It had been a week since Meg had left early in the morning with a note left on the fridge. She'd had to get to work and he'd been in wolf form when she woke up. She no sooner got in the door of her apartment than the phone started ringing. She grabbed the phone. "Hello, Meg speaking," she said. "Oh, Sorry, I've been out of town this weekend. Out of cell phone range too," she added quickly. "Yes, I'll be in as soon as I can," she said and rang off. Meg looked at the clock, and realized it was barely 7am. She wasn't due into work until 9am, but that had been her supervisor and from the sounds of it, all hell had broken loose over the weekend.
Meg dived through the shower and dressed as fast as she could. Out the door thirty minutes later had her at work by 8am. Walking through the door she realized that a water main must have burst over the weekend. Crews were mopping water and everything was either up on furniture or being carted outside.
"What the hell happened?" she asked a guy she knew from one of the offices.
"Pipe burst. Flooded everything," he said as he passed her with an armload of stuff.
Meg headed for her office. The carpet squished under her feet, and there was a tide mark about a foot up the wall. Right in line with all the electrical plugs. "Shit," she said to no one in particular, and started trying to figure out what to clean up first.
Luc had woken up to an empty house. The note in the kitchen explained that Meg had needed to get to work and that she would call him during the week. That was fine with Luc. He certainly didn't want to rush this relationship. The camping trip had been rather intense, and both of them needed to have time to think about things. Luc cleaned up his camping gear and got everything packed away. Then he headed into work.
It was like every computer or server in the county died and needed his help. Luc and his staff of five were swamped. Alpha Wolf Tech had more work than they could cope with and for once Luc was afraid that he'd have to turn customers away. Out the door at 6am and if he was lucky, in by 10pm. He ate, and either shifted for a run or went straight to bed. Most nights, bed won. He had no time for personal computer use, much to his frustration.
Thursday morning, he actually had time to catch up on office paperwork. Three of his techs were out in the field and one tech was in the work room dealing with the backlog in there. His office manager just kept piling the paper work in the baskets and filing what he got done with.
"She deserves a medal after this week. Didn't snarl or bite a single one of us." he thought.
What most people didn't know was that the entire staff of Alpha Wolf Tech LLC were shifters. It made life much easier if you worked with someone who understood it when you suddenly grew a foot in height and got furry when you were pissed off or upset. Ginny, his office manager, was one of those understanding people that kept a large bowl of peanut butter flavored dog biscuits on her desk. Most people thought they were for customers dogs. In reality, they were the treats she handed out to staff and some of their customers. Ginny knew how to keep the office on an even keel.
"Hey boss," said Ginny as she strode into his office.
"Hi Ginny, what do you need?" he asked.
"We've got a new client called in. Needs their network checked and their computers serviced. Apparently, their last service contract was with Sheldon Electrics," she said and handed him a service order.
"Okay, so why are you bringing it to me?" he asked although he guessed the obvious answer.
"First off, you are the only tech free in the office. Second, they asked for the boss or the head tech to come in. Third, as a first contact type of situation, I figured you aught to go and put the best face on Alpha. Especially as Sheldon had been their last service contract provider," she finished. Sheldon Electrics was one of those companies that did well right up until they over extended themselves. They did that constantly, and it was the customers that suffered.
Luc nodded and looked at the paperwork. "Okay, when did you say I'd be there?" he asked.
"About 45 minutes from now. 11am. And don't forget to take your printer this time," she said. "You'll need to fill in the details on the service contract." Ginny turned and walked out of the office.
Luc watched her go and smiled. The file she had was filled with 90% of the information he'd need, including a quote for all possible jobs.
"Damn, she's efficient." he thought. "Probably a good thing I'm not her type. Otherwise she'd own the company," he thought with a smile.
He and Ginny had been lovers for about two months when he first opened the business. She was ten years older than he was even if she didn't look it. However, they were much better business partners than bedroom partners and both of them recognized that.
He grabbed his tool bag with printer in the bottom as well as a box of Cat5e and other bits and pieces he knew he needed from the list Ginny had put in the folder. Looked like a rewire job at the least. Heading out the door, he waved at Ginny.
