5. Frustrations
Frustrations
Claire read the email response from Noah Raines a second time. The man was proving to be infuriating! This was exactly what she'd been complaining to Lucinda about. She'd spent the last week chasing answers from the elusive production manager.
In her original email, she'd asked questions about how the data was structured. And she'd organized them neatly into a numbered list to make it easy for him to answer. Instead, she'd gotten a chopped-up response.
From: Noah Raines
To: Claire Broussard
Subject: RE: MADS Data Nomenclature
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) No
4) Sometimes
5) I have no idea what you're on about
Noah Raines
Production Manager
Caprock Enterprises
————————————
From: Claire Broussard
To: Noah Raines
Subject: MADS Data Nomenclature
Noah,
I have some questions on the structure of the MADS nomenclature we are using and was told you would be the best one to answer them.
…
Claire groaned. "First of all, Mr. Raines, number one wasn't a yes or no question. And can you please explain what in the Sam Hill sometimes means? Oh, and I thought I was pretty clear on the last one. Ugh!" She threw her hands up in the air.
"Talking to yourself, Broussard?" Teresa, the project expert from the procurement department, popped her head into Claire's office.
"Hey, Tee." Claire smiled as Teresa came in.
She was becoming one of Claire's favorite people at the office, always kind and willing to help.
Plus, she never made Claire feel stupid for asking questions.
"Noah Raines makes me crazy. I'll send off five questions, and he'll answer one .
Or he gives me these kinds of answers." She swung her monitor around so Teresa could view the screen.
Teresa squinted as she read through Noah's response.
"Ha! That's funny."
Claire raised an eyebrow. Teresa caught her look and hid her smile. "I mean, he's not wrong, but he could have explained it better. Have you tried calling him?"
Claire threw her head back and stared at the ceiling.
"Yes! Multiple times. It goes straight to voicemail and he never calls me back.
He'll respond via email, which always leaves me with more questions.
I swear, our email chains are a mile long with all the back and forth.
And—before you tell me it's the time difference—I've tried to reach him at different times; well before the workday ends in England. "
"That's weird. He's always available for us. He's probably just super busy managing the floor and working on the project."
Claire blinked and sat up straight. She wasn't sure what to make of that.
She assumed Noah was hard to reach in general—not just for her—but apparently that wasn't the case.
The memory of his eye roll during the introductory meeting resurfaced, and she bit her lip.
She chewed on her thumbnail, considering it.
Teresa's comments brought back memories of her experience when The Jerkwad targeted her at her last company.
"Claire, you with me?"
Get it together, Claire! "Yeah, sorry. I went away into my head." Heat crept up her face.
"Yeah, you did." Teresa laughed. "Anyway, I can answer a few of these for you. And it'll be easier once he's back over here. He'll be right around the corner from you instead of across the ocean. Soon, you'll be able to pin him down without difficulty."
Teresa sat down in the visitor's chair and they spent the next half hour going through Claire's questions. They even covered a few she hadn't thought to ask. As Claire typed her notes on the last item, Teresa stood up.
"Hey, some of us are going to the new steakhouse on West Gray for dinner after work. You wanna come?"
Delight trickled through her. She and Teresa went to lunch together earlier in the week and now Tee was inviting her to socialize after hours.
She'd made her first real friend from work!
Not bad for two weeks into her new job. She squirmed a little from guilt since technically, Vicki was the first person to be friendly to her, but Vicki didn't give her the same warm and fuzzies as Teresa.
"I'd love to. Are y'all going straight from here? Or later, after you run home and change?"
Teresa laughed. "We're headed there straight after work. Not everyone lives downtown, Claire." She smirked. "We'll probably work 'til six, then walk over. I'll give you a shout when we're getting ready to leave. Sound good?"
"Yes. Thanks for inviting me." She smiled at the woman, genuinely happy to be included.
"All right. Catch you later, then."
"Bye."
Claire's grin stayed on her face as she saved her notes and switched screens to her coding application. Teresa's input cleared up one unknown and gave her an idea for extracting a piece of information that had previously eluded her.
Later that morning, Claire walked into Cheryl Riser's office carrying a small plate of the fried pies she'd brought to work this morning.
She'd asked Cheryl for a deep dive into the distribution process earlier in the week and she thought bringing in a treat might gain her some brownie points with the brusque woman.
Her face lit up when she spotted Teresa in the office and she relaxed.
The two women were laughing at something on Cheryl's computer monitor.
Teresa waved her over and, as she stepped further into the room, male laughter piped through the speaker.
She recognized the rich voice belonging to a certain elusive production manager she'd been chasing for the last three days.
"But seriously, that's a complication we're dealing with from the move of the Glasgow tooling operation.
The machinery's in and everything's working physically.
It's the modified processes everyone's still getting used to. "
"Makes sense," Cheryl said. "Just make sure those Scots keep their kilts out of the machinery." And the chuckles started again.
Claire stepped around to look at the screen. As soon as Noah noticed her, his grin dropped.
"That should answer your questions. It's quitting time here, so I'll catch you two later."
Before Claire could open her mouth, the video app ended. Teresa gaped at Claire with eyebrows raised.
"Well, that was an abrupt goodbye. He must have a hot date," Cheryl said. "Hey, Claire. Teresa said you have some questions for us. Have a seat."
Claire's lips pinched together. His dating life must be super busy if it caused such a brusque departure.
Claire stared at the monitor, disbelieving the error message on her screen. Her stomach roiled. Locked out again. This was the third time this week—and she'd logged in just fine twenty minutes ago using the exact same password. The technology mishaps were hauntingly familiar.
