Back at work

Last night I said goodbye to my Canadian friend and flew back into Evergreen City.

I head back to work at The Company today - it feels like I've been gone forever.

Being a nice guy, I stop by the Starbucks in the lobby of our building and pick up some drinks for my bitch Chad and Margo - a grande soy latte with hazelnut for Margo and a grande who cares for Chad. I drop off Chad's drink and chat a little with him before I head into the security area on the Ninth Floor.

Anyway, I fire up my computer and whatnot. I have like, seven hundred emails, and none of them are important. I guess I won the office pool for predicting the new Pope while I was gone, so that's cool. Two hundred bucks, baby!

I don't even want to begin wading through all my emails and voice mails, so I deliver Margo her drink. I knock on the half-open door of her office and find her staring out her window at The Bay and the rail yards.

"Mackenzie!" she cries, and she runs - I'm not kidding, she actually runs - to me and throws her arms around me. She smells as beautiful as she looks. Today Margo is wearing a 50's style aquamarine full skirt and a soft pink tie-front sweater. "I missed you! Don't ever leave me alone with these assholes again, the past few weeks have been boring. Look at you, with the tan! How was Costa Rica? Is that drink for me? Sit down, sit down!"

Wow, she's actually excited to see me. My face feels warm and my heart is beating a little faster. How could I have ever thought of not coming back to the E.C.?

We gossip for the better part of an hour. Margo fills me in on various office goings-on and any new developments in the mysterious QuantumWorks project. She seems really frustrated with her job.

"Listen," she says. "You want to meet me downstairs after work, get a cup of coffee or something?"

"Uh, sure. Sure, okay." I'm not sure I heard her right. Is she asking me on a mini-date?

"I've got some stuff I want to talk to you about but I don't want to do it here." She winks. "Walls have ears and all that."

"Sure." Now I'm intrigued.

As I leave her office she calls my name. I pause in the doorway.

Margo smiles at me.

"Nice to see you again, Mackenzie."

God, I love her.