Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“I guess so,” she admits. “What are you getting at?”
“What I’m trying to say is that I’d like to get to know you better. I was hoping you’d let me take you out.” Tammy is staring at me like I’ve just grown a second head.
“Are you serious?” she mumbles. I would wager a guess that I’ve totally surprised her with my question.
“Yes, I’d love to take you out on a date like normal people do. And seeing that you have all of the tapes in your possession, I don’t have anything to hold over your head anymore.” I’m banking on Tammy actually liking me. Or at least on me having enough charm to convince her.
“So, a date? Like a date, date?”
“Yeah, like a date, date.”
The corners of her mouth turn up, becoming a smile that she’s trying to contain but failing.
“Okay, I’ll go on a date with you. A date, date,” she nods. I smile back at her. I actually feel the tension leave my body after she says yes. I’ve never been so nervous when it comes to a woman before, but Tammy is something else.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. You’re cute, I guess. And kind of nice,” she admits.
We stare at each other for a few more seconds before she tightens her grip on her bag, as if to steady her emotions. I could throw her onto my desk this instant and have my way with her, but there are way too many people around who would be able to figure out what was going on. “I really should get going. My mom is going to wonder where I am.”
“No problem. I’ll call you or text you.”
“Sounds good.” She gives me a double thumbs-up while awkwardly making her way to the door. On the way, she bumps into the coat rack, almost knocking it over. “Oh shit!” Thankfully, it only teeters a little, and Tammy is good. She looks flustered for a second before pushing her hair out of her face and standing up straight. “Okay, bye!”
She exits quickly after that, clearly a little embarrassed. I chuckle at her clumsiness, getting back to work. The second I sit down, though, Robert walks in. Yet another interruption to my day.
“Robert.”
“Who did I just see walking out of this office?” He has this shit-eating grin on his face.
“It’s not important. Just someone coming by to say hi.”
“To say hi?” Robert’s interest is piqued by this. He fully enters my office, closing the door behind him. “No one just comes in to say hi to you. That means that whatever it was, it isn’t business-related, making it personal. Since she was a young lady, I’m going to guess she’s the one who has you all distracted.”
“Maybe,” I answer.
“You can’t hide this from me forever. I will find out what in the hell is going on with you.”
“You don’t have to figure it out, Robert. When I’m ready to tell you, I’ll tell you. I’m still figuring stuff out is all. Okay?” My friend takes a seat in the chair opposite me on the other side of my desk. He gives me a look, letting me know he’s not going to give up that easily.
“It’s not fun that way. But we can drop it for now because I want to hear about your meeting with George. How did that go?”
I sigh, rubbing my temples. Having Tammy accept my date request almost made me forget that her father is a colossal fuck-up who’s going to set the company back two weeks on one of our biggest projects. Maybe it’s my fault for continuing to give him jobs that are important.
“It did not go well,” I tell Robert.
“What did he mess up this time?”
“He managed to delete the almost finished file for our Untitled Action Project. Thankfully, the raw footage is still on the computer being used to make the edits, so we don’t have to go through the long process of recopying them, but it’ll set us back two weeks.”
“Jesus Christ, really? There was no backup or anything? It’s all gone? He really managed to delete it all?”
“Tyler double-checked, and it’s all gone. They couldn’t find it anywhere. No backup, no restore point, nothing. It’s gone, Robert.”
“Okay. What did you tell him?”
“I told him to run all decisions by Tyler from here on. That way we won’t have another mess like this one. I might just start giving George low-risk tasks. I thought this one was, but apparently, I was wrong.” Robert gives me a weird look. “What is it?”
“So you didn’t fire him.” I was waiting for that. The two of us had agreed that if George had another major fuck-up, we’d let him go. I’m sure Robert is super confused.
“I know we talked about it, but circumstances have changed, and he’s so close to retirement. We can hold onto him for another two or three years, right? That way it doesn’t mess with his benefits. George has been loyal to us for so long; I’d hate to see him go out like this.”