The Hacker

by Herkness, Nancy

  “I’d have to run it by Vicky.” Ramón still sounded dubious.

  “I know. She’s the tech queen.” Although how Vicky could even type without ruining her jewel-encrusted manicure, Dawn couldn’t figure out. She stood up. “Let me know if you want to use KRG’s services.”

  As she walked away from the management office, she frowned. It surprised her that Ramón wasn’t aware of the Wi-Fi problem. Why the hell hadn’t Vicky told him after all this time?

  It also complicated things for her because she had expected Ramón to hail KRG’s assistance as a lifesaver. Now she was in the awkward position of having asked for help for someone who might not accept it. Hopefully, Leland was too busy to care whether a gym in Cofferwood, New Jersey, wanted his assistance or not.

  No such luck, though. After she finished with her first client, Dawn checked her email messages. She grimaced when she saw one from Leland.

  Ready when you are.

  She considered ignoring it until she’d heard Ramón’s decision. Leland would figure that she was working and hadn’t read it yet. She started to slide her phone back into her sweatshirt pocket and then stopped. Leland was a computer expert. He might be able to tell that she’d read his email.

  She growled in frustration, pulled out her phone, and read it again. On second glance, it seemed a little provocative. She was only supposed to put him in touch with her boss. His words made it sound like they would be working on the problem together.

  No, she had to be imagining things. After a minute’s thought, she typed out a careful response.

  My boss is excited about the opportunity, but his wife is the IT person so he doesn’t want to step on her toes. He’s going to get back to me after he speaks with her.

  Thanks,

  Dawn

  That was only a slight lie. A polite one.

  She started to stow her phone but decided to wait a minute. Without the Wi-Fi connection to screw things up, her regular phone service still worked fine. Sure enough, an email came back from Leland.

  Ah, the joys of a family-run business. Not only office politics but domestic dynamics to contend with. This may be more than I can handle.

  She snort-laughed. Mr. Southern Charm could probably talk a state trooper out of giving him a ticket after being clocked at a hundred miles per hour on the New Jersey Turnpike. Even worse, she was enjoying his email messages way too much.

  I have a client. Catch you later.

  She shoved her phone in her pocket and strode past the grunting, sweating gym rats to the lounge, where her next client, Leslie, was chatting with the blond ex-jock, Chad.

  “Dawn, baby,” he said, flashing his whitened smile. “If I didn’t respect you so much, I’d steal away this lovely lady and train her myself.”

  Leslie, a frazzled mom with three small kids and a husband who traveled for business three weeks out of every month, trilled a giggle. Dawn didn’t begrudge her the pleasure of flirting with a guy whom some considered good-looking. So she just narrowed her eyes at Chad in a warning before turning to Leslie with a wink. “Don’t let that dazzling smile fool you. He’s way meaner than I am.”

  “Did you just call me dazzling?” Chad pressed his hand to his chest in mock astonishment.

  “Don’t let it go to your head,” Dawn said. “Leslie, let’s get you warmed up and ready to work.”

  Leslie rose from the couch and touched Chad on his bulging biceps, her fingers lingering slightly. “Thanks for keeping me company.”

  “My pleasure.” Chad looked deep into Leslie’s eyes. “I hope our paths will cross again.”

  Dawn controlled the urge to gag and shepherded her client away from her cliché-spouting fellow trainer.

  Dawn was eating a kale-and-quinoa salad in the employee break room when Vicky sashayed through the door and up to the small white plastic table where Dawn sat.

  “Ramón told me about your offer,” the owner’s wife said, jutting out one hip and resting her ring-laden hand on it. “That’s real nice of you, but my guys say the Wi-Fi will be fixed by the end of today. So no need for your consultant friends to get involved.” With her free hand, she toyed with her dark-blonde curls.

