"How are you holding up?" The problems of the morning were behind him now. It had been another DOS attack. Well, he was coming to think of them that way. Anytime Higgs said boo the legions of fierce supporters descended on the site like a plague of locusts. He'd talked to Lisa, Higgs' press secretary about the timing of releases, even asked her if she'd just keep him in the loop so he could be around to deal with any issues. She ignored him. Whatever. He returned to Brenda's e-mail.
"It's cold here, things have really snapped in the last few days. Thankfully I've been running supplied between the troops and the print shops for most of the time so I haven't been out in the cold canvassing." He could imagine little Brenda in her far too thin khaki coat knocking on Farmer John's door. It wasn't that bad she'd told him for the last three months, he was probably in more of a back water in Rochester than she was in Cedar Rapids. She at least had a Starbucks, granted it was in a Barnes and Noble. Not that she ever got to it. She was too busy working to actually see much of the Iowa countryside. Probably not much to see, he thought.
"Tony?" It was Jay, the DBA. That had been fun for a few days, Jay the DBA for today. It was little things that amused you when the sum total of sleep hours for a week rested somewhere in the low 20's.
"Yeah?" Tony asked, turning from the e-mail that was already 18 hours old. His schedule and Brenda's were seriously out of sync. Not that either of them had much of a schedule anymore. Everything was work now.
"Can you push this package for me?" he asked over the cube wall. Their office was a dark mass of soda bottles and cans, food wrappers and computer equipment. Jay's voice would have echoed off of all of the aluminum if not for the fast food bags that absorbed some of the sound. Tony looked at the server and through the package that Jay wanted to push. They'd been working on the comments code almost since they'd started, conned into taking over for some poor schlepp that had kept things going for the first year of Higgs' campaign. Tony didn't even remember his name now. Jay's code looked fine and Tony scheduled it to push to production on the next run.
"Should be out there at eleven." he said.
"So you heading to Iowa with Lisa this weekend?" Jay asked, a conspiratorial tone in his voice. Jay was single. The campaign headquarters had been a good hunting ground for him, but he always groused about missing the better picking out in the field.
"No, I'm going to Iowa to see Brenda. Lisa and I just have the same flight." He said. It was the truth. It was costing him a fortune to get there, but dammit he needed to see Brenda. This was probably the calmest it was going to get before the 19th. He hadn't seen her in weeks. They'd decided to stay where they were for Christmas, much to both of their parents chagrin.
"Uh, huh." Jay said. It was pointless dealing with him when he got like this. If the office rumors had been true Tony would have been a much happier man. As it was he couldn't stand the bitch.
"Whatever. Do you have that view done?" Tony asked, as NetNewsWire chimed at him.
"Almost. Your pager work out there in fly-over-country?" Jay asked.
"Hell if I know. Guess we'll find out." Tony would be just as happy if it didn't. He'd nearly hurled the damned thing against the wall more than once.
"Joy," Jay said, he was Tony's backup. He did okay, but the differences between a SysAdmin and DBA were enough to stand out. Jay had taken Christmas off to return to family and friends and left Tony with a rman job that was flaky. Tony still hadn't forgiven him for that, though perhaps the crash this morning was payment.
"Haven't they fixed the lights in here yet?" The voice was distinctly feminine, and it grated on Tony's spine the way a fork on a chalk board would.
"Heya Lisa." Jay the DBA said.
"No, they haven't gotten to it yet." Tony said smoothly. He turned to look at his rumored bedmate. She looked perfect as usual. The camel hair jacket was a nice touch. "What's up?"
"I'm picking you up at six tomorrow?" She asked. They'd been over this already, exchanged multiple e-mails. He'd even scheduled it for her in her Outlook. Doubtless it was on the Palm in her breast pocket at this very moment just waiting to bleep at her. He smiled.
"Right."
"Okay, just making sure." She said, and turned to go. He watched her pony tail bounce away and choked back the urge to grumble some more.
"She'll pick you up?" Jay asked, whistling low.
"Shut up Jay."