(Β© 2000-2007 Max (aka Max ODrive, Maximum Overdrive). As a copyrighted work, this story may not be reproduced in any media format, physical or electronic, or reposted at any other website or publication in any form without my express written permission. Permission to print this story is granted with the provision that it is for personal use only.
My deepest heartfelt appreciation goes to ADetailDiva, LadyCibelle and SL. Your skillful editing is very appreciated!
And most of all, to my Muse. Your existence has made this story possible, and your patience and care have made it complete. Thank you.
~M
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You want to totally destroy my concentration? It's not that hard to do; Shelly could do it in a heartbeat. The problem was she had no clue that something as simple as the "click, click, click" of her heels on the tile in the hallway by my office did it to me every single time!
Now, most people will ignore a sound unless it's extremely loud or annoying; I'm the same way. People could herd by my office door all day long, with nary a bother. As a matter of fact, anyone in our office could come down that hall and if I was deep in code, it wouldn't even register they'd gone by. But when that particular "click, click, click" started down the hall, my mind immediately forgot everything it ever knew, except for the vision of Shelly's incredible legs.
I would be totally lost in writing code, whether JavaScript for the company website, or C# on the new application, and the next thing I know, I've been dumped out of my creative fog because Shelly wants to get a cup of coffee in the break room. Even with the door closed, that sound would penetrate the deepest of my thought processes and the next thing I knew, all I wanted to do was go open the door and watch her walk down the hall.
Shelly isn't particularly tall, somewhere between 5' and 5'2" I'd hazard to guess, but her legs seem to go on forever. Generally, she'd wear skirts and dresses that usually ended just above her knees. Occasionally, they would end a bit higher, sending my mind into hazy fantasies resulting in a less-than-productive day for me!
I can't help it any more than Shelly can help wanting to look good for her job. Being in sales, I'm sure her smile and her legs have probably sealed more deals for our company than my code and website have. Just a couple of offices separate us, but I've spent more than a few hours leaning on her door, chatting. Talking about office stuff, or sales she's working on, or even about some code that I'm in the process of writing. All because I wanted an excuse to watch her legs as she moved around her office.
I'm sure she knew why I was actually there. I'd been busted more than once watching her use her foot to play with her shoe, or watching her cross those wonderful legs, trying to catch a peek to see if she was wearing thigh highs or pantyhose.
One time, she was standing on a footstool to get a book off the top shelf and of course, I was doing my best to take advantage of the view from the chair I was seated in. As she stepped off the stool, our eyes quickly met; her eyes sparkled and a knowing smile fell over her lips.
Between the steady stream of boyfriends she kept, and the reluctance on my part to the distinct possibility of being rejected if I asked her out, we'd rarely spoken much more than when I'd stop to chat or for software instruction. Until that fateful Wednesday, that is.
The contract for Dynamix was by far the biggest contract we had. Shelly had worked hard to get that contract, and had closed the deal on it two years ago. One part of the contract that had hooked them was our in-house ability to create periodic updates to their software suite, expanding their database capability. Since the package was ours, we could do updates faster and as a part of the overall $7.4 million dollar yearly agreement, we could still do it far cheaper than our competition, which had to subcontract out the upgrade coding.
As their current setup reaches capacity, it would be time for us to do a contracted update. Usually, Mike and Steve would spend a few days setting up the new servers, loading the programs and patching the code to open up the database to the specs of the new hardware. This is standard operating procedure, and ordinarily, we never have problems.
This time was destined to be different. For starters, Steve was in Barbados on his honeymoon. His wedding, held the weekend before, went off pretty much as planned, with the lone exception of the ring bearer and flower girl playing tag at the reception, knocking over the cake. We bid the happy couple "Bon Voyage" and headed back to the offices to prepare for D-day
Even though the upgrades had to be in place by end of day Friday, we had it all planned out. Mike could do his usual job: load the servers and then update the code. I would take Steve's place, updating the network setup and doing the install. Together, we could knock it out and still have time left over. Although I'd designed the original software, I hated the detail work which was why we'd hired Mike in the first place, then Steve later so I wouldn't have to do installs any longer.
If we lived in a perfect world, that's exactly how it would've played out. However, I learned long ago that right when you think you have everything perfect, disaster will invariably strike. I have to admit that Monday did start off well. Mike loaded up the new server software, and everything was running smooth as silk. The initial install was completely loaded, except for security updates. Load those, tune the network, then patch and load the new code. Easy stuff. But before Mike did the security updates, he decided to go get a burger from the cafΓ© across the street. Something he'd done three or four times a week since he'd started; nothing at all out of the ordinary.
The next thing we
knew, there were sirens outside our offices and flashing lights everywhere! An ambulance, four police cars, three news vans fully equipped with cameramen and on-site news reporters, and two tow trucks. Apparently Mike hadn't realized the walk/don't walk signs were out, and tried to cross against the lights, which is never a good thing. After sorting out who did what and how they did it, the taxi driver who hit Mike was released, and Mike was packed off to become a guest of Mercy Hospital's trauma unit. He had one leg in traction, both arms in casts from his fingertips to his shoulders, and one hell of a headache.
You'd think that would be bad enough, but we now had a major problem! Being the only tech and programmer left on staff, that meant it was up to me to finish the update, code the patches and deliver the new setup to Dynamix, on Friday, no excuses!
By Monday evening, all the bad news was in. We'd finally finished talking to the doctors about Mike's prognosis, and had also discovered there was no way in hell to contact Steve. Jim, our boss, told me that he'd keep trying to get Steve back in time to help. We both knew that with Steve in Barbados, even if we could contact him, getting him back in the country in time to help wasn't likely to happen. Regardless of how important my own projects were, if we had a hope of this being finished by Friday, I had to drop everything.
That meant I had to spend all day Tuesday in the shop, finishing what Mike had started before he decided to take his own little vacation. I had to load the security updates on the new servers and make sure everything was running right. That basically went as expected, except for the fact that I lost an hour trying to find a bad network cable. By the time I'd located that and verified the servers were ready for our software and updates, another day was gone. But, it was a productive day without distractions or interruptions.
Wednesday found me back in my office, going over the specs on the new hardware so I could finish patching the code for the upgrade. Now, keep in mind, this is the detail work I thoroughly despise. Its nitpicky hand coding to the nth degree, and it totally gets on my nerves. To guarantee there would be no major problems down the road, I had to get this EXACTLY right. So what happened?