Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 (18 page)

She needed a TV show about this
stuff!

Once she had a good start, she
catalogued, organized, graphed and once again stuffed data into nooks and
crannies. She kept a stockpile of things that still didn’t make sense, and just
chugged away at the new onslaught of data that did.

Finally hitting a roadblock, she
headed back down to the land of the Dark Hub. Marcus was at his desk, talking
on the phone once again, this time to someone about this new style of shoe that
was making a comeback in today’s market. It sounded legit and work-related
until he said that that was a perfect reason for him to own a pair. Making a
comeback meant he would be the forerunner in fashion!

Half of her wanted to roll her
eyes. That was the half that was working. The half that was female, with a
life, wanted to listen in. It was a great idea. She might need a pair.

As before, he saw her and said he
would talk to the person on the phone another time.

“My favorite geek girl! How is it
going in the
land
of
Nod
?”

“It’s going. Slowly, steadily, but
grindingly going.”

“I hear they got you out of that
stuffy math hole and put you in your own office?”

Apparently, this marketing genius
had been checking up on her. That was probably bad news.

“Yeah. I went from a bunch of
anti-social people to no one at all. I’m not sure which is better.”

“On your own, darling, of course.
At least now you can sing and talk to yourself in peace.”

The record screeched off the track
in her head. Firstly, had she been singing and talking to herself?

Judge’s ruling? Yes, she probably
had.

Next question: Was he spying, or
was someone else checking up on her? She hadn’t seen Jacob in a while. That was
a sobering thought.

Or was he getting the information
from his old Research chums? Which meant she was loud enough that they all
heard her at the other end of their department. All good questions. All also
very daunting.

Rather than ask about it, she
played it cool. No reason to get worked up that her embarrassing little quirk
was common knowledge. If she let on that she was disturbed, then she would look
guilty or paranoid. Which she was, but that was a secret.

“Definitely, but it was always nice
to get a good chorus going. Now I have to carry it all myself!” She feigned
being put out.

Marcus laughed in glee. “Girl, you
just bring it down here and I’ll give you a little bass when you need it!”

Okay, business time; Krista was
getting antsy. She still had a mound of work to get to. The problem was,
talking shop seemed so taboo when dealing with Marcus that Krista thought she
better ease into it with a little “Office Space” humor.

She really hoped he’d seen the
movie, or else this would be more embarrassing than singing to herself…

“Will do. Say, listen, I need to
talk to you about your TPS reports…”

As hoped, Marcus leaned back in his
chair and guffawed. He slapped his desk and wiped a fake tear from his eye. “A
woman after my own heart. I LOVE that movie. LOVE it. Okay, little Miss
Workaholic, what can I do for you?”

“Okay, well I‘ve gone about as far
as possible on your ‘wouldn’t it be nice …’ list. I’ve hit a couple snags.”

“Just a couple? Most of the stuff I
come up with isn’t even remotely doable. But it’s nice to know you’re trying,
math-geek mine.”

“I wouldn’t be a proper Fairy
Godmother if I didn’t work the impossible, right? Okay, the thing is that the
last couple ideas might be doable, but it’s lost in the translation. I am going
to need you to go over it again.”

“No problemo. Only thing is, I spit
out new ideas so often that I lose track of the old ones.”

“Just call me a spittoon. Said
spittoon knows how to write things down and keep track of them.” She pointedly
looked at his paper-strewn desk. He just shrugged. “So I will read back what I
have, hopefully spark your mental pistons, and you just let it rip again. Will
that work?”

“Yes, ma’am. Fire away!” He
actually sounded impressed that this could be done. The guy didn’t write down
much, it seemed.

Krista read back her notes exactly
as she had written them down, daring to push a couple pieces of paper toward a
couple others that were similar. When she’d gotten the idea out, and had found
some clear desk, which helped her mental state, Marcus’s eyes lit up with
remembrance.

“Yes!” he said enthusiastically.
“That was a good idea. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do that, but …”

Krista was ready this time. She
took notes frantically, trying to catch every last word he spit out that might
help the translation factor. They went on to the next idea, then the next.
There were four in all, and by the time they reached the fourth she was
completely done in.

She straightened painfully from her
crouch.

“No more,” she shook her head and
held up her hands. “No more of your insanity. My geek brain can’t handle such
an extended tour into your art brain. It gives me a headache.”

Marcus sobered for a moment as he
looked up at her. “You’re really working on making these ideas happen, huh?”

