Computer Geek Ch 01

I would like to thank my wonderful editor, TekNight, for all the help in finding logical mistakes and correcting my grammar.

To all my readers: I hope that you'll enjoy this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Ada

Friday

"We're going to the new strip club. Want to join us, Kate?" Brian asked. A few of her male colleagues laughed at the question.

"No, thanks," Kate said as she pushed her curly brown hair behind her ear as was her usual habit.

"Oh come on, you might learn a trick or two," the next colleague added. "Or just enjoy the show."

"Do they have any male strippers?" Kate wondered.

"Ugh, I hope not," Brian said and pretended to vomit at the thought.

"In that case I will have to refrain from the honour. Enjoy yourselves guys."

"We will," they assured her as they noisily hurried out the door as if they were worried the strippers would change their mind and keep their clothes on.

Kate just shook her head. This was what she had had to put up with since joining the male-dominated world of IT. But she had never pictured herself being the only female among 20 men. Even the secretary was a man. They pretty much treated her as one of the guys, but she drew the line at visiting strip clubs.

Truth to be told, she didn't like the idea of being compared to a bunch of big breasted strippers. She was short with brown shoulder length hair, and she had to admit that she could stand to lose a few kilos and exercise more. In order to make up for that, she always dressed in wide sweaters and jeans, in an effort to hide her curves.

She didn't care much about how she dressed. Her baggy clothes were so comfortable that it had become a habit to dress the way she did. Besides, the only part of her body that she really liked was her long hair and she maintained it well. Still, she often ended up hiding it in a ponytail to prevent it from falling into her face when working. Her vanity would never be able to coexist with a practical hair style, Kate thought ironically. You always had to choose between the two.

She turned back to her computer. A message was highlighted in her mailbox.

"What now?" she murmured to herself.

She opened the message and quickly scanned through. It seemed that one of her dear colleagues had dumped an urgent bug fix in her lap -- just so he could join the rest of the mob.

"Thanks a lot, Brian," she murmured, making a mental note to repay him later.

Oh well, she thought. She had nothing better to do anyways. She could just as well open the program code and try to figure out what was wrong.

At the same time she heard a sound behind her and she whirled around. Scott Ashton, the project manager, was standing at the door. Damn. That man always made her feel awkward and like she had just fallen out of bed, no matter how much effort she put into dressing like a professional.

With his tanned skin and muscled body the man was drop-dead gorgeous, Kate thought. He could easily have been a model in any magazine portraying masculine activities like outdoor life and hunting. Instead, he was her task manager and a constant distraction to her mind. She would rather have seen him in the magazine. At least then she could have drooled without getting caught, Kate thought humorously.

Trying to hide her insecurity, she always toughened up and tried to treat him like she would treat any other of her colleagues, while trying to stop herself from falling at his feet and worshipping his good looks. Besides, drooling all over his tempting skin would probably not be the best career move she could make, she had decided.

"Still here?" she asked him.

"I might ask you the same question," he said as he smiled broadly.

"They went to a strip club. You'll catch them if you hurry," she said suggestively.

His only response was a smile.

"How about you? Won't you join them?" Scott asked.

"I'm straight, so I prefer my strippers to be male. Or even better, to keep their clothes on. Most men look best with their clothes on."

She could easily come up with an exception to that rule, but since the exception was standing right in front of her she tried her best not to picture him naked. It totally ruined her equilibrium.

"How so?" he smiled encouragingly as he leaned nonchalantly against the doorframe. His tall body towering above her made her office feel more cramped than usual.

"It keeps the mystery, I suppose. How about you?"

"What?" He seemed still to ponder her first sentence.

"Why didn't you go? You're straight, aren't you?"

"Why do you want to know?" he said in a neutral voice, leaving her to wonder if she had insulted him.

Oh god, Why didn't she think before speaking. Of course, he had to be gay, being the only man still here. How could she have been so stupid?

"Umm, just forget I asked."

"Give me a try and you'll soon find out if I'm straight or not," he tempted.

"Never mind," she said as she quickly retreated to the code again.

