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“What's wrong?”
“What do you mean? Nothing is wrong.”
“Well, you're sweating for one. Two you've got the curlyhaired thing going on, and three you are pounding on that keyboard so loud that I'm sure neighbors upstairs can hear you. So again, what's wrong?”
Stupid big sisters, they always called you out on your shit. “Fine, you know the new security system for the law firm? I want to make sure that our client's files are as secure as possible. I mean without that why would they come to us? You know that discretion is our biggest attribute of the company. But I keep getting denied access to some of my codes. It doesn’t make any sense because I built the system, I have access to everything! I just don't understand why I'm getting locked out.”
Elizabeth stood from the kitchen table and walked around behind me staring at the screen. Sure indiscretion was big of a law firm, but when you and your sister are both coders, you help each other out.
“What about this line here?” She pointed at the screen. The line of code that she was referring to I hadn't written. “I've no idea. I didn’t put that in there.”
She made a face and took the three tiny steps that she needed to take to be into the kitchen of our small apartment.
“You made a face. Why did you make a face?”
She shrugged as she poked her head into the refrigerator to grab a bottle of wine. “I mean it's probably nothing.”
“What is nothing, Elizabeth?”
“Well the last time I had one of my codes changed, it meant that I was getting the boot. Somebody was double checking my work and they didn't like what they saw. I'm really sorry Addison. But I think you're getting fired.”
My mouth dropped open. I couldn't get fired. We were barely affording this apartment with the two of our incomes combined. Manhattan was expensive as hell. If I got fired, I don't know what we would do. I don't know how we would make it.
“Are you sure? Elizabeth focus. Are you sure that's what happened?”
She brought a glass of red over to me and sat down across us at the table and began seriously typing. She turned the laptop screen around so that I could see it and pointed to the screen. There was a picture of a guy younger than us, with black framed glasses and a big dopey smile. “See this kid? And he is a kid. He's fresh out of college, ten years younger than me. He does a great job. He can code faster than I could. Faster and cheaper is what a company is always looking for. That software is being recoded, it's because they consider you antiquated. So instead of trying to update their security system tonight, you should start looking for jobs.”
I rolled my eyes at her. As much as I loved Elizabeth and our sisterly bond, sometimes she had a flair for the dramatic. So I shut my computer, but instead of looking for jobs I grabbed my laptop and my wine and headed to my bedroom. Watching a good rom com and drowning my sorrows in a glass of red would be the only thing I accomplished for the evening.
Three
Addison
“Addison! Come in here!”
I grabbed my tablet and my lukewarm cup of coffee and hustled into my boss's office. He was nearly twice as old as I was, and maybe three times the size of me. He sat in his ancient office chair that someone had gifted to him when he graduated college eons ago and flattened his tie over his exceedingly large stomach. The buttons were bulging underneath it.
“Yes. Mr. James? You wanted to see me.”
He smiled at me as he crossed his hands over his protruding belly. “Yes. Sit.”
I sighed. The grand office Mr. James sat in had a way of making people feel like they were small, the guests’ office chairs were uncomfortable to say the least. I felt the scratchy material against my skin, a tank top was apparently not a good choice for this hot summer day. I set the tablet down in my lap but I clutched onto my coffee like a lifeline. Some peoples would say that I was a caffeine addict, I would say that I was a coder. I guess you would think same difference.
“I noticed that you are working on the security protocols. How's that going?”
I took a sip of my coffee before responding. “Quite well. I mean I noticed some discrepancies in the code, but I'm sure that I can iron out the details.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “I can tell you exactly why you saw discrepancies within the coding.”
Here it was, Elizabeth was right. I was being replaced.
“We’ve been hacked.” I nearly dropped my coffee all over my shiny tablet. Hacked? That was my job. To make sure we weren’t. Shit.
“I'm sorry?”
“You should be Addison. Since it's your job to make sure the security protocols are developed enough that no one can break in. You know our clients prefer their discretion. We’ve violated that trust, we’ll lose at least two clients over it. You know how I like to work on retainer.”
Did he ever. Mr. James hadn't stepped foot into a courtroom in probably fif