Krista’s confusion seeped into her
features. Distractedly, she picked up a few stray pens and pencils and put them
in a holder. “Uh, yeah. Why? Is that wrong?”

“From what I understand, no. I just
haven’t seen it happen before. Your kind doesn’t really communicate well with
my kind. Mine can never seem to get our goals across to yours, and yours never
seems able to focus our creative direction with your pencils and notepads.”

She straightened the pile of
printed pictures at the edge of his desk. “Oh. Well, in truth, I’m not so much
‘my kind’ as the normal gal, but no, I still don’t have the foggiest as to what
you’re talking about most of the time. Actually, it all sounds great when I
hear it from your mouth, makes perfect sense when you say it, but it just isn’t
the kind of thing I can turn into a search and destroy mission, you know? Too
much chaos.”

“Then why bother with all the notes
if you can’t get the end result?”

“I said it was all Greek to me.
Just so happens I have a roommate who speaks art and logic. He is my decoder
ring for all this hogwash.” She nodded toward her notes before straightening a
framed photograph.

Marcus had his smile back,
“Cheater.”

Krista stepped forward slightly
with a smile. She helped another couple loose papers find their home as she
said, “Cheat to win, Marcus ol’ boy. Cheat to win.”

With that she left the Hub, her
mind whirling in confusion. She decided just to cut out early, get some of
Ben’s favorite takeout, and offer a bribe for the latest round of much-needed
help.

As she rounded the green wall of
plants, she heard, “When did that woman find time to clean my desk? She’s a
genie. Julie—this is magical, come look at how clean my desk is!”

Sean looked up as Ray walked in.
“Just got off the phone with Marcus,” he said by way of greeting.

Ray took a seat. “And?”

Sean leaned back and rubbed his
eyes. “It seems our Researcher has been down for her second round of
question-answer segments.”

“Oh? She was able to get all the
information for the first installment?”

“I don’t know. She hasn’t checked
in. I think she’s waiting for me to call a meeting with her. I told her to
continue working until I did.”

“She hasn’t checked in?” Ray’s
placid face was mildly skeptical. It meant he thought Sean was making a mistake.

Sean held up his hands. “I know
what you’re thinking. I am checking in with everyone else who is experienced,
why not her?”

Ray didn’t even bother to nod.

“Because her friends say this is
how she works best. Also because when she was under James Montgomery, she still
churned out incredibly thorough, well-thought-out reports.”

“But that is a lot of information
to cover in two weeks.”

“She’s been working late almost
every night.”

“Still, Sean. You should probably
check in with her. It is a huge gamble on someone of her caliber.”

Sean clenched his jaw. Ray still
thought Sean wanted her on the team to get close to her. He had absolutely no
faith Krista was above the rest in her job performance. It galled Sean to
anger, but he knew better than to show it. Ray had been around a while. He knew
what he was talking about. This one time, he was wrong. Sean knew he was wrong,
but he had no proof. Not yet.

“Krista is like a wild fire,” Sean
tempered. “Give her a spark, fuel and a lot of open space, and she’ll burn brightly.
Give her a chance.”

“You are the one giving her a
chance. I am the one saying—moderation. Just check in. See what she’s got so
far.”

Sean let the frustration get to
him. “I know you mean well, but I know what I’m doing. I trust her. If she had
a problem, she would ask. Her asking Marcus, twice, for information—actually
breaking through his ideas, from what he is telling me—shows me she’s got it.
I’m going to stand back and let her work. If it was about getting her naked, I
would check on her constantly.”

Ray flinched back. He wasn’t the
type of guy to hear that kind of sentiment. He then shook his head. “You always
bet on a sure thing. Bet me she will give you what you’re looking for.”

“$100” Sean said without having to
think. “$100 that she gives me what I’m looking for, and you know my
expectations are high.”

“Done.”

Sean nodded and looked back at his
notes. “She’s working on four of Marcus’s ideas. He says she’s got her roommate
helping break them down.”

“Break them down?”

“Apparently she doesn’t understand
Marcus enough to know what to research, in so many words. This roommate takes
her notes, translates them for her, and she works on the research. He’s the
middle man.”

“Sounds like an important asset.”

Sean looked up at Ray. “Yes, he
does. If I am not mistaken, he was the genius behind her layout and colors for
the presentation.”

Ray held Sean’s eye contact. “I
don’t mean to push, but when do you plan to check in on her?”

Sean glanced at his calendar. “Two
more weeks. We’ll all meet then. We’ll all go over it together.”

