Chapter 12

I had been staring at the same passage in the email for close to 10 minutes now, and it was not making any more sense than the first time I had read it. Maybe I needed more coffee. I was already on my third cup and it was just helping me to stay focused on the job at hand, but was not helping me understand what I was reading. I was beginning to suspect the problem was me. I decided to send it to print. Maybe seeing it in hard copy would help my comprehension.

I had left Fay and Luci snuggled together, both very much asleep and come to work in the wee hours in an attempt to get something done. I had lost most of Wednesday and it was going to take all my focus to get back in the game. At least there was some good news. My office had been unsealed at some point yesterday and while it still looked like a tornado had blown through, it was accessible and that is what mattered. I had spent about an hour putting it back into something of a workable fashion. Eric had set me back more than a little bit. He had smashed two key machines on my workbench, one of which was the email gateway for Craig's project; the other was my log server. Fortunately, he had missed or did not know about my backup server which had snapshots of each of the other boxes on it. So, while I would loose time rebuilding some hardware, most of the work that Luci had done since we started this project was safe. I started moving the requisite information off to DVD and set about responding to the emails that had piled up in my absence.

I was rereading one from Jason about the state of the database when someone knocked on my door. People had been flowing in and out of the spaces for some time I just had not really been paying much attention.

"Yes," I said, sort of looking up.

"I am looking for Mr. Preston," she said with a bit of a question in her voice and I could not remember if my name was outside my door or not. She was an average looking woman, maybe mid-thirties with strawberry blond hair cut close to her head. She was dressed in a blue suit, skirt falling to below her knee, white shell. Her jewelry and makeup were normal and it looked like her shoes needed a shine. She was generally unremarkable. She was also not a member of the IT department.

"You found him, although, these spaces are restricted. How did you get in here?" I asked, indicating she should come in. The office was almost back to its normal state of chaos and she took in the mess with a critical eye as she made her way to my desk.

"Ms. Eaton gave me the code, sir," she said. Where Patricia got the code, I was not even going to speculate. Our door code was one of the most closely guarded secrets in the company (or so we liked to think). Security had a key, so they did not need it. I suspect Jerry had given it to Patricia, or maybe Missy. I would have to have it changed. It should have been done already, but I suspect someone had overlooked it and we were down two people. I typed up a quick email, having forgotten about the person in my office until she interrupted me again.

"Mr. Preston? I am Tanya Ridgeland. Your assistant," she said, extending a hand. I noticed she had a small pad of paper in the other one.

"My what?" I asked standing slightly and taking her hand. She was married the light glinted off the diamond in its setting as I sat back down and indicated that she should do the same.

"Your assistant, sir," she said again, in a clear voice.

"You must have the wrong Mr. Preston," I said as my phone started ringing.

"Gary Preston," I said answering it.

"Good morning, Gary," Maureen's voice sighed across the line. Did I mention she has a sexy voice to go with her body?

"Good morning, yourself. How did you sleep? Or did you get any?" I asked.

"Wonderfully, and you?"

"I am on my third cup of coffee and I cannot make heads or tails out of an email Louise sent me. I think it is written in English, but I have read legal briefs that are more to the point. Is she in yet by the way?"

"I did not notice," she responded. "But you have to come up here anyway so we can finish your office preparations."

"Fat chance," I said with a small laugh. "I just got back into my office, which still looks like a tornado went through it. I lost two machines to the little shit and that will take me the bulk of the day to replace and I am three days behind on Craig's email project, which I owe him a status report on yesterday. What's that line? No one get's 10 minutes today." I had already sent an email over to Jerry asking permission to spend a couple of hundred of the company's money to go and get some new machines off the shelf. If he approved it, I would not be able to start until after lunch. If he did not approve it, then I would have to go and scrounge hardware, which meant I still would have to submit a purchase order for new standby machines. I made a note on my pad as Maureen continued talking to me.

"Then I will come down there, but we really need to get this done Gary," she said, her voice firm as if she was not going to take no for an answer. Nikki chose that moment to walk in, two cups of coffee in her hand and put one down in front of me, looking at the Tanya sitting in the chair.

"Maureen, I don't need an office. The one I have is just fine, thank you, albeit a little messy at the moment," I could see Nikki nodded enthusiastically out of the corner of my eye, the brat.

"Gary, you are an officer of the company now," she said, like it would actually have an affect on my stance, "and as such, you need to have an office as befits your position."

