Part 4: Decision
"No that's fine, I have some stuff to finish up anyway, I can wait." It
was done, there was no going back. Now I had an hour to wait and
sometime during that I had to break the copier. At that moment Clive
stuck his head into my cubicle and seeing that I was on the phone mimed
that he was done copying and that the machine was all mine. I rubbed
my mental hands with glee, still slightly stunned that I had gone this
far.
"Okay, well gotta go, the glamorous world of copier repair calls. See
you soon, Mike." Said a voice in my ear.
I gave Clive the thumbs up and returned my attention to the phone.
"Okay, thanks for this, Scott, you're a life saver."
"All part of the service. See ya." The line went dead but I sat
holding the phone against my ear for easily another five minutes,
concentrating on getting my breathing back to a more regular speed.
All right copier, prepare to meet your doom. I picked up my bundle of
cash flow statements and went to face the enemy.
It was astonishingly easy to break. I can almost see how someone could
mistake the vent for a single feed slot, almost, but not quite. You'd
have to be pretty dumb to make that mistake - which meant it could be
pretty much any of the six hundred people who work in this building.
Ha! There was an unpleasant charred smell, but other than that the
patient showed no alarming symptoms. Which was just as well, it was
only after I shoved the paper in that I remembered Scott saying they
could burst into flames. As another of my colleagues rounded the
corner I aimed a kick at the side of the thing and cursed quietly for
dramatic effect.
"I'll phone the service center," I said resignedly to her and did a
convincing impression of a broken man as I sloped back to my cubicle to
kill time, I sure as hell couldn't concentrate on work now. Time
dragged by, two or three people tried to use the machine and discovered
it was broken and subjected me to the usual questions about it and I
was about as forthcoming as usual so they went off to find another
machine elsewhere in the department. Finally five o'clock came and
people started to drift out. I worked late from time to time, so
nobody remarked on my staying behind, its so much easier to work when
you don't have people distracting you every five minutes.
I was sitting with my eyes closed, rehearsing possible conversations to
have with Scott, casual banter while he fixed the machine when a voice
returned me to the here and now, a voice I recognized at once.
"Do you ever do any work?" He asked in an amused tone. I opened my
eyes to see him standing in my doorway sort of leaning against one side
with his arm along the top of the divider. He looked as good as I
remembered. Better. He'd taken his tie off and undone the top button
of his shirt and his short blond hair was slightly mussed which gave
him a really relaxed look.
"I was resting my eyes." I smiled back at him. I was suddenly very
calm, this was a situation of my own making and I knew I could handle
it.
"Sure you were."
"Its been a really long day! Listen, thanks so much for coming out to
fix this. I can't believe the people in this office at times."
"Hey my pleasure." He grinned at me again and I found myself grinning
back although nothing even remotely funny had been said. His smile was
just infectious, did I mention his perfect teeth? I think so, but I
didn't mention the way his whole face lit up when he smiled. This was
one seriously handsome young man, and he was draped over the wall of MY
cubicle! "Well, the sooner I get started the sooner we both get
finished, right?"
And with that he picked up his case and walked over to the machine -
giving me another back view! Once again, he squatted in front of the
machine and opened it up. He must have known I'd follow him over
because he started talking to me while he fiddled around inside.
"You know, I fixed the same problem on a machine across town a couple of
weeks ago. They went with option one, the warning notice?" He turned
to see if I knew what he was talking about, and I nodded that I did,
"guess where they put the notice."
"I don't know."
"Over the vent! Damn thing overheated and had to be completely
replaced." I laughed with him as he extracted the charred remnants of
my cash flow statement from the workings of the copier.
"This isn't the best designed machine in the world is it?"
"No, the next model up is far better, you've got three of them in this
department." Oh God! Should I deny all knowledge of the other
machines? Should I laugh and feign a deep affinity for this one? How
do I handle this, he clearly knows that this was not an urgent repair.
"There, that's it, all operational." He stood up and smoothed out the
legs of his pants.
"Great, um, thanks. Listen, Scott, can I maybe buy you a drink or
something, you know, as a thank you?" As I heard myself speak, I
realized how lame I sounded.
"Sure, I could use a drink."
"Great, I'll just get my coat." I started towards my cubicle.
"Shouldn't you copy that presentation first?" He was definitely
smirking at me now, "or can it wait?" Busted. I flushed bright red
and looked down at my shoes.
"Um, I guess it can probably wait." I faltered out as I turned to face
him again. I tensed, waiting to see if he would yell at me, hit me, or
just laugh and walk away.
"I thought so. Tell you what, I skipped lunch, so why don't you buy me
dinner instead of that drink, and you can explain your company's cash
flow to me. Huh?" He handed me the papers he'd just removed from the
copier, my cash flow statements with my name at the top of each page!
Clearly I am not cut out to be a secret agent, I flushed even more red
- which shouldn't have been possible.
"Oh God! I'm so sorry, Scott, I don't know what to say, I..." I
couldn't meet his gaze.
He put his hand on my shoulder, "It's okay, Mike. Just next time you
want to see me, please just call me, huh? Try not to destroy the
machine. If nothing else I look bad if I have to come back and fix it
every day!" His voice was very soft and he seemed genuinely amused by
the whole thing.
"You don't mind that I tried to set you up?"
"No, forget about it. Where are we going to go for dinner?"
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