I wanted to lay my head down on the table and go to sleep. It was morning. I knew because the sun had come up. I guess that meant it was also tomorrow. I had been at work since yesterday. No one had told me that I had to work all night, but the prototype boards had come in yesterday. The boards needed to be working so we would have something to demo at the Comdex trade show in two weeks. If we went to Comdex with out boards, we probably wouldn't be able to raise any more funding. Without funding we would all be unemployed.
I worked for a little startup company in North Carolina. The thing about startups is that they consume your life. You work insane hours. You might get rich, but probably not. There is an incredible amount of stress.
There was a definite upside though. Startups were fun. You ended up working closely with a lot of awesome people. Since everyone lived at work, you got to know them all well. I thought it was worth it. This was my third startup. I still wasn't rich.
Just as I was about to give in to temptation and close my eyes, the door popped open. In walked Janet, one of the other engineers.
"Steve, have you been here all night? You look terrible."
I stared at her for a second before I answered. "Thanks," I said, trying to keep the sarcasm I felt out of my voice. "What does it look like?"
"Well either the boards aren't working or you had one hell of a date last night."
"I Wish," I chuckled, surprised that she had been able to make me laugh.
My romantic life seemed to keep everyone amused. They all felt like they had an open invitation to kid me about it. I had a sort of bad-boy womanizer reputation. I wasn't sure it was deserved, but I did nothing to discourage it. Part of it was due to the fact that I didn't date the women in the office. That made me safe to flirt with. I was an excellent flirt.
The other part was because I didn't own a car. I owned a Harley. That in itself was the quintessential bad boy symbol. It also meant that if I was going on a date, we would frequently take her car. Since I was always at work, I usually got her to pick me up from the office. So everyone knew who I was going out with, and I did date some fairly "unique" women. People still reminded me about the leather clad bleach blond twins that had taken me to lunch a year and a half ago. It would have ruined all the fun if I had told anyone they were my sisters.
"Well do they work?" Janet asked, snapping me back to reality.
"Not really," I answered, "but I think they are fixable. We have way too much jitter in the clock recovery. I think something is wrong with the PLL loop filter."
"There is not!" Janet answered indignantly. She had designed the PLL.
"What do I get if I am right?" I teased.
"Anything you want sweetie."
"Actually," I answered, "what I really want is a cup of coffee."
"Well, if your going to stay up all night debugging my circuits, I'll be glad to get you a cup. Black right?" With that she left.
Janet came back in a few minutes. She had gone by my office and picked up the mug off my desk. "Sorry it took so long," she said apologetically, "There was a bit of a crisis in the break room."
"Really? Whats wrong?" I asked absently handedly. My mind was still on the loop filter.
"It seems that Lynn left her husband a month ago. She didn't tell anyone till this morning. She is in the break room with Jennifer and Traci who seem to be throughly enjoying the drama."
I stared at her for a moment. "Are you serious?" I finally asked.
"Yea."
"Excuse me," I said jumping up from my bench, "I'll be back in a few minutes."
I felt Janet watching me. She had no idea what she had just done to me. No one who worked with me would have. I hurried down the hall to the break room. The scene was like Janet had described. Jennifer and Traci were hovering around Lynn, who was sitting at one of the tables. Lynn was about eight years older than me, ten inches shorter, and fifty pounds heavier. She was the technical writer.
I approached the table and they all stopped talking and looked at me. It occurred to me that I had no idea what I was going to say. So I just winged it. "Janet just told me your news," I said looking at Lynn. "I'm sorry, it must be hard for you."
"Thanks Steve," she answered. "It is, but its for the best. I'll get through it."
"I'm sure you will, but it must be lonely."
"Thanks, it is."
She took the bait. I was ecstatic. "Well a few of us are going out to dinner after work," I continued. "You might enjoy the company and I would love to take you. Are you up for it?"
Lynn looked at me blankly. She was obviously completely clueless about what was going on. She was about to decline my offer, but Jennifer, who saw exactly what was happening, kicked her. She turned to Jennifer asking "What?" in a confused voice.
"She would love to sweetie," Jennifer answered for her.
I decided to run with Jennifer's answer. "Wonderful," I replied, "I'll come get you about 6:00." After that I hurried away so that Lynn wouldn't have a chance to change her mind.
I practically floated down the hall as I went back to the lab. I got there and Janet was waiting for me with a big grin on her face. "What's up?" I asked. "Did you get the boards to work?"
"No lover boy," she answered, "I hear you asked Lynn out."
"How the hell did you find out about that?" I asked incredulously, "Its only been 3 minutes."
"Traci emailed the news."
"Traci emailed you? But she is in the break room."
"No," she answered with a smirk, "Traci emailed the whole company. She is still in the break room. She used her phone to do it."
I just looked at her. I was about to say something but her computer beeped and cut me off.
"Oh an update," Janet continued, obviously enjoying herself. "It seems that Jennifer and Traci think its a 'real' date, while Lynn insists that you are just being nice."