"Maureen, you are not listening to me. While I may be an officer on some mythical org chart, at the moment, I am a technician who is way behind in his work, work that the CEO of the company expects me to have done in a timely manner and is not willing to listen to trivial excuses about why it isn't done. I still have a phone, desk, chair and data drop. This is all I need in an office. That and six bookcases," I amended.

"Gary, you don't understand... ," she started before I cut her off.

"Maureen, I don't mean to be rude, but I really do not have time for this today. I am hip deep in alligators and the boat is sinking. I will talk to you later. I'm sorry," I hung up the phone and looked up. Nikki had seen the look before and you could see her shifting as she went from brat to professional.

"Luci called. She should be here in about 10 minutes," she said. "Also, Janice needs to speak with you about Patricia's old machine and security cleared Eric's machine for reformatting."

"Tell Janice to stick her head in when she get's a minute and go ahead and reformat Eric's machine. Make sure you wipe the disk a couple of times before you do though," I said and she nodded sagely.

"Already wiping, sir," she said. She almost never called me sir. I must be grumpy today, or she was trying to be professional. She had on khakis and a red departmental golf shirt. She rarely wore red. Her diamonds glinted from her ears.

"Go then, get," I made shooing motions with me hand which got me a mock salute. "And thanks for the coffee," I said before she cleared the door.

"You're welcome," she replied. "I will collect the fee later." A class-A brat. Tanya was still sitting in front of my desk.

"At the risk of sounding rude Mrs. Ridgeland, go away. I have neither the time, nor the need for an assistant. I have more than enough help already," I turned back to reading through Louise's email and it was beginning to make some sense. I also sensed that Tanya had not moved from her position. I glanced up. There was a look of almost shock on her face. Janice chose that moment to stick her head in the door.

"Got a sec?" she asked.

"No, but I hear you need more than that, so come on in, everyone else seems to be," I sat back in my chair in a sort of dejected slump.

"You look beat, Gary. Did Fay keep you up late last night?" She had a quirk to her smile and we both knew what she meant, which got a little bit of a smile out of me.

"Yes, she did," I responded, reaching for my coffee.

"Hi, I'm Janice," she said, extending a hand to Tanya.

"Sorry, my CPU is slow this morning. Janice Williams, head of application support, this is Tanya Ridgeland," I said by way of introduction.

"Mr. Preston's assistant," she added helpfully.

I could see Janice trying not to laugh. "I thought that was Luci's job," she said looking at me with a smirk.

"I believe she means administrative assistant," I said. "Since I have not seen a resume and I do not hire anyone to assist me with out a resume or some sort of bona fides. Patricia and I will have words when I have a moment to deal with it," I concluded.

"Speaking of Patricia," Janice said all business and having seen me grumpy before, knew better than to go down any road too far. "Her infected machine has been released by security for rebuild and I will put Nikki on that."

"I just put her on a rebuild of Eric's machine," I said. "What is her workload like?"

"Not too high at the moment, why?"

"Thinking outside the box," I responded. "Patricia has a machine now. Will it hold her?"

"It should. You have a plan." she said. No need to ask the question.

"Yes, I do. I have to cut an order for about a dozen new machines, mostly for standby purposes, but a few upgrades as well are needed. What is one more?" I reasoned.

"Who needs them?" she asked. I rattled off a bunch of people that I knew were in the pipeline for new machines plus where the hot spares were most likely needed.

"Any particular specs?" She asked.

"No, standard stuff will do. Check with Patricia and see if she wants anything beyond normal. I am waiting for Jerry to get back to me on a question I put in this morning and I will cut the PO." I said, making another note.

"Don't bother, I can do that," Janice said. "You have enough going on right now without having to do that. It wouldn't be the first time I covered your load."

"Thank you, Janice, I appreciate it. Consider it delegated. I will get you some final numbers later this morning I hope."

"Let me know. I will drop Patricia's machine off with Nikki then," she said with wave as she headed out of the office.

I heard Luci in the hall before she got to my door.

"Good morning, Gary," she said, far too bright and chipper for this hour of the morning, even though it was close to 9 AM.

"Good morning yourself," I tried not to grumble. "Sleep well?" She looked beautiful as always. She was wearing khakis and a powder blue shirt, her hair bounced, revealing little hoops in her ears as she sat down in my other guest chair and looked over at Tanya.

"Luci Phelps, Tanya Ridgeland," I said, making the introduction. "Luci, we have a problem. Eric smashed the gateway server. I have a backup of the configurations, but no machine to run it on yet. I have a 'funding request' in to Jerry as we speak."

