Chapter Six
O ne more spoonful of sugar should do it. I swirled my teaspoon around my cup and took a taste as I zoned out the kitchen window. Perfect.
“How’s your coffee-flavored rock candy?”
I jolted and some of the hot liquid splashed onto my hand. “Dammit, Christa.” I grabbed a napkin and wiped it off me and the mug. “Don’t sneak up on me.”
I turned around to see her grabbing a cup from the top shelf. “Sorry.” She poured herself the rest of the pot and took a long sip, closing her eyes. “Mmm, that’s good.”
“How come you’re not dressed yet?” I asked. She usually left for work before I was even out of the shower, but there she was casually leaning against the counter in shorts and a tank top. “Are you taking the day off?”
“No, I’m staying at the clinic later, so I’m going in later. ”
I nodded, my eyes wandering to the stairs. I expected her mystery man to come down any moment now. Dre was still snoring away in my bed, and I hoped whomever it was left before he woke up. Especially if it was him . I didn’t want them running into each other. That was the only reason why I didn’t want her hookup to be a certain blond-haired, blue-eyed man. The only reason.
“He’s gone,” she said.
“What?” I looked back at her, finishing my coffee. I had to get going soon. Wouldn’t want to be late for my second day.
“The guy you’re expecting to waltz in at any second.”
“When did he leave?”
Thankfully, all the mental activity had worn me out. I ended up thinking myself to sleep and didn’t wake up again until my alarm blared in my ear.
Christa shrugged. “Before the sun came up. He wasn’t too happy about that, but I really didn’t want to deal with him in the morning.”
“Why not? It sounded like you were having fun.” I frowned. “A little too much fun. Loud fun.”
She pulled open the fridge and grabbed the bagels. “Yeah, sorry about that. I was feeling a bit theatrical last night.”
I shook my head. And here I thought she’d found the ultimate sex god. “You were faking it? Why?”
“Not completely.” She popped a bagel in the toaster. “But sorry again. Hopefully, you and Dre were able to drown it out with your own noise.”
“Nope. We just had to lie there and take it.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “You two didn’t screw around last night?”
“No, and he’s still here, by the way. He’s also going in later, so I’ll be the first one out of the house for a change.”
“Huh.”
“Huh, what? ”
“You two are doing chaste sleepovers now? Yeah, you’re definitely a couple.”
“I just haven’t felt like anything more with him lately.”
“So it’s all you and not him?”
“Yeah, I guess, but it’s only been a few days. No big deal.” I checked the time. A few more minutes. “What was going on with you last night?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean? Everything, Christa. I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you. I know you don’t like me and Dre together in this way but—”
She whipped a bagel at me, and I caught it right before the blueberries smeared against my white shirt. “What the hell?”
“Did you eat anything yet?”
“No,” I said. “Are you changing the subject?”
“Yes, just like you were doing.”
I pulled a baggie from the drawer and stuck the bagel inside. I could probably munch on it on the way. “I know you’re rooting for my relationship to fail, but aren’t you supposed to be my best friend here and support me no matter what?”
She came over and gave me a hug. “I do support you, Perry. And last night I was just in a strange mood. It had nothing to do with you.”
I rinsed out my mug and put it in the dishwasher. “Do you want to talk about it?” Shit . I had to go. “Tonight?”
“No. To quote your words, it was no big deal.” She smiled. “Now get out of here before you end up getting fired on your second day.”
I slipped on my heels. “So hey, the guy you were entertaining for hours… who was it?”
She grinned wider. “Well, you did say you wouldn’t mind.”
My heart beat a little faster. “Wouldn’t mind what?”
“Me rolling the dice with Mr. Lucky.” She winked.
“Ah….” I turned my back on her as the words stuck in my throat. Fucking get it together, woman . “I guess it paid off, then. Good for you.”
“You sound upset. Shit, Perry. You swore you weren’t interested. I hope I didn’t fuck anything up.”
I was being ridiculous. Absolutely apeshit. I faced her and smiled. “Of course you didn’t. I’m with Dre, you know that. Now, I really do have to go.” I blew her a kiss. “Have a great day. We’ll talk later.”
I got into my little Focus and rested my head back on the seat for a quick sec before peeling out of the lot. My reaction back there had thrown me. I had no connection with that man besides a green piece of costume jewelry. I didn’t even like green. He was cute, that’s all. I ran into cute guys all the time. I didn’t even know his fucking name.
