Tech Support (Working Stiffs Book 4)

by S. L. Carpenter

  The white-toothed smile made a brief appearance, but she apparently had no response, merely nodding and spinning on those heels to exit the room.

  Chad looked at Mr. Schwanz, then held out his hand. “Chad Anderson. Thanks for seeing me.”

  “Sit.”

  He was waved to a chair. Regulation grey without rivets or tufts of anything, let alone leather.

  “Resume?” The query was abrupt.

  “They didn’t send it over?” Chad parried.

  “No, fuck ‘em.” The man shrugged. “Ah what the hell. You’re hired. I’ll square it with management.”

  “You will? Wow.” Chad pulled an expression of respectful awe across his features.

  Schwanz smiled broadly. “Hey, this is a pretty important department, ya know. We’re getting calls all the time from Corporate wanting to know how we’re doing.”

  Chad, who had never placed any such call or asked for that information, merely widened his eyes.

  “Oh yeah. I can see you’re surprised. But we have things we’re working on here that would blow your mind. I get to chat regularly with the big boss. He and I?” He held up crossed fingers. “We’re like this. Matt too, the other manager. That guy out in California in the big chair—he knows where the money makers come from.”

  “And that’s this department?”

  “Hell no, Chad. It comes from me. And Matt. You’ll meet him later. We’re the brains of this operation, and I want you to remember that. You got questions, you’ll get answers. There’re some others out there will help you if and when you need it. But if you have an idea or a concept, you bring it straight to either me or Matt. Got that?”

  “I got it, sir.” The respectful tone was appreciated, and Chad got a thump on the shoulder as a reward.

  “So, I guess we need to get you started. The little gal with the high heels will take care of the paperwork for you, so no need to bother with any of that.”

  There was a tap at the door and a woman walked in. “Oh, sorry Kevin. I didn’t realize you were busy.”

  Schwanz frowned. “Not now, Merry. Whatever it is I’ll deal with it later.” He motioned her out with a whisk of his hand.

  She turned and left, her face expressionless.

  Chad said nothing, merely observing the interaction. There was tension in the air without question, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. That woman, Merry or something. Was she his secretary? He’d certainly dismissed her as if she were.

  She’d said nothing, but there was something about her body language—the way she held her shoulders so stiffly. He felt certain it wasn’t a case of the warm and fuzzies.

  However, he filed it away and rose as Schwanz rolled his chair back from the mammoth desk. “Let’s go see if we can find you a spot out there.” He waved his hand. “We like that we’re all on the same floor. Matt and I appreciate the chance to be near our employees.”

  “Ah.”

  *~*~*~*~*

  The open cubicles were arranged in a large square crossed by aisles in the middle. The setup gave everyone a window view of the surrounding countryside. Chad approved, since it assured that nobody ended up stuck in the middle area staring at four walls of fabric. They were spacious and identical in size, another positive feature. No top dog with the biggest yard to play in.

  Schwanz led Chad up to the first cubicle and peered over the top. “This is one of our account admins. Debbie. She’s been here since we started the department.”

  A woman looked up, raising her index finger up while talking on the phone. She paused and covered the mouthpiece. “Sorry Kevin, I have Dallas on the line...”

  “Whatever.” Schwanz ignored the hint. “This is Chad. He’s the contract designer we are hiring.”

  Debbie smiled as she lifted her free hand and shook Chad’s. Then, with an apologetic shrug, she pointed at the phone and he nodded back.

  She had a very pleasant demeanor and surrounding her were photos of what he assumed were her kids and family. There was quite a bit of orthodontic dental work on display, flashing from the three young mouths in the picture. A housewife working full time and balancing everything, without a doubt. He always admired people who could juggle so much, because they showed unusual dedication. Her desk was a rainbow with a variety of trays full of papers—each one labeled with brightly colored stickers.

  Kevin leaned over to Chad and whispered “She may seem a little rattled but she’s like a machine when it comes to dealing with sys admins. Married, three kids, never missed a day. The perfect employee.”

