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Chapter One - Ana
It was the alarm’s fault. Yes, I had set it, but then the capricious digital bastard had declined to work as it was supposed to according to the included instructions. The appointed time came and went with no particular fanfare and on I slept.
My sister had once insisted that she snored, but I was such a sound sleeper that I refused to believe it without solid evidence in the form of a recording of some sort, preferably digital, despite the distaste I had with machines at that particular point in the space-time continuum.
It was my second month at the company. The longest in recent history. It wasn’t altogether my fault I’d had fifteen jobs in the last two years. Maybe partly but not wholly, the fates never failing to find an opportunity to kick me when I was down.
There was the little stuff, like when the radio station I worked at a couple of months before switched formats. I could have stayed if I knew how to speak Spanish.
Then there was the big stuff, like when the finance company I was excited to land a job at went into involuntary liquidation, on account of half the board getting fifteen to twenty years in prison for insider trading. All beyond my control, but nonetheless I was determined to keep trying.
I had been hired on at Fortress VPN by the founder himself, and if there was anywhere I might make it to research and development, really putting my math degree to use, it was there. It didn’t hurt that the boss in question, Tucker Crowe, was smokin’ hot in a way that made my panties wet anytime he spoke to me. Which was quite a lot, considering I was hired as his personal assistant.
He didn’t even make fun of my Aussie accent, which most of the others did, at least at first. I’d tried to soften it so no one would notice, but apparently that wasn’t enough.
Now I was worried about losing yet another job, and along with it my hot, nice boss to boot. Showered, freshened and dressed appropriately for our casual office, I headed out with fifteen minutes to spare. It was still possible I could get there on time!
I stopped by Dunkin’ Donuts to buy myself some breakfast first and decided to get enough to share with co-workers, if only because I was in too much of a rush to make up my mind about which ones I wanted, so I just asked for one of everything. I didn’t have to worry about rush hour on account of taking the bus, which was an advantage as much as a curse a lot of the time.
I was also counting on the fact that, when he could be bothered to actually come into the office, Tucker was often ‘late,’ at least according to everyone else’s schedules, knowing full well he was well within his rights to do so as the boss. It wasn’t like the place would fall apart without him.
There was his partner Jack to oversee things. And Tucker also made it a point to hire people who could work independently. Which, in my case, meant sitting on social media and playing near endless rounds of online poker and solitaire until he decided he needed me for something, assuming he had actually come in that day.
If this latest gig fell through, I was confident I could go on to a successful career as a card shark. At least if the real thing was anything like the simulation.
I scrambled off the bus and into the office, my ass hitting the leather computer chair right at the appointed time, the chair turning a bit due to all my leftover energy. Feeling so proud of myself for making it in time, I stared at the box of donuts on my desk. My intention had been to share them with everyone, but now I was second guessing that idea.
Surely no one would notice if I had some before giving them to others. The trick was to make sure I could eat six of them— which I was pretty sure I could, since I was so hungry— so it looked like the kid at the bakery was new and had just grabbed the wrong box.
I knew it was a bit of a dick move, but I was starving, having been too nervous about making it in time to eat any on the bus, and desperate times called for desperate measures. Besides which, if history was anything to go by, the pilfered pastries would go straight to my ass, karmic justice being served right along the with a high-calorie, much overdue breakfast.
Scarfing down the required amount in record time, believing there weren’t any of those new, tiny cameras around, I moved like a ninja into the break room, placing the open box on the table. The six remaining occupants of the box looked like the survivors in a lifeboat. I tried to arrange them so that they covered more space, but no matter what I did, it still looked a bit ridiculous.
