Sarah came rushing up to Mark’s desk with an excited look on her face. “Mark! I found it! It’s not even our fault!” Sarah exclaimed loudly.
Sarah was Mark’s assistant, technically second in command. Whenever Mark was away, meeting with clients or just taking a day off, Sarah was in charge. Everyone in the office knew that Sarah was probably the most intelligent and gifted programmer in the whole office. Mark was only in charge because he was a better leader, he had a way of not only getting people to do their job efficiently but he could convince them to enjoy doing it.
Sarah was a short woman, five foot four, with long, somewhat curly, red hair which she always kept in a ponytail at work. Her green eyes were a sharp contrast to her hair and light complexion. Sarah was an athletic looking woman who looked like she could probably hold her own in a fight. She also happened to be quite beautiful. She liked to flirt with everyone, male and female alike, it was just the way she was. This, coupled with her stunning good looks, was very distracting to Mark but as he always told everyone ‘He was very married’, meaning he was still in love with his wife of twenty years, Jennifer.
Today Sarah wore a particularly bright, red dress that went to her knees. It was very tasteful in Marks opinion, except for the fact that Sarah had left the top two buttons undone. This meant that every time she bent over to speak to someone or if someone was standing above her, they would be unable to miss her ample cleavage. However, Sarah was allowed more latitude than anyone else in Mark’s office. Partly because she was Mark’s friend but mostly because everyone knew they would be lost without her.
Despite his attraction to Sarah, she was Mark’s best friend, both at work and outside of it. Sarah had been to Mark’s house several times for family get-togethers with whomever she was with at the time. Jennifer and Sarah actually got along very well, though Jennifer didn’t quite have the same friendship as Mark had with her, Jennifer considered Sarah one of her closest friends. Both of the women knew that Mark would never cheat on Jennifer, especially not with Sarah. They would often joke about it leaving Sarah’s current date feeling left out and uncomfortable.
“What did you find?” Mark asked calmly. It was never a good idea to act as excited as Sarah, it would only cause her to get louder.
“It wasn’t us!” Sarah exclaimed again with far more enthusiasm than most people had for source code but Mark was used to it. His friend was very excitable. This was one of the many things that made them such good friends. Mark had a hard time being in a bad mood whenever she was around.
“Hurry up, cutie! They need this by the end of the day!” Sarah looked at Mark with a silly smile, raised one eyebrow, and then rushed back to her office. Reluctantly Mark followed Sarah to her office. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her, nor did he object to going to her office. He just knew that Sarah was going to make a big deal out of it and he would come out feeling like a fool for not seeing it as easily as she did.
Sarah’s office was right next to Mark’s, though you would not be able tell whose office you were walking into without the name tags. All the offices on this floor were positioned along a long hallway with each office laid out identically. Once inside it became clear that this was Sarah’s office. Unlike Mark’s bare, businesslike office, Sarah had many tiny figures on shelves as well as a TV with a gaming system hooked up to it. Everyone in the office knew that Sarah was what most people consider a geek. She loved her sci-fi books, movies and games almost as much as she loved her job. This was endearing to most of the other programmers in the office, they felt comfortable with her, more so than with Mark. Mark didn’t need them to feel comfortable with him, he was the boss. He needed them to respect him and trust him, and for the most part, everyone did. If their office was a family he would be like the father and Sarah the cool, older sister.
Sarah plopped down in her chair and spun it quickly toward the monitor. She slapped her hands down on the desk on either side of the keyboard to stop herself and then pointed to a window on the screen. “Look at this!”
“Wait, this isn’t ours,” Mark said curiously as he leaned toward the monitor.
Sarah had a session opened to the client’s computer and on the screen was what would look like garbage to most people. The window contained scrolling text that flew by quickly. Mostly, it was a bunch of names and numbers but Mark saw the pattern right away.
“Someone is intercepting the customer’s credit card information and saving it unencrypted after our software closes the customer’s order,” Mark said slightly more excited.