  He moved off to another cubicle, and Chad followed.

  “Over here is Katherine, our supplies and acquisitions girl.”

  “That’s me. Just call me Kat.” She smiled and her hair fell across her face. “I’m just a bundle of girl energy today.”

  Chad didn’t miss the sarcasm.

  “Three cups of coffee and my brain is kicking full power. Just don’t talk to me before that first cup or you may end up stuffed in a closet.”

  She was a tiny ball of energy about to erupt. If caffeine ever needed a spokesperson or test subject, she would fit the bill. Chad noticed she was barefoot and saw a pair of red high heels tucked beside her desk. Her work area was immaculate. Her paperwork was neatly arranged in its proper place, and color coded by the looks of things.

  Cute, energetic and efficient. Couldn’t ask for more from an employee.

  Kevin pointed to the corner cubicle and said, “Over there is Stan. He’s our IT/tech guy. He’s pretty quiet and kind of a loner. Geek city, you know?”

  Chad walked over and introduced himself. “Hello, I’m...”

  Stan turned his chair around and stared up at Chad’s hand. “Hey there.”

  Chad looked at Stan’s monitor. “New program?”

  Kevin moved close, looked at Stan’s workstation, and shook his head. It resembled a post-apocalyptic war zone. Desks often revealed thought processes, and this one indicated that Stan must be a genius. He had gaming figures, movie characters and memorabilia on a shelf above the monitors—all lined up, shiny and looking like a shrine.

  “Dude, is that the limited-edition Boba Fett action figure?” Chad might be an executive, but he knew Star Wars.

  Stan grinned. “Yeah, it’s my special find.”

  “No shit? Damn. You have the coin for it?” Chad was seriously impressed by this memento.

  “Damn right.” Stan blinked. “You sure know your action figures.”

  Chad smiled, “I have the R2D2 lunchbox I found at a flea market. Still was in wrapping.”

  Kevin fidgeted, befuddled as the two guys talked intergalactic treasures and swapped stories about some of their favorite scenes.

  “Um, don’t mean to interrupt…” Kevin did just that, “but can we continue this love-fest later? I have a meeting soon.” He sounded irritated.

  Chad shared the ceremonial fist bump and explosion with Stan and turned around to see Merry walking into the last cubicle.

  He watched her for a moment or two, checked out the curve of her skirt hugging her ass, and then blinked, trying to unscramble his brain.

  Most men try to be cool when they see an attractive woman, although with mixed levels of success. Now that he had chance to really take a good look at her, he realized that she appealed to him in a different way. Not only was she pretty, but she had a certain aura around her that attracted him—like catnip to a cat, or a bone to a dog. Bottom line? She was hotter than the sun and when she tilted her head to the side and caught his gaze, her clear piercing eyes looked past all his pretenses and into his soul. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

  “Chad, this is Meredith Franklin. She’s the go-to gal around here.” Schwanz kept his tone genial. “She’ll take over and show you the rest of the place. Knows everything, this one, and she’s a big help when it comes to the basic design stuff.”

  Those eyes turned glacial as she shot a look of distaste at him. “Thank you for the compliment, Kevin.” />
  It was Chad’s turn to be seared by blue lasers. “And you must be the contractor from Greenleaf?”

  “Chad Anderson, Ms. Franklin. Pleasure to meet you.” He held out his hand, nerves jumping up and down his spine. He hoped she would shake it, and yet he was afraid of what might happen if she touched him.

  “Mr. Anderson.”

  She shook his hand firmly and nothing exploded, so Chad heaved a sigh of relief. He turned to Schwanz. “Thanks for your time.”

  Chapter Three

  “Do we call you Mister Anderson?”

  Merry was pleased to see a grin of recognition spread over the new hire’s face as he caught the reference to one of her favorite movies.

  “A Matrix fan, I see,” he answered. “No worries. I would have taken the blue pill. I’m essentially a coward who will always head for the nearest exit.”