Ray just shook his head. Sean knew
what he was thinking: It was a long time to let someone go unchecked. She could
be doing anything up there all alone. Or nothing, which was Ray’s worry. But
Sean took what her friends said to heart. They knew her best, and they were in
complete agreement. He had to start trusting sometime. He’d stay the course.

~*~*~*~

When Krista got home, Ben was
actually there waiting for her. He had her favorite dessert in hand—chocolate
lava cake.

“Ben.”

“Hi Krista.”

He noticed the takeout. A small
smile appeared on his face. “We have dinner and dessert it seems.”

They ate immediately since they
were both starved, opening a bottle of wine and watching “The Big Bang Theory”
reruns. After they were both sufficiently stuffed, they got to business.

It seemed Ben had cleaned his room
and found a stack of bills. While Krista worked, Ben set to deciphering the
latest batch of Marcus gibberish. When they were both done, Krista told him
what he would need to spend to cover the bills, and what his new monthly and
daily budget needed to be.

“Great, thanks Krista!” He sounded
so relieved. Apparently being in debt stressed the poor guy out something
awful. She knew how he felt.

“Shall we get some dessert and go
over ideas a la Marcus?”

“Let’s.”

With a mouth full of lava cake, Ben
explained what Marcus was probably going for. Krista made further adjustments
to the explanation to encompass what was actually doable, which, surprisingly,
was quite a lot. When they were done, full, and half drunk, Ben said, “But, and
this comes from just working off of these ideas, but what if you merged these
two ideas?” He pointed at two numbered items on the list.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, hit this younger market
through this program…thing he is talking about here,” Ben stabbed at idea
number two, “and let it spill over, or whatever, into this other, older market
program … uh … thing. Or vice versa—whichever works best, I guess. That way you
can hit two birds with one stone. You know, because the subject matter is the
same, right?”

“Huh.” His explanation was a little
weird, but she kind of got what he meant. “Er. Yeah, I see. I think. Well, I
mean, not really, but I can get data on it.”

They talked for a while longer,
drank the rest of the bottle, and then got chased to their individual rooms
when Abbey came home with some guy. Krista made sure to put in her earplugs
when she went to bed. That woman was the loudest in sex history. It was a
wonder that she wasn’t embarrassed by it! For that matter, how could the men
stand it? She would make  p**n  stars roll their eyes!

In her office the next morning she
sipped her coffee and looked over the transcribed ideas. She had been avoiding
the break room like the plague ever since she walked in and all conversation
stopped. It was three women obviously gossiping, and when they didn’t pick up
their conversation during her coffee gathering, Krista figured she was the
topic du jour.

The other weird thing was that
Jacob had left an old coffee pot in her office with a note that said,

We don’t need it anymore. You might
use it so you can avoid the Golden Girls. –Jake

She’d sent him an email thanking
him profusely, and now only went to the break room to see Tommy, or to get
creamer and sugar. Thankfully, the ruse with the boyfriend worked—Jacob hadn’t
been bothering her at all. He’d asked her to drinks one other time, but after
she’d said she had to check with the other half, he dropped his interest.

Now, in her office, as she sipped
her tasty, safe coffee, she tried to pay attention to who was walking around
outside the office. She wanted to know who was spying on her…which lasted about
as long as it took to hit a snag with Marcus’s rationale, and then she blacked
out into the world of numbers and research until she heard a distinct sound. It
took her a minute before she stopped and listened, finally realizing that the
sound was a knock.

Marcus was standing in the doorway
in blue jeans and a navy, form-fitting shirt, laughing at her.

“Geek Girl, you are completely lost
in your geek world.”

She sighed and turned her music
down, “Was I singing?”

“Yes. Nice voice, actually.” He sat
in one of her visitor chairs.

“What’s up?”

“Curiosity brings me.”

“Oh? Well, my favorite flower is
the red tulip.”

“Is it? Mine is the sunflower.”

“Hmm, yes. I’m glad we had this
chat.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easy,
Geek Girl. Did you work out my ideas from yesterday?”

“With help, yes.”

“Who is this magical translator you
have?”

“It’s a secret.”

“Why?”

“Because it sounds better than just
saying ‘my roommate.’”

“Yes it does. Well, I have some
more ideas if you want them.”

“Honestly, no, I don’t. I will
write them down, but I need a break from your art ridiculousness for a while.
I’m still working on your last set of rabble.”

“Do you think they are doable?
That’s what you said, right? You were working out a way to do them?” The hope
in Marcus’s voice rang through his words.