“Exactly! They have a credit card logger on their system. But the people who wrote it messed up. They shouldn’t have saved it in our database, they should have created their own. Maybe it would have taken me another day or so to find it if they had, but nope, not these jokers. They just didn’t take the time. Honestly, they might have gotten away with some numbers.” Sarah sat back in her chair after clicking another window. Then with way to much flourish, she raised her right hand and with her index finger hit the enter key and the scrolling stopped. “Aaaaaaand…They’re GONE!”
“Oh Sarah, sometimes I think you have more fun stopping hackers than creating the programs.” Mark shook his head with a smile then put his hand on Sarah’s shoulder. “I’m glad I have you, no telling how long it would have taken me to find it.”
Sarah looked up at Mark and batted her eyelashes. “So, you owe me a prize?” Sarah asked.
“Fine, I owe you dinner. I’ll tell Jen. Is it just you or do you have another friend?” Mark asked pretending indignance.
“Actually, I’m dating this waitress I met last week, Melissa, do you mind?” Sarah wasn’t really asking, Mark had never refused Sarah bringing her current lover. Sarah asking was more of a curtesy to let Mark know he had to set another plate.
“And what kind of food does Melissa like?” Mark asked making a silly face. He loved to tease Sarah about her constant string of lovers.
“Umm…actually I have no idea, so how about you grill steak. Everyone loves steak,” Sarah said coyly.
“No, you love steak…And what happened to Daniel? Dave? What was his name?” Mark felt a little embarrassed that he couldn’t remember Sarah’s lover from a month ago, but only a little, it was hard to keep up with Sarah’s love life.
“Dan. Oh he had a cat thing,” Sarah proclaimed, as if that said everything Mark needed to know.
“A cat thing?” Mark asked, matching Sarah’s phrasing. He was not sure he really wanted to know the answer. “He hated cats?”
“No, no, no, he wanted me to dress up as a cat.” Sarah shuttered.
“You mean in bed?” Mark just couldn’t stop asking questions and each time he did, he regretted that he couldn’t shut up.
“Yes, in bed, and that’s not the worst part. The things he said while we were fucking…”
“Stop! That’s enough! And you know I hate it when you call it that.” Mark didn’t want to hear any more.
“Fine, when we had sex. Happy? You know not everyone makes love.” Sarah made a kissy face. “Not all of us can find our Jen.”
“You know I hate it when you call it that too.” Mark crossed his arms across his chest and looked like a father who was disappointed with his child.
“I know, that’s why I said it, cutie.” Sarah stuck her tongue out at him and stood up. “You know you love me,” Sarah said as she held out her arms widely, waiting for a hug.
“You know I’m not really a hugger,” Mark replied.
“I know you say you’re not, but you owe me buddy,” Sarah said looking pouty.
Mark uncrossed his arms and feigned reluctance as he bent over to hug her. Before it became awkward he let go and started to walk out. “Nice work,” he said as he headed for the door.
“You have that thing with Jen today?” Sarah asked.
“Yep,” Mark said as he stopped at the door and turned to face her again.
“Mind if I catch a ride? The house you’re looking at is in my d
irection and I kinda forgot that Lisa has to pick up her kids from soccer today. And I kinda forgot I have a date with Melissa tonight so going to pick up Lisa’s kids would make me late.” Sarah clasped her hands in front of her and acted like a small child asking for another piece of candy. “Please!”
“Ok, you are kinda on the way to the house.” Mark then turned and walked out the door. After a few seconds he leaned in the doorway once more. “Oh, shit, it’s nearly four thirty. You need to call Jerome and tell him that you fixed it, then we need to get going.”
“Alright, got it, you go let everyone else know they can stop looking for the bug,” Sarah said as she sat down and picked up the phone on her desk. Despite Sarah’s silly attitude and playfulness she was very good at her job.
Forty minutes later Mark and Sarah were at Sarah’s loft apartment. Sarah had asked Mark to come up quickly to give her an opinion about what she was wearing on her date with Melissa. Mark attempted to refuse, stating that he had no idea about woman’s fashion, but Sarah insisted. It became clear to Mark that arguing with Sarah was only going to make him later. He never could win an argument with Sarah or Jennifer. It was one of the many things that made them so alike.
