Chapter 30

It was Friday. I went into work. Matt had finished his desk moving and I now had a desk visible to all though it was in an office. I also had an extension and an email account. Tracey took one look at me and sat down in a guest chair. "Did you call Eve last night? Did she call you?" I shook my head in answer to both questions.

"Boss, this is not a good impasse. It worries me."

"I'm sorry it worries you. Unfortunately, it confirms what I have feared from the beginning. It's just going to be too hard to combine our lives. I won't bother her. She has a lot of demands upon her time. Now, I have one more and it's at her behest.

"I'll leave a little early this afternoon and go home for the weekend. I'll be back Monday morning. We can hit the ground running then. I'm due a proposal from Bill Travers for communications. I will take it with me."

Tracey said, "Bill, I think you're giving up."

"On Eve?" She nodded. "No, I'm being realistic. She's much younger and there is plenty to fill her days and nights without an old man hanging around."

She looked a bit angry. "Don't go feeling sorry for yourself. There are a number of women, some even in relationships, who would jump at a chance at you. First, you aren't old. Second, there is something sexily attractive about you. I feel it. Joyce and Jane both feel it. Neither of them has been warned away by another woman either like I have."

I said, "We'll see what happens. I think she came to her senses and realized that it's too hard to develop an 'us' from our separate lives."

"Bill, I don't think you are being fair to her or giving her an opportunity. In a different context, you didn't treat me that cavalierly."

"I'm not treating anyone. I'm just being realistic about life. Tracey, I've made no secret about my doubts about the viability of the relationship. I don't really want to be proven right, but it looks that way to me."

I paused. Before she could say more, I said, "Is your report ready?"

She grinned ruefully. "Yes, Sir. I understand but, if you do want to talk, I will listen. However, honesty compels me to tell you that I'm cheering for you and Eve as a couple."

"Thank you, Tracey. Let me have the report to take with me."

It was mid morning when Bill Travers came to my desk. He sat down. "I will confess a problem. I can't find a way to guarantee communications under the conditions you gave me. I have also examined past events and found at least six instances in the last five years in which there was a partial area outage in which both the Internet and power were both lost. I have some ideas but the costs are prohibitive."