Meg had had enough. After four days, she simply couldn't do another thing. She couldn't do any work and her office was stripped waiting for repairmen. She had called as many clients as possible and told them that the office would be closed for at least three days if not a week. Most of the partners could work from home and that left just the support crew in the office. Their consulting firm while not the newest one in the area, certainly had a select clientèle. Not every day that a company lands a state contract to provide demographics. "I'll be back in thirty minutes," she told Angie. "I'm going to grab some lunch," Angie waved from the front desk and marked Meg as out.
It felt good to get out of the damp and humid office. She filled her lungs with clean air and wished that she was back in the mountains with Luc. She wondered why he hadn't called her. Then again, she had been so busy, she hadn't called or logged on to her computer either. As she got in her car, she pulled out her phone and made a note to call him this evening. Pulling out of the parking lot she headed for the bank and some place to grab a burger.
Luc arrived at the job with five minutes to spare. He walked in and the smell of wet cement, moldy carper and damp assaulted his nose. "Ugh," he said to no one in particular.
"I agree, but standing there won't fix it hon. What can I do for you?" said a round receptionist behind a desk with a pad of paper in front of her instead of a keyboard. The nameplate said Angie.
"Oh, Sorry, just talking to myself," said Luc. "I'm here to talk to someone about a repair contract. Sheldon Electrics had it and now someone here wanted to switch over to Alpha Wolf Tech," Luc said.
"Oh yeah, that would have been Mr. Larken, but he isn't in today. He decided he would work from home," said Angie.
"So, who do I need to talk to?" he asked.
"Well, Margaret is out to lunch, but she should be back in about ten minutes. Want to wait, or do you want to look around and see just how bad the damage is?" she asked. "We had a pipe burst and it really flooded the building."
"Yeah, I'll walk around and see just how bad it is. Mind if I set my bag down here on the desk?" he asked.
"Not a problem hon. All the offices are open and the server room is down the hall to the left," she said and pointed.
"Thank you Angie," Luc said and headed down the direction she pointed. He pulled out a notepad and started jotting down things. From the looks of it most of the walls were drying out. Not a lot of drywall to replace except in the back offices. All the carpet was ripped out and from the way the cable runs were done, most of them were okay. Sheldon Electrics had a bad habit of dropping everything from the ceiling. Only one out of twenty runs was actually on the floor. The server room had been a write off. The bottom servers were soaked. He might be able to retrieve the data, but he sure hoped they had backups. Larken's office was next. Once again, not a lot of damage, but enough. More notes. Next was a corner office. It was fairly well stripped. Furniture piled to one side and the desk covered in a drop cloth. Drywall had been replaced and the room was ready to repaint. Luc was crouched down on the floor examining the plug layout. This room wasn't a drop down wire arrangement.
"Damn," he said to himself looking at the mess. He realized that this office backed onto the server room. He dropped to one knee and started to make notes.
Meg hurried back from lunch and saw the computer contract van in the parking lot. Alpha Wolf Tech, LLC was blazoned on the side with a large paw print as the logo.
"It couldn't possibly be," she thought as she headed inside.
She knew Luc worked with computers, but business was something both of them had avoided like the plague. There was a big case sitting on Angie's desk when she walked in.
"Hi Angie," she said.
"Hi hon. The contract guy is here, and is he a hunk," Angie said softly. "He's taking a look at the damage and probably totting up a bill."
"Okay. Thanks Angie," she said and headed back towards her office. The door was partially closed, and she peeked around to find a man's rear end on the other side of the door. One she swore she recognized.
"Surveying the damage?" she said hoping to startle the man.
"Yes, and it's nice to see you," Luc said turning as he stood up. A smile lit up his face.
"Damn! I was hoping to startle you," she said.
"Meg, you smell way too good, and I know your scent. However, it is nice to see you."
"I agree. I'd begun to wonder if you'd fallen off the face of the earth, or if you were locked up in the dog pound."
"Oh, low blow!" Luc said. "I've been working my tail off, and now I have to find someone named Margaret to see if she can authorize this contract," he said.