Upon entering Sarah’s loft he noticed that she had rearranged all the furniture in the wide open space since the last time he had been there. She had also removed the wall that separated the kitchen from the rest of the loft and her bed was in the opposite corner. Sarah wasn’t what Mark would consider a slob but she was messy. There was no garbage or left over food lying around but it did look like her clothes had a party while she was at work.
“What do you think? I rearranged everything last week.” Sarah asked as she unbuttoned her dress and it fell to the floor.
Before he realized it, Mark got an eyeful. True it was from behind, but he now knew Sarah had not warn a bra that day. He also got a nice view of her bright pink, lacy panties as she walked away and that was not an image he would soon forget.
“Shit Sarah, warn a guy!” Mark exclaimed as he covered his eyes and quickly turned around.
“You’ve seen it before.” Sarah continued toward her bedroom not caring that anyone with a telescope could see her through the multitude of windows.
“You don’t even own curtains, do you?” Mark asked as he stared at the front door trying to think of anything but the half-naked woman behind him.
“Nope, if someone wants a peep show, why do I care?” Sarah asked rhetorically. “Not like it hurts me any. I’m quite happy with the way I look.”
Mark silently agreed. There was absolutely no reason for Sarah to be embarrassed by the way she looked, clothed or otherwise.
“And that was one time! I thought it was just Jen in the hot tub. How did I know you had come over for some girl talk?” Mark’s face turned red with embarrassment as he recounted the event.
He remembered walking naked into the hot tub room only to find that his wife and his best friend were just getting out. It was one of the most embarrassing moments he could think of. He was in full salute, expecting to surprise his wife before their daughter got home. As bad as it was, the most embarrassing part about it was what Sarah had said, something he would never forget. ‘My, aren’t we a big boy? I would have never guessed it from looking at you.’ Then Sarah smacked him on the ass before grabbing her towel and giggling with Jennifer on their way out. For a minute or two, Mark just sat there not really sure if it had actually happened, then when he had gotten dressed and found Sarah and Jen giggling over a glass of wine he could barely look them in the face. It took him a solid week before he could look at Sarah while he spoke to her, but eventually the embarrassment wore off and things returned to normal. He would never forget seeing her naked. She was right to be happy with how she looked, her body was perfect, at least in Mark’s opinion.
“I can practically hear your face turning red!” Sarah exclaimed then quietly giggled afterward.
“I can’t help it.” Mark smiled and looked at his feet.
“Mark, you have nothing to be embarrassed about you know? I mean I’ve had some guys, well a lot of guys, and not many of them can stand up to you, if you know what I mean.” Sarah enjoyed teasing Mark, though she would never take it too far. As much fun as it was to tease Mark, she would stop if he made it clear that it was getting too real.
“Yes, I know what you mean, can we please change the subject?” Mark really didn’t want to talk about it.
In many ways Mark thought that Sarah was better looking than Jennifer, but every time he looked at Jennifer he knew exactly why he was with her. It had nothing to do with looks, it had to do with her. She made him feel something that he could never express.
“Ok, you can turn around, I’m dressed,” Sarah said as she straightened out her white silk shirt which she wore with blue jeans and no shoes.
“Nice. Where you ladies heading to tonight?” Mark asked.
“Actually she’s coming over here and I’m cooking,” Sarah said with a grin.
“Riiiggghhtt,” Mark said unconvinced.
“I can cook…a little,” Sarah pouted.
“There’s a reason you come over to our house for dinners when you want to impress your new lovers.” Mark smirked and raised one eyebrow.
“Fine, we’re going to cook together. I’m really hoping she’s a much better cook than me or our date may end with a stomach pump.” Sarah relented.
“And I’ll be getting a call to come pick you up,” Mark said dejectedly.
“You know it, cutie,” Sarah responded.
