Chapter 6 #2
Scottie sat down at the desk, opened and closed a few apps, moved them around, dragging them to the top, the bottom, left, and right.
The windows behaved like obedient little soldiers, staying exactly where they were supposed to. Not a single one resized or changed its position without a prompt.
Willow wasn’t surprised. This was exactly what usually happened, at least when the glitch first started. As soon as she stepped away from the desk and someone else took over, the problem disappeared. “I swear the windows have been glitching all morning.”
“Guess I intimidated them into behaving,” Scottie said with a lopsided grin.
A snort came from Barb’s side of the cubicle wall. “You’re about as intimidating as a preschooler.”
“Have you ever seen what preschoolers can do to a new sofa?” Scottie asked, her tone full of mock horror.
She opened the settings, then checked the multitasking options.
“Hmm. I thought it might be Snap Assist being overactive, but it’s toggled off.
That should have prevented any automatic snapping. ”
Willow said nothing but kept watching over Scottie’s shoulder.
Scottie moved with smooth precision, her fingers gliding over the keyboard without her having to glance down even once. Her expression was calm and focused, her hands steady as she checked for loose or stuck keys, then flipped the mouse over to inspect the sensor.
Somehow, watching her made Willow even more flustered.
Scottie ran a few diagnostics. “Hmm,” she said again—not a sound Willow liked hearing from IT support. “I can’t find anything wrong. Are you sure you didn’t accidentally trigger a shortcut? Sometimes, that can happen when you’re using a new keyboard and the layout is slightly different from—”
“I’m sure.” Willow dug her fingernails into her palms. She really should be used to that kind of question. Whenever she experienced a tech problem no one else could reproduce, people eventually concluded that she was the one causing the problem.
Well, she was—just not the way they thought. They believed she was incompetent when it was actually her strange, disruptive energy or maybe her mere presence that made devices misbehave.
She couldn’t blame Scottie for assuming the same, yet it still stung.
Scottie seemed to notice because she held up both hands. “Hey, I’m not saying you did anything wrong. I’m just trying to consider all possibilities. But if you’re sure you didn’t hit the Windows key or something, I believe you.”
The tightness in Willow’s belly eased the tiniest fraction.
She uncurled her fists and rubbed the little crescent-shaped indents her nails had left on her palms. While she didn’t know Scottie well enough to be sure, the look in her eyes seemed genuine.
Maybe Scottie did believe her—at least for now.
Scottie tried a few more things, then shook her head and sat back. “It could be the keyboard or the mouse causing phantom input, but since the windows are behaving now, it’s hard to pin down. I could replace them, just to rule them out as the source of the problem.”
“No,” Willow said quickly. She would bring her own mouse and keyboard if she had to. If Scottie replaced them with new ones and they failed too, IT would become suspicious for sure. “That’s not necessary,” she added more calmly.
Barb peered around the cubicle wall, eyebrows raised, but didn’t say anything.
“All right. Then let’s just keep an eye on it.” Scottie got up. “Why don’t you give it a try? Just to make sure it’s working for you now.”
Willow took her place, opened a few windows, and moved them around. Everything responded the way it was supposed to.
Scottie’s gaze rested on her hands, following her every move, and Willow couldn’t shake the feeling that she was focusing on her, not on the way the windows reacted.
The subtle scrutiny rankled her, even though she had to admit it was a reasonable strategy.
If she were in IT, she probably would have tried to rule out user error too.
“Looks good,” Scottie finally said. “But if the windows start to rebel again, call me immediately.”
“Will do.” Willow stood and backed away from her computer so it wouldn’t start to glitch again while Scottie was watching.
But she had misjudged how close Scottie still was—and bumped into her.
Both grabbed onto the nearest object to keep their balance. Their hands collided on the back of the desk chair.
A jolt shot through Willow’s fingers. The air seemed to crackle, and a visible spark jumped between them.
Scottie flinched back with a sharp “Whoa!”
Ouch. Willow rubbed her fingers. She was as used to those little zaps as she was to people not believing her. Her entire life, she had always built up more static electricity than anyone else she knew. It was probably part of why she killed so many electronic devices.
She had hoped it wouldn’t be as bad in Portland with its wet air, but apparently, that didn’t make a difference.
Quite the opposite. The jolt had been stronger than usual.
“You okay?” Scottie asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Must be the carpet.”
“Right.” Scottie lingered for a moment longer, then slung her bag across her shoulders and picked up her toolbox. “Well, then. I guess I’ll see you around.” She gave her a nod and crossed the room toward the glass door.
As soon as she was gone, Barb’s head popped up over the partition, a big grin stretching across her face. “Did I just see sparks flying between you and Scottie?”
Willow’s spine stiffened. “It was just static.”
Barb leaned farther over the divider. “Hey, I’m not homophobic, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Good to know.” And it was. At her former job, that hadn’t been a given.
Not that most of her former colleagues had known she was gay…
or anything else about her. For someone who thought TikTok was a breath mint, Barb had amazingly accurate gaydar.
“But it was still just static, not Cupid’s arrow or something. ”
“Of course.” Barb nodded, but her grin remained. “Just the carpet.”
“Exactly.” Willow plopped onto her office chair, hoping Barb would get the hint and go back to work.
Her hand still tingled faintly—from the static electricity, not from her skin touching Scottie’s, of course.
She ignored the sensation as she reached for the mouse.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t start any trouble because under no circumstances would she be contacting Scottie again today.