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“He might not have a choice.” Sabrina understood reality well enough to know that white knights weren’t real and sometimeslife enjoyed delivering a swift kick to your ass, but she appreciated Freddy’s loyalty.
“No, I refuse to accept that.” His idealistic determination was part of what Sabrina loved most. While he wasn’t the carefree jokester his family saw, he wasn’t as jaded as her, either.
She smiled sadly. “You’ll need to have enough hope for both of us, because I don’t see how Patrick can afford not to make me the scapegoat here.”
“I can do that,” Freddy promised. “Let’s knock out the subjective command testing for Wils, and then we’ll head back to your place to poke around. We might even find the token sitting in your car and resolve the whole issue.”
Sabrina chose not to point out the unlikelihood of that. For now, she’d lean into his optimism.
Chapter 11: Freddy
Afew hours later, Freddy’s eyes darted across the lines of code scrolling down the computer screen, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he ran the latest battery of tests on Wils’ newest code. Both of them had gotten completely absorbed in the work, just like they always did. Sabrina wasn’t as vibrant as usual, but that was okay. He understood why she was worried, even though she didn’t need to be. There was zero chance Freddy was going to let her take the blame.
Just then, the results from his last test populated. “Yes!” he whooped. “I think we’ve finally nailed it,” he said, leaning backin his chair with a satisfied grin. “The bots came back with a multilevel plan to address more than ninety percent of the issues we expected them to identify.”
Sabrina sat up and leaned over his shoulder, her hazel eyes scanning the results. “Impressive,” she murmured. “Did you change the command sequence? Or is this from changes to the code?”
Freddy smirked, his shaggy brown hair falling into his eyes as he typed up his notes recording what worked. “Oh, this was all me. I forced them to work through a diagnostic sequence first.”
Sabrina read through his notes and reviewed the results on his screen. Anyone else would have been mystified by his chicken-scratch handwriting, but she barely even squinted. Freddy had never told her that was part of what got her hired. When they interviewed her, they handed her a page of information to assess her logic and understanding of the code structure they used. He’d made notes in the margin, fully expecting her to ignore them. Instead, she’d incorporated his thoughts in with her own to expand on some points and nullify others.
While Freddy and Nathan were impressed by her thinking, she’d won Patrick over just by proving she could read Freddy’s writing.
Now, she circled a key line in his notes and said, “I can’t believe it worked. Directing them to perform maintenance on parts likely to fail within six months is a game changer. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure the AI would be able to deal with subjective commands like that.”
Freddy’s mind raced with the possibilities. “It’s still tricky, and we’ll need to include human confirmation in all the supporting documentation, but this first step opens a ton of possibilities.”
“It’s crazy to think how much this will change,” Sabrina added. She’d spent the day waffling between stressing over her missing security token, fielding her mother’s texts to her new phone, andslogging through Freddy’s chaotic notes to create discernable manuals for end users, so he was thrilled to hear the pride in her voice.
Then she looked at him like he was a god, and his insides sparkled with pride. He fucking loved seeing her admiration as she continued, “Imagine the ISS being able to perform maintenance without interrupting the astronaut’s research. Think about how much this will increase the lifespan of the station.” Something about the way Sabrina looked at him as she talked about the meaning and impact of their work made Freddy feel like he was important, and his work made a difference in the world. It was like stepping into the warmth of sunlight after spending too long in cold air conditioning.
As Sabrina continued reviewing his work, her worries disappeared from her face, and Freddy wondered if she knew how beautiful she was. She never talked about relationships or dating, but he didn’t know why. Any time he considered asking about it, he pictured her with another man and stopped himself.
“I’m just glad you handle typing up all the official documentation,” he said, his tone turning playful.
Sabrina glanced up at him, a hint of mischief in her hazel eyes. “Well, I suppose even a genius needs a sidekick.”
Freddy smirked and came right back. “Exactly, I’m glad you understand how much this genius loves having you by my side.”
She laughed, the sound sending warmth spreading through his chest. “Anyone can run tests and break things. The genius is the one who writes about it.” Then she met his eyes, and they both laughed knowing Wils was the real genius behind it all.
That didn’t squash Freddy’s excitement, though. “I can’t wait to show this to the guys in the fleet,” he said, his leg bouncing with barely contained excitement. “This update is going to blow their minds. They’ll be able to prioritize and manage maintenance so much easier.”
Sabrina smiled, a rare flash of warmth transforming her usually serious expression. She shook her head. “You know their command will just make them use any recovered time for cleaning and painting.”
“That’s a problem for them to sort out,” Freddy said playfully and pointed his nose in the air haughtily to display his lack of concern.
They both grinned at each other, but as the moment stretched on, electricity crackled between them. Lost in the intensity of Sabrina’s gaze, Freddy imagined sharing his life with her for real-not as friends, but as life partners. After everything that came with his first kiss, he knew that wasn’t a possibility for him. Part of him wanted to think that Sabrina kissing him had been a sign that she imagined the same things as him, but Freddy knew better than to trust assumptions like that. Life had taught him the hard way. Instead, he tried to focus on their friendship.
“Do you remember when we first started working together?” he asked. “You were so lost trying to decipher my attempt at the technical manual.” He marveled at her ability to transform complex processes into simple steps anyone could follow. It was one of the many reasons he enjoyed working alongside her and had started going to her place daily. He liked to think he was good atshowingpeople how to use new programs, but she could put it intowords. As far as Freddy was concerned, her writing skills were magic.
Sabrina looked up from her screen, a wry smile playing on her lips. “Lost? More like completely baffled. Your instructions were like some kind of ancient code.”
Freddy chuckled, running a hand through his shaggy hair. “Well, I’m glad you cracked it. Otherwise, Patrick never could have added civilian contracts to the business. I can’t travel everywhere to train everyone.” He made a mental note to pointthat out when he talked to Patrick about exempting Sabrina from the joint meeting.
Sabrina rolled her eyes good-naturedly before returning to her work. Moving their work to his office hadn’t been as rough as he’d feared. Katrina Taylor hadn’t touched the office space, so it didn’t have the ‘don’t touch anything’ vibe he felt in the rest of the house. Hopefully, UPS would arrive on schedule, and he could homey-up the rest of the house and give Sabrina some things to personalize her room after dinner tonight. Then they could collapse onto his couch and spend the night playing Assassin’s Creed while dirty-ing up the couch with popcorn crumbs.
Before he could pull up the tracking for his Amazon order to confirm it really was out for delivery, Freddy’s computer chimed with an incoming email, pulling his attention back to work and evaporating his good mood.
