“We’re just friends, that’s all,” he said, pulling on the plate. “Now let go so I can get back there. Rose is waiting for me.”
Vanessa let go, but she watched him walk away. “You’re a liar, Malcolm, you like her,” she called after him. “Believe it or not, I’m happy for you.”
Rose was sitting right where he’d left her, and he sat down next to her, handed over the mug, then waited as she sipped at the hot brew, Vanessa’s words echoing through his brain. He was walking a thin line, there was no doubt about it, but he was a grown man capable of being around something he wasn’t able to have without losing control. It didn’t matter if it was the first time he’d felt this way, and it didn’t matter that he always felt more like himself around Rose. She wasn’t his to have, not now, probably not ever.
Rose sighed next to him, then set the cup down on the table. “Thanks, that helped,” she said, then looked around the room and sighed again. “It took me all of last week to sort these, and now I’m going to have to start all over.”
“I’ll help you, and I bet Vanessa will too; you’ll see we’ll get it done in no time,” he said, grabbing a pile by his feet and beginning to straighten them, then he looked over at her. “Didn’t you say something about writing a program to use a scanner instead of entering each one by hand?”
“Well, yes, but…” she trailed off, looking over at the empty doorway. “What if Sandra comes back?”
“I think Sandra is going to be taking a break for a while,” he said. “Come on, let’s give it a try. I think there’s a scanner up front, and we can use Vanessa’s computer. It will take your mind off what just happened.”
“Okay, as long as you think that it’s okay,” Rose said, a little excitement in her voice. “I would like to know if it’s going to work, I might have to make a couple of changes…”
“Then we’d better get started,” he said, grinning at her. “Have I told you that I know a thing or two about computers? For a while, I thought that was how I was going to get rich.”
***Rose***
“It’s not now?” Rose asked, taking the hand Malcolm offered her and getting to her feet.
“Nope, figured that one out a long time ago, if I’d been born a couple of decades ago, maybe, but not now,” he said. “I’m going old school with real estate, that’s why I’m working here. I not only want to own the buildings, I want to know how to build them.”
“Well, that’s certainly an intelligent way to approach it,” she said. “That’s why you bought that building, then, it’s the first one in your empire.”
He grinned at her, “The ground floor, so to speak,” he said. “And you were here to see the beginning.”
She laughed. “I’ll have to remember this someday when you’re all over the news and the financial pages,” she said. “I’ll have a great I knew him when story.”
“Okay, what do we need to try this program out?” he asked, looking around at the mess.
“Just the invoices and a computer,” she said. “I used one back here, but the program should run on any machine in the network.”
They spent a few minutes scooping the paperwork up off the floor, then headed up to the reception desk and a surprised Vanessa. “I guess you heard what happened,” Rose said, rolling achair over to her computer. “I really don’t know how it went that far, I just wasn’t going to let her treat me that way.”
“It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault. She was in a terrible mood when she came in this morning, and she snapped at me just for saying good morning,” Vanessa said. “Now, what can I do for you? You look like you’re on a mission.”
She quickly explained about the program that she’d written, and Vanessa gave up her computer. "That scanner has just been sitting there since Roger bought it,” she said, rolling her chair out of the way. “It will be nice to finally see it get used. Sandra was so against technology, it just made all of our jobs harder. It was like she’s still living in the 1950s."
A few minutes later, after a couple of quick tweaks to the code, Rose was grinning like she’d just won a prize as the invoices slowly began to populate in the right files. “It’s working,” she said. “They’re going right where they're supposed to. Hurry, scan a few more. I want to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
Ten minutes later, half the pile they’d brought with them was gone, and she sat back in her chair with a satisfied sigh. “I knew it would work,” she said, a grin on her face. “Now it won’t matter what order we put them in, or how old they are. Plus, it’s going to take a fraction of the time, and anyone who can operate a scanner can do it.”
“Oh, no you don’t, I already have enough to do,” Vanessa said, holding up her hands. “You can have the scanner, it’s all yours.”
She laughed. “Okay, that’s a deal,” she said, then looked down the hallway at the still closed door to Roger’s office. “That is, if I still have a job.”
“Don’t worry, Roger isn’t going to fire you,” Malcolm said. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I guess I should get started cleaning up the mess,” she said. “The accountant still needs this information. Sandra’s breakdown hasn’t changed that.”
“We’ll help,” Vanessa said, getting to her feet. “Then I’ll help you move the scanner to your office.”
“Why are we moving office equipment around?” Roger asked, startling them all. “Is there something wrong with your computer, Vanessa?”
“No, sir, but Rose figured out how to use the scanner for the invoices. It would be easier if it were in her office instead of out here,” Vanessa said. “I guess we should have asked you, but we were just trying to get everything done for the accountant.”
“I see,” Roger said, then let out a long sigh. “Thank you for trying to keep things going. Rose, could I speak with you in my office for a few minutes, please?”