"I'm at your service if you change your mind," he said teasingly. She glanced at him and watched as he moved slowly toward her, leaving her in little doubt about his sexual preferences with that knowing smile of his.

She quickly roamed her eyes all over his body, before arresting herself when she realized what she was doing. He gave her a knowing look as if he could see straight into her brain and knew exactly what she thought and wanted. She felt her cheeks become warmer and quickly returned to her computer screen, hoping he would go away. Damn it. Why did she always feel this awkward in the presence of a good-looking man and this man in particular?

Most of her colleagues were the typical computer geeks, with dimples, large bellies and a wardrobe of dirty t-shirts and jeans. Scott, however, looked as he was actually getting both sunlight and exercise, judging by the bulging muscles he kept partly hidden underneath his shirts. On top of that he actually seemed to be a decent man with lots of humour.

The world was not fair, Kate had realised a long time ago, and some people just seemed to have everything. With that in mind, she concentrated on acting like a professional whenever he was around and trying to prevent him from knowing how she almost salivated when looking at him.

Still, her mind was playing havoc on her, filling her dreams with a dark-haired devil with blue eyes and the stamina to match his well-trained body. Even so, she knew in her mind that a man like him only dated beautiful, skinny models, and not geeky computer girls that blushed every time he gave her a smile.

And now he was standing in her office and sounding almost as if he flirted with her. She had to be dreaming, or perhaps she simply put too much meaning behind his words. Most likely he was just being himself and she had drunk too much coffee.

"What are you working on?" he suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

Kate tried to shake herself awake and leave the dreaming for later. Instead, she would focus on seeing him as one of the guys that dumped their workload on her so they could go and enjoy themselves on a Friday night. She felt her temper rise at the thought of sitting here all night working, when she could be home searching the internet for her next holiday.

"The ASP code. There's a bug in the report generator."

"That's no place for a lady," he murmured softly behind her.

"Who cares? I'm the only one here that can fix it."

She felt provoked. Didn't he think she was capable of fixing the bug?

"Apart from me, you mean?" Scott interceded.

"Yes, and you're going to the club, so bye, bye, Enjoy yourself," she said dismissively, without even looking at him. She concentrated on finding the line the error message had listed, and tried her best to ignore the manly scent that was teasing her nostrils.

"Sorry to ruin your fun. I'm staying."

"Suit yourself," she said as she gave him a look of surprise before turning back to her screen.

She tried to forget both his presence and his tempting scent while making herself acquainted with the structure of the module.

"Did you get an error message?" Scott suddenly murmured close to her ear.

She was monetarily surprised about how close he was and concentrated on the email she had received.

"Yes, but it's of little use. It's simply stating 'An unknown error has occurred'."

"Great. We might as well order pizza. This could be a long night."

"I thought the boss's privilege was to delegate and go home early? You can still escape, you know," she teased lightly.

"Maybe I have a hidden agenda."

"Good. Then you can consider that agenda, as well as the bug, so

I

can go home instead."

"And leave me all alone with all this terrifying code? Look, I'm a pencil pusher, not an expert programmer."

She considered his statement as she gave him a surprised look. Based on what she'd heard, he was more than capable of handling the programming as well as any of the senior programmers. What was he up to? He answered her unspoken question by smiling neutrally, not giving anything away.

"You must be good at poker," she mumbled as she turned back to the code.

It was a ridiculous thought, but for a moment she had wondered if he was coming on to her. But that couldn't be. They weren't even in the same league. Even though he was always polite, they had never talked much about personal stuff. She was pleasantly surprised as to how easy it was to talk to him. Some people just had it all, Kate thought with a sigh. Good looks and a personality to match it.

"Is it difficult to fix?" Scott wondered beside her, mistaking her sigh to be work-related.

"Just give me a second, will you?" Kate complained. "It would help a lot if you would get me a coffee instead of lurking behind me."

He responded by sitting down in the visiting chair beside her desk.

Most likely, Kate thought, he was just testing her abilities to solve a bug. After all, she was still in her trial period, come to think about it.

