Echo

28. Busy

Malax sits me on his desk and gives me a kiss. I wrap my legs around him and pull him against me. Then I wrap my arms around his neck. I really like this.

"I can't wait to take you on vacation."

I nibble his lip. "I can't wait to go."

The door slams and Rye starts talking. "Not today. Your press statement about renting area on Cru N got everyone's attention. It's all over the news. We've got 6 meetings already scheduled for this morning. Echo, can you see if Eriska can be here today? We're about to be busy as hell."

"Aww. I wanted to do this."

Malax smiles. "Me too."

"Not today."

"Fine." I hop down and fix Malax's tie. Then I give him another kiss. "I'll bring you boys some coffee and try to find Eriska. Can you give me a price list of stuff? Some people are only going to be inquiring about prices. If we have the list, we can hopefully prevent a few meetings."

"Yea, we'll get you a list and announce it somewhere, baby." He smacks my butt.

"Thank you, sir."

I text Eriska, then go to the coffee room. Then I get annoyed and have the coffee maker and everything moved up to our level. I'm going to be doing this all damn day. I have them put it beside the window. It's out of the way but much closer.

I give the 6 of them coffee and then tell them I stole the coffee maker. They don't seem to care. So, I have some waiting chairs brought up. This is fine. There was an entire corner that wasn't doing anything.

Malax smiles. "You actually took the whole coffee setup."

"Yea. It makes my life easier."

He turns to Kai. "Can you put another set up in the break room? I like that here."

"Of course."

Eriska shows up and brings a chair. She sits at my desk with me. If we had another phone she could answer them too. It's ringing constantly. I switch her spots for a minute and call momma. She always knows what to do. She tells me to order some food for his table and where to get it from. Make sure everyone has drinks. Stuff like that. It's helpful. I get everything ordered and 4 men are standing in front of me.

"Hello, we're here from Talimar Medical Research. We have an appointment with Mr. Phade at 9:30." Bloody f*****g hell. It's not even 9:30.

"Have a seat over here. He's running a little behind, but I'll let him know you're waiting."

"Thank you, miss."

"My pleasure." I give them each a cup of coffee and Malax hands me the price list. "Thank you, sir. Talimar Medical Research is here for their 9:30 appointment. They have their coffee. They can go in now."

They chuckle and follow him in.

I switch with Eriska and answer the phone 4 times.

Then she hands me some juice. "The caterers are here."

"Wonderful. What do we have?"

"We did not have to substitute anything. We did the conference table set up. So, there are 2 of each; fruit and grain trays. One for each side of the table. As requested, disposable plates and forks."

"Perfect. Right this way. You need to be quiet in here."

"Of course."

I go in and everyone at the table looks at me. Malax and Alder hold up their coffee cups. The catering people set the table up. They do it in about 3 seconds. They are fast.

I get them out and thank them.

Eriska hands me a cordless phone and I can tell by her face, she's never talking to them again.

"This is the secretary for Malax Phade. How can I help you?" I get 2 cups of coffee while this guy asks about lab space. "The lab space comes in 3 sizes, sir. Did you get the prices for them?"

"Yes. I'm trying to figure out if I can put offices in the labs, or do I need a separate office building?"

"The labs can hold the offices. You would not have to have a separate building."

"I would need 2,000 square feet for the lab. Then I could add offices into it?"

"Correct."

"Would I still have the 2,000 sq feet of lab space?"

"No." I take the boys their coffee. "The building is 2,000 square feet. That doesn't change. If you put offices in it, they will take up part of the 2,000 sq feet." I hear them laughing at the table.

"So, I should get the 3,000 square foot lab?"

"Yes, then you would have 1,000 square feet for offices."

"Thank you. You are very helpful."

"My pleasure."

I shrug my shoulders at the table and leave again.

The next call asks me about suppra's. I know the answers, but I don't know if I'm supposed to answer them here. I stare at a little fridge while I talk to the guy. Eriska must have brought a fridge. It's stocked with juices and water bottles. I like this thing. I grab some orange juice and sit at my desk.

"Orange juice is perfect."

Kai rubs her face. "I'm about to stock it with alcohol."

Eriska takes some juice in Malax's office and comes back with less juice. "I figured they might want some too. All they are drinking is coffee. After lunch for catering, you should add a meat tray."

"I saw that they do have lunch stuff as well. And it is so easy to order from them. And everything was perfect. They even found disposable plates."

"Definitely using them again."

"For sure."

"Girls, you might want to cater lunch for us too. I'm leaving 12 to 1 open, but that's not much time. Especially if something doesn't time out right."

"Sure." I call momma, and she does lunch for us, so I don't have to. She tells me daddy is coming at 12:30 to join the Phade meetings. I guess that's fine.

I pick up the phone as the water people get there. I take a case of cold water into the meeting and hand them out while I'm on the phone again.

"Do suppras need a house?"

I try to strangle a water bottle. "No, sir. Suppras don't need a house. They have a box they charge in."

"What if it's dirty?"

"There are shower rooms available for the suppra. You can shower and dry it. Then put it in the box to charge and sanitize."

"I was told they can look like us?"

"Yes, suppras can be customized. You would need to contact Zircon about the cost of that."

"Why doesn't Zircon transport suppra to Cru N?"

I sigh. "Momma won't let daddy buy a spacecraft because he keeps losing cars."

Everyone at the table cracks up laughing.

"YOU'RE OCTAVIA KINNIK?"

"Ugh." I hand the phone to Malax. "I oops."

"Heard that." He smirks and gets the guy off the phone. I run away from it.

Rye comes out of the office laughing and hands me the phone. Then he turns around and goes back in.

"Asshole."

The lunch people come in. We made it half way. This is nice.

The meeting ends, and they set up lunch in his office. Kai unplugs the phones and we enjoy the quiet.

Momma comes in and smiles. "Wonderful. I was hoping it got here on time. You told me kind of late."

"I didn't think about lunch. The catering company you told me about this morning was amazing. They even found disposable plates."

"I've never used them. I heard good things though."

"What's left is on the conference table. I only got fruit and grain trays. Eriska wants a meat tray for the afternoon."

"The fruit is good. Nice and fresh. How did you keep up with the coffee demands?"

Eriska laughs. "We made them drink other stuff. They were drinking too much coffee."

Malax nods. "It was perfect. I was getting jittery doing nothing but sitting here and drinking coffee."

"There's a fridge out there with different juices and water now. I want some milk for it."

"Don't get milk for office stuff, baby."

"Why momma?"

"It'll go bad. Most people don't drink milk like that. Juice and water last for months."

"I do."

"Well, get a smaller size pack. Another trick is to put a small bowl of coffee cream and sugar packets on each end of the table. You'll never remember how everyone takes their coffee."

I stretch. "I think I mess up Malax's half the time." He winks at me.

"It doesn't help that you're not a coffee drinker. It's hard to understand the differences. But he'll be able to fix it this way."

The catering company comes in and switches out the breakfast conference table for the after lunch table. They redo the plates and things. It's nice. I try some crackers and meat. It is good. Then I got another fruit tray. I put the cream and sugar on the table and go back to my desk.

We make it through the afternoon somehow. I think we are about to pull our hair out. Everyone scatters after the last meeting.

I check on Malax, and he's lying on the couch. I lay on him. I don't even care.

He doesn't say anything. He only rubs my back lightly.