Lost somewhere between San Francisco California and Northern California. Miles of grassland and rolling hills stretch out to the distance.

"How did you lose forty black self-driving semi-trucks? It's the most Men in Black mover caravan I've ever seen. Like Men in Black meets Cirque du Soleil movers," says Toni. "A backwards white kidnap me van setup. Because it's so damn supervillains suspicious." I laugh at her joke. She really wasn't wrong here.

"I drive slow, it's safer." I say back sassy. Toni made a gag motion with her hand next to me. My slow driving isn't her thing. But it is what it is, I like being careful. She drives our little bus like a hot red Ferrari on the track. Not reckless but fast, with handling. The woman even has lambskin leather gloves handmade for driving the bus. "Come on Toni, it's not that bad, it's a single road and there's not any turn offs. It's not like we won't run into the place they went to. Probably..."

It took hours and hours.

The bluebird hums down the road. The school bus takes a lazy turn with ease. My grandma driving style hasn't gotten us into an accident yet. Nor a single traffic ticket, unlike Toni. But she is right, we did fall behind the faster electric semi-trucks. I do the simplest, most childish thing that comes to mind. My tongue thrust out full childhood best friend mode. Toni rolls her eyes at me.

"Are we going in the right direction?" The question in my voice was real. Although it was just a really long ass road. I wasn't fully sure of my earlier assertion. Sometimes we work on public land and private property that lacks roads. So, when we are contracted to graze cattle, sheep, and goats on pasture, I tend to get lost. In certain jobs there's no road to the areas we work. So it's very easy to get lost. In this case, even as we travel at grandma speeds down the road there's no dust. Not a bumper in the distance or a single speck of dust on the black road. Love to see a big ass line of trucks passing. My sense of direction is pretty non existent. I can find the right variety of apple in miles of apple trees but I couldn't find my way through roads worth a damn. The bigger problem with The Castle estate is we have no idea how many private roads until we get to the location. This better not turn into a horror movie or I'll have Toni's ass. Turn by turn directions got a little fuzzy. We have been going down this road for more than an hour. "Toni, can you use my phone and text Hadrian?"

She picks up my phone from the dash and texts him. Pulling over to the side of the road the big bluebird sits at the edge of the road. I grab my go bag and open the bus doors. Time to check out the land.

***

An Oak savanna prairie that's so parched, beautiful but broken. Discolored oak trees turned white in near death. They stand like dead skeletal ghouls in the landscape. My heart hurts for this land and what could have beens. It's not my first time seeing it. Most people see a thriving land but it's dying one. I bend over and run the soil through my fingers and pieces of cheatgrass seed falling down. One second away from the next wildfire. It's in full swing of summer but the soil looks like late summer in a very bad year. A mix of invasive annual grasses that's brown and dead. The native California prairie grass being choked out by it. A dense brown mat to compact for young quail and other birds to prosper. Overgrazing by cattle like flies on a wound. Cheatgrass grass still has green sprouts though. A fire hazard late in the season. This land needs help, but it's not that far off from a lot of places in California. The ecosystem is very delicate because of the lack of regular rain. Many places in California aren't that far off.

It will take years to restore. But when I took the job, I sent a list of things to do. Across the road, on the other side, some of it was done. I pour over each plant and take note of the missing native species. Also, the native pieces that's too dry and dead. A sigh escapes my lips as I take my canteen out of my go bag and take a big drink of cool water. My mind revised what it might look like if it was healthy. At the right time of the season in a healthy ecosystem. Chamise will be in full bloom at the tail end of the season. A mass of little white flowers on a cute shrub. A lot like baby's breath flowers but more clumping to it. Around them thousands of little yellow and green bees buzzing. A wall of millions of white flowers in the spread to the distance. Sharp greens, browns, mixed with so many other species of flowers, grasses and shrubs. A slight hum coming from the land as the nectar of the season flows. But this land looks nothing like that. The chamise is turning greenish rust brown and all the native species are choked out.