  “Nice one.” She acknowledged the counter-reference and allowed his status to rise on her personal scale. Of course, the good looks, the slightly quirky twist to his lips and his firm handshake all helped.

  She wondered what his backside looked like, then mentally slapped herself. It wasn’t like her to start thinking about a guy’s ass less than five minutes after meeting him.

  “So, you’re to do the design work, packaging concepts and so on, for our Double Duet unit?”

  He nodded. “But not a lot of the final packaging. I’m guessing your marketing folks will want a major portion of that project. I’m to take a hard look at the unit itself. See if the housing and presentation can be re-imagined to live up to its hype.”

  “You’re basically planning on dressing our baby?”

  “Our baby?” His eyebrows rose. “So soon? We hardly know each other.”

  Her lips twitched. This one was sharp; she was going to have to keep an eye on him. “Kids these days grow up so quickly…”

  He laughed, charming the hell out of her. Okay, he was cute. Attractive. She glanced at his hand—no ring, or tan lines marking the absence of one. So…with any luck, single. Perhaps this day wasn’t going to be quite such a bust.

  “Your managers are certainly very proud of this unit.” He glanced around the floor. “It’s one hell of an idea they had there.”

  “Indeed.” Merry knew the frost was back in her voice, but his statement had driven the rest of her thoughts into a corner. She was back to being pissed off. “There’s a free station over here. You can use that.”

  Chad followed her. “Thanks. That will be great.”

  In silence, she led him to the only bare desk. It was in a corner that only had half a window near it, which was probably why it was unused. It did have a good-sized monitor and all the other tech toys necessary to function in the department, but that was about it.

  “I think this should suit.” She watched him shrug out of his jacket and hang it on the chair. “Utilitarian but functional.”

  He booted up the system with a facility that told her of his skills. She didn’t have to worry she was going to have to babysit him, that was for sure.

  “This will be fine.” He frowned at the screen. “I’ll need a password—no wait. Okay. I can request one. Never mind.”

  His focus was completely on what he was doing. She might as well have been a potted plant. She sighed. “Okay, well I’ll leave you to it.”

  “Hey, hold on a minute. Can I get a file on the specs of our baby?” He flashed her a quick grin over the top of the screen. “I’d like a detailed look at her innards, connections, necessary external features, and so on?

  “So it’s a her now?” She couldn’t help a grin.

  “Of course.” He gave her a questioning look. “What else? She’s a Double Duet. A double-D, right?”

  Merry groaned. “I’ll send you the file. And if you ever make a comment like that again, I’ll have Stan set up gremlins in your phone that will make you wish you lived in a cave in Tibet.”

  Chad froze. “He can do that?”

  “Don’t push me.”

  She spun on her heel and stalked off, rather happy she’d had the last word.

  He allowed himself a little chuckle, and a moment to appreciate the smooth sway of her buttocks as she strode away. He’d matched her snark for snark and felt as if he’d scored more than a few points, which—considering she was probably an expert—he regarded as a success.

  He turned to his work and spent the next two hours digging into the guts of the Double Duet. It was sophisticatedly simple, classically brilliant and as much technical art as software architecture.

  And shortly after that, Chad realized there was no way the idiot managers could have possibly created it. This little darling, this baby, had been born of mind or minds much more creatively intelligent than the bragging jerk he’d first met.

  Unless the other one was a combination of Einstein and Stephen Hawking, someone was lying to Corporate about the source of this design. And Chad hated liars.

  Glancing at his watch, he was amazed to find that he’d been sitting in front of his monitor for pretty much the whole morning. And those muffins he’d lingered over had long since provided their maximum amount of nutrition.

  He was, in other words, hungry.

  Rising from his chair, he stretched and looked around, noticing that Stan was munching on something he withdrew from a brown paper bag. Obviously, he brought his own. A sandwich made of Rutlerian Oxenbeast kidneys, or something.

