2. Illawarra Flame Ch. 01-03

'But... it's in the budget. If we don't spend it the money goes away, so I have an idea... We take the money and go somewhere that we actually want to go... during the work week."

There was a lot of murmuring around the room, people were smiling and nodding at each other.

'I'm going to write it in for June 22nd through 24th, attendance is not compulsory but if you don't come you have to come into work here or take your own vacation days. Donna is in charge of logistics, let her know where you want to go by the end of the day and I'll make the final decision."

She was so cool. She had the whole office eating out of her hand. Everyone liked Maya. He liked Maya, probably a bit too much. She was obviously married, even though she didn't wear a ring. Chandrasekhar had to be her husband's name, Nicholas' father's name.

Chandrasekhar was an Indian name, he knew because he'd googled it, and Maya did not look Indian. She had dark brown hair but her complexion was fair, she had the sort of skin that tanned rather than freckled and grey-blue eyes. In contrast Nicholas had dark features. Black hair, deep brown eyes and honey brown skin, all inherited from his mysterious father.

Where did he want to go? He had never been that involved with the office before but now he wanted to be a part of it, he wanted to go on this trip. It was only three days, if he could fit in training on the Wednesday morning it would only be two swims and two weights sessions that he'd miss. Maybe he could work out wherever they went anyway.

He wanted to go to San Diego. He wanted to go home. His parents were there and his little brother was in school at San Diego State, he hadn't seen him in ages. He emailed his choice to Donna.

The next morning he got an email from Maya, it was addressed to the entire office.

'Pack your sunscreen, we're going to San Diego."

He was excited, but it was still almost two months away and he was trying to figure out how to balance work, training and baby-sitting. He didn't know how Sam did it.

Looking after Grace and Amy had turned out to be harder than he had thought, his Wednesdays were effectively shot, but a funny thing had happened. He found himself working at night and sometimes on the weekends too. He was really into it. He was excited when he made something work the way he wanted it to and when he finished something he moved straight on to the next task.

At the beginning of May Maya called him into her office again. He wasn't worried this time because he knew that she couldn't be angry with him, he had been churning out work like it was going out of style.

She didn't ask him to sit. She came around the front of her desk and handed him a piece of paper. She sat on her desk. She was wearing business trousers. She always wore trousers. Her bare feet dangled freely off the ground, she was pointing and flexing them, it seemed involuntarily.

He pulled his eyes away from her feet to look at the paper she'd handed him. It was the log from the secure server, it showed every time Tyler had logged on and off over the past month.

He looked up at her.

She shook her head. "This isn't sustainable Tyler. I'm glad that you're enjoying your work but you're not paid to program in the middle of the night, or on the weekends."

He couldn't believe she was annoyed at him because he was working too much.

'You want me to work less?" He asked skeptically.

She nodded. 'I want you to find a better balance. I don't want you to burn out and get bored because you are thinking about it too much."

'Okay... I just wanted to make sure I got to keep my Wednesdays," he said. He knew that she must know that he was taking care of Grace and Amy.

'Tyler...' she squinted her eyes, she looked like she was searching for the right words. 'I've heard that there are ways to make it look like you're working without actually doing any work."

What was she talking about? He was confused, she had just told him that he was working too much and now she was implying that he was cheating? 'But you've seen my programs, you know I've been working."

'Oh yes, you've been working a lot, I guess that came out wrong. What I'm trying to say is that, just hypothetically... if somebody was to, say, write a program that kept a remote workstation engaged with the server from nine to five on some particular day of the week..." She paused and looked up at him for effect. '...there would be no way of me knowing if that person was actually at their computer or not."

What? Was she trying to tell him to skip work?

She continued, 'And if that person still came to work on the days they were supposed to be here, and still operated at a high level on those days," she threw her hands up in the air, 'well there would be no reason for me to even care what they did on the day that they worked remotely."

'You want me to make it look like I'm working remotely, but not bother with any actual work?"

She leveled her eyes on him. 'I never said that," she said in a sly tone.

He shook his head. 'You sure are an odd one Maya." Woops, he'd said that out loud, he smiled to try and cover it up.

She tilted her head to the side and smiled back at him, 'Why? Because I want you to be happy here?"

'Because you just told me not to bother working one day of the week."

'No, I never said that. I was speaking in purely hypothetical terms."

Tyler couldn't help but smile. She must know about his Wednesdays.

'There's something else," she said. She looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, the smile fell from her face. 'I'm going to be at Gracie's birthday party this weekend. I thought I should let you know."

She looked so concerned about it, it was pretty adorable. Tyler started laughing.

'What?" She asked.

'You'd think it was a death sentence. Does seeing me in public really upset you that much?"

'No, it's just that I don't want to impose, they're your friends."

He shook his head, 'I think they're perfectly capable of deciding who they want at their kid's birthday party."

'I never did thank you for introducing me to them. They're good people." She'd dropped the manager act and was talking to him like a normal person.

He nodded. 'How's Nicholas?" He asked.

'Oh, he's good, he has his moments, but generally he's pretty good. Sometimes he could use a good old fashioned Michael Jackson dangle." She gave him a shy smile, her pale blue eyes only connecting with his for a moment. 'How's Cassie?"

Tyler smiled. 'Light of my world."

Maya laughed. 'That's pretty sad Tyler, you just admitted that a dog is the best thing in your life."

'Have you ever had a dog?"

'No."

'Well you wouldn't know then. Cassie is always happy to see me, and she's helped me through some rough times."

Cassie was the only thing that had made getting up each morning possible or worthwhile after Cinta. If it weren't for that friendly little mutt Tyler might have just slipped of the face of the earth too. But that wasn't the only time Cassie had saved him.

Tyler thought back to that awful time after he'd found out Kelly was fucking someone else. It was right after he'd proposed to her, she was fucking someone else and she didn't even have the decency to say no to his marriage proposal.

The worst part was that Emma had tried to tell him and he'd told her that she was a lying bitch. It spoke volumes that not only had she welcomed him back into her life after that episode, but that she'd given him her dog, the dog that Sam had given her after their first miscarriage.

The first one had been the worst, at least from an outsider's perspective. They had been so naive, they hadn't even considered the possibility that she might not carry the baby to term. They'd already chosen names. She'd lost it at 13 weeks and had fallen into a depression so deep that Sam had quit the USC swimming team to go and live with her in Berkeley. He'd picked Cassie up from the animal shelter in a last ditch effort to save her from herself. It had worked.

The second time had been devastating, but they were better prepared for it. They were older, wiser. It had happened at 10 weeks, he had been the one home, that was back when they were all still living together. Sam had been at the lab. Tyler still remembered the blood, the look of grief on Emma's face, Sam's panicked voice over the phone. He was supposed to move out that summer, to give them the space they'd need for the baby but Emma had asked him to stay a little longer. 'Everything is brighter when you're around Gray," she had told him.

God he hoped she could carry to term this time, he couldn't stand to watch them go through that horror again. She was at 15 weeks, it was the longest she had carried yet, they were all quietly hopeful.

'Tyler?" Maya's voice brought him back to the present. She was still sitting on her desk, her brow furrowed with concern.

'What were we talking about?" He asked.

'Your dog," she replied.

'Oh yeah, Cassie. She's a good girl. I'll bring her on Saturday."

Maya nodded. 'Thank you," she said.

He didn't know what she was thanking him for. Was that a dismissal? He nodded at her and left her office. Sometimes that woman confused him.