"Hmm, what if I offered to do a slow strip tease in front of you, would that help?" Scott suddenly suggested.

"In what way?"

"Well, they say that relaxing your mind will help the brain work faster."

"You're joking, right?"

"Not at all. Since I can't be of any help with the programming, I have to volunteer in some other area that I'm familiar with."

"Are you a professional stripper in your spare time? I'd never have guessed," Kate said ironically although she could easily understand that women would pay to see his nude body.

"Not at all," he laughed. "But I can undress, so I suppose it's just a matter of doing it slowly so that you don't miss out on the entertainment this evening."

"I'm not sure that would help at all," Kate laughed, picturing herself staring at his half naked body while her eyes almost jumped out of her face. It wouldn't help at all.

"It's your decision."

"Do you often volunteer to strip?"

"Nope, only for our female employees."

"This is an all-male company, except for me."

"There you have your answer."

"Now I realise why you don't hire women," Kate laughed as she had finally sure he was joking.

"I would do it, you know. But you decide when and where."

Kate could easily picture herself jumping at his suggestion and dragging him home with her, letting him undress there. But, reality kicked in. He was only joking, she reminded herself.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I meant what I said about men looking best with their clothes on."

"You're hurting my feelings," Scott joked.

"Why would you be willing to strip?"

"To repay you for staying and fixing that code for me."

"Then you should wait until I've done the deed. I haven't found the error yet. But tell me, since when did favours have to be repaid in the flesh?" she teased lightly.

"Wait a minute. I only volunteered to strip."

"Pity. And here I thought you would give me the full treatment," Kate laughed before she turned away from the temptation he presented and started to concentrate on the code again.

"If you fix the code, I will consider it."

"Don't tempt me."

"Do you think I'm joking?"

"Of course I do," she answered without turning around. Deciding that if she couldn't see him, his words would have less meaning.

"Then I suppose I'll have to convince you."

"Keep your pants on, buddy, and don't interrupt me. I think I've just found the error."

"You did?"

"Well, if you would just shut up and let me concentrate, I'll know for sure."

It was completely silent as she located the try-catch statement that had caught her eye. Adding an extra bracket, she ran the compiler and restarted the program.

"Bingo," she exclaimed after a couple of minutes. "It's fixed."

"How?" she heard Scott's voice coming from beside her.

"Are you still here?" she asked in surprise.

She had completely forgotten about him. How was that possible? Scott was not a man that was easy to forget. Instead, she had concentrated on doing her job and now she was ready for the weekend. It felt good.

"What do you think? I don't offer to strip and then run off. What do you take me for?" He almost sounded insulted.

"As I see it there are only two possibilities." Kate raised her hand and lifted one finger at the time. "Number one. You're actually a stripper that likes your job too much. Number two. It's a joke. Since the first option is unlikely, the second must therefore be correct. Q.E.D. Quod erat demonstrandum."

"Great. You know your if-else statements and Latin," he mumbled.

"I'm glad we agree," she smiled while mentally ticking off a point to herself as she gathered her things and started to close all the programs she had opened during the day.

"Unfortunately, there is a third option that you forgot to list."

"Which is?"

"That I really want to undress in front of you."

"Huh? Why would you want that?" She was perplexed and just stared at the man sitting so relaxed and at ease in her guest chair. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of all the unwanted images that suddenly were parading in her mind. "Good job," she finally said. "You had me gobsmacked for a complete ten seconds. Now, go home and enjoy your weekend. I know I'm going to," she smiled as she put on her coat and grabbed her purse.

"You do realize that just catching the error doesn't necessarily solve the problem?" he asked softly as she walked out of her office.

She stopped immediately in her tracks before turning around to meet his smiling face.

"Which is?"

"That's what I'm waiting for you to find out."

"I knew it. This is a test, isn't it?"

"A test?"

"For my permanent employment."

"No, not at all."

"Then what is it?"

"It's a bug in the system that no one predicted or someone made a mistake when writing the code in the first place. I don't know. You're the expert."

"Then how come you know about the catch method?"