"That little..." I held up a hand forestalling her further outburst. I agreed, but there was not much more that we could do about it.

"I know. Go and get some coffee and see what else around here is in need of your tender mercies. I have a plateful at the moment. If we get approval, I will call you."

"OK. You need anything?" she asked with a grin.

"No, thank you. I have everything I need and then some," I replied.

"Pleased to meet you, Tanya. Stay out of trouble, Gary," she said and left the office.

Minx, I thought to myself. I needed to see Louise. That would mean going upstairs, which would put me in Maureen's gun sights as well, but it could not be helped if I was going to be able to answer the issues Louise had raised. I also had to talk to Patricia about my "assistant" who was still sitting in front of my desk. I reached over and picked up the phone and dialed Louise's number.

"Louise Hampton," she said picking up the phone on the second ring.

"Good morning, Louise. I have spent several minutes trying to understand your email and I think I have figured out what you want to know, but a face-to-face would be better then trying to frame an email back. Have you got a moment and when?" I asked.

"Good morning, Gary. Come on up. For you, I have more than a few minutes," she said.

"Great. Give me five minutes and I will be there," I said before hanging up the phone.

I picked up the email and took a look at the office. It needed more than five minutes worth of work and so I decided to ignore it. Tanya stood up when I did. I was going to have my own shadow. Without a word I walked out of the office and she followed me to the elevators.

"Why don't you like me," she asked while we waited for the elevators.

"I don't not like you," I responded. "I just have no need for an assistant, at least, not one that is not well schooled in technology. Further, I resent having anyone thrust at me to fill a position that does not need filling."

"But, sir, I was told you are the Chief Technology Officer," she said.

"That is the current rumor, yes," I responded as we stepped into the elevator.

"As such, you need to have someone to answer your phone and manage your schedule," she seemed to have this down to a science.

"No, actually, I don't. What I need is someone to procure and rebuild two severs, install software and get my project back on track," she was about to open her mouth and I continued on, "which is Ms. Phelp's job. One she is more than sufficiently trained to do. Beyond that I am quite capable of managing my own calendar and answering my own phone, something anyone in this company should be able to do with out assistance." I climbed down off my soapbox as the elevator doors opened. Rather than heading for Louise's office, I walked around to Patricia's office.

"Good morning, Gary," she said brightly when I knocked on her door. "What can I do for you this morning?"

"Good morning, Patricia. You know Mrs. Ridgeland?" I asked.

"Of course," she responded.

"Good, then I am sure you can find her something as befits her skills," I said, turning and leaving without a second glance. She may have called after me, but I was not in the mood.

I found Louise in her office and we sat down to tackle the problem she had laid out before me. It was not that it was complicated. It was, but not overly so. It was the arcane mechanics she was going through to make it happen. It took us about two hours to hammer through the issues. In that time we came to a series of conclusions. The first was that the accounting system we used was so byzantine that we were probably expending money instead of saving it following the procedures we had to follow to get from one point to the other. The second conclusion was that her solution to some of the technical issues was too simplistic and would take more effort than she had envisioned. It could be done, just with more effort and I would provide her with a better estimate of what was involved to pull it off. The third conclusion was that we worked well together. We set a tentative meeting for tomorrow morning to review the extra work I estimated it would take and left it at that. Maureen caught me coming out of Louise's office. Well, I knew I was not going to get away totally free. She invited me into her office.

"I really don't have time Maureen," I said as I slumped into her couch. The conversation with Louise had drained me and I was thinking about an early lunch.

"You are going to have to make time, Gary," she said. "I have an email here from Patricia that says you don't like your assistant? What's that all about?"

"I am not sure what you are talking about," I said, playing dumb. "Luci is a fabulous assistant. She has initiative, takes chances. She moves things forward. I would say she was after my job, if I had a job she would be interested in."

"Smart ass," Maureen said with a slight grin. "I meant Tanya."

"Who?"

"Tanya Ridgeland, the woman who is to be your administrative assistant," she said.

"She knows nothing about administration," I replied. "At least not that I have seen. Of course, no one slid a resume past me. Does she have any certifications? How long has she been in the business? How many OSs does she know?"

Maureen paused for a moment and really looked at me. "You didn't get much sleep last night did you?" she asked.

"No, but that has nothing to do with the conversation," I replied.