  Although Dawn didn’t like Vicky, she admired her. The woman had big hair and snapped her gum like a diehard Jersey girl, but she ran the administrative side of the gym like a corporate CEO. Bills got paid on time, payroll was never late, there were always clean sweat towels, and the equipment was updated regularly. That’s why Dawn had been surprised when the Wi-Fi problem had persisted.

  Dawn put down her fork. “That’s good news. Thanks for letting me know.” But disappointment tweaked at her chest. No more email exchanges with Leland.

  Vicky nodded. “I’ve got the tech stuff covered. No need to worry about it.”

  Dawn forbore to point out that the issue had continued for a couple of weeks. “Got it.”

  “By the way, you’re doing great on billing training hours,” Vicky said. “You’re headed for a quarterly bonus at this rate. Good job.”

  The comment might have been patronizing from someone else, but Vicky cared intensely about how many training hours could be billed to clients.

  “Thanks,” Dawn said again. “I always like getting bonuses.” She just socked them away in a conservative mutual fund because she had all she needed in the way of material things like furniture and workout clothes. She also had an apartment five minutes from the gym, a job she cared about, and a few trusted friends. She was as safe and secure as she could make herself without becoming a recluse.

  “You’ve got a good touch with the customers,” Vicky said. “Tough but encouraging. It keeps them coming back.”

  A surprising glow of satisfaction warmed Dawn. She put a lot of thought, study, and effort into her work. It was nice to have the hard-to-please Vicky notice. “It’s a pleasure working here.”

  Vicky gave her a thumbs-up, the rhinestones decorating her leopard-spotted manicure glinting in the fluorescent light. She turned toward the door but stopped to say over her shoulder, “And you don’t create drama. I appreciate that.”

  Dawn laughed. Her fellow trainers, both male and female, sometimes acted like feuding cats. “I try to stay away from the hissing and clawing.”

  “Thank God!” Vicky swayed out of the break room on her four-inch silver stilettos. She wore them with a tight-fitting turquoise tracksuit that somehow worked for her.

  Now Dawn had to call off the big gun at KRG. She pulled out her phone but couldn’t start typing. Was it embarrassment at having solicited his services when they weren’t wanted? Or was she trying to prolong their brief email relationship? Either one was not useful.

  She forced her fingers to tap the screen.

  The boss’s wife just informed me that the Wi-Fi problem will be resolved by the end of the day. I’m sorry I raised a false alarm. It was nice of you to be ready to jump right in. I appreciate it.

  Dawn

  That seemed to strike the right note of friendly professionalism. She hit “send” and picked up her fork again, jabbing a mouthful of grains and greens.

  Before she could finish chewing, an email from Leland popped up in her in-box. The man must type at ninety miles an hour.

  Shall we make sure the problem gets fixed before we call it quits? Many an IT expert has made promises they can’t keep, myself excluded, of course. Let me know if the Wi-Fi indeed recovers by the end of the day . . . or not.

  Leland the skeptic

  “Ain’t it the truth?” Dawn muttered as a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. One more email exchange at least.

  Skepticism is usually my job, but I’ll keep you posted.

  D.

  She left her fork in the bowl while she waited.

  I knew I recognized a kindred spirit.

  L.

  A kindred spirit. That was a laugh. He was rich and famous for his tech genius on an international level; she worked as a personal trainer in a Jersey gym. He had the elegance of
a southern aristocrat; she was pure peasant Italian.

  But his words twirled like a happy pinwheel in her mind for the rest of the day, giving her a tiny lift every time she remembered them.

  At about six thirty, a cheer sounded from the room where the ellipticals and treadmills were lined up. Dawn was in the midst of demonstrating how to do a burpee using a BOSU ball.

  “What’s that all about?” her client asked, staring in the direction of the racket.

  “We can find out or you can start on your burpees.”

  He draped a sweat towel around his neck and grinned at her. “What do you think?”

  She leaped to her feet with a mock glare. “Fine, but you’ll have to do five extra to make up for the break.”

