Chapter 4
Chapter Fou r
T he office is way too quiet when I arrive. I blame it on the early arrival. This outage has thrown off my routine. I was up late, and in early just to be ahead of the game. Writing a planning schedule is easy. Getting it approved is difficult. Mr. Holt doesn’t like to spend money on projects he can’t control. He especially doesn’t like spending money on projects that failed, resulting in cases. This outage is definitely out of control for D.I.C. If the local IT Company hadn’t performed a back-door job, the system would have been protected from anything. A knock on my door surprises me. It’s too early for anyone to be here.
“Come in.” the door opens and Julian steps in, looking refreshed and ready for the day. I’m disgusted that he looks well rested, and here I am exhausted with the look to accompany it.
“Working on the schedule plan?”
“That’s what we agreed on, so yes, I am.”
“Anything good?” he asks.
“Is there anything good? What would be good about a schedule plan, or planning it, Julian?”
“I heard it was your thing. ”
“That’s not my only thing, sir.”
“Sir?” Julian seems offended at my term of endearment gesture.
“Would it be a problem if I were”? His question throws me off and renders me speechless.
“It wouldn’t. However, there’s a level of respect that I offer. If you don’t want it, let me know I can scale back on the respect,” I smile, and Julian laughs.
“Respect.” Julian says with a sardonic smile.
“Touché’.”
“How much of the planning have you completed?”
“Quite a bit, but I’m stuck. I don’t know what the system is experiencing.” Julian’s laugh interrupts me.
“What’s funny?”
“It’s not experiencing anything,” he laughs again, and I frown.
“Do you know what the system was doing before it went down? Was it a full power outage? Did the system lag or buffer? Was there or is there an error? What is the current verbiage on the screen and in the code?” Julian looks at me as his lips form an oh shape.
“Exactly. I am going to contact a few companies affected with a few questions to determine what we’re facing. The root of the problem is the bad patch, but resolution can vary. We can easily restore and re-install, but we don’t know how the data that is missing works, or if it works. We can cause more issues. The other problem is if each site is experiencing different issues, we will have to deal with each site individually.
“This sounds like a cyber-attack, like a virus has infected the patch.” Julian says, placing his index finger and thumb on his chin and cheek. It’s the most common action a man can make, and I find it sexy as hell. What am I saying? I need to focus on this case. “That wouldn’t be good.”
“Correct. We’ll have to deal with each site individually.”
“I didn’t think about that.”
“I didn’t either until I came upon this part of the schedule.”
“Understood.” He says nodding, placing one hand in his pocket. I just now notice that Julian is dressed in grey slacks with a black shirt and tie. The shirt lay on this man like it was tailored for him. Shontae’s right, this man is fine and I can’t stand him for it. The fact that I gave him a once over glance makes me mad at myself. What makes me even madder is that he noticed and acknowledged it with that cynical smile of his. I wouldn’t have looked, but the way he held his hand in his pocket positioned his pants in a way that revealed a print. A nice sized print. What am I saying?
“I, uhm, will call a few customers around 9 ‘o’clock upon opening.”
“I agree,” he says, still slyly smiling.
My curiosity has peeked, “why are you in so early?”
“Mr. Holt said that you would all over the schedule plan, and early. I wanted to be here to witness the magic, and to learn.”
“Learn,” I say, holding back a smile of my own.
“You don’t have an issue with that, do you?”
“Why do you think that I have an issue with everything?”
Julian looks at me with one eyebrow raised, as if I do.
“I don’t.”
Julian raises both hands I surrender.
“I only have issues with nonsense and unfairness.”
“When have you experienced those issues here?”
“Are you serious right now? Are you freaking kidding me?”
“No, I’m not, I want to know. Maybe I can help.”
“Julian, the only way that you can help me is if you quit.” Julian looks at me as if there was something foreign said. “What, I’m dead-ass.”
“I know,” he says, and I believe him he knows. “I can’t do that, but if I can help in any other way, don’t hesitate to let me know.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. It still doesn’t explain why you’re here so early?”
“I told you. I want to learn this function of the job, and to witness the magic.” He says this as he nods and raises that eyebrow. Ugh, I can’t stand his charming ass.
“You could have learned at your normal time. I’m here to write the schedule this early to present it as early as possible. This way it’s approved early. Approvals take time. I just wanted to get a head start.”
“Understood,” he says, putting his hands in his pocket, again. I avoid the form in front of his slacks this time.
“I’ll let you know when I have a solid schedule, and we can make changes if you have any discrepancies.”
“I won’t interfere with brilliance.” Oh, he’s reaching.
“I wouldn’t say brilliance.”
“What would you describe your work as?” Julian asks, hands still in his pockets.
“Accurate and neat.” Julian looks at me in the eyes as if he’s trying to see through to my soul. The stare is intense as he shrugs.
“Brilliance” Julian leaves my office and my body is instantly affected, and again, I’m mad about it. The compliment is what did it for me.