A tall shadow blocks the next plants. I turn around and note huge George, Franky, and St. Hottie himself. He smiles at me like he caught the cat eating cream. If I'm honest with myself he did. I was completely zoning out. My eyes roam around for the bus but I'm in the middle of the meadow.

"Welcome to The Castle Akeisha," he says. The words said the Spider to the Fly, hangs off every syllable. He smiles at me. Yeah, right, Saint? Friends, friends. I don't get why he has this super villain aura all the time and not even the crazy kind. The fuck him kind. Try a little harder not to use those sapphire gem eyes to drop panties. My brain is a riot like a girl at a concert during the sexy song. And the panties floating through the air on the first note of the song. The sad part is I came prepared, and I wore boring cotton panties. Yeah, they were a bit boring but cute and functional as well. They were boring panty speed bumps. Keep my hot coochie slowed down long enough to think around the man. Then things would be flung so fast with so little good sense. My mind already knows, I've been betrayed 2 seconds into the conversation by myself. He places his large hand on my lower back and walks me back to the bus.

"Friends," I say with a warning.

"Friends," he says back to me in that deep voice of his. "Should we come up with a friendship handshake?" Hadrian's half smiled on full display. A part of me can't fully figure out if I hate that smile or like it. I get a little hot in the ears with embarrassment. Toni and I still have a friendship handshake we still use.

"No, Hadrian, I don't want to come up with a friendship handshake that includes punching you in the smug gut." I answered him. He chuckles as his hand goes to my lower back. He makes little nerdy geometrical shapes while we walk back to the bus.

"I have a few people I want you to meet today. Also, the caretaker has done a lot of work in the area. We attempted to do the directed changes, but from your expression it's not to your satisfaction." As he spoke, his eyes scanned the landscape not in that cautionary way he does sometimes. It was good to see him somewhat relaxed, but I wasn't that happy. The fact I also heard the joke about satisfaction as in my pleased face. That same oh so good face, which he would have seen after we came together. Ya, I got the long list innuendo and I'm stopping myself from rubbing my thighs together. Joke, slick muthafucker. How can he turn talking about flowers and grasses into something else? It was like he was saying, I fucked you and I maybe want to do it again, friends fuck friends shit? I'll never fucking know. This man right here Mr. Saint Hottie, holy fucking war between my thighs. Man needs to be watched. I give him a full side eye. And his little boy half smile peaks at me. My eyes glance back at the landscape, rolling hills, and land that had seen better days. For the most part, I wasn't happy with what I saw. It should have been further long. We used 3d models of the land and tracking software from his company that I've used before on other projects. In most cases I don't have to visit to get a good idea of what options might be good and the customer picks. Then later on I check it out and make changes. But this land is so far away from what I would want to see. I had to explain it to him.

"To be honest, even with the low rain for the area it's not in a good place. And it's not enough impactful change. When land is poorly cared for it becomes hydrophobic." I bend down and pick up the dirt. The large clump of dirt in my cupped hand is a little cold. Hadrian leans into it and as my eyes make contact with him again, I'm a little surprised he's paying close attention. I know the look because when we're in meetings and he's paying attention he does that same expression. Curiosity mixed with a meticulously keen eye. He only gets that way when the research and development style projects are up. Robotics especially is his favorite department. I smile at him tipping my cup hand a little better so he can get a good look at the dirt. Lifting my canteen a stream of clear water pours on to the dirt clump in my hand. I let the stream of water pour out on the dirt then flows over my hand into the ground. "See what I mean?" I ask him.

"No?" He answered tilting his imperious eyebrow up at me in question. I respected him, not simply saying yes. And I was only partly checking. The water was still fully pouring out and the dirt clump was mushy brown on top of the soil.

"Here in California we have weird weather patterns at the best of times and very little rain." The water still pours onto my hand full of cup dirt. "You get water all at once and sometimes in dribbles. But water is life in California as a farmer. Rancher or any caretaker to the land. It has to be a virtuous circle or you don't survive. Every drop that falls counts. I stop the water flow, saving the other half of my canteen. Then I hold it between my legs and use my other hand to cap it. Quickly, I threw the canteen back into my go bag. Hadrian leans into what I'm saying watching my cup hand as I bring it over the mushy dirt moving it to the side. Underneath is dry, yellowish brown dirt.

