda was joining them tonight. Luce had been excited about meeting her new team.
Perked up at the thought of introducing her sister-from-another-mister to her new friends, she splashed water on her face, brushed her teeth, and made a halfway attempt at taming her hair before grabbing her purse and heading downstairs.
