Tony stared at the computer screen in total disgust. If the error messages were written in Arabic they would have been just as useful to him.
"Kernel32dll error," Tony mumbled to himself. "What the..."
Before he could finish his own sentence, he was dialing the all too familiar number on his office phone. On the second ring, the all too familiar voice answered.
"Help desk. This is Emily."
"Well, hello Emily. It's been DAYS since I've had the pleasure of speaking with you," Tony said with more than a little touch of sarcasm. "Two fucking days."
"Now Tony. You know this session may be recorded for purposes of quality control," Emily scolded him. "How can I help you?"
"You can help me by making this god damned, fucking software work. I'm trying to run a bar here. I work twelve hour days serving nothing but the best beer and food to my customers and then you expect this piece of shit software to track it. It's killing me. What the hell is a kernel32dll error?"
Emily had her hand over the mouthpiece of her headset to muffle any laughter she couldn't stifle. Tony's Bar, as it was ingeniously named, had been a customer of the company Emily worked at for almost a year. Emily had nurtured Tony through the installation and setup on a cheap system that barely met minimum specifications for the programs he ran. Now he routinely had 'interruptions in service' that caused aggravation his sensitive stomach could hardly tolerate.
"Well, Tony. Let me look at my list of things that can cause that. Viruses. Yep, you've got that. Low disk space. Yep, you've got that. Damaged registry. Yep..."
"OK. OK. Fix it!" Tony demanded.
Emily sighed. "When was the last time you turned off your computer?"
"How the hell do I know," Tony answered without hesitation. "Probably the last time you told me to."
"Tony. Before you go home tonight, turn off your computer. Come back in tomorrow and turn it on. Call me if it's not fixed. I'm expecting not to hear from you," Emily said arrogantly.
As much as Tony hated computers, he got an undeniable rush from talking to Emily. Her direct, no-nonsense approach, combined with a dry sense of humor, made her very attractive to him. Over the months, he had drawn a mental image of his help desk aide. She was about thirty with long, dark hair that was neat but not styled. She had dark features, like an Italian girl, and a girl-next-door body with ample curves.
Just hearing her voice again calmed him down. "So, when are you going to actually come to my place and see the lousy system that causes you so much trouble?" he asked.
"Hey. It doesn't cause me trouble. It's you with the trouble. Besides, you couldn't afford my 'in person' rate. And...I do my best work over the phone," she said with a hint of playfulness.
"Really?" Tony replied in a suggestive tone. "You ARE good on the phone, I have to admit."
"You should hear me when I'm off duty."
Tony's heart raced even faster. "When are you off duty, Emily?"
This time Emily allowed Tony to hear her giggle. "Pretty soon, if you ever get off the phone."
"I'd like to talk to you off duty and see what the real Emily is like," he said.
"What would we talk about?"
"You," Tony said without hesitation.
"Boring," Emily answered.
"I doubt that," Tony assured her. "You're intelligent, funny, and I'm sure very pretty. There's plenty to talk about."
"Two out of three ain't bad."
Tony laughed. "So when can we chat."
Emily paused, and then said, "You tell me."
"Tonight."
Emily was jolted by the response. She took a deep breath and said, "I'm off in forty five minutes."
"Call me at this number?" Tony asked.
"Are you staying at work?"
"I will for you," Tony said.
"I'm really not worth it."
"I think you are. Call me," Tony said.
"OK. Bye," Emily said, followed quickly by the sound of a dial tone.
She would have been afraid of consequences at work for such a call except for two things: one, she knew the calls weren't monitored; and, two, she'd flirted with many of her customers before. None of them, however, had taken it this far.
Emily's odd fondness of the gruff man she'd never met only frightened her a little. She flirted with guys because she liked the power trip. Tony made her feel...different. Lustful.
An hour later she was sitting in her car in the empty, dark corner of a parking lot. The only light inside was from the tiny screen of her cell phone. She dialed his number and waited.
"Tony's."
"Hi," she said softly.
"I didn't think you'd call," Tony said.
"Then why are you there?"
Several seconds of silence followed her question. "Because I hoped you would."
"And if I didn't?" Emily asked.
"My computer would have had more than a kernel problem."
Emily laughed out loud. "This is why I don't let anybody take your service calls but me."
"Really?" Tony said with surprise.
"Yep. You make me laugh."
She heard his 'humph.' "I bet I do," Tony said.
When she didn't answer, he asked her, "What do you really think when I call you?"
"The same thing I think about all you guys."
"What's that?" he asked.
"I imagine you sitting at your computer naked. It helps me break the boredom," she said without a hint of embarrassment.
"Well, what a coincidence."
Emily's giggle echoed in her car and brought a large smile to Tony.
"What does THAT mean?" she asked.
"It means I'm thinking of you naked right now."
"Then it's a good thing you haven't met me," she said. "You may think twice after that. Besides, I work with a bunch of people. You probably sit in an empty office."
"So?" Tony said.
"So, if I said 'get naked', you could."
"Being able to and doing it are two different things, dear. Somebody could walk in here at any moment," Tony said.
"Your bar closed at two. You're alone."
"Maybe," he admitted.
"Then get naked."
The abruptness of her request startled Tony. It also hardened his cock a little more than it already was. "What's the incentive?"