"Oh, wait, is it dry all the way down?" Hadrian eyes lift in shock as I move more and more dirt to the side and it stays dry.

"The water was rejected by the land. Gallons, and gallons of water running off when we barely get any water to begin with. Every drop counts." My words hang in the air a lot more heavy than I meant them to be. I tip my hand over and all the grey brown dry dust that's left is snatched by the wind. Yet more top soil lost to the breeze to vanish as if it never existed in the first place. It was only a demonstration of why this isn't good. Instead of simply complaining rudely or something.

Blue orbs capture mine a look so deep that my breath is caught. His head tilts a little to the left in assessment. I recognized expressions from the many meetings I've had with him. While he watched me I pulled out the canteen from my go bag cleaning off both hands. I wish I'd not made it so heavy. And the silence between us stretched on completely uncomfortable. It reminded me a little too much of when I was in college. Shifting to a double major instead of a major and minor. Going from completely tech with some gardening and farming on the side. To go along with my dance classes is an extended hobby type thing. And instead of that going full in on the ranching, urban farming end of things. That interest just made my college first time in a relationship slowly wither on the vine as we grew apart. Plant and Tech nerd don't mix sometimes.

"I should have offered both of you jobs in the company instead of a contract," Hadrian says. He broke through my thoughts about failed relationships like a wrecking ball.

"Huh?" I said. What is he talking about? I had to ask him to clarify, or I was going to go crazy. Maybe I heard him wrong. "Say that again?"

"I should have offered you executive jobs and training for that part of the office for both of you. I completely missed out on something that could have had a huge payoff later on." He says repeating his statement and adding to it. "Passion is the divider to all things and you have a passion for this, and knowledge. It's what makes you a good investment." I thought about it and stood a little straighter.

"Even if you had offered Toni and I the job, we'd not be able to take it." My eyes cleared up and sharpness entered my gaze as I studied his rugged features. "What makes us work is the whole of what we do. Who we hire and how we do it. Simply hiring us copy and paste wouldn't mean you would get that same dialed in passion and drive. We are a product of our community. We hire well over 60% of women in our community." While I was speaking to him I felt like a rapper reppin my city but it was true. We were a product of our cocoa butter community. As many old ladies out in the front of their gardens speaking Spanish, with a fro. Next to the women cooking Sunday dinner and inviting over extra kids. The retired women who instead of working as Wal Mart greeters who had to work took a job with us. Checking in on elderly community members with food boxes. Or a number of other jobs. It's a community and plucking us out of it wouldn't give him what he thought he'd have bought. Maybe it's corny but it's me. I want to make my community better.

"Hmm, he answered. And you don't think Toni and yourself aren't a huge part of why your business thrives? I think you're selling yourself short, Akeisha Tamsin Hart." He said to me quickly with the imperial one eyebrow up high as he gazed down at me. Full name, I guess he means it. But I had to explain it to him. I don't mind being gassed up from time to time but he doesn't get it.

"Hadrian, there's so many people that make it work. For example, our farm manager. Lilyanna was a teacher at my school for my senior year. She taught history and was a new teacher. She got fired 3 times and not for doing anything wrong. The school district kept running out of money. So, they did rounds of firing of new teachers."

"Hmm," he said in a listening but not fully agreeing yet sound. I tip a slight grin up to him while I was speaking. I'm starting to learn to speak Hadrian.

"The last time she was fired I was in college my last year. I had just decided to take my landscaping and custom grazing business into a bigger thing. Which meant the steady tech job was off the table. Toni has helped me with my business since we were kids. Ups and downs she did the marking and setting up things for me to do. While I ran around figuring out the work end. Both of us together weren't enough, and we were drowning. Yes, we made money, but it was a stepping stone to the place we wanted to be. So, Toni set up our first interview for our first real employee. It was a surprise that the first interview was with my high school history teacher, Lilyanna."

