Authors: Cat Johnson
Interesting.
The mighty Jake had actually fallen off his white horse, or
motorcycle, or whatever. “I definitely won’t take it
personally then. Thanks for telling me. I better get back to that
laptop.” Brad held up his wad of paper towels and grabbed his
coffee mug.
It
took Brad most of the morning to dry up the mess and get the hard
drive up and running. By then it was noon, so he decided to run out
and get something to eat before he began checking the recovered file.
He’d just shut the laptop when he realized the usual chatty
Alyssa hadn’t been on the phone all day, not since that one
call that morning. She must
really
be upset.
Brad
hesitated a moment, then thought what the hell. He leaned on the wall
of her cube. “I’m running out for a sandwich. Do you want
me to bring you back something?”
She
looked up, frowning. “What?”
He
noticed her eyes were green. A deep, rich emerald with flecks of
gold. Hmm. He’d never noticed that before.
Why
was he over at her cube again? Oh yeah, now he remembered. “I
thought you might be hungry.”
Alyssa
swallowed as if the thought of food made her ill. “No, actually
I’m not. Thanks though.”
Civility.
That was good. “It’s a beautiful day. Why don’t you
come outside and walk with me to the deli? It’s good to get
away from your desk once in a while,” Brad prompted.
“
You
should talk. Did you even go home Monday night?”
“
Well
no, but I got a few hours sleep on the sofa in the lounge.” He
blushed.
She
actually laughed at that. But then to his surprise, she logged off
her computer, grabbed her jacket from the back of her chair and
reached under her desk for her purse. Glancing at it, he wondered if
the big red leather thing was the infamous Birken bag. It seemed
awfully large. What in the world could she have in there?
“
Come
on, let’s go.” She glanced at him over her shoulder and
began walking toward the door. He guessed she was coming after all.
He recovered quickly from the mental whiplash her sudden change of
heart had caused and scrambled to grab his own jacket. He ran to
catch up with her at the elevator.
After
a silent ride downstairs, he opened the front door for her. The cold
hit him smack in the face. Sunny or not, February was cold, but the
brisk air felt good after a morning spent in the canned recycled air
inside the office. Next to him, Alyssa with the Sexy Voice put on her
designer sunglasses and raised her face up to the sun. He wondered
what those cost her as he pulled out the sunglasses he’d picked
up at a flea market for five bucks two years ago. For the first time,
he noticed the scratches on them.
She
caught him looking at her. “What?”
Great,
now he was in trouble. “Nothing. I was just thinking how I like
your sunglasses. I’m going to have to remember to ask for a new
pair of sunglasses for my birthday this year. My mom and sister are
always bugging me about what I want. I never know what to tell them.
Thanks for the idea.” Jeez, why did he have to babble like an
idiot around pretty girls?
“
When’s
your birthday?”
What
was this? Alyssa with the Sexy Voice was showing a personal interest
in him of all people.
“
It’s
actually kind of funny. I’m a leap year baby. You know, born on
February twenty-ninth. So really I can only celebrate my birthday on
the actual day once every four years. And this year, you probably
know, is a leap year.” When he finally finished the lengthy
explanation, he felt like kicking himself. She was just making casual
conversation and here he went and launched into this whole discourse
about leap year.
“
Are
you serious?” She stopped walking and stared at him.
“
Yeah,
why?” He stopped walking too and got bumped into by the guy
behind him.
“
Me
too.”
“
You
too, what?”
“
I’m
a leap year baby too.” For the first time all day, Alyssa
seemed actually excited.
He
was getting pummeled because they’d stopped walking in the
middle of a busy sidewalk during lunch hour, although no one seemed
to be whacking into Alyssa, only him. He took her elbow and guided
her over to the entrance of the deli.
“
Wow,
what a coincidence. I’ve never met anyone else with my
birthday. I’m surprised we didn’t realize this before.”
Well, not really considering they’d never actually talked
before.
“
Yeah,
it is strange.” She glanced up at the sandwich board. “You
know now that I’m here, I think I am a bit hungry. Would you
split something with me?”
Actually,
he was starving and could probably put away two sandwiches of his
own. But hell, if she wanted to share a sandwich, he was going to do
it. “Sure. You pick. I’ll eat anything.”
“
Turkey
club?” she asked.
“
Great.
Soda?”
“
Sure.
Diet.”
“
Okay.”
Look at this. They were speaking like they’d been friends
forever. Brad rolled his eyes at himself as he reached into the glass
fridge and grabbed her a diet cola and himself an iced tea. Sure and
they’d be dating by the end of the week. He glanced back at
Miss Birken Bag herself and shook his head. Like that would ever
really happen.
The
cashier rang up the total and they both struggled to put the money
out first.
“
I
got it.” Brad thrust a twenty at the cashier.
“
I
can’t let you do that. I’m paying half.” Alyssa
handed him a wad of small bills.
“
Really,
I got it.” He pushed the money back at her.
“
No.”
She thrust it back at him with an angry looking frown.
“
All
right. Thanks.” He took the cash and shoved it into his pants
pocket. What was that all about? This girl’s mood could swing
either way at a moment’s notice. It must have really kept Jake
the Cheating Bastard on his toes just trying to keep up with her.
Brad
grabbed the bag off the counter and followed her out the door.