I nibbled on my blue-spotted hunk of bread. It clumped in my throat, and I wished I’d thought to bring a bottle of water. I could make the drive to work in fifteen minutes if I hit all the lights. I concentrated on that—focused my mind on a seamless drive, the change from red to green as I approached. Ugh. I hated green.
Fortunately, it didn’t hate me back; I ended up making every stoplight and pulled into FiTech’s parking lot a minute early. I was feeling much better. I realized that I only needed that short time to clear my head and get my priorities straight. I was starting a whole new life here. I had a great job, and I was with Dre. It’d all work out. I just had to have a little faith. I was even happy for Christa. I mentally shook some pom-poms. Rah-rah. Way to go.
My phone dinged with an incoming text. I pulled it out of my purse as I stepped from my car, reading the screen as I walked up to the building.
I couldn’t torture you any longer. Sorry for making you suffer as long as I did. The guy in my room last night was an old fling I ran into after you left. Do-overs aren’t my thing, but like I said… weird mood. Luv ya. Kick some serious ass today. P.S. Interested yet?
Dammit, Christa. Damn damn damn. We had a rule between us: no going after the same guy. If one was interested, the other backed off. Now she was playing this game. I’d already accepted what I thought had happened, but this was almost worse. I was going to have to demand that she screw him now.
“Miss, are you planning on badging in or do you need some help?”
I noticed the sweet, balding security guard poking his head around the desk and speaking through the intercom. “Oh, right. No, I’ve got it.” I pulled my badge from my purse and held it up to the scanner. It beeped and I opened the lobby door. Nice, Perry . I made it there early only to daze out on the front steps for five minutes.
He tipped his hat at me. “Morning, Miss Sommers.”
“Good morning, Tom.”
“Beautiful day out there.”
“It sure is.” I smiled and walked past. I really hoped he had a gun stashed away somewhere because if someone did happen to break in, I didn’t think his legs even had enough muscle to support a fast getaway.
I rushed down the hall to the data center. My work space was a large room with computer monitors positioned all around in a circle. There were no cubicles, which I loved; instead, we were all connected by the same table that spiraled around the perimeter. In the middle sat the desks of the supervisors. The head department manager had his own area on the floor set off towards the back. It was a small room with glass walls, and at the moment it was empty.
I was freaking out when I dashed inside and plopped down at my area. I was sure I’d get reamed out for being late, maybe even get put on probation. I shoved my purse underneath the table and logged on to my workstation.
“Ready to start taking some calls today?”
I glanced over at my neighboring coworker, Kate. “Yes, definitely.” I looked to the center of the room and noticed the supervisors’ desks were unoccupied. Whew. Maybe I’d get away with it after all. I was not off to a good start.
“They’re all in a meeting,” she said. “And for future knowledge, don’t worry about busting your ass to get here on time. You can’t just stroll in at noon, but they’ll overlook a few minutes.”
“Wow, really?” I was liking this place even more. The last company screamed at me once when I clocked in forty-three seconds late. Forty-three seconds . I’d counted.
“They’re lenient here as long as you do your job well.”
“Works for me.”
Kate scooted her chair over. “I’ll be sitting with you most of the day and probably the rest of the week too. It depends how things go. But even after that, I’m just a few feet away if you have any questions. Or you just feel like gossiping.”
I laughed. “Thanks.” I felt super fortunate to have someone nice working next to me and helping me out. Dealing with a bitch all day would really put a damper on things. I didn’t want anything to jeopardize this job. I was sticking with it, I told myself for the umpteenth time.
I’d sat in this room during my third-shift training, but this would be my first full day with these particular coworkers. I hadn’t met everyone yet. Monday was spent more out of the room than in it as I was shown around the building and given a stack of policies and confidentiality agreements to look through and sign. The nature of the business dealt in financial transactions and other sensitive shit that I prayed I wouldn’t mess up.
“All your applications up and ready to go?” Kate asked.
“Yep.”
“Okay, go into that black screen there”—she pointed at my monitor—“and type this into the prompt: Start systems asterisk set full delete shutdown.”
I typed out what she said. They’d never taught us this in training. “ Now what?”
“Now, don’t ever ever hit Enter after that string of commands. All the systems will disable for several minutes, and you’ll cost the company millions.”
My hands flew off the keyboard. “What!”
She laughed while my heart was wrestling to leave my chest.
“No fucking with the operators, Kate. That’s my job.”
Kate rested her hand on my shoulder, covering her mouth with the other as she giggled away. Yeah, like it was the funniest thing ever to tell me something that could land my ass in jail.
