KEVIN AND JENN

KEVIN

Heady with the elation of scoring a date, Kevin spent the rest of his day taking a nap in his office.

"Kevin?" There were three sharp taps on his door. "Kevin?"

"Huh?" He was drowsy with sleep. "What?"

"KEVIN!!!" He shook himself awake and went straight for his door. He scratched his head as he unlocked the door. He never remembered locking it in the first place.

"Dude. What were you doing in there for five hours?" His best friend looked a little concerned in his sharp black suit. His tie was loosened and his jacket was unbuttoned. He was probably going to ask about drinks. "Anyways, work's over man-drinks as always?"

Kevin froze. It was 5 o'clock and he hadn't set up his date. "Uh..." he didn't know how to handle two thoughts at the same time.

Sorting out his schedule wasn't a dilemma he was used to.

Usually, it was just work, work and work.

"Um, I don't think so." he answered. "Gotta code some more. Sorry!"

His buddy was off-handedly checking his phone. "No worries. Don't work too hard man." He gave him a half wave and walked off. Kevin let out a breath of relief and went back into his office.

Where was his phone? His pockets were empty...there was nothing on the floor...

His mind raced through a variety of crazy scenarios that involved the CIA.

"No. Not possible. It must be here." He got on his knees and looked under his desk. And there it was, beeping with updates from Github.

He swiped through his contacts and found her number listed under, "HOT DATE"

"5:30 PM at Starbucks?" He hoped she wasn't mad. He was planning to text her around noon to make plans but he slept through lunch.

His stomach growled. He paced around his tiny office, his cell phone tightly clutched in his hand. Then he tripped over his chair and almost crashed into his desktop. Luckily, he saved his baby by pushing himself against the desk and falling down instead.

The phone buzzed. "Sure. The one near you?"

He replied. "Yep."

"Okay. Heading there now." He was excited that she texted him back pretty quickly but suspicious at the same time. Was she going to ask him to build some hidden start up project of hers? Non-programming females always seemed to believe that there were onto the next Facebook.

"Ok. See you soon!" He regretted the exclaimation mark as soon as he sent it. He was supposed to be cool, god dammit. A guy who's openly excited about a girl is not a guy at all.

At least that's what his best friend would say. He didn't bother with dating enough to come up with clever quotes.

Locking up his office, he headed to the bathroom to check what he looked like. A man about twenty years his senior looked back at him with dark, listless eyes.

Well, he thought to himself. Some of circles around his eyes were gone. He'd gone from being a zombie to being half dead. Not bad, he felt, for one midday nap.

As for the rest of him, he knew he hardly impressed. He had on an old black Google IO shirt with a colorful morse code message on the back and his trusty jeans.

Then he had an idea.

"I'll be thanking you for this later..." he whispered out loud as he unlocked his friend's closet and rifled through his back-up suits. "Isn't there something that isn't overpriced in here?"

The digital clock on the desk blinked "5:23 PM."

"Shit." He pulled the closest jacket and ran out of the office, nearly forgetting to lock it. "Shit. Shit. Shit."

Kevin was on the seventh floor and the elevator was taking an awfully long time leaving the 14th floor.

He booked it down the stairs. Better be somewhat late than very late.