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Okay then...
I finish my salad and go back to work but I’m pretty distracted by mid-afternoon when Carter stops by IT and says something to Jeff and walks out without so much as looking at me.
If he’s that mad about Friday night, why did he help at all? And how did he even know I was out and drinking? Is he tracking my phone or something?
And then there’s his confession that he was at Mom’s graveside service. Why didn’t he show himself? Is he lying? I have a lot more questions. I’m pretty sure I confessed that he’d taken my V-card too. Did he not have any reaction to that? Or care?
I won’t lie and say I took this job without the hopes I could get closer to Carter. I’m still wickedly attracted to him, that hasn’t changed. But he obviously wants nothing to do with me past a professional relationship. Like I wondered earlier—what will happen when Eric gets out? I know they’re still friends. Eric tells me they email and talk occasionally.
I realize that if I bring up Eric to Carter, maybe it’ll get him to open up to me. I don’t think he knows Eric’s getting released in a few months. I’d love to be the one to tell him. It’ll be my “in” to open up a conversation with him. I’m normally not a confrontational person but the awkwardness and coldness between us is really bothering me. I can remain professional at work but all this laughter and flirting I thought would be going on definitely isn’t. In fact, he seems to have turned the other way and is just being downright frigid to me. And I don’t fucking like it.
Jeff pops his head around my cubicle. “Taryn, could you go help Lisa in HR? Her computer won’t turn on.”
I smile and stand up. “You got it.” A welcome distraction for sure.
“Knock, knock,” I say when I get to Lisa’s office.
She looks relieved to see me. “Oh, good. Can you fix this?” she asks, pointing at her computer’s dark screen.
“I got you.” I glance at the CPU and see that it’s not lit up. Okay, so it’s not just that the monitor is turned off (I’m not surprised at how clueless people are anymore). She moves out of my way and I sit at the desk and try to boot up the CPU. I’m thankful technology has moved from those giant towers of wires and motherboards that sits on the floor to the smaller, more compact CPUs no bigger than a book that sit on the desk now.
“Hey, Taryn? I gotta run to a meeting with the boss. You don’t need anything from me, do you?” Lisa asks.
I shake my head. “Nope. I’ll get it figured out.”
She sighs. “Thanks so much. I hate computers, gah. If I had it my way, I’d go back to typing everything on a typewriter and making photocopies.” She laughs while I think that sounds like my absolute worst nightmare.
She leaves and I begin to check connections. It’s plugged in. The surge protector is on and working. I test all the plugs and they all work. I take the CPU apart with my little tool kit and squint at the tiny motherboard. Is that water? I touch it and sure enough, it’s wet. I sniff my finger. Coffee. With a sigh, I mutter, “Could have at least told me you spilled coffee on the dang thing.”
I walk to the IT storage room and grab another CPU and take it back to Lisa’s. I hope her meeting is long because now I have to reinstall everything.
I plug everything in and begin the task of installing Windows, connecting her monitor, keyboard, mouse, and printer, along with all her other programs. I use the app on my tablet to see which applications and programs are allotted to the HR Manager. Once I’m connected to the office’s intranet, I grab the programs I need and sit in boredom while they install.
“I’m leaving early for the day, my kid has a dentist appointment,” Gina, the HR assistant says as she walks out the door with her purse slung over her shoulder.
“Have a good night,” I say.
Once everything is seemingly set up, a half an hour has gone by. I click on each program to ensure the log-in page shows up and it’s working properly. If she had anything personalized, like background or colors or where she wants her icons, that’ll be on her.
I log into the HR program with my administrator username and password and click around to make sure everything looks legit. Except when I see files of employee names, curiosity gets to me. Glancing back at the door, I see I’m still alone and click on Carter’s name. I have no interest in his address or tax information, but the programs and applications he has access to piques my interest.
There’s one that readsAlternative Application Developmentso I find it in my list of apps from the intranet and install it on Lisa’s computer. Once it’s done, I click on it. Jeff and the crew haven’t shown me much about app development but I’m a fast learner and wish they would get on with it already. I click on the program and it asks for a password. I put in my administrator username and password but it denies me access.
That’s really interesting. Why is it so encrypted?
I try every trick I know to bypass it, but nothing works. That shit is locked down tight. I do a quick scan on my tablet to see who else has access to it. Nobody. Only Carter. Not even Jeff.
Very interesting, indeed.
I hear someone coming down the hall. I quickly uninstall the app, empty the desktop trash, and click on the email program, making sure a login screen appears.
Just in time, too.
Lisa walks in. “Oh goodie. I see you fixed it!”
“Well, I didn’t fix it, per se. I had to get you a new CPU. Someone spilled coffee in the other one.”
“Oh,” she simply says, her cheeks reddening.
