Page 20 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

I rushed down the hall to the data center. My work space was a large room with computer monitors positioned all around in a circle. There were no cubicles, which I loved; instead, we were all connected by the same table that spiraled around the perimeter. In the middle sat the desks of the supervisors. The head department manager had his own area on the floor set off towards the back. It was a small room with glass walls, and at the moment it was empty.

I was freaking out when I dashed inside and plopped down at my area. I was sure I’d get reamed out for being late, maybe even get put on probation. I shoved my purse underneath the table and logged on to my workstation.

“Ready to start taking some calls today?”

I glanced over at my neighboring coworker, Kate. “Yes, definitely.” I looked to the center of the room and noticed the supervisors’ deskswere unoccupied. Whew. Maybe I’d get away with it after all. I was not off to a good start.

“They’re all in a meeting,” she said. “And for future knowledge, don’t worry about busting your ass to get here on time. You can’t just stroll in at noon, but they’ll overlook a few minutes.”

“Wow, really?” I was liking this place even more. The last company screamed at me once when I clocked in forty-three seconds late.Forty-three seconds. I’d counted.

“They’re lenient here as long as you do your job well.”

“Works for me.”

Kate scooted her chair over. “I’ll be sitting with you most of the day and probably the rest of the week too. It depends how things go. But even after that, I’m just a few feet away if you have any questions. Or you just feel like gossiping.”

I laughed. “Thanks.” I felt super fortunate to have someone nice working next to me and helping me out. Dealing with a bitch all day would really put a damper on things. I didn’t want anything to jeopardize this job. I was sticking with it, I told myself for the umpteenth time.

I’d sat in this room during my third-shift training, but this would be my first full day with these particular coworkers. I hadn’t met everyone yet. Monday was spent more out of the room than in it as I was shown around the building and given a stack of policies and confidentiality agreements to look through and sign. The nature of the business dealt in financial transactions and other sensitive shit that I prayed I wouldn’t mess up.

“All your applications up and ready to go?” Kate asked.

“Yep.”

“Okay, go into that black screen there”—she pointed at my monitor—“and type this into the prompt: Start systems asterisk set full delete shutdown.”

I typed out what she said. They’d never taught us this in training. “Now what?”

“Now, don’t ever ever hit Enter after that string of commands. All the systems will disable for several minutes, and you’ll cost the company millions.”

My hands flew off the keyboard. “What!”

She laughed while my heart was wrestling to leave my chest.

“No fucking with the operators, Kate. That’s my job.”

Kate rested her hand on my shoulder, covering her mouth with the other as she giggled away. Yeah, like it was the funniest thing ever to tell me something that could land my ass in jail.

I glanced between her and the guy who stood to her left. He was grinning as well.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Just a little humor to start your morning.”

“Ah, not that funny. What if I’d hit Enter without thinking about it?” I almost did, just out of habit.

“There are safeguards in place. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to kill the system and get you fired.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Adam, by the way.”

“Perry.” I shook his hand.

“I know. I didn’t get to meet you yesterday. Welcome. I hope you’ll like it here.”

“He’s one of our supervisors,” Kate said. “The team leader, which is the lowliest one of the bunch, I might add.”

Adam lightly slapped the back of her head. “I’m still above you, so respect your superior, subordinate.”

“Blow me.”

“No, thanks. I’ve seen that scary fucker of yours you call a husband. I like my face way too much. I’m not messing around with that shit.”

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