"A woman with a master's degree, student loans, applying to run a tiny urban farm next to a school. A farm we probably won't ever get enough money to own that might go bust any moment. It wasn't a smart bet. So, while in the interview I sat across from her wanting to call her Miss. Ross. And telling her not to apply for this job. It's not a good idea." His gaze was sharp as he watched me tell him the story of our first days as a real business.

"So, Lilyanna treated it like a real interview when I didn't want to. She had everything prepared and organized beautifully. She even had an idea about hiring a virtual personal assistant to handle social media. Lily was out of our league. It was.. -" I cut the thought off because it was like the night he showed up at my bus door. Hadrian in a bespoke tux, muscular, and thick as fuck. Out of my nerdy ass league. But I didn't say it out loud thankfully. "I thought she could do better. I knew of tech companies hiring that would put her at around the same pay scale as a high school teacher. But had a higher ceiling that she could get to faster. I knew that my old tech job was scooping up teachers like her at the time. I wanted to tell her about something better instead she cut me off. Do you know what she said?"

"That your dreams Akeisha Tamsin Hart are profoundly compelling." He answered the question. I didn't expect him to say anything like that and it stopped me in my tracks. My mouth fell open, and he brought just one big digit to my chin lifting my jaw close with a soft click. What do you say to a man who tells you not that you're pretty in a throwaway comment? But that he finds your spirit compelling. My dreams are now a semi reality compared to the 20-year-old me who started on that track. A teenager daring for a garden instead of the tech world that would have given me a steady job and retirement. To work with and for my community instead of tech stock options. Damn this man, he gives good nerd fuckery flowers.

"I- she I" Fuck, I was jumbled. I need to finish the story so I can look away from his soft open sapphire eyes. That little peekaboo crack that I drown in all open in the exquisite gem.

"Captivating." He says it with a period. It took me a minute to realize he was shifting the earlier sentence. Profoundly a different ending than compelling.

"Oh-" I think my clit might have jerked? I didn't know my clit jerked.

"Enthralling," he made the word sound drawn out and filthy as fuck. My brain got dizzy and his dark chuckle followed. Asshole was enjoying himself. I scrunched my nose at him and gave him the school boy stare. Hadrian quit chuckling but the half smile didn't leave. A part of me relaxed, and I kept going with the story even with his interruptions.

"Lily told me one thing that stayed with me. She became a teacher to help her community. Lily grew up a mixed girl with a white mom who didn't want to be part of the community. And a black dad who left the community behind she felt unmoored. Then when she became a teacher, she felt like she had a place. But as a teacher every other year she got fired because our school district ran out of money. And our district wasn't the only one. I couldn't take my eyes off the woman who taught me. She was such a young teacher. My senior year was her first year. She was mistaken for a high school student that first year. I could see the missing hopefulness in her. The change was stark." As I told him the story, he took my hand again walking hand in hand again.

"Once, I did a paper in school about The Great Library of Alexandria; it was destroyed but always rebuilt. So, no matter how many times it got destroyed, and it happened multiple times they'd rebuild." My hand in Hadrians squeezed as the words annoyed me.

"I always thought it was destroyed in a fire," he said following my logic.

"In a sense, what really destroyed The Great Library wasn't fire, a bureaucracy that chose to defund it. The greatest repository of human teaching and human knowledge defunded like trash. I always thought of a public school system as 95,852 schools of micro Great Libraries spread out across the USA." The words I'm never really good at spilled out of me as I thought about that interview with Lily.

"The longer I gazed at Lily at the end of the interview. Neither of us said things to each other. The role reversal of the student and the teacher, could I employ her? But I saw her, and I also saw others like her. People who care. Care more than they should look for a place, looking for community. There's no free lunch. It's something that it's thrown around all the time. But we throw away more food than what would cost for free lunch. Why can't there be free lunch? And not crap half ass lunch but a quality lunch. It hurts to be hungry in class and have to try to think at the same time. How many kids had Lily watched who said nothing but sat in her class hungry. She used to bring snacks to school. Lots of our teachers did. And they get paid like shit. So, little money they had to feed teenagers whose stomachs grumble during classes. Lily had a dream to be a teacher. To find community and grow knowledge. But that dream she kept getting fired from through no fault of her own. Budget cutbacks when she came out of college. Why can't she have a piece of that dream back. Maybe even more of that dream than she ever imagined. Can't I give her a piece of mine?" The words spun out like healing ambrosia.

