by Kelly Myers
I picked up the tablet and returned to my cubicle. I was feeling off. She was right, bad eating habits were not going to help my stress levels.
A few hours later I met her at the food truck across the parking lot.
“I ordered tacos,” she announced as I got there.
A few minutes later we each held a paper tray full of delicious tacos filled with grilled chicken, onions, cilantro, and lime juice. We each had a can of pop and a handful of napkins. I didn’t know what the secret ingredient was but I could never match the taste at home.
“It’s been long enough since the layoffs that you would think some of the engineering jobs would open back up,” Charline complained about her lack of job prospects.
“Any luck looking outside of Shingle Click?” I asked.
She shrugged.
“Yeah, but you could finally date Tony,” I said.
“Tony would have no clue that I want to date him.” She crumbled up her napkins and stood to take her garbage to the nearby trash can.
I stood. And then I wasn’t standing.
“Crystal?” Charline looked like she had seen a ghost. Her hands kept patting my forehead and cheeks. “You are not okay. So don’t tell me you are. I saw that. You went all weak-kneed and sat back down in a big hurry. I’ve seen my sister pass out like that during her pregnancy. You aren’t pregnant, are you? Tell me to shut up, you would have said something if you were sleeping with someone.”
“Give me a minute.” I grabbed her wrists to still her hands. I wanted to put a hand over her mouth to stop her prattling on. I hadn’t told her about Zack, and I was having a hard time breathing around the concept of being pregnant. Why had she said that? “I stood up too fast. That’s all.”
“But you’re clammy. Do me a favor?”
“Another one? I just had lunch with you,” I joked.
“I know there’s a drug store with one of those minute clinics near your apartment. Stop in it on your way home. Please.”
I couldn’t say no to her concern, and I wouldn’t lie to her. Besides, I was definitely stopping there on the way home to pick up a pregnancy test. Now that Charline said it out loud, what else could it be?
After work, I stopped at the clinic. I sat on the paper-covered exam table while a nurse practitioner took my blood pressure. It was low.
“I don’t pass out regularly,” I said.
She continued the examination. “Is there a chance you are pregnant?”
I gulped. Where there was sex there was a chance. “We used condoms, and I’m on the pill.”
She shined a light in my eyes, up my nose, and in my ears. “Well, it looks like you have an ear infection, that would explain the vertigo. Let’s do a pregnancy test just to rule that out.”
Zack wasn’t outside when I got home later than usual. I knocked on his apartment door. No answer.
I wanted to text him, but we agreed that wasn’t the smartest of ideas. There was no reason someone in my position would have to text the CEO. And so I didn’t. I carried my bag and my new prescription for antibiotics into my apartment and scrounged a sticky note from my kitchen junk drawer.
“Sorry, missed dinner tonight. Ear infection.” I drew a frowny face on the note before sticking it to his door. I knocked one last time just to be sure he wasn’t home.
We had made no promises to each other. No commitment regarding seeing other people, and no expectations regarding being each other’s dinner companion. I missed him, and I wanted his comfort while I felt like crap.
It was as if as soon as the infection was identified, I began feeling worse. Fortunately, all I had was an ear infection. I failed the pregnancy with glorious, not even possible, results.
I put a pot of water on to boil. I tossed in an egg and let it cook before I started the boiling water process all over again to cook a pack of cheap instant ramen noodles. I added some zucchini and sliced roast beef. I assembled my budget Pho soup creation and sent a picture to Charline, just to prove I was eating dinner.
I stared at the wall in front of me. How close was that pregnancy scare? No one knew about me and Zack. No one would know there was the potential that I could be pregnant if something happened to me.
I picked up the phone to call Charline. I didn’t have to tell her I was seeing Zack. But I should tell her I was sleeping with someone regularly. And that her little pregnancy comment scared the crap out of me.
“Wifey!” she exclaimed as she answered the phone. “You’re timing is outstanding.”
“Why, what happened?” I asked.
“Wait, no, first how are you? You sent a picture of your dinner, good. But what did they say at the clinic?”
“I have an ear infection. Nothing life-threatening. They put me on an antibiotic and a diuretic to help drain fluid from my ear. But what were you going to say? I know you aren’t that happy because I called. What’s up?”
“Well, remember how I said there just aren’t the opportunities for me here?” Charline had been struggling to get her foot in the door into a tech job. She didn’t have the option to take a low-paying internship like I had. She took the receptionist route, hoping to work her way up from there.
“Did Shingle Click come through with an offer?” I asked.
“Not Shingle Click. I just got off the phone with a company in Austin that does similar work.”
“Austin?” I practically yelled.
“Yeah wifey, I’m moving back home. Everything is so much more affordable there. And it’s a real engineering position.”
11
Zack
We were less than a week from hitting the first beta version of the Home Command Center mobile app. The operating systems group was very intense that integration went smoothly. They did not want to issue a system update again, and their department head was vocal in his opinion of my ‘little mobile project.’
