Kieran pulled to a stop in front of the house and checked the address against the email sent to him twenty minutes ago. At 450. Ten minutes before he was supposed to be done for the day.
He sighed, turned off the car, and beat his head against the steering wheel. 'You need the money,' he muttered to himself. 'You need the money. You need the money.'
Steeling himself against the inevitable, Kieran got his bag from the trunk - signal tester, screw drivers, patch cables, and all the other tools a tech support specialist needed - and trudged up the driveway, towards the neat, little, suburban bungalow.
It was nearly identical to the house from his last call. Bitch. Kieran sighed again and rang the doorbell. Barely a second passed before the door opened.
God, the woman here looked like the last bitch, too. A pretty blonde with a short, stylish bob, wearing the suburban mom uniform of grey yoga pants and a white v-neck tee.
'Hi there, I'm Kieran, from SSP Support? You called about a problem with your box?'
The woman smiled. It was warm, and reached her eyes. 'Hi! Yes, I did. I'm Shelley.' She stuck out her hand. 'Come on in.'
Okay, maybe not like the last bitch, Kieran thought as he followed Shelley into the house and closed the door behind him. Shelley smiled. Shelley introduced herself and treated him like a human being.
And she had a great ass, Kieran thought, letting his gaze linger. Thank God for yoga pants.
The house was a nice, open concept bungalow, with the front door opening into the living room. Towards the back of the house was the kitchen, granite countertops giving off a low level sparkle from the late afternoon sun streaming in through the window above the sink.
'The ticket said you can't connect to the online database?' Kieran asked as Shelley led him into the house.
'Yeah, I thought it was a problem with my internet, but my laptop and phone can still get online. I turned the power to the router on and off anyways, but I can't get the SSP box to connect.'
'Wow, you did half my job already,' Kieran said. 'Most people just tell me, 'It doesn't work! Make it work!'
Shelley laughed, glancing at him over her shoulder. Kieran could only hold her eyes for a second before looking away. She turned down the short hallway and into the first room on the left. Kieran caught a glimpse of what looked like the master bedroom at the end of the hall.
They entered Shelley's home office, which looked like a typical home office - sleek black brown desk that came unassembled in a box with a little hex tool, a filing cabinet in the back corner, a chair in front of the desk and one behind it. The SSP equipment - a small black computer and monitor - sat on the desk amid a small pile of file folders. Beside it was a silver Macbook.
'There it is,' Shelley said, waving her hand.
Kieran didn't start with the machine. Instead he looked at the modem on a small side table in the back of the room. The lights, green and amber, were blinking happily, but he took a closer look anyways.
'What, you don't believe that I already checked that?' Shelley asked.
OK, fuck this bitch, Kieran thought, his hand clenching around the patch cord of the cable modem. This job was going to push him into unpaid overtime territory and he'd already dealt with one pain in the ass woman too many this day.
But you need the money. You need the money. Taking a mental deep breath, Kieran straightened up and turned to face the client.
Shelley was standing with such an obviously aggressive, offended, hands on hips posture, Kieran nearly laughed, the previous thoughts fading away. There was a slight grin on her face, and the eyes were definitely laughing at him.
Hell, if she wanted to play, he would play.
'It's not that I don't believe you, ma'am,' he said, overly polite and cheerful, 'It's just good practice to check things for yourself. Sometimes it's as simple as something not being pushed in far enough.'
Shelley dropped her hands, and sat down on the edge of the desk, yoga pant clad leg dangling. She shuddered. 'Please don't call me ma'am again, Kieran. I may getting up there in age, but I'm not a ma'am yet.' She shuddered again. 'I hope I never am.'
Kieran chuckled and finished checking all the connections at the modem. 'Alright, it looks like the modem is working fine.'
'You're not going to check the WiFi?' Shelley asked with mock outrage.
'I think you've proven yourself trustworthy.'
'I would hope so.' Shelley got off the desk as Kieran took a seat and jiggled the mouse. The screen turned on.
'Have you been having any other troubles recently?'
'Nope.' Shelley took the chair from the other side of the desk and moved it over to sit beside Kieran. 'It was working fine yesterday evening. I tried to finish a couple of things off this morning and it wouldn't update the client file.'
'Hmm.' Kieran opened up the program and pulled up the diagnostic screen. Shelley leaned forward, her breath warm on his arm. He glanced at her.
Shelley blushed. 'Sorry. Am I in your way?'
'No! No...most people don't watch me work.' He thought about the bitch he just finished up with. 'They just tell me to fix it and disappear.'
'But if I learn how to fix it, I won't have to call you again,' Shelley said.
'Don't worry, you can call me any time,' Kieran said without thinking. He'd barely registered what he said before Shelley laughed, a beautiful, musical sound.
'Stop teasing,' she said. 'So, any ideas?'
Kieran scanned the diagnostic report. 'I think so. Looks like the WiFi adapter driver is corrupted. I can fix that for you right now...' He scanned a few more lines. 'It also looks like the BIOS is out of date. Did you get an email or call six, seven months back about an update?'
Shelley blushed. 'Um...No?'
'You're a bad liar, Shelley.' Kieran smiled. 'It's not a major problem, but it's to fix a machine level security issue. I can update that for you as well, if you'd like. It'd be a good idea to backup your system first.'