The Insider

Chapter 3

Lawrence watched his new assistant's reflection walk away from his office. She stops shortly by the door and heaves her shoulders to push it on her way out. Slowly she sauntered towards her desk and sat on her swivel chair.

She then appeared to breath deeply as her breasts lifted gently, then blows off the air while fanning her face with her fingers. She shook her head, making her long brown hair catch glimmers of the afternoon sun, then her shoulders, obviously trying to shake the tension off of them.

Obviously unaware that she is being observed, Miranda licked her lips as she gently flipped through the papers on top of her desk. She's too beautiful for this place, Lawrence thought to himself.

For him, Lindbergh is not simply some corporate firm, it's an engineering firm, more than anything else. He believes that people there need only be wicked smart, and that beautiful people are at a disadvantage for they will only be abused by vile higher ups.

He heard enough sexual harrasment complaints in his ten years in the company to last him a lifetime. This is why his eyes were shocked when he saw Miranda in her tight pencil skirt earlier that day. Surely, the Senior Engineers should have given her the prescribed uniform rather than keep her in the dark about company policy while at the same time keeping on ogling at her to their delights. Boys will still be boys, he gathered, even if they're already balding, pot-bellied, and/or middle aged.

Stopping himself from thinking about Miranda, his mind shifted to the bigger problem at hand. He couldn't possibly work without Glen. He's Lawrence's go-to-guy whenever he needs to implement a new process flow and right now he feels like he needed to discuss a lot of things with him after his grueling one-month trip to Thailand.

As company policy dictates that he should not communicate sensitive information online to avoid potential leakage of confidential data, Lawrence kept away from e-mailing the base office while he was abroad. Thus, he was completely unaware of all that's happening at home so one can only imagine his shock when he comes home to his right hand man gone and replaced by a younger, prettier, but unfamiliar face.

Lawrence again cuts his thoughts as it wandered back to the lady outside his office. This is another one of his reasons why he doesn't want a female assistant, they get him distracted. For Lawrence also likes girls alright, albeit he keeps his hands to himself unlike some other guys.

As hard as it is to find time to spare for his love life, Lawrence still manages to attracts some girl his way when he does find time. Lately, however, his bed has been colder as he has been very busy developing their new process flow.

Reeling his thoughts back to where they should be, Lawrence imagines the report that he will be presenting in the Board of Directors tomorrow. He imagines that they will be happy with the result of millions of dollars and decades of research put into the development of Project Phoebe, the latest and most advanced technique in the development of smart technology which can enable connectivity between the user and all his electronics on a deeper biological level.

Once launched, this breakthrough in technology is expected to catapult Lindbergh to the top and as the person officially designated as messenger to the Board, Lawrence feels the burden weigh heavily on his shoulders. He must be able to explain the complicated technology in layman's term to make the corporate assholes, also known as the BoD, decide on funding the full implementation of the proposed process flow, and for that he needs Glen.

Lawrence moved away from his office window and walked towards the phone to call the VP's office. As he dialed the numbers, he slowly braced himself to confront his former boss.

Karen was another pretty face that he doesn't want to see. As his former boss, he can still recall how hard she was on her staff. She worked them like donkeys and she was really hard to please. No wonder her assistant left her.

The phone rang and Lawrence got through the line after two rings. "Hello, Office of the Vice President. Good afternoon," a familiar voice greeted him.

"Get your ass back to Engineering, dude. I thought you've got enough of Crazy Karen? So why are you out there being her slave again?"

"Took you long enough to call me, Sir," Glen replied from the other line. "I actually thought you're gonna let me rot all alone in hell back here," he added, sounding like he's speaking with a pasted big grin.