My ‘little mobile project’ was going to finally get Shingle Click back in the black after Jameson’s failed attempt to defraud investors and steal money. I wasn’t sorry that it was putting extra pressure on the operating systems group.
Everyone involved was tense. A few more days, we would get some real results from testing, and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief before moving into the next phase. I would be able to stop having to handhold the Board and investors through dinner meetings and presentations. At least that’s what it felt like. The closer we got, the less time I had for what was truly important: the nightly seduction of my neighbor.
People were overreacting to every little thing at work. This wasn’t even the product-to-consumer rollout, and everyone was holding their breath.
Crystal looked exhausted as she sat across from me in yet another meeting. It was crunch time. We didn’t have time for this, even though it was important for us to know what to expect. Tony fidgeted, he wanted to make sure we were all aware of the potential road hazards.
“We need to get started. I have other meetings. Do we need Greg for this?” I asked.
Crystal rolled her eyes. She was still having issues with the man, but wouldn’t tell me. Wouldn’t let me deal with him.
“We can get started. I’ll catch Greg up, after all, it’s gonna end up in his lap,” she said.
With an audible exhale of air, Tony began. “There are three areas we anticipate problems. We’ve done everything right, we are just aware there are factors we haven’t taken into account in these areas of the app,” Tony explained to the majority of our team where the expected hiccups and glitches would occur.
“Why were those factors not taken into account?” I asked. My attention was on Crystal. This was not the kind of thing she would have let slip through her fingers.
She shrugged.
“Not knowing is not an acceptable answer,” I sounded harsh to my own ears. I couldn’t have anyone at work think I was giving her special treatment, even though that’s all I wanted to give her.
She rubbed her fingers of one hand over an eyebrow. Did anyone el
se notice she was picking up one of my habits?
“It’s not that we don’t know. It’s more a case of not knowing what we don’t know. This first factor”— she leaned over the flow chart full of sticky notes and tapped on one of the instances Tony indicated— “involves the human element. We have a ton of data from marketing research, but once people are involved there will always be an unknown.”
I sat back and crossed my arms. That was my girl, she knew what was going on.
“We can only predict so many scenarios. Same for these other points,” Crystal responded.
“We’re already compiling shells so we can dump the new factors into once test results start returning. We’ve got the A-team on it, Allison and Armand,” Tony laughed at his humor.
“Basically, we know and are prepared for these problem areas. If all goes well, there won’t be any surprises along the way,” Crystal said.
I nodded. “Good, let’s keep at it.”
I waited for everyone to clear the room before walking around the table to where Crystal sat. I stood close and she leaned in. My hand trailed across her back. I couldn’t help but touch her.
“You still feeling bad?” I asked.
“The stress isn’t helping. This medication has really wiped me out. At least I’m no longer all woozy.”
“You’ve been working hard. How about we play hooky from work once this thing delivers? We could take a few days and go to Monterey.”
“Why would the two of you be going to Monterey? Huh? I knew there was something going on between you guys. No way someone like her goes from intern to a cushy project management position.”
Crystal jumped. “Shut up, Greg.”
Greg let out a low chuckle as if he were some evil genius with a dastardly plan. “I bet my buddy George Fredrickson would be interested in hearing about you making plans for a trip to Monterey.”
Crystal thrust to her feet. “For heaven’s sake Greg. I doubt Mr. Fredrickson would consider you his buddy. And why can’t we make plans for a trip to Monterey? It’s a great location for a team retreat.” She slapped her fingers over her mouth and looked at me wide-eyed.
I had no idea she was such a talented little actress. Even I almost bought into her charade.
She turned to me with a look of embarrassment. “I’m sorry, that was supposed to be your surprise. I shouldn’t have said anything. Don’t tell anyone Greg. I’m supposed to be pulling together the details for Zack before he lets everyone know.”
I crossed my arms and nodded. She was saving our collective asses.
“A retreat?” The look on Greg’s face indicated he wasn’t sure if he believed us or not. I think he wanted to catch us in flagrante delicto.
That wasn’t going to happen, not with Crystal being as smart as she was.
“Meetings over, Greg,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, I figured why waste time on something that could have just as easily been an email,” he grumbled.
“Because an email would have been open to miscommunication. This way we could all be present, get the questions, and be done with it, instead of having a constant back and forth with email,” Crystal pursed her lips and quirked her pretty mouth to the side. “We’ve had email issues before. This was supposed to help make your job easier, not make mine harder. You want me to go over everything you missed now, or should I come by your cube later?” She herded Greg out of the conference room in front of her. “I’ll get those details for you later, Zack,” she said as she left.
I nodded. How much was an overnight in Monterey for six people going to bite into my budget? Crystal would know, maybe we could change the location someplace that didn’t require an overnight. As long as I had an offsite retreat for the team Greg would never know. I should still take Crystal somewhere nice for a getaway.
I took my time returning to my office. I liked checking-in in person. Eventually, email, while efficient, felt too disconnected. After all, it was people that made this business work, and people that needed to know their work was valued.