I glanced between her and the guy who stood to her left. He was grinning as well.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Just a little humor to start your morning.”
“Ah, not that funny. What if I’d hit Enter without thinking about it?” I almost did, just out of habit.
“There are safeguards in place. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to kill the system and get you fired.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Adam, by the way.”
“Perry.” I shook his hand.
“I know. I didn’t get to meet you yesterday. Welcome. I hope you’ll like it here.”
“He’s one of our supervisors,” Kate said. “The team leader, which is the lowliest one of the bunch, I might add.”
Adam lightly slapped the back of her head. “I’m still above you, so respect your superior, subordinate.”
“Blow me.”
“No, thanks. I’ve seen that scary fucker of yours you call a husband. I like my face way too much. I’m not messing around with that shit.”
She smirked at him, then turned back around and brought up her e-mail. He went down to his desk inside the circle. The other higher-ups hadn’t showed yet .
“Is this company always so, um… casual?” I wasn’t sure how else to describe it. I’d never worked in a place where staff and supervisors interacted like that.
“Just this department. It’s an HR nightmare, really, but so far there’s been no trouble. We’re like one big dysfunctional family, and no one takes anything personally.”
Okay, I could handle that. It was a bit unexpected in this day and age with everyone overly touchy about saying and doing the wrong thing, but yeah, it’d be good. At least I didn’t have to worry about getting in trouble for accidentally shooting off my mouth once in a while.
“And we all try to go out every Thursday after work and get blindly drunk. It doesn’t always work out, but when it does, it makes for an interesting Friday.”
“I think I’ll need to learn my job a little better before coming in hungover.”
“Good idea. Just don’t ever come in still drunk. They really frown on that. Multimillion-dollar systems and all.”
“Thanks, I’ll remember that.”
She stood up. “Hey, do you want a soda or something?”
“God, I’d love one. Sprite if they have it.” My throat still felt like I’d swallowed school paste.
Kate headed towards a small fridge at the back of the room when my line rang. Oh shit . “Um, Kate. My phone,” I called out.
“Just answer. You’ll be fine. I’ll be back in a sec.”
Nothing to freak about. They gave us training for a reason. “FiTech, this is Perry speaking.”
“Yes, hi. The ATM on the corner of Fifth and Mitchell ate my debit card. Can you please spit it back out for me?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but you’ll need to contact your financial institution.”
“But your number’s listed right here. I’m calling you.”
“Sir, we don’t deal with individual cardholders. You’ll need to contact your financial institution.” I really hoped I was giving him the correct information.
“Then why is your number on the machine? Surely there’s something you can do for me.”
“Can you hold, please?”
Kate came back, handing me a bottle. “Thanks.” Maybe it was poor employee etiquette, but I couldn’t wait. I chugged half of it immediately, then set it down by my purse. “This guy on the phone wants me to give him back his debit card.”
She rolled her eyes. “This happens all the time. He needs to call his bank.”
“That’s what I told him, but he said our number’s on the machine.”
“That’s only because we handle the servicing contract. We don’t deal with bank customers. Unless he decides to take a sledgehammer to the thing, there’s nothing we can do.”
I sighed, unmuting the line. “Sir, once again I’m sorry, but I just confirmed that there isn’t anything we can do and—”
“Please. My wife is going to kill me.” Was he crying? “I’m not even supposed to be using the card, and I’m already on her bad side as it is. If I don’t have it back before she gets off of work, I’ll… she’ll…” He choked on a sob.
Shit, now what? I really hoped I wouldn’t tune into the news later and hear about some man taken to the hospital for frying pan–shaped imprints in his skull.
“Transfer it to Adam,” Kate mouthed.
I scanned the sheet of extensions posted by my computer. “Sir? Are you there?”
“I’m here.”
“I’m going to transfer you to my supervisor, okay?”
I took his hiccup as a yes and sent him over to extension 3620. “Man, I felt bad for the guy.”
“Just wait until you get those people who scream and threaten you. You won’t feel so sorry for them then.” She shrugged. “Not much you can do if they won’t listen to you. That’s one of the things Adam’s here for. He has to handle the shit.”
Fortunately, I didn’t have anyone threatening my life that day. The rest of the time went by quickly, and I kept busy with phone calls and setting up appointments. I think I navigated around pretty well and was proud of myself for not breaking anything.
Towards the end of my shift, I took a quick peek at my interoffice e-mail. There were a few requests for overtime and posts for job openings available in various departments around the company. I poked around the community bulletin board, looking at the items to be bought and sold, but didn’t see anything of interest. A message popped up, subject line:
RE: 3/24 Mandatory Afterhours Meeting. PLEASE READ.
