Just Fall

Chapter Four

Two Years Later

Diane stabbed at the keyboard sitting at her dimly lit desk. Her thrift store desk lamp, a memento from college, softly flickered at every other angry keystroke. It was the one of the three items that she decided to bring that was personal to sit on her desk. The startup company did so many re-organizations, it was pointless to bring much else. That lamp was only true thing that belonged to her at the office, and yet, it could barely keep up with her too.

She couldn't believe how long this was taking. She could never get in all her nearly two years of working at this company, somehow she only she, managed to stay after hours on a Friday. She didn't play the martyr game, but the work was interesting enough to keep her running at it. Her more youthful colleagues never missed an opportunity to express gratitude either. Or, was it pity? Either way, they always offered for lunch or drinks after work. Not that she wanted to participate, but her Friday afternoons were more coding, and less happy hour. Thank God Lena didn't have a date tonight and was happy to stay late babysitting. Between this project and the dinner tonight, she would've been screwed. Diane always paid her double, feeling an upcharge was needed getting a teenager to babysit on a Friday night.

Her eyes glanced at her Millennium Falcon desk clock and frowned. "Ugh. I'm never gonna hear the end of this." She heard more buzzing from her phone, but she didn't even have to stop to pick it up to know who it was. "Nope. Not now." A second later it started buzzing again. I'll just have to call her back later I'm almost done and I'm much I lose my rhythm now. She continued to type away, trying to clean up her code the best she could to her she could finally run a couple of scripts to check for bugs. At this point she wasn't ready to deploy but she had to get enough down to where she can spend the majority of her time doing bug cleanup first thing Monday morning. At least that was the plan.

Within a breath, the foreign sound of a desk phone began to ring. Diane stopped typing, scowling at the machine.

"Seriously?", She yelled out loud. With a deep half she picked up the phone and put it to her ear. "What? I said I was on my way!"

"Yeah, I know but you said that an hour ago, Dee." Gina whined.

The saccharin sweet voice was almost convincing if it didn't belong to someone whom she knew so well. She knew how to work people. "Gina," Diane moaned in dismay. "Look, I love you okay, but your bugging the hell out of me and I'm really trying to get this done and as soon as I get it done I promise I will be hop my ass in the car and fly like the wind to my apartment get dressed and meet you there, alright?"

There was a long pause on the phone. There was a bit of faint noise in the background like the mumblings of one-hundred conversations. Diane could only wonder what it is they're gabbing about most likely her for being the terrible friend and even worst Maid of Honor. One who would dare show up late to her best friends rehearsal dinner. The silence got a little bit too long Diane finally spoke, "I promise."

"All right," Gina responded. "I just wanted to make sure, doll. I'll let everyone know that you're on your way. Just don't leave me here when all these assholes okay? You promise you would be here." She paused as if something or someone distracted her. "Everyone's waiting for you and I was hoping that I can introduce you to some of Derek's friends."

Diane noticed that insinuating tone at the end of her statement and she cringed. "Oh no. Look, Gina, don't start."

"What do you mean, doll?"

Diane shook her head at the receiver. "Please, please don't try to hook me up with anyone there. Just please-- just worry about finalizing your own hook up okay? Can you just do that for me? Can you just focus on getting your ass married and just not worry about me? Please Gina."