Twenty-Nine Cozy Bears

27

Doug Tanner's eyes clipped down to the bottom corner of his center screen and read the notification which popped up there. His boss, Hank Gorr summoned him to his office, with a notation to bring Samantha as well.

Doug sighed, and leaned back in his chair rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. The amount of required reading felt like it doubled every two months. It wasn't getting simpler to read either. Network configurations, security holes, counter-security protocols, and of course, incident reports.

What he needed was a chat-bot that could discern the topics and gravity paramount to the present hour, and then harvest the information most likely to lead to successful navigation of the issue. But that wasn't likely to happen any time soon. Just look at the amount of coverall, vagueness it takes to state that need. If you can't say it, you can't code it. And code required explicit descriptions.

Turning a bit in his chair he said to Samantha, "Hank wants to look at your ass for twenty minutes. Ready to go to his office?"

Samantha smiled, "If he only knew I'd do him anytime he asked. Shame that. Maybe he wants me to procure him something."

"Procure?" Doug asked, re-emphasizing the word.

"My calendar word this morning. Procure. To acquire something, usually at the cost of hardship or heavy price," she recited.

"Interesting. It also means to find someone a prostitute."

"To fetch hookers? Are you serious? That can't be right. Hold on," she said, as she leaned down to her computer screen while typing her query. "Son of a bitch, you're right."

She studied the screen for a moment and then stood, while picking up her tablet. "Don't have to worry about ever doing that for him."

"What makes you so optimistic?" Doug asked, as he grabbed his own tablet, and turned off his monitor.

"Because if he handed me a wad of cash to find a woman for him, I'd simply keep the money and fuck him."

Samantha wasn't beautiful, or pretty or cute. She often reminded him of Peppermint Patty from the Peanuts Gang, except that she was blonde. Brash, quick to smile, a lover of fun and challenges. She had about her an energy of health and humor which was impossible to ignore and few men even tried.

Doug didn't. Not once did he attempt to resist her or her ideas of what working at his house might look like. He decided more than a year ago, that if you were with her, and you were not having a good time, the fault rested solely on your own yoke.

Hank wasn't wrong though, she did possess an attractive ass, he thought as he followed her down the hallway to the elevator.

In the elevator going up, she leaned toward him, and looked him in the eyes.

"What?" he asked.

"You seem alright. Better than I imagined," she said.

"You mean because He is back, right? No faith in me at all?" he asked.

She searched inside his eyes, "Do you like me?" she asked. Her voice had changed becoming fuller, more candid and curious, than inquisitive. It made her sound more vulnerable too.

"Like you? Yes. Very much." He could feel the expression of concern attempting to close him off from her, but he kept his eye open.

She turned and looked at the floor counter display, "When I heard it was Him, when she convinced me that she knew what she was talking about, I almost left and went home."

The elevator stopped, and the doors started to open, but he put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "No, you're not dropping that bomb and then escaping into Hank's lecherous gaze."

"Better in the hallway than here," she said and moved to go through the doors again. He followed.

Once out, with the hallway empty, she said, "I remember how that case affected you. Five years later and almost the same positions and patterns in the world — and he's back. It hurt to see you like that."

"Why did you stay then?" he asked.

"Because I believed it would hurt more."

At that moment she was beautiful. "Let's see what Hank wants and we'll get some lunch after."