"Why can't they have free lunch? That's still working with students, that's still a piece of what she wanted. I still gave her the information for the better job but I knew if she took my job she was our first employee. If Lilyanna couldn't help kids grow knowledge in the same way, she'd could help grow the world. She came back the next day, and I asked her if she contacted my old company for the job. My expectation was to give a reference. I left on very good terms with the tech job I interned at. I was just happy she was going to not get fired every other year. Instead, she became Garden girl's first employee."

"And proves my point. I should have hired you." He says it smugly.

"No, it doesn't. What I'm saying is you couldn't buy all of us. We were bigger than that." I replied back.

"Want to bet?" He asked. I thought about it for a second. And something deep down inside said to not bet against how deep this man's pockets were. God knows Toni would try to get a pirates contract out of him. Hadrian would have to pull out the golden treasure chest. All that gold might even make the beautifully dark Antonia blush.

"So what do you throw around the money bags and get what you want Mr. Valentine?" His jaw does that tic thing but the grin doesn't leave his expression.

"In all honesty, no. If I feel that the project is worth it only. Money doesn't fix anything. I would roll the dice on if I could grab your company that would include Toni and you. It's a bet worth attempting because of the gain. I'm not sure you realize how important the free open source project you release is. Being able to deep down track gardens and spaces using our gaming software as a back end. It's an inspired bit of programming. The UI is user friendly, and it's strong. Also, we'd not even need to close down your online grocery stores and market garden."

"Ya, ya flattery works Hadrian." I saw eyes sliding away from him. He stops in his tracks and puts his finger under my chin again to bring my gaze back on him.

"Your eyes, never leave mine when we're together. Always, on mine." Well, my panties are wet. Just dumped a torrential downpour between my legs as casually as he pleased.

"Fuckk Hadrian," when I said the words it was like I was biting into the word fuck. And I didn't even mean to say it out loud.

"I'm not playing Akeisha, eyes are always on mine."

"Yes, Hadrian," I said and his half smile had a wicked darkness to it.

"Did you know that Whole Foods' original valuation was 8 million? And your company is more developed than that? Notwithstanding, the not profit portions. You're also a carbon negative business which will help in later years. If I had acquired your company, it would cover 20% of the company's carbon footprint. I see many large corporations purchasing carbon negative businesses. It's why we bought Martin's composting business. You took it from another solid carbon negative acquisition. It was a part of our not-for-profit business portfolio but not that important and turned it into a gem. The research and development end on appliances you and Toni help design will make my company a lot of money. In every home a small composter that's sleek and stylish. Something that we will sell in our Heron stores across America. Trust me someday soon there's going to be a line in San Francisco Union Square wrapping around the block. Heron square store will have the Apple store down the street drooling. Because everyone will want to have that appliance. It will be as fashionable as any high luxury fridge or phone in every home. " He sighed with frustration in every word.

"I want you to get it. The Apple's CEO will be kicking themselves that they didn't do it first." A devilish version of his grin spread across his face. And it's as if he could see the current CEO in some back room poker deal where he wins and that CEO loses. Damn, sometimes Hadrian really leans into his villain arc. "First, they couldn't get the AppleCar in a timely fashion and our electric car is in the market. There's nowhere to be seen making us the second biggest electric car company. Now we will soon be in the appliance market in every home. Also, selling an extremely carbon negative item. Meaning we will be making money hand over fist. I'm not a great businessman but even I see it Ke." It was one of the first times he called me Ke and it struck me odd. My eyes shifted away from his seriousness. His big finger is still tilting my chin up to his. The moment stopping the world around us.

"Yeah right, billionaire Tech CEO Hadrian Valentine isn't much of a businessman." I give him a side eye at his statement. "No way."