"No, you're right, it doesn't. But I notice you dig your heels in when you are tired."

"And behind," I mentioned. "Anything else?"

She sat and looked at me for a moment. She was wearing grey wool slacks and a light weight brown sweater with 3/4 length sleeves. It looked very good on her, but I was trying not to look at her.

"No, Gary, nothing else for the moment," she said. I took it as a dismissal and headed back down to my office. I took the stairs so I would not have to wait for the elevator. I was back in my office a few minutes later and working on the issues Louise and I had pounded out.

"You need to eat," I heard Luci say from my doorway. I was not really conscious of what time it was.

"Sorry, not today," I replied. I heard her walk around my desk.

"My sweet, darling, dunderhead," she said with some force spinning me around to look at her. "You have had nothing but coffee since dinner last night, and I believe you mentioned that you did not eat anything substantial the day before, at least nothing that contained calories," she corrected. "So, put on your coat and let us go and get some lunch. It is almost one o'clock."

She must be taking lessons from Fay. I decided that giving in to her would be easier than fighting with her. To emphasize the point, my stomach chose that moment to grumble.

"See, I knew I was right," she said smugly

Nikki was waiting for us by the elevators and we rode down together, my arm around each one of them. We took my car, since it already had seating cleared for three, well four really, but Ellen's seat was always clear and drove around the corner. The hostess seated us and took our order and left us to ponder the menu. I was hungry, I discovered as I sorted out the options I had to choose from for lunch. Nikki and Luci were both sitting across from me, their toes dancing on my legs. It was a fun lunch with a lot of innuendo and lust looks all around the table.

Jerry caught up to me as we were coming off the elevator and we went back around to his office.

"How many PCs do you need?" he asked.

"Well, I had two damaged, there are six that are needed for upgrades and another six as hot stand-bys, so that is 14."

"Make it an even 2 dozen then and we will start the rolling upgrades," he said.

"Twenty-four PCs it is," I said as I left for Janice's office where I let her know the total.

"Thanks. You better go up and see Patricia," she said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"When two rocks collide against each other, there is bound to be some friction," she said pointedly. "You and she are cut from the same cloth. Go see her it will do you some good."

"Yes, ma'am," I responded and headed back upstairs.

I knocked on Patricia's door and she motioned me in while she finished typing an email. When she finished she turned to me.

"I screwed up didn't I," she asked in a quiet voice. Instead of responding I got up and gently closed her door.

"I am not used to people doing my work for me," I responded and that got a laugh.

"Tell you what," she said. "I won't assign you an assistant again without at least letting you review the resume. Deal?"

I walked over to her and bent down and kissed her. She wrapped her fingers in my hair and I kneeled down so we were on the same level. I broke the kiss and cupped her cheek. "Deal," I said.

"I understand you lost two servers," she said, changing gears on me.

"Two workstations really," I said standing back up. "Jerry's approved the purchase of some new machines and they should be here in a week."

"When will we see the PDAs working?"

"Well, I have scrounged all the hardware that is left, I think," I said, trying to remember if there was a PC somewhere that I had missed. "The short answer is no time soon I am afraid."

"Sorry, darling," she said, standing up and molding body to mine. "That is not good enough. Craig will skin both of us," she continued, leaning in to kiss me again. Our tongues fought a small skirmish while our hands floated over each other's body. Patricia has a delicate ass, and it seems like she had forgotten her panties again as I floated my finger up and down the crack.

"Now, enough of that," she said, breaking the kiss and capturing my hand with her own. "Where is your coat?"

"In my office," I replied, half in question and half in statement.

"Go and get it and I will meet you in the lobby," she said, reaching for her own coat.

"OK," I said. She had me curious, so I decided that doing what she told me to do was the better part of valor. I rode down to the 4th floor and picked up my coat and returned in time to catch the same elevator that Patricia was in. Unfortunately, there were a couple of other people on it as well so we had to behave ourselves.

We walked out into the cold February afternoon and I followed her to her car, parked near the entrance to the building. She tossed me the keys and I unlocked the passenger door for her and held it open before walking around to the driver side and sliding behind the wheel.

"OK, so where are we going?" I asked as I put the keys in the ignition. Maybe if I was good she would let me drive her Z when it warmed up.

"To which ever computer store you frequent and will have the parts or boxes or whatever you need to get back on track," she said. "And no argument," she continued as I was about to do just that. Rather than argue, I started up the car and headed for the computer store Luci and I had visited barely a week before.