  They walked into the big space swirling with the motion of customers of all shapes and sizes, dressed in outfits that ranged from knock-your-eyes-out neon to gray sweats. Now the only sounds were the hum of treadmills rolling and the metallic clunk of weights being lowered.

  “What was the celebration about?” Dawn asked a trainer who was restocking the towel shelves.

  “The Wi-Fi’s normal again. Everyone’s streaming on the machines.” He gestured to the pulsating glow of the built-in screens.

  Her disappointment was more than a twinge this time. It was a downright sinking feeling. All because of that damned “kindred spirits” comment.

  “Yeah!” Her client pumped his fist. “I run a lot longer when I’m distracted by the news. Sometimes it makes me so mad that I go even harder to blow off steam.”

  Dawn knew all about sweating off emotions. That’s what had drawn her to the gym in the first place.

  “Okay, back to burpees,” she said, waving toward the training room.

  “At least I got to catch my breath.”

  “You’ll need it.”

  As soon as she was done with the session, she headed for the break room, where it was usually quiet at this time of the evening. The staff was busy since many people trained after work. She wanted to be able to focus on her last communication with Leland. Plunking down on a white bean-shaped chair in the corner, she pulled out her phone.

  There is great joy at the gym tonight. The Wi-Fi has returned to full speed. Who knew that people were so dependent on distraction from their sweating? They literally cheered.

  Again, thanks for taking the time to email with me about this matter. I’m sure you could have fixed it in a lot less time than it took Vicky’s boneheads to finally come through.

  Dawn

  She was sure he would answer her immediately. She might be flattered by that if she didn’t suspect that he was always at his computer. Although he must be working on other projects, so it was kind of flattering. Of course, her messages took him mere seconds to respond to. He didn’t need to weigh each word and phrase like she did.

  I am less joyful than your patrons. Out of curiosity, I took a quick, cursory look at the general data inflow/outflow at the gym earlier today. The amount of traffic passing through it was extraordinary. It’s no wonder that the streaming had no bandwidth to utilize. Now I am thoroughly intrigued but have no authority to intervene. Perhaps the problem will recur, in which case I am eager to be at your service.

  Dawn rocked back in the puffy chair. He’d already looked into the problem . . . and found something weird. She didn’t know what caused “traffic” on a Wi-Fi router other than streaming videos and gaming. There was no use pursuing that now since it must have stopped.

  The words that she came back to were: “I am eager to be at your service.” Was that just his southern courtesy or did he mean it?

  It didn’t matter because Vicky had gotten the Wi-Fi fixed.

  Thanks for taking a look at the issue. The traffic is weird but I guess it’s gone now. I appreciate your time. I’ll let you know if there’s any more trouble.

  And that was the end of that. She waited a minute but Leland must have agreed with her because he didn’t respond. What more was there to say anyway?

  Leland rested his elbows on the arms of his chair and steepled his fingers as he reread Dawn’s email. Nothing to indicate she wanted anything further from him. He stared at the ceiling for a long moment before he hit the delete key. He had the idle thought that a delete key in his brain would be useful too. He’d like to erase the disappointment he felt at not having a reason to communicate further with her. Their exchanges had given him a surprising amount of entertainment.

  An internal message from Derek popped up on his screen.

  Leland, can you come to my office in ten?

  Leland glanced at the programs running on his screens and sent back: “Yes.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes as he hoped like hell this wasn’t another well-meant but misguided intervention from his partner. Both Derek and Tully had the idea that he was working himself too hard because he was trying to somehow forget his mother’s death three months before. They didn’t understand that he was honoring her. She was the one who had taught him his work ethic. Every project he completed was a tribute to her.

  Ten minutes later, he braced himself mentally and sauntered into Derek’s corner office with the wraparound windows that showcased the towers of Manhattan, now blazing with myriad shades of artificial lights. Leland had a similar office that he almost never used, preferring his computer cave. Tully’s office faced the Hudson River because he liked to watch the boat traffic.