“
I’m
sorry I’m so cranky. I’m just really tired and in a
crappy mood.” She glanced at him as they walked.
“
It’s
okay. I’m a little tired myself. I didn’t get home until
three last night.” He shrugged.
She
shook her head. “You work too hard.”
“
What
makes you think I was working? Maybe I was out at a wild party with
my friends.” He tried not to be offended that she would just
assume he had no life outside of work, true as it may be.
“
Were
you?” Her eyebrows rose.
“
All
right, I was working, but it was an emergency.” He gave in.
“
Yeah,
a computer emergency.” She laughed.
Brad
couldn’t tell her about the big project he’d been working
on, which had constituted a real emergency, so he skirted that issue
and instead told her about the phone call he’d taken. Actually
the tale of the laptop, the cat and the coffee—not to mention
the part about the erotic romance novel—made quite an
entertaining story.
“
Wow,
you are a saint. I wouldn’t have even answered the damn phone
at that hour.” She shook her head when he’d finished the
tale. “Hey, you know it is kind of nice out. Do you want to eat
this outside in the courtyard? There’s a bench free.”
More
than one bench was free, being midwinter, but he didn’t point
that out to her. He just nodded and sat, setting the bag between them
for her to distribute the sodas, napkins and sandwich halves.
“
First
of all, I’m no saint.” Brad wanted that point made very
clear, especially now that he had forgiven her for her crappy mood.
He’d moved on to imagining how she looked in lingerie and
without it. “But the client was really desperate and her
apartment was on my way home. Believe me, it’s very nice to
have an easy assignment to work on for a change.”
She
shrugged. “I still wouldn’t have done it. So, did you
read any of it?”
“
The
novel? No, not yet. I decided to get lunch first.”
“
You’ll
have to tell me if it’s any good. I enjoy a good romance novel
once in a while,” she admitted. She’d only eaten about
half of her half of the sandwich when she put it back in the wrapper
and into the brown paper bag. He tried not to drool at the thought of
the food about to be thrown away that could be happily occupying his
belly.
“
All
done?”
“
Yeah.
I guess we should get back.” She gathered up her purse and the
paper bag.
His
half of the sandwich was long gone so he stood up, the wadded wax
paper wrapper in one hand. “Nice purse, by the way.”
“
Thanks.”
She treated him to an actual genuine-looking smile then turned and
walked toward the building.
He
smiled too.
Score!
Chapter 3
Alyssa
stopped by the ladies’ room on the way back to her desk. She
studied her pitiful reflection in the mirror as she washed her hands
and sighed. She looked like crap. “Damn.”
A
stall door opened and Kathy emerged. “That bad, huh?”
Alyssa
snorted. “Yeah.”
“
Did
you get lunch?” Kathy asked.
“
Yeah.
Brad the Geek and I shared a sandwich.” Oops. Alyssa hadn’t
meant to let her personal pet name for him slip out. She was pretty
sure that he and Kathy were friends, or as friendly as anyone could
be with a guy whose nose was always pressed against a computer
monitor.
To
her relief, Kathy laughed. “That’s really a great nick
name for him. He is
The Geek
among us geeks. I mean the guy is
an absolute computer genius. He should be designing software
alongside Bill Gates and making a fortune instead of working here.”
Really?
Brad the Geek was a genius? Alyssa thought about that all the way
back to her desk, where she got another glimpse of him.
Actually,
that would explain a lot. Geniuses were often strange and almost
always dressed badly. Not that she knew many geniuses, but look at
those pictures of Einstein. Talk about having a bad hair day.
She
watched as he leaned over the formerly broken laptop, absorbed in
what he was reading. All because in the middle of the night he’d
promised some woman he would. He certainly was nice. Why couldn’t
she fall for a nice guy for a change? What she wouldn’t give to
fall in love with a Brad instead of a Jake.
~
After
lunch with Alyssa it was hard to get his mind on work, but Brad
managed to force his attention back to the laptop. He opened the
My
Documents
folder and located the romance novel file easily
enough, right there where the client said it would be.
Brad
gave his glasses a quick cleaning, leaned forward and began skimming
over the novel to determine if it was intact. Blah, blah, blah.
Heroine living on the moors in Scotland. Evil men kill her family.
She has to save the family land. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But hold on.
Shit.
Just as the virgin heroine is about to sell her body to the local
rich guy to save the family farm. Just as he has her in his bed and
is about to take her lush breast in his eager mouth…gibberish.
Three whole pages of words interspaced with senseless symbols.
He
scrolled until the gibberish ended and actual text began again. He
read, eagerly wondering exactly how much was missing and what he was
going to do about it.
The
two lovers were already done having sex and the heroine was washing
her virgin blood from her formerly white linen shift.
Double shit.
Brad
whizzed through the entire file, not reading, just checking for
gibberish until he finally reached the end. Thank God it was just
that one section. He took a deep breath and reluctantly composed an
email to the client about the problem, asking her to contact him
ASAP, but who knew when or if she would be able to access her email.
Brad hit send, puffed out a breath and leaned back in his chair.
“
What’s
up?” Alyssa’s voice cut into his thoughts.
He
looked up startled. “Part of the file is corrupted. It’s
gone and I can’t get it back. I don’t know what to do.”