“Ok, you have fun, I’m off to meet Jen and look at this new house,” Mark said as he turned back to the door.
“Give Katie a kiss for me,” Sarah said as she turned toward the bedroom and lifted her shirt over her head. “Maybe a darker color, don’t wanna ruin this one,” Sarah mumbled to herself.
“I will,” Mark replied. He had learned to ignore Sarah’s mumbling, she did it often and it rarely involved anyone but herself. So Mark headed out the door and down to his car, then set out to meet Jennifer.
Chapter 3
Mark drove his silver, four door sedan down the quiet suburban street, searching for the house number his wife had given him. All the houses looked the same and as he came up on the intersection for what must have been the fifth time, he realized he was on the wrong street. He put his car into park at the stop sign and pulled his city map out of the glove compartment. Jen would get a laugh out of this, they had a newer car with a GPS system installed and her programmer husband couldn’t figure out how to make the damn thing work. Mark looked up from the map for a second and smiled. Jen was everything he had ever wanted in a partner, but what if fate had never put them in the same professional writing class in college? Would he have met someone else? Maybe Sarah?
Sarah was just his type, physically, whereas Jen was not, and her personality was almost perfect. Many times he thought that Sarah and Jen got along so well because they were almost the same person, personality wise. The main difference was Sarah’s flirty attitude towards people, Jen was always quiet and shy. As Mark thought about this he wondered if Sarah’s claim that she had just not met the right person yet was true. Sarah had a different lover every month and her main argument for being so promiscuous was that she had yet to meet her ‘Jen’. If he had ended up with Sarah instead would she have settled down and gotten married, had kids? This type of thinking plagued him a lot, mostly when he was heading home from spending the day with Sarah at work. It wasn’t that he regretted being with Jen, he loved her and would never do anything that might hurt her. It was just that Sarah’s pull on him was very strong, nearly as strong as his love for Jen.
Then Mark thought of Jen, her long straight blond hair, and tall thin body. Jen was almost five foot ten, only two inches shorter than himself and she liked to wear heals. She always said it was so she didn’t have to look up when she kissed him and he accepted this as fact. Jen didn’t have a big chest, with her thin body it would look
awkward for her to have big breasts, but they weren’t small and Mark liked them the way they were.
If it hadn’t been for that one class in college he would have never spoken to Jen, never even noticed her. He disliked women who were too thin as he put it. Fate, however, had a different idea. Jen often sat next to Mark in their writing class and would make silly jokes about the teacher not knowing what it was like in the real world. Mark found Jen’s sense of humor intoxicating and eventually they started talking. Within a few weeks they went on their first date. Mark had been on dates before but they always went badly. With Jen he found that he wasn’t nervous. He had much he wanted to talk about with her and it just felt right. In a few short months they were engaged, five years later they had Kathrine. Mark again compared Jen and Sarah. Sarah might have been perfect for him physically, but so was Jen, just in a different way. Mark thought the both of them were absolutely beautiful. If anyone had asked Mark to choose who was prettier, Jen or Sarah, Mark would have said Jen but deep inside he knew it was too close to call.
A car honked its horn behind Mark and he quickly snapped out of his day dream then turned right. He had been one block over this whole time. He must have passed the street he needed at least five times, but Jen knew he had trouble with city streets, even in the suburbs, so she would not be too upset that he was late.
Mark finally saw the house, though it looked very similar to all the other houses on the block, this one had a For Sale sign in the yard. He also noticed Jen’s car in the driveway with another car, he didn’t recognize, parked behind it. Mark eased his car up in front of the house and parked on the street then got out and walked up the sidewalk to the front door. Was it necessary to ring the doorbell when your wife was already inside? It wasn’t like someone lived there, they were meeting the real estate agent for a walk through. Truthfully, the walk through was just a formality and Mark knew it, Jen had made up her mind that they were taking this house and he never refused Jen anything she wanted. Mark decided to err on the side of good taste and rang the doorbell, but no one answered.
Curse of the Asuune Page 2