  Tully was already seated on the leather sofa with his sock-covered feet propped up on the coffee table, his cowboy boots resting neatly side by side on the carpet. Derek sat in a chrome-and-leather chair opposite him, looking like a casting director’s image of the perfect consultant in his custom-tailored navy suit, albeit without a necktie.

  It was a bad sign that both of them were there, especially in the evening. They seemed to feel it was okay to deal with personal stuff after normal work hours.

  “You’re here late,” Leland said to Derek as he eased into a chair beside Tully. Since his partner had fallen in love with Dawn’s friend Alice, Derek spent more time out of the office, although he often worked from home.

  “I have a personal request,” Derek said.

  Leland steepled his fingers again as he waited with a faint sense of dread.

  “You’re the only person I know who can do that and pull it off,” Tully said, imitating Leland’s gesture. “When I do it, I look like an asshole.”

  “I could say that you always look like an asshole but it would be unkind,” Leland said.

  Derek gave them a tight smile. “Could we focus here?”

  “My posture indicates that I am focused,” Leland said.

  “Right.” Derek cleared his throat. “Now that Alice and I are engaged, we are planning a wedding.”

  “That generally follows an engagement.” Leland restrained himself from doing a fist pump of relief. This meeting wasn’t about him.

  “Unless you elope.” Tully sounded hopeful. “I’ll drive the getaway vehicle.”

  “We’re not eloping,” Derek said.

  “Do you have a date yet?” Tully asked.

  “As soon as possible,” Derek said. “Which means in about six months.”

  “Your Alice is very organized,” Leland said. “Most New York metro–area weddings take at least a year to plan. Unless you’re considering a destination wedding?”

  “We’re not . . .” Derek glared at his friends and partners. “Trying to talk about this with you two is like herding cats.”

  Leland was enjoying himself now. It was rare to see his unflappable partner off-balance.

  “Forget all the details,” Derek said. “I’ve been thinking about my best man. I know it’s supposed to be just one man, but this job calls for two. You’ve both been there for me through all the ups and downs of our roller coaster ride with starting KRG. You helped me make my proposal to Alice an event straight out of her dreams.”

  “Leland even wore a wig. He gets extra credit for that,” Tully interjected. />
  Derek’s fiancée loved Regency romances, so Derek had rented a mansion in New Jersey and asked his friends to dress up as a coach driver—that was Tully, since he somehow knew how to drive a team of horses—and a nobleman’s butler. Hence the wig, which had itched like the devil.

  “You’re the kind of friends a man is lucky to have one of, let alone two.” Derek swallowed visibly. “It’s a little unorthodox, but I would be honored if you would both agree to be my best men.”

  “Hell, yes!” Tully said. “I’ll drive you to the church in a coach-and-four.”

  Derek chuckled. “That won’t be necessary.” He turned to Leland.

  “The honor is mine.” Leland meant it. The three of them had been through hell and high water together since business school. They’d had each other’s backs when they thought KRG was going to fail. They’d celebrated every success, of which there were pitifully few in the beginning. They’d beaten the odds because when one of them got discouraged, the others were there to shore him up. These men were more than brothers to him.

  “Are we going to have a group hug?” Tully asked. “Because I’m in.”

  Derek laughed. “Maybe at the wedding. Thank you, both of you. You are indeed the best men.”

  The happiness that glowed around Derek these days would have been nauseating if he didn’t so richly deserve it. Leland hadn’t believed that any of them could find that kind of love. They were too driven by their own personal demons, always striving for the next level of success.

  All this talk of Alice brought his thoughts back to her friend Dawn and his disappointment that the Wi-Fi problem had been resolved without his help.

  Although he still wondered what had generated such a high level of traffic on a local gym’s Wi-Fi. Especially since it had continued for two weeks without anyone detecting or blocking it. Even an idiot could see that it was what had caused the streaming impairment. Did that mean they weren’t able to stop it, or they didn’t want to? The second possibility intrigued him.