I didnāt see Kate again for nearly three weeks. The work package I was expecting landed on my doorstep on the following Tuesday, ten days ahead of schedule, along with demands for it to be completed asap, plus undertakings of a mega-bonus for every day it was finished ahead of time. So, for the next twenty days I worked non-stop, fifteen to eighteen hours a day, and living off caffeine, take-out pizzas, Chop Suey and adrenaline. It was a shit of a lifestyle, but it paid like no other in my line of business. And I was only doing it because I knew that I could semi-retire in three years time, at forty years of age, and do my own thing forever ā if I lived that long.
I was near the end, but I had a problem. One piece of code kept crashing the program and I was that spaced out I was having trouble figuring out why. For the first time in days I went out into the back yard and took in some fresh air, walking up and down, thinking of nothing and kicking the weeds, while I let my subconscious deal with the riddle.
āHi Greg.ā I didnāt need to look round to know that Kate, my Princess, was halfway up the tree that overhung the wall that separated our properties. It was a favourite spot of hers when she was a young kid, where she would climb up and call to me to get my attention. But I didnāt really want to turn around and let her see the state I was in. I felt like crap and knew I looked like it too. I was taking three or four showers a day to keep fresh, but I hadnāt shaved in over a week and had huge dark circles under my eyes from lack of sleep. Plus, I had lost several pounds in weight thanks to my long hours and poor diet. Seeing as I wasnāt Mr Universe to start off with, the effect was noticeable. But, eventually, my need to see her overtook all other considerations and I had to turn and face her.
Her shock at seeing me looking like that was apparent, but Kate controlled it well. She took a deep breath; āGreg, I love youā¦for what itās worthā¦ā Her voice trailed off uncertainly.
āIt means everything to me Kate. Believe me, it really does.ā
āHave you been avoiding me, because of the other night?ā
āNo, Iāve been working. Two more days and itās finishedā¦ Iāll call you.ā
āYou look like hell.ā
āI know. Iām sorry.ā
āCall me then.ā
āI willā¦ā Just then, the probable solution to my coding problem came flooding into my brain ā a stupid logic mistake on my part, caused through fatigue! āKate, Iāve gotta go!ā
āOkay, but donāt forget.ā
āI promiseā¦!ā But I was already on my way back to work.
I had the right answer. Then, to my delight, the rest of the program just fell into place and I was finished by 10.00pm the next day. I sent off an email to my clients to let them know the stage I was at. Then I started the final debugging using their test data. There wasnāt much I could do now for several hours, so I diverted my telephone to my message service and fell into bed. I slept solidly, only getting up to go to the bathroom, drink litres of water, and check that the test programs were going alright. There were only one or two minor glitches, which I fixed very quickly, and then went back to bed.
After nearly two days of almost continuous sleep I surfaced. After restoring the telephone to normal operation and going to the bathroom for a luxurious shave and a long, long hot shower I was beginning to feel human again. But I was as hungry as hell! I was just about to call my favourite pizza man for the biggest Quatro Stagione he could muster when the telephone rang. It was Corinne. āGreg, are you okay? Kate is going frantic with worry. Sheās left message after message with your answering service and youāve never called back. And we havenāt even seen your usual take-out deliveries arriving!ā
āHey look, Iām sorry. Iāve finished the contract and Iāve been asleep for nearly two days. Everythingās fine. Tell Kate for me please.ā
It seemed like only seconds after Iād placed my pizza order that there came a loud hammering on my back door. It was Kate, and she looked madder that a cornered dingo! She pushed past me and into the house without saying a word and started going from room to room throwing the windows open to let some air in. āThis place is a pigsty, Gregory Monk! Just look at it!ā
I had to admit it didnāt look good. It was early summer and I hadnāt needed to wear too many garments while I was working. So the soiled clothing was scattered around the place, wherever I had dropped it when an idea had come into my head. It was mainly T-shirts and underwear, but, nevertheless, there were plenty of them. And there were several Leaning Tower of Pisa columns of used crockery on the kitchen bench and piles of empty cardboard pizza and Chinese take-out boxes stacked in the kitchen corners. The piece de resistance was my office, in reality the master bedroom because it was the biggest room in the house apart from the lounge, with its reefs of discarded working notes crumpled on the floor and dozens of empty Pepsi cans perched on every horizontal surface. The only pristine areas were those around my computers and their associated peripherals. In comparison to the rest of the rooms I used in the house, there were three other bedrooms totally devoid of furniture and two further bathrooms, only my bedroom and bathroom were cleanā¦ by male standards, anyway.
āHave a heart, Kate. Iāve been busy.ā
Luckily, before she could start throwing things at me, the Luigiās Pizza deliveryman arrived with my first food in two days. āCāmon, Kate, letās eat. Iām starved. Iāll fix this mess after.ā
āWEāLL fix it!ā Kate snorted, clearing a space on the kitchen table. āHave you got any wine?ā
āThere may be something in that cupboard,ā I pointed, āBut I donāt know about clean glasses.ā
Kate found and expertly uncorked a bottle of Chianti. But she had no luck with glassware. We used teacups instead. The pizza was ambrosia ā food of the gods ā and the cheap chianti tasted like nectar. And I was sharing both with the most gorgeous young woman in the world. We hardly exchanged a word. I was much too busy eating to talk. But I stared at her all the while, marvelling at her graceful movements and her natural, fresh young beauty.
She allowed me no relaxation. As soon as the food was finished, Kate was bossing me around to pick up this, clean up that, take those out to the garbage, and put these away. She was working as hard as I was though, and a darned sight faster. Three hours later, when the house was in some semblance of order, though it needed āa bloody good vacuum and dustā according to her, Kate allowed me to grab the still half-full bottle of Chianti and a pair of sparkling clean wine glasses and lead her into the lounge. Being single I was a minimalist concerning furniture and there was only had one small armchair, which she insisted I sit in whilst she sat at my feet.
āAside from my computers, this is my only extravagance,ā I told her as I switched on my Bang & Olufsen CD system via the remote and set it playing quietly. Andrea Bocelliās Romanza. Very romantic!
I poured Kate some wine and thanked her for helping me clean up the mess. She murmured, āIt was nothing.ā She seemed kind of withdrawn.
āStill mad at me?ā
Kate shook her head, then rested her cheek on my knee, staring into space and listening to the music. She had untied her hair when we finished working and I stroked the long thick, silky strands gently. After twenty minutes of silence between us, Kate took a sip of her wine and said softly, āYou missed my birthday, you know, last weekā¦ my eighteenth.ā
