The entrance for Steele Security was nestled between a well-known expensive department store and Siren, a tiny cafe that served a variety of coffee and pastries. Most of the guys in the office pretended to drink their coffee black and in the office, they did. But anytime I caught them with cups from Siren, I could tell they were more than just coffee. My morning go-to, when I had time, was the peppermint mocha and butter croissant. Lately, the café had added brunch sandwiches to their offerings, and I was excited to try them on one of my lunch breaks.

Today, I could see Jeremy Forge waiting in line to get his caffeine fix. I was tall for a woman. Standing at 5 feet 8 inches, I was around the same height as the average male. Jeremy, however, was a few inches shorter than me. A lot of our coworkers gave him crap for it, but he was a decent enough guy. Loyal to his wife of ten years and pretty handy to have on a job. Whenever we got contracted by female celebrities, we were often both assigned.

He was my mentor when I joined the company seven years ago. He was also one of the few guys in the office that didn’t give me crap about being a woman in security and didn’t care if anyone knew he drank fancy coffee. Some of the more manly men on the team would make a big deal of it, but those were also the guys who were either single or divorced.

The waiter handed him his coffee frappe and a cheese Danish. I waved at him. Giving me a quick wave to acknowledge me, he went over to grab a straw and some napkins. I gave the cashier my order and after getting my morning coffee, we took the inside entrance to the building lobby.

“Morning Jer.”

“Hey, Sam!” He swiped his badge at the security check point and gave the security guard a quick wave. I followed behind him and pushed the button on the elevator.

“How’s the wife?” I asked, sipping on my hot coffee.

“Ahh, she’s good.” He grimaced. “Well, she’s doing better.”

“Your mother-in-law came down, didn’t she?” He laughed and shook his head. He handed me the bag with his pastry and took a moment to poke his straw into the frappe and take a swig before I handed it back.

“Yeah, ever since the baby was born, we are really struggling. I do my best, but you know that she is taking the brunt of the work as a parent.”

“I can’t believe you are the one who called her in.” Jeremy and his mother-in-law were famous in the office for not getting along. When he got married, she wore a black dress. At her speech, she let everyone know that she was wearing it to show how she grieved for her daughter’s future. Anne, Jeremy’s newlywed wife, was so angry she cut her mother out of their lives for a year!

“She’s mellowed quite a bit, and she is turning into a life saver since our little Angel was born.” A heavy sigh escaped his chest as the elevator dinged. We both entered and hit the button for floor 16. He leaned back against the back of the elevator. I could see the dark circles around his eyes from lack of sleep. Even though he looked beat, you couldn’t help but see that he was a happy kind of exhausted.

“She came up early this morning so that we could both get some sleep. She is going to stay for the week while we wait for the agency to send us a new nanny.”

I nodded. His wife was a famous fashion designer. They had met on a job twelve years ago before I started working for my father. It always amazed me how down to earth she was.

The elevator shuddered and the doors opened. We walked down the hall to the Lobby of Steele Security. I glanced back down the hall to see the elevator doors shut. When my father built this place, he specified that the entrance should be far enough away from the elevators that the doors should close before a person could open the entrance. I could see several security cameras. We swiped our badges again and heard the click of the automatic door swinging open.

Inside, half the office was our security management and surveillance team. From their desks, they gave 24-7 monitoring for over 340 clients around the city. Everyone in the company did six months on a static desk before they were allowed out in the field. Jeremy had taken one of the coveted management jobs when he found out that his wife was pregnant. He still did some event security, but he wanted to have a more stable schedule for when the baby was born.

We navigated through the maze of cubicles until we reached Jeremy’s office. He unlocked the door and shuffled in, setting his coffee and pastry down before splaying in the office chair as if the walk from downstairs had taken the life out of him. He was so dramatic.

“Did you hear about the Tempo break in?” Jeremy nodded.

“Saw the cops out there this morning. Pretty tragic. I knew Lt Gray. His partner is devastated at the loss.” I wanted to talk more about the break in, but I heard a throat clear behind me.

I spun around and saw my father glowering down at me. I gave Jeremy a quick wave and headed off to my own office to set my stuff down. I looked at my coffee. I had drunk about half of it on the way up and was looking forward to savoring the rest as I mentally prepped for the day. I sighed and chugged the rest of the coffee down, tossing it into a trash receptacle on my way.

I could tell by the way my dad was acting that he was upset about something. The fact that he came to me as opposed to making me come to him means that while he might be mad, I had actually done something that benefited the company. He hated it when my actions proved that I would be a good choice to take over Steele Security. I hung my bag on a hook and took a seat at the mini conference table in the corner, gesturing to him to also take a seat. He sat and laid a folder on the table. It was one of my security proposals.