Releasing a tired sigh, I look down to realize that I haven't been stroking and my dick has gone soft.
The annoying part is I'm still horny but now for some reason thinking about the possibility that Gabrielle might have been fucking another man just takes the wind out of my sails.
-??-
Chapter 49
The floor is quiet, only a handful of people in early for the weekend push. Lights are half-up, coffee machine humming. Tom is at his station, coat still on, scrolling logs.
I walk in feeling like I barely slept, moving on autopilot.
Feels like a lifetime away since I was a kid and looked forward to Saturday’s.
“Morning Tom,” I call out.
Without looking up, Tom mumbles a greeting. “Man, this was supposed to be my day off. Kid’s got a tournament today. Coach texted me last night, said if I miss another one, he’s benching my boy for ‘lack of parental support.’”
I drop my bag on my workstation.
“No such thing as a day off right now. Not till May 5th.”
Tom sighs, spinning his chair.
“Tell me about it. But damn, my son’s been killing it this season. Scored two goals last game, assist on the third. Kid’s got thisnasty left foot curl now. You should see him fake out defenders, like they’re standing still.”
Smiling tiredly, I boot up my terminal.
“Sounds like a beast. But then again I don't know zilch about soccer.”
I wouldn’t know a left foot curl from a penalty kick.
Tom laughs. “You serious? Never played?”
“Basketball growing up.”
“Yeah with your tall ass.”
“Even then I wasn't really super into it. Soccer was never my thing.”
“Don't feel bad,” Sarah cuts in, giving me a small conciliatory smile. “I don't know anything about soccer either.”
Grinning, Tom shakes his head. “That’s cold. Well, when this launch crap calms down, you gotta come watch a game. Kids’ team is fun. Parents bring beer, everybody yells. Good stress relief.”
I nod, already deep in the logs. “Yeah… maybe. The last thing on my mind right now. But you never know. I'm just trying to keep all this together and it feels like it's falling apart right from under us.”
“Speaking of…” Tom whispers, leaning over. “Which log set are we rerunning today? The one where it froze mid-fold?”
Exhaling, I answer Tom as my eyes find the file: ClutterDrift_TestRun_2059-04-04_14-22-07
“Yeah. Clutter drift’sstillspiking latency in multi-object scenarios. Visual parse confidence drops below 0.78, and it falls back to the old heuristic… assuming rigid mass. I don't know what the hell is causing it.”
“Last thing we all need right now is a lawsuit,” Tom cuts in, prompting me to fold my mouth with a nod.
“Yeah I know,” I admit.
Tom leans in, frowning at the monitor. “Is it worse when the tester’s reaching or shifting stuff around? Like, does the human motion make the color matching go haywire?”
I nod. “Stupid thing is still second-guessing when color profiles overlap and tactile feedback conflicts. Only thing I figure is to reweight the fusion layer and lean harder on live fine-tune instead of pre-trained fallback.”