"Eyes," he snapped at me hard. It's like he flicked my clit. The hard grumbly word sent a shiver through my body. And my gaze was back locked in on his hard sapphire eyes.

"No way," I repeat stubbornly because a part of me doesn't believe him not being a good businessman. He's rich, it worked he's a big fucking deal.

"I'm not a good businessman. If I had it my way, I would have grown up and worked for NASA if it was fully funded or some esoteric Science Program. But they don't fund science like they did in the 60s anymore. Most programs are under-funded just like your public schools Ke." He answers back and the wistfulness in his voice is real. So, he really is a full nerd. "I don't care about being a businessman. A good CEO in a modern sense quantifies the pennies of profit. Then uses those gains to slows down progress so they can make more on stale technology. Then squirrels the money away in corporate buybacks like Scrooge McDuck. A duck ready to swim in gold from time to time and do nothing with it. They see a pile of money and I see rocket ships. A businessman's job is that small world and it's a worthwhile job in the right place and time. It keeps employees employed so they can do their job. Have a steady life and build a future. It's an important mindset in the correct position and place." He growls softly like it's failing to not have a perfect score. 99% instead of a 100% on the test. A fatal flaw but I guess it is in the business world. He lacks the true mindset and maybe I do as well something we have in common.

"That's also why Heron Inc didn't go public. The stock market means certain rules, rules I've already failed at in one venture. Once upon a time I was a broke once fired Tech CEO. I lost everything. I'm a pretty awful businessman in the modern sense." His finger fell from my chin and he took my hand again. My eyes though were still on his. I couldn't look away even if I wanted to.

"Ok so how do you do CEO business man thing if you're awful at it? I mean at least this time it seems to be working out." I ask him to enjoy the peak inside the man as we walk over the brown crispy dead grass together. The step crunch sounds a beat in the background to our talk.

"Well, if you're in a race and you run fast enough. No one can catch you." He said it with that boyish, full smile of his. This one a cat that ate the cream one. "What are you going to do about the land?"

"Run so fast that I out race the next round of rains." I answered him back. Just as cheeky back.

"Good, I like it wet around here," he said without a single joke in his tone. I stopped mid step and stared him down. His big smile was the same, unmoving but his tone was serious. I punched him in his side. We broke at the same time laughing together, the mirth spilling from our lips together. And the need to kiss him, kiss that laugh from his lips and swallow it down was real. Instead, his hand went straight back to my lower back. And we both headed back to the bus together.

***

We walk back to the bluebird with Toni waiting. She stands next to an electric stretched limo. Her tech greedy eyes lit up at his ride. Hadrian walks me back with his hand right above my ass. I gave her the just friends update but the look in Toni's eyes says she doesn't believe it.

Odin, my one-eyed cat, exited the open door of the bus. The cold almost morning was bad on the old tom cats joints and bones. His careful steps appear like a prance until he limbers up. The cat eye's up the limousine walking up to the door sniffing the close door. Then paws up to Hadrian, his one eye locked on him. The towering brick of a man and the tiny one-eyed cat stare each other down. Toni gives the two a rueful smile.

"You can't beat a cat in a stare down," T says to Hadrian. The stubborn man keeps staring match with the cat. I wonder if he wants to get into the limo? But then again the longer the staring match goes the more the reason behind it. The two men in my life in a pissing match. Is Hadrian a man in my life now? Or is he a man I know in my life that I see? Trying to figure it out and properly categorize it so my feelings don't get hurt might not be the time or place right now.

The black tom cat sits back on his hunches. His shoulders relax and if I didn't know any better the dang cat turns so his butt is facing the stubborn man. He walks away from the man and steps back on the bus. I try my best not to laugh in the silence of the moment. Letting Hadrian keep a tiny bit of his dignity.

Toni says, "I think the cat might have won."

Hadrian jaw tick came back. And both Toni and I laughed. 

a/n: more coming soon :). I'm going to try and catch up here in the A/n but right now I'm just adding layers and edits.  ty for your support. See you in the new year.