CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX - UNEXPECTED ALLIANCES

His touch sent a jolt through Mara, and she found herself momentarily distracted by the warmth in his eyes. Shaking herself mentally, she refocused on the task at hand. "Thank you, Cassius. I won't let you down." As they finished their lunch, Mara felt a renewed sense of determination. She had Cassius's support, and she was going to make this work, no matter what obstacles stood in her way. Later that afternoon, Mara found herself on yet another frustrating phone call with the IT service provider. "I understand that you're busy, Mr. Johnson," Mara said, her voice tight with barely contained irritation, "but we were promised a technician would be here today. We're opening in less than two weeks, and we need our network up and running." "I apologize for the inconvenience, Ms. Aniston," the man on the other end of the line replied, his tone maddeningly calm. "But as I explained, we're experiencing a high volume of service requests at the moment. We'll get someone out to you as soon a