  Kat’s desk was empty, so he deduced she’d already gone for lunch.

  Debbie was pacing up and down in front of the windows, her phone to her ear, and Chad could just make out snippets of things like “social studies”, “homework” and “serious medieval torture”.

  Talking to her kids, without a doubt.

  That left Merry. Who just happened to be stretching at the identical moment. Their gazes met and the following laugh was inevitable.

  He strolled over to her station. “It gets you right between the shoulder blades, doesn’t it?”

  She nodded. “Yeah. You’d think we’d get used to it and sit up straight. But nope. Hunched over all morning and sore by lunchtime.” She sighed.

  “A question. Since I wasn’t expecting to be here working today, I didn’t come prepared. Is there anywhere around where I can grab food?”

  “Of course.” She picked up her purse and her sweater. “Actually, I was just going to walk over to Koffee with a K. They do great sandwiches. You want to come with?”

  Chad, who had never heard of Koffee with a K but figured if Merry liked it then it was probably decent, smiled. “Love to. Thanks for the invite.”

  “It’s a pretty day, and it’ll probably rain for the rest of the week and then snow next Tuesday, so you’d better enjoy the leaves while you can.”

  He helped her shrug into her sweater. “I am enjoying them. They’re always extraordinary, aren’t they?”

  Together they walked to the door and passed through, heading for the elevators.

  She adjusted her purse on her shoulder. “You’re from around here? I can’t hear that Boston twang…but then again I didn’t ask where you pahk your cah…”.

  *~*~*~*~*

  It wasn’t more than a five-minute walk to the café, and Merry used the time to check out Chad.

  Yeah, good looking. He scored pretty high on her scale.

  Smart too. He’d already proved he could sass her back, match her snark for snark, and possibly even out-quote her on favorite movie lines. Extra points for that.

  He didn’t seem to be dead set on impressing her, another check on the plus side, and he didn’t ogle her tits. That put him firmly at the top of her Interesting Men list.

  “You didn’t say if you were local,” she commented as they walked down a slight hill toward the strip mall where the café lights enticed the hungry.

  “I spent quite a lot of time here when I was younger,” he answered, looking around and breathing deeply, as if scenting the air around him. “You can never forget the smell of autumn in Ne
w England. Damp leaves, chrysanthemums and raked lawns.”

  “Along with the blisters you get from raking them,” she grinned.

  He glanced at her, an eyebrow lifted in surprise. “You rake?”

  She shook her head. “Thankfully, no. I have a condo not far from here, looking over the lake. Others with healthier backs and big leaf blowers take care of the leaves. Ditto the snow.” She lifted her chin and took a breath as well. The sun and the cool breeze were seductive. “Someday I’ll have a house, but I think I’ll stipulate no trees within half a mile.”

  They both laughed and he pulled the door open for her. Then stood there, frustrated for a second before realizing the inevitable truth that hits everyone from time to time.

  The sign on the door said “PUSH”.

  “That must have hurt,” she commented, walking past and observing him subtly rotate his shoulder with a wince. “Do we need a chiropractor?”

  “How about a sandwich instead.” He eyed the menu above the counter. “Since I’m not pitching in the World Series, or quarterbacking in the game on Sunday, I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be fine. I can lift my lunch to my mouth.”

  She let that one go, and they placed their orders, grabbing a table by the window that fortunately emptied out at the right time. The pager sat on the table between them, and Chad volunteered to get their cups filled.

  “Seltzer, right?” He nodded at her cup.

  “Yep. Thanks.”

  He returned moments later with both cups brimming and placed her seltzer at her elbow with a straw beside it. She glanced at his.

  “Oh shame. Soda?”

  “The real McCoy,” he responded. “Don’t judge me. I have few vices. Real soda is one of them, and I know I’ll have to give that up soon. It’s not good for me.” He picked up his straw, tore off one end of the wrapper, put the straw in his mouth and with a solid puff blew the rest of the paper at her. “That’s for giving me that disapproving look.”