Page 48 of Code Mages & Empty Pages
“I just fixed their calendar bug, the one with the conflicting roles,” I explained. “Remember when we heard Dunmere complaining about it in the lift the other day?”
“Yeah.” Dawn nodded and came over to stand next to me. “He was in HR when I fixed their paper jam and complained about having to use a paper calendar alongside his digital one so he wouldn’t miss any more appointments.”
“It’s been high up on my list. They’re making us money, aren’t they? They shouldn’t have to come up with elaborate schemes to do their job.” I shrugged.
“Well done, cuz. I tried to patch that a couple of weeks ago but didn’t really have the time to look into it fully.”
I explained about the access rights. “I wrote a script to assign everything new, so there shouldn’t be an access rights conflicts now.”
“Well done, Comte.” Dawn gave me a little wink.
My ears twitched. “Thanks, Roe.”
Maybe I do have a praise kink.
I hope Desmond hadn’t heard her. So far, I had kept Roe the Rogue in our private training game. She needed to have a little more confidence to get through a session with my guild, the Windsins.
Then another message popped up, this time in my personal inbox. It wasn’t from one of the realtors, but from Samuel Carson himself. The subject line alone turned my blood cold, “To my office ASAP.”
Shit. My heart did a little leap in my chest, and not over Dawn’s adoring smile or her praise.
Did I overstep?I tried to fix things for the people who hold up this company. He wouldn’t punish me for that, right?
“I better go,” I said through numb lips. “Carson wants to see me in his office.” I got up, checked my badge, and smoothed out my fur in the bathroom mirror before getting in the lift and pressing the button for Carson’s floor.
In my head, I ran through everything I might have done wrong. What if someone else was working on a fix and I’d made them redundant? Or, oh fuck. Maybe they’d found out I’d taken Dawn into the server room. There wasn’t a camera down there, I’d checked. But what if someone saw us? Then my brain latched onto the shelter ruse. Maybe he was mad we had lied to his husband?
I took a deep breath as I exited the lift. A tall woman with perfectly manicured nails came down the staircase from Froth & Flurry, carrying a takeaway cup in hand.
“Mr Atkins, hi, I’m Megan Scott, one of the realtors you saved today.” She chuckled and tossed her sleek, blonde hair over her shoulder.
I recognised her from the team-building event.
“It’s great that I’m running into you. I haven’t gotten around to sending you an email, but I wanted to thank you for fixing our calendar mess.”
“There was a conflict with the roles, and they overwrote each other,” I muttered.
“It was so bad,” she said with a pained expression on her face. “I said to Alaric, if they won’t fix it, I have no idea what’s going to happen. Customers started noticing missed appointments, and that just doesn’t work. I knew you were a good person when Mr Carson sent the email about you and your partner volunteering at the shelter.” Her bright blue eyes misted over with tears. “You are a win for this company, Mr Atkins.”
“Thank you, Ms Scott,” I said, ears twitching as I flattened a hand over my neck fur. I cleared my throat and tried to push my panic back down. “Right. I have a meeting with Mr Carson.”
She smiled kindly. “I bet he wants to thank you personally.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I gave her an awkward wave as I knocked on Mia’s door and entered when she called. “Bye.”
I stepped into Mia’s office, nerves buzzing like bees in my chest. Before I could even open my mouth, the door to Carson’s office swung open. He strode in with purpose and looked sterner than I’d ever seen him.
“Ah, Atkins.”
His gaze pinned me in place and my heart sank straight to my shoes.Holy shit. I’m in trouble.
“Miss Hendry, I don’t want to be disturbed, please,” he said, glancing at Mia before shutting the door behind us.
“Sir,” Mia smiled, shooting me a little encouraging wink that I absolutely did not feel like returning.
“Take a seat, Mr Atkins.”
“Yeah, of course. Sorry.” I sat down on one of the visitor’s chairs and tried not to fidget. The whole thing made me feel like a kid being called into the head teacher’s office.