This is a reminder that all employees in the Braden office are required to report to Nic’s Lounge for a company meeting after shift on Friday 3/24. Dinner and drinks will be provided. Please note that this is a mandatory meeting for employees of FiTech only. No spouses, significant others, or friends allowed.
S. Davidson
Head Director of Software Development
“Hey, what’s this about a mandatory meeting on Friday?” I asked Kate .
She slapped her forehead. “Damn, I forgot about that. I guess we’ll be skipping drinks Thursday night.”
“It sounds serious. Anything I need to be prepared for?”
“Nah. We have these every couple months or so. It’s probably ten percent legitimate work crap, ninety percent bullshitting. The company likes to sponsor them and get us all together. Good for morale or something. It seems to work, though.”
“What happens if you can’t make it? It says mandatory, but I kinda had plans with someone….” I felt a little stupid mentioning it. I’d promised Dre we’d get together, but this was my job and if it was important….
“So bring him along. Then leave early. It’s really not a big deal. It’s all pretty easygoing around here, despite how they make it sound.”
I pointed my finger at the screen. “The e-mail says employees only.”
Kate leaned over, then frowned. “Huh. Strange. I bring my husband to these things all the time.” She went back to her computer and refreshed her e-mail. “I haven’t got that one yet.” She shrugged. “Oh well. I wouldn’t worry about it.”
“Who’s S. Davidson?”
“Just one of the chiefs over in corporate. Maybe you’ll meet him on Friday. He’s not always there, but bring a change of underwear just in case—he’s hot as fuck.”
Adam popped his head over our station. “Talking about me inappropriately again, Kate?” He crossed his hands over his chest. “I’m not feeling very safe at the moment.”
She flipped him off while laughing. I shook my head. This was the wackiest work environment I’d ever been in. It made me even more determined to stay.
“Speaking of hot as fuck, I gotta get going, John’s waiting for me.”
I assumed that was her husband; at least I hoped so. She gave us a wave and headed for the door. The late-night crew was starting to file in, so I gathered my stuff, figuring it was a good time for me to leave too.
“Wait a sec,” Adam said. “I’ll walk out with you.”
“Okay.”
I finished off my warm soda and threw the bottle in the recycling bin. When Adam came around to my side, we walked out of the room and into the hall.
“I didn’t get much of a chance to check in with you today. How’d it go?”
“Pretty well, I think. I’m glad I have Kate right next to me.”
“I’m not far away either. I know I was on a call most of the day, but usually I’m more accessible. If you ever need anything, feel free to use me. That’s what I’m here for.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
“At least we had a slow day. It probably made it a little easier on you.”
I gaped at him. “This was a slow day?”
He clapped me on the shoulder and laughed. “You’ll get used to it.”
We went through the main lobby and I dug out my badge. We needed it to exit the building too. I held it up to the scanner.
“Good night, Miss Sommers. Adam.”
“Good night, Tom.”
“You seem to be fitting right in here,” Adam said.
We stepped out and went down the steps to the parking lot. “Yeah, I think so. I really like it so far and love the people I’m working with.”
In between calls, I’d met the rest of the people in the room. I hadn’t detected any weird vibes towards the new girl; so far, so good. Everyone seemed great. They all appeared to be in their twenties and thirties with the exception of the other two supervisors who kept mainly to themselves. It was clear that Adam was the one who interacted with the operators .
“Feel like grabbing a bite to eat?” He raised an eyebrow. “Or a drink?”
I eyed him. He could just be acting friendly, or he could be interested. My instincts told me it was more towards the latter, but either way, I was comfortable with him. He had that air about him, and not a single creepy feeling was making its way over to me. I did very much want to be friends with him, and in another life, I might have even pursued him. He was easygoing and attractive. He looked fun, and I liked that a lot.
“Thanks, Adam, but I just feel like heading straight home tonight.”
“All right. See you tomorrow, Perry.”
“See ya.”
He waved, then walked in the opposite direction to his car. Even if I didn’t have my current arrangement with Dre, I’d still be hesitant to take things beyond the friend zone with a guy I worked with. Everyone I’d known who thought they could make it work was wrong. It never worked. The end results were always ugly with a big fat U stamped to their ass.
Forget that. It didn’t matter if I was single or not. Getting naked with someone at the office could only end in disaster, and I liked my new job way too much to screw it up.