Chapter 7
Willow pretended to check the time on the wall clock across the office, but she was actually sneaking glances through the glass door toward the elevator.
Scottie hadn’t given a specific time, just mentioned that she’d have her computer back to her on Wednesday. Since it was nearly lunchtime, Willow expected Scottie to emerge with the cart any minute.
“You okay?” Barb walked over from the break room and paused behind her, cradling a mug of steaming coffee. “Is the laptop still giving you grief?”
“Oh, no, no. Everything’s running smoothly.
” That wasn’t entirely true. The windows were still snapping to the edges of her screen every now and then.
But after she had, for the most part, gotten over her accidental coming out in the coffee shop, the laptop had calmed down too.
Plus she figured she would return it soon anyway, so the occasional glitch wasn’t worth reporting.
“I’m just waiting for my computer to come back from IT. I’m supposed to get it back today.”
“Ah. So you’re waiting for Scottie.” Barb gave her a knowing grin before continuing on to her own desk.
“I’m waiting for my computer. I don’t care who delivers it.”
“Right,” Barb said.
Willow ignored her and went back to updating the company’s vendor list, making sure all contact information was current.
The elevator dinged, then the frosted glass door opened with a beep and the rattle of a rolling cart drifted toward her.
Willow kept her gaze on the vendor list so Barb wouldn’t think she was eager to see Scottie. Which, of course, she wasn’t. She had never in her life looked forward to interacting with someone from IT.
The sound of squeaky wheels on the carpeted floor grew louder as the cart made its way down the aisle toward her. Finally, it stopped next to her cubicle.
“Hi,” came a friendly voice—a male one.
Willow looked up.
The person pushing the cart wasn’t Scottie.
The man standing there was stocky and about Scottie’s height, and a rebellious swoop of hair fell onto his forehead.
But that was where the similarities ended.
His hair was black and curly, and he looked several years younger than Scottie, with smooth, warm brown skin that was free of the freckles that dotted Scottie’s fairer face.
“I’m Mateo Alvarez from IT. You must be Willow. I come bearing gifts.” He waved his arm at the cart as if she had won the main prize in a raffle. “I’ve got your computer here.”
Willow stared at him for a moment, then quickly said, “Hi. Thanks for bringing it over.”
“Sorry it took a while, but now it’s got a brand-new motherboard. Scottie also cleaned the fans and reapplied thermal paste to make sure you won’t have any problems with overheating.”
So Scottie had worked on the computer. Why wasn’t she the one delivering it, then? Willow clenched her jaw to keep from asking.
Mateo unloaded the computer from the cart. “Scottie said to make sure to keep it on the desk,” he said with a grin but didn’t offer any information about why Scottie hadn’t shown up this time.
“I won’t move it an inch.” Willow backed up the file she’d been working on to the cloud and logged out. Then she got up to give him space so he could disconnect the monitors and peripherals from the laptop and switch them over to the computer.
He handed her the USB drive she’d forgotten to take from the laptop.
Their fingers brushed, but thankfully, she didn’t zap him, because she had touched the metal desk leg as she’d gotten up.
“Thanks.”
Once all the cables were in place, Mateo pressed the power button. Within seconds, the screens came to life, displaying the login page with Kudos’s by-now familiar default background. “Should be ready to go. Give it a try.”
Willow took a seat, logged in, opened a couple of apps, and typed a few words.
Everything was working without a glitch, and all her files were there.
“Looks perfect. Thanks so much,” she said.
“Great.” Mateo gathered the loaner laptop. “If anything else comes up, let us know.”
“Will do. Thank you.”
A quick wave, then he wheeled the cart back down the aisle.
Willow didn’t watch him go. She opened the vendor list to make sure it had synced correctly.
“No sparks with this one,” Barb commented from the other side of the divider.
Willow gritted her teeth. “I’m wearing different shoes today.”
“Now it’s the shoes? I thought the carpet was to blame?” Amusement colored Barb’s tone.
“It was, but maybe it likes these shoes better,” Willow replied. “Now get back to work and let me focus on the vendor list, or my on-the-job trainer will have my head.”
Barb chuckled. “Right. Wouldn’t want the mean old biddy to add your head to her trophy collection.”
“Exactly.” Willow forced her attention back to the list and updated one of the addresses.
No missed keystrokes, no zigzagging cursor, no misbehaving windows. For once, everything was working perfectly.
Then why did it feel as if something vital to the system was starting to go off-track anyway?