"Let's just say I know it from real life situations. For instance, a man often tries to approach a woman a certain way. If that doesn't work, he must have a backup plan. It's as easy as that."

"Yes, yes, whatever."

He was obviously not going to budge, but she was still certain this was a test to see if they should keep her on or not. That meant working a bit of overtime after all, she thought as she laid her purse on the table. She took off her coat, walked back to her desk and restarted her computer.

"Why don't you tell me the real reason why you didn't go to the strip club this evening?" she challenged him, as she waited for the computer to boot.

"I had other plans."

"Like what? What could be more interesting than big breasted women taking their clothes off?" she asked ironically while she kept her eyes on the screen.

"I'm not sure I should reveal everything about my plans."

"Coward," she smiled at him, before she turned back to her computer and clicked her way through to the report module.

"They're not the kind of things to tell a lady."

She snorted. "Think of me as one of the guys then -- like the rest of them do."

"It's not that easy."

"Do as you like," she said vaguely as she scanned through the code looking for the line where she has seen the catch statement. "Line 156, there we are, yes," she murmured to herself.

"I was planning to take a certain lady home with me and fuck her senseless for the entire weekend," he suddenly stated.

"Oh?" She just stared at him in surprise. He was not gay then?

"I was just wondering how to convince her to join me."

"Then what are you waiting for? It sounds like you're going to need all your strength just to get through the weekend. Go home to your ladylove instead of just thinking about it. I'm sure that would work much better."

At least it would improve her ability to concentrate, Kate thought glumly. The man was a major distraction.

"So you believe in doing instead of thinking?"

"Certainly. Whatever works," Kate agreed half-heartedly as she stared into her screen and tried to figure out what the catch statement was actually solving.

"Good. Then you'll understand why I do this," he suddenly stated before he rose and stepped closer to her.

Kate barely managed to blink in astonishment before he lifted her chin slightly and gave her a light kiss. She heard herself moan at the soft touch and he replied by deepening the kiss, making her tremble all the way down to her toes in pure wonder. Lifting his mouth away from hers, he looked her deep in the eyes and she felt the heat streaming from him, colouring her cheeks and making her heart beat faster.

She opened her mouth in astonishment and immediately he came closer, kissing her deeper than before, his tongue moving lightly over her lips and making her toes curl. Slowly he retreated, giving her the chance to catch her breath and start thinking again.

"What was that for?" she finally croaked.

"A good start."

"Of what?"

"You haven't guessed then, Kate?"

"Guessed what?"

"That you're the woman I was hoping to fuck all weekend?"

"What?" She just sat still and tried to collect her thoughts. What on earth was going on here? "You must be joking. We barely know each other."

"Not well enough, no, but I hope to remedy that."

It finally dawned on her. Some of the other guys must have discovered her enthusiasm for Scott and paid him to seduce her and make her the laughingstock of the entire company. She felt her temper rise when realising how easily she could have fallen into his trap.

"All right, where are the rest of them?"

"The rest of what?"

"The other guys? Are they standing laughing in the meeting room right now?"

"There's no one else around. Just you and me."

"Are you sure?" She looked around with a suspicious feeling of being in a TV program that was making fun of innocent people.

"Of course I'm sure. Look, I've been attracted to you ever since you started working here. But I've never got as far as inviting you out -- yet."

"So?"

"So, I'm asking you now: Would you like to know me better or will we just continue as colleagues? No one will ever hear what happened here, no matter what you choose."

This wasn't happening. The man she had been dreaming about for the last couple of weeks was practically licking her foot soles. Something was very wrong here, and it made her angry just thinking about how the other guys must be laughing their head off right now.

"How much are they paying you?"

"Paying me? You mean how much is my salary?"

"No. How much are they paying you for seducing me?"

"Nobody's paying me anything."

"Are you sure about that? I bet you get a bonus for sleeping with me on the first date. To show them how silly and easy I am."

"Now look here. There's no need to get hysterical here. Nobody's paying me anything besides my normal salary. I only want to spend the weekend with you."