She switched to her phone app and found Vicki on her Favorites list. Vicki's number sat near the top thanks to her frequent issues with accessing the documentation system.
Claire hovered over the call button, then stopped.
She flung down her headset and stood. She needed a walk.
Movement helped and exercise was a good outlet for frustration.
As she headed for the stairs, she reminded herself to breathe. This wasn't NanoTechwise. It was probably just a glitch. But still… she'd be logging this. Just in case.
"Hey, Vicki," Claire said as she walked into the older woman's office.
"Claire, check this out." Vicki motioned for Claire to join her behind her desk and pointed to her computer screen. Lines of code filled the screen. "Isn't this cool?"
"What is it?" Claire asked. It didn't look like any coding program she had seen before.
"It's a fake coding and hacker simulator. You hit any keys on the keyboard and it looks like you're typing badass code. Cool, huh?"
Vicki was so delighted, Claire didn't have the heart to disagree. She wasn't sure what the point of such a website was, but she shrugged it off and focused on Vicki. "Are you interested in coding? I thought you liked project management."
Vicki snorted. "I do some coding in my free time. Not that anyone around here is interested."
Claire froze at her tone. Before she could inquire further, Vicki closed the browser on her computer and turned to face her. Claire moved back around to the front of the desk.
"Did you need something?" Vicki gave her an overly bright smile. Claire blinked. That megawatt smile could've powered a small town.
Claire shook off the thought and sighed. "I seem to be locked out again."
"Really? How many times does that make this week? And it's only Wednesday." Vicki shifted back to her computer, clicking through screens. "Maybe you just have bad juju." She laughed, fingers tapping happily across the keyboard.
Claire forced a smile. "I guess. I've never had this much trouble before. Can you reset me?" She tucked a loose curl behind her ear, then crossed her arms. "No one else is having any issues?" she added, trying to sound casual.
"Nope, only you." Vicki hit the enter key with a flourish and spun around. "Okay, done. Give it a few minutes and you should be good to go."
Claire bit her thumbnail. Only her. If others were having similar trouble, it could have been a network glitch or a permissions thing—something fixable. But this hit a little too close to what she'd dealt with before.
She kept her tone light. "Thanks. Not to ask for trouble, but I was kind of hoping it was a system-wide issue. You know… something we could fix with a setting or a reboot."
"Humph. As if the others would say anything.
They're so insular, you never know what's going on with them.
Those guys work, eat, and play together.
No one ever gets invited to their parties.
Did you know they call themselves 'the core team?
' Like they're the varsity and everyone else is supporting staff or the B team. "
The snark underlying Vicki's words made Claire blink. She opened her mouth to reply, but Vicki waved her off with another toothy smile. "Anyway, you're all set. By the time you get back to your desk, everything will be back in order."
"Thanks again, Vicki. Hopefully, this will be the last time I bother you. I hate constantly interrupting your work with something so silly."
"No problem." The woman focused on her computer, dismissing Claire. "It's not like I'm doing anything important, anyway. Just uploading documents to the repository. Boring, brain-numbing stuff, really."
"Oh." Claire wasn't sure what to say. Hopefully, Vicki was just having a bad day. "Well, thanks again. Bye."
"Later." Vicki threw the words over her shoulder as if Claire were already forgotten.
After checking that her login worked again, Claire hunkered down the rest of the afternoon. She hummed as she compiled the latest version of her new code. She could hardly wait to present it at the next team meeting. The guys were going to be so impressed. At least that was her plan, anyway.
"Hey, Claire?—"
She screamed. Claire swiveled her chair around, her heart hammering. Srini stood frozen and wide-eyed just inside her office, a thick spiral-bound book clutched to his chest.
"W-why is the door closed?" Her voice came out too high, too sharp. "Please open the door." She started shaking and gripped the desk for support. The room got smaller and the walls inched closer.
Srini blinked, then quickly set the book on her desk and reached behind him. "Sorry, Claire. It must have shut behind me. I didn't close it on purpose."
The door swept open and air rushed back into her lungs.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice cautious.
Claire dragged her gaze from the door back to him. "I'm… I'm claustrophobic," she said, surprised the lie slipped so easily off her tongue. "I don't like closed doors."
He nodded, visibly relieved. Apparently, claustrophobia was an acceptable excuse for her unhinged reaction.
But she knew better. For a split second, she'd been back in another room. This one with the locked door, a cruel smile, and whispered threats no one else was around to hear.
She blinked hard and forced a breath through her nose. One awful experience shouldn't dictate her interactions for the rest of her life. Time will help. I just need time.
She swallowed and cleared her throat. "What have you got for me?" she asked him.
"Oh, right. Uh, Rick ordered you your own copy of the MADAS database definitions." He pointed to the massive book he'd placed on her desk. "He said some developers liked to have hard copies they could mark up. Personally, I'm all digital, but Rick and Delbert like both."
She smiled and her racing heart settled. "Thanks. That's so thoughtful."
"Sure." He turned to leave, but stopped. "We've got both digital and hard copies of all the MADAS documentation if there's something else you need to look at. The physical copies are in Larry's office on his bookshelf."
"Cool. I'll check them out. Thanks again, Srini."
"No worries," he said over his shoulder as he left.
Claire picked up the heavy manual, running her fingers along the edge of the spiral binding.
A small gesture, but a meaningful one. After two weeks on the job, someone had finally shared something without her having to ask.
A genuine, unsolicited offering. She did a little happy dance in her chair.
The other developers were finally treating her like one of the team.
And that changed everything.