Later in my office, my eyes kept crossing after a few hours of staring at spreadsheets. And these were the results of market analysis, not the raw data. I needed more coffee if I was going to be any good for the rest of the afternoon.
“George Fredrickson is on the line for you,” Lisa announced through the intercom. “Are you in?”
I sighed, wanting to say no. I needed coffee to deal with Uncle George at the moment, but the man did not always respond well to being called back. When Uncle George called, I was expected to take the call.
I stretched and yawned before answering. “Yeah, put him through.”
I picked up my office phone on the first ring.
“What is this I hear you’re taking that chubby girl to Monterey? I thought we discussed this, you are not allowed to date anyone at that company. I will not have it,” his voice was loud and reverberated through the speakerphone.
Fuck me. Maybe Greg really did know Uncle George?
“I’m going to stop you right there. I’m taking my entire team to Monterey, not just one person. And I’ve said it before I’m not dating her.” I wasn’t dating her. I was fucking her and enjoying every second of it. But we did not go out in public together. I would have preferred the option of taking her out and showing her off instead of hiding her away behind take-out dinners and being neighbors.
“That’s what Craig told me. He said he didn’t believe it because no one else on your team seems to know anything about it,” Uncle George blustered.
Craig? He meant Greg. Uncle George’s retention of names was definitely slipping.
“Craig says there’s something up between you and that fat girl. I told him to keep an eye open for anything.”
I seethed. Greg was not going to have fun crossing me. I wanted to string him up for how he treated Crystal, but she kept stopping me from dealing with the situation.
“Uncle George, how exactly do you know Greg?”
“I play golf with his father. How do you think he got the job?
12
Crystal
No thanks to Greg, my romantic reward for getting the app into testing on schedule was turned into an overnight team-building trip. I even coordinated the rental of a super van, so we could all drive down in one vehicle.
I leaned against the window of the van and watched the sky turn from perfect blue to a blanket of gray. It seemed fitting for my gloomy mood.
In addition to my regular job, I had less than a week to schedule a surprise trip. And surprise, I did it. Transportation, hotel rooms, a conference room, some team building games, and tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium were all brought together in record time. I did not manage to get event T-shirts made, then again that would have put me over the budget on an event that was never accounted for in the beginning.
Zack pulled the van into the hotel lot, and Greg immediately complained that we were nowhere near all the tourist activities.
“Lunch and team building activities are scheduled first. We have a small break before dinner. Reservations have been made at a restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf, and after that, we can all head over to Cannery Row.” I reviewed the basic schedule with him again.
It was as if he purposefully was forgetting this was a team-building focused retreat. He just wanted to hit the tourist spots and go drinking. Well, I wanted alone time with Zack. It looked like neither of us was getting what we wanted.
We ate our gourmet boxed lunches of calamari tacos while Zack gave his first presentation. He presented awards to each member of the team. Each one was personalized. Tony received a trophy that was a gold crutch for most accurate programming under the influence of painkillers. Allison received a shoebox-sized diorama of a seedy-looking basement with old furniture and tons of old computers and video game systems. She laughed her butt off at her award for ‘out of the box thinking.’ She was always talking about how her mother thought she would never do anything more than play video games in t
heir basement.
In my opinion, Greg did not deserve an award for stepping in as a pinch hitter. But that’s what the little baseball trophy Zack handed him said. Armand’s award was a sizable chunk of granite that had been engraved for being the stability that supported the group.
“Last but not least, Crystal. I have something for you.” Zack’s smile made my toes want to curl. I read more into his words than I was receiving an award.
With a nervous giggle— a real one and not like any of the fake laughing I had done all afternoon— I stepped up to Zack.
He took my hand. I gave him a panicked glance. He didn’t seem phased by his actions, so I tried to calm my pounding heart. What was he doing?
“This trip is all thanks to Crystal. She felt that as a team we pulled together and met near-impossible deadlines. She has kept all of us on task, and found ways to increase our productivity when we hit a block in our path, or in Tony’s case, a hole in his backyard.”
We all chuckled at the jab at Tony and his broken ankle.
Zack looked at me. “Close your eyes.”
I did as I was told. I shivered as his hands tickled the fine hairs on my neck. And then something was on my head. I reached up.
“Our queen bee, keeping our hive running smoothly,” Zack announced as he kissed me on the cheek. It was fast and congratulatory.
My fingers traced over lumps and bumps, smooth planes, and sharp points. Zack had given me a crown.
Allison stood and applauded. “The woman in charge.”
“She got an award for being bossy.” Greg glowered as he gave me a slow clap.
Zack cut his own glare at Greg. “And she’s going to be bossier as we get closer to the delivery dates. So get used to it.”
I could have kissed him for real at that point. I knew he wanted to do more than shoot a few curt words at Greg. I was glad when Zack left it at that.
Decked out in my new crown, I slipped back into my pretense of having fun. If I had to play another game with Greg I was going to be sick. I know I coordinated the retreat. I had to make it look good, so I put in a real effort. I was not happy, and faking it was wearing on my nerves. All I could think of was not being alone with Zack.