Fear grips the common man to "measure up" to the expectation of his potential mate. You cannot turn on the television, without seeing the commercial where the couple grins as if they have had one botox treatment too many all because of a miracle "size" drug. It is disappointing to be told by your lover that you are too small, but what if you are too big. Being hung like the proverbial bear is something the majority of the male population doesn't have to worry about. But that worry plagues me daily.
Everyday I sit in my boring office and look aimlessly at my flickering computer screen. As the network administrator for a small company, I get the chance to see the activity on our servers. Viruses come and go, people get salacious e-mails from spammers and significant others, little do they know all the personal business crosses my terminal before they get it. For example, in our finance office we have an accountant that likes to be tied up and covered with butter. This I know only by the pictures he regularly gets of himself in various slippery poses through e-mail. I can't help but want to blurt out "Hey Greasy!" but I digress. People are touchy about there private lives.
One evening while walking through the office during break I spot an unfamiliar face. Sitting in the far corner cubical a honey blonde beauty pecks away at her keyboard. As I approach she lets out an exasperated sigh and proceeds to hit the escape button on the top of the keyboard. Seeing an opportunity I casually make my way over to her.
"Need some help?"
She jumped at the sound of my voice. "Help, sure, this computer is locked up...I don't know what I did."
Stepping into her cubical I noticed a mixture of citrus and jasmine filling the air. She immediately rolled back away from the computer and then stood up. I leaned down and looked at her screen. Simple enough, she had too many windows open and running too many programs.
"Well looks like you crashed the whole network," I said looking directly into the monitor. I could hear a gasp standing behind me "Not the whole network, it's my first day. Shit..."
"Yeah, well you are not the first to do it. Lucky for you, I am the computer guru." I turned slowly and to my surprise found a gorgeous woman with her hands on her hips rocking back and forth. "What do you mean guru?"
"I mean as in computer guy, tech support or just geek boy, take your pick." Then after a couple of keystrokes and a few mouse clicks. The terminal was un-goofed. With a flourish I pointed to her computer and proceeded to walk back to my office.
"Let me guess, you are Paul Sellers Network Administrator." She said meekly.
Stopping in mid stride, I turned around and asked "Yes, and you are-"
"Ms. Chandler, your new boss"
Well, I tried to scare the new supervisor and made a total prick out of myself. There was nothing left to do, but hang my head in shame go back to work. That was the start of a strange adventure.
***
Normally I would complain about how boring work was, but ever since Margaret, excuse me Ms. Chandler arrived there has been a new sense of wonder and fear. During her first week alone she fired six people and quickly made a name for herself, as M.C. Hatchet. Seeing I wasn't afraid of her, Hatchet often stopped by my office to chat. It was usually a polite conversation about company policy or company ethics. Boring as usual
One morning in particular Margaret asked me to come to her office. My co-workers dropped their heads as I passed cubicle after cubicle, a tale-tale sign that trouble was waiting for me in her office. Didn't matter though, if worse came to worse I would just take one of the last ten job offers. Computer geeks were in style. Turning at the end of the hallway, I noticed her office door was closed. Knocking softly, I heard her voice from the inside, "Come in"
The room had the familiar sent of jasmine but there was something else mingled with that fragrance. I couldn't rightly put my finger on it.
"You rang ma'am?" I said sarcastically
"Paul have you been scanning employee emails?"
"Of course, that is my job"
"Ok, tell me what do you do when you have attachments?" She pointed to a chair directly in front of her desk. Sitting down I noticed a small black remote on top of her desk. Then it hit me, remote, odor...vibrating clam. "The hatchet lady is a freak!" I thought. Leaning forward in my chair all while keeping a straight face I said, "All attachments are scanned to protect the network from any viruses sent on purpose or by accident."
I had to get that remote, so as I was talking I turned one of her pictures around.
"Beautiful child, yours?"
"No, that's Ester my niece" Chandler replied
Reaching past her collection of pictures, pretty frames and goofy little plastic dolls, I whisked the small black remote off of the desk.