~ ~ ~
“Oh, come on. You’ve got to come with me. It’s Wednesday, which means it’s taco bar day in the cafeteria!” Barb did a little dance, looking more like an excited five-year-old than a woman about to retire.
“Tacos on a Wednesday?” Willow raised her brows. “Isn’t it supposed to be Taco Tuesday?”
Barb waved her hand. “Kudos does things their own way. Besides, once you taste the tacos, you won’t care what day it is. The slow-cooked pork in their carnitas just melts in your mouth, and their guacamole is so good, I might sneak in here every Wednesday once I retire. So, are you coming or what?”
Willow pointed at the reusable container she’d just pulled from the office fridge. “Sounds delicious, but I brought lunch.”
“You can have that for dinner.” Barb tugged on her sleeve. “I want to introduce you to my friends down in Marketing. I always have lunch with them. Sally is a sweetheart, and Jack does this hilarious impression of Mr. Sorensen that has us all in stitches.”
For a moment, Willow imagined how nice it would be to stroll into the cafeteria, chat with colleagues while waiting in line, and bond over company gossip.
She pushed the thought away. She’d never made friends at work in any of her previous jobs.
Why would she start now? It was better to keep her distance and avoid the cafeteria.
After everything that had happened in the coffee shop, she didn’t want to risk another POS system crashing when she tapped her ID badge to it, especially not when someone from IT—or, worse, one of her bosses—might be around to witness it.
“I’m sure they’re great, Barb, but I need a little fresh air. Maybe another time.” She grabbed her jacket and lunch and slipped out before Barb could try to change her mind.
Quickly, she made her way down to the lobby and crossed the street to a park she had discovered on her first day at Kudos.
It was small, just a strip of green between the glass-and-steel towers and the mid-rise office buildings of the Lloyd District, but it had become her oasis during lunchtime.
Today, it was especially beautiful since it wasn’t raining for once. The early-October sun had finally made a rare appearance, and patches of blue sky peeked out from behind the gray clouds. The leaves were turning gold and crimson.
She found an empty bench next to a large maple tree and took a seat. Carefully, she opened the container, balanced it on her knees, and dug in.
Yum. The quinoa bowl tasted as great as it had the night before. The roasted veggies and sweet potatoes offset the tang of the lemon dressing perfectly.
A fountain to her left gurgled softly while she ate, and a fryer at a nearby food cart hissed and popped. The aroma of spicy fried chicken mingled with the scent of damp earth and fallen leaves.
Footsteps crunched across the path, heading toward her.
Willow expected a fellow office worker looking for a lunch spot in the sun or an unhoused person in need of spare change.
“Hi.”
Willow nearly choked on a piece of broccoli. She hadn’t expected to hear that voice here. Her head jerked up.
Scottie was standing in front of her, both hands in her pockets and her typical easy smile on her face.
Instead of the company-issued polo shirt, she was wearing a soft-looking gray sweater, which made her appear even more approachable.
Her blonde hair shimmered in the sun as she pulled one hand from her pocket and ran her fingers through the wavy strands.
“I spotted you when I parked across the street and thought I’d say hi. ”
Willow peered up at her, blinking against the sun that formed a halo around Scottie’s head, and didn’t know what to say other than: “Hi.”
Scottie didn’t seem to share her self-consciousness. She sat down on the other end of the bench without waiting for an invitation, as if it had never occurred to her that Willow wouldn’t want company during her lunch break.
Willow nearly rolled her eyes. Extroverts.
Scottie gestured at Willow’s lunch. “You don’t like tacos?”
“I do, but…” Willow hesitated. She couldn’t tell Scottie why she was really avoiding the cafeteria, so she opted for telling her about the second reason. “Bringing my own lunch saves a few bucks.” The admission made heat rise to her cheeks.
“I get it.” The look in Scottie’s eyes was understanding. “Living in Portland is expensive.”
Willow nodded. And so was having to replace her phone and laptop every year.
“Did you get your computer back?” Scottie asked as if she could sense Willow had been thinking about her devices.
“Yes, I did. Mateo brought it over earlier. It’s working perfectly. Thanks again.”
“You’re very welcome. Sorry I couldn’t deliver it myself. Mr. Haggerty, our CEO, is working from his cabin at the Sandy River today and couldn’t connect to Kudos’s VPN. He urgently needed access to the toy design files on the company server, so I had to drive out and set it up.”