“Oh no—don’t go putting words in my
mouth. No way. I said I could get information on them. Some of the information
is less than strategic, but I am getting everything I can from everywhere I
can. It will be up to Sean whether they are doable or not.”

“Ah yes, the young stud. Ball
breaker, that one. Like a dog on a bone.”

That was odd—she hadn’t heard a
peep. She wondered if they just put her up into a floor with empty offices to
die.

But then, she had incredible focus
and a great work ethic. Marcus on the other hand…

“I am still on step two,” Krista
continued, “which is you. And if you don’t stop giving me gibberish to unravel
then hunt down, I’ll never get to step three.”

“How many steps do you have?”

“Six, I think, but I didn’t read
past three. That is about when the aneurism kicked in.”

Marcus laughed, his white teeth
flashing in his dark, striking face. The guy was good-looking. Almost a Sean.
Taller, though, with a thinner frame, and ten times more style. His style was
subtle. Refined. He was not over-the-top trendy, but he always fit in, and
always looked good. Either he got the ladies or the guys—she still wasn’t sure
of his sexual orientation. He wasn’t the subject of constant gossip, or much
gossip at all, actually, which was another vote for g*y. The ladies wouldn’t
watch his every move if they didn’t have a shot in hell of getting him, or even
getting laid.

“Good. I’m glad I’m not the only
one,” Marcus said, getting up. “Alright, beautiful, I’ll leave you to your
numbers. Don’t be a stranger. The Dark Hub isn’t only there for work!”

“You know, if you fixed that light
bulb, it wouldn’t always be so dark.”

“Who said the bulb was broken?”
With that, he sauntered off in his lazy lope through the mostly vacant offices.

Krista vaguely wondered why the
company had all this space if they weren’t using it. Certainly they could fit
her a million different places. Sean, too, when they finally got around to
moving him. Maybe they wanted to fill this floor, and they needed this big,
elusive account to do it?

Whatever. Not her problem. The rest
of these ideas, however, were.

She turned her music back up and
lost herself yet again to the fog of numbers.

The next couple weeks passed
quickly. Krista was making great strides on the ideas she got from Marcus.
There hadn’t been much of anything in the company databases for them, which she
took as a good sign, so she got all her info from the library and out in life.
Once done, she reviewed all the original data and did some changes and fixes
that made them easier to understand and more accessible to non-Geeks. She even
put together a table of contents in case it was needed. It was overkill, but Sean
asked for thorough, so he couldn’t really yell at her if she gave it to him.

On Thursday evening she got an
email from Sean addressed to everyone on his team. Instead of immediately
hitting delete out of pure fear, she opened it. He wanted to see what they’d
gotten so far. The day had come. She was not ready for it.

She was desperately scared he would
see all her work, get a disappointed look on his handsome face, and tell her
she had wasted a month of his time on frivolous research. Or that she completely
missed the point of his list. Or that she shouldn’t have been bothering Marcus
after all.

A list of possible reasons she
would be fired shot through her head. It also fueled her fire.

She worked like a demon to get all
her things together and glossed up.

The other was…she’d missed him.
Which was bad. But he was funny and fun, witty and intelligent—he was on his
way to becoming a friend, and she didn’t realize it until he stopped coming
around.

Kate was going to punch her in the
mouth really, really hard!

Turning her attention back to work,
she was suddenly overly glad she’d done the table of contents! Otherwise she
might have wasted time trying to find her way through all the information
again. The bad news was, even with the table of contents, it was still just a
stack of papers--well organized papers--but a stack nonetheless. She needed
something a little more dynamic.

Once again, she headed down to
Marcus.

The marketing and art department
was abuzz. More so than usual. People were smiling but tense, calling off
directions across the room. Someone needed some ten stock white something or
other. Someone else needed those slides pronto, darling, yesterday! They worked
like an anthill after it saw a boot. Complete chaos to the passerby, but
probably some hidden rhythm in there somewhere. Being that Krista had heard
Dell mentioned a couple times, she figured it must be presentation day.

Krista kept walking as she made her
way back to the Dark Hub. As she rounded the wall of plants, she didn’t hear
Marcus on the phone for once. This time he was there, quietly sitting in his
chair, his nose inches from his computer.

“Hey,” she said as she walked up.

Marcus looked up distractedly. “No
more ideas. I gotta get this crap for Sean’s meeting.”

“Yeah I know. I am at the same
point. I need to put my stuff into a nice format. A binder isn’t going to cut
it.”

Marcus leaned back. It was the
first time a small amount of stress showed under his calm exterior. “What kind
of format?”