Back to Business, Right? Ch. 01

"Back home. Text me when your free."

I walked into my apartment and put away all my acquired goods, then decided it was nap time. I usually didn't take naps, especially on weekends when my free time was at its most plentiful. But being on my feet for a few hours after a plane ride I had only barely recovered from took a bigger toll on me than expected. Before I knew it I was back on my bed drifting off.

The next time I woke up was to my phone going off.

I leaned up and rubbed my eyes, looked at the clock (it was around 4) and looked at my phone. It was Emma.

"Hey" I said groggily.

"Hey to you!" she replied cheerfully. "You sound tired."

I scoffed slightly "I am, just took a nice nap."

"You take those often?" she asked.

"Nope. Not at all. Just was tired." I replied.

"Oh okay."

"So," I said, eager to change the subject, "how was your meeting?"

"Oh fine. Standard stuff I already knew, nothing big. I have a few directors meetings I didn't know about scheduled for the week, but otherwise everything is normal."

"Cool. Glad to hear it." I replied

"How about you? Have fun shopping?"

I grinned.

"Oh absolutely!" I said in a fake girlish drawl. "Girl I got these cute ass shoes and some sexy bras and saw this hunky man buying toaster strudels!"

She burst out laughing. "Oh okay! Toaster strudels eh?"

"Hey now!" I kept the tone, and got mock-defensive. "I saw his sexy ass first, girl his strudels are all mine!"

She kept laughing. "God damn! And here I am with a guy that just took his sexy ass halfway across America!"

I returned to my normal tone. "Oh I got a sexy ass do I?"

She giggled. "Yeah, little bit."

I chuckled. "Well, that ass of yours ain't looking to bad either."

"Awwww trying to sneak another sexting chat?"

I threw my free hand up. "I was just complimenting you, but okay!"

She laughed and sighed. "Oh Brian what will I do with you?"

"Throw me in bed and call me naughty names." I replied quickly.

She snickered. "Oh yeah? Little submissive tonight?"

"I don't know, you'll have to dig deeper to find out." I mused.

"All right Brian, we'll see." She hinted.

After a few seconds a revelation I had made earlier hit me.

"Oh, speaking of that. Remember the tablet I left there?"

She laughed once. "The tablet I found porn on? Yeah, ever so vaguely"

"Okay, open it up and go to the list of apps."

"All right, one sec" I heard her walking and then the noise of my tablet unlocking came over the phone. After another second or so, she came back.

"All right, what next?"

"Scroll down and look for something called 'Skype'." I said.

It was silent for another few seconds.

"Brian?"

"Yes?"

"...Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

I leaned against a wall. "What do you think I'm suggesting Emma?"

"Could... we could video chat?" she asked.

"I've got a laptop with a webcam, that tablet has a camera, why not?"

"Could we do... you know... that... without anyone seeing?"

"Unless someone is watching the feed live or screen captures it we'll be fine."

"Well how do we keep that from happening?" she asked.

"We both make fake accounts under inconspicuous names, simple."

"Okay," she replied eagerly. "You're gonna have to walk me through it though, I don't wanna fuck something up and then have my naked chest flowing all over the web."

I snickered once. "Trust me, I'll make sure it's as private as it is in real life."

She sighed. "Even that's pushing it..."

I looked off. "True..."

In about ten minutes we both had created fake accounts using random names. Emma had thought up "ShmexyLexi30" while I was going under the entirely untraceable "Le FireBreatherDude" ("How sexy" Emma had said sarcastically.). Before I knew it, there she was in digital form, talking to me live like we were a foot away from each other.

And no, we didn't even have another mutual masturbation session. Being the goofballs we were, we spent the next few hours screwing with the camera angles and just talking about this and that, almost like that first day at her apartment. It was sweet, romantic, and virtual sex wasn't even involved. I don't even know how time passed so quickly. We talked about her life in acting, my life in high school, some of the roles she had played, my job and my life interests, her run in with the media and behind the scene type stuff from all of the interviews she had done recently. We stayed up all night just talking.

When the sun cracked the horizon on Sunday, we had both passed out in front of our respective devices, video chat still going live. I drifted awake first, and noticed she was asleep against her bed, like I was. I looked up at the clock next to me, then checked my phone. I looked back at Emma sleeping through her camera. I smiled and typed into the text box.

"Whenever you wake up, it's around 8 AM my time, and I'm going to make up for lost sleep for the next few hours. Call me when you wake up and if I'm awake as well I will be happy to pick up."

I ended the call and shut my almost dead laptop, then set it on the ground next to my bed and drifted off.

I woke up around 2 in the afternoon. Emma hadn't called me, and I wasn't that surprised.

I got up and walked into the kitchen. Ceasars bowl was empty, so I filled it up. Then I walked back into the bedroom. I still felt tired. I sat down at my idle desktop and spun it up. A quick log-in to my email, a simple peruse over reddit and I found myself almost about to fall asleep again. I yawned and got up, walking back to my bed.

Then my phone started ringing. I picked it up and saw it was Emma.

"Hey there," I answered.

I heard her yawn, "Hi."

I smirked, "You sound tired."

"You do too," she replied simply.

"I am," I said, "I haven't stayed up all night since I was in college."

"Same here, it's been a few years at best." Her voice really did sound weak.

"I had fun last night." I changed the subject.

"I did too Brian," she said with sincerity, "It was fun. Not even sex fun. Just good down to earth fun."

I smiled. "It was. Don't know if I have energy for a sexual encounter tonight."

She laughed once weakly. "I definitely don't, sorry."

I shrugged. "Don't be, it was worth it."

She sighed. "You are so romantic Brian, and you sound just as exhausted as me."

I smirked. "I guess."

"Well I know," she assured, "I am glad I stayed up with you."

"I'm glad I stayed up with you too Em" I said.

She giggled once, "Found your first pet name?"

I shrugged. "It's simple, and not corny."

"You're right, I like it." She agreed.

I yawned again.

"Well, how about we both take a nap and talk later when we aren't about to pass out?" I asked.

I could hear her yawn back at me. "I like that too, let's do that."

I grinned, "All right, all talk to you later."

"Okay," she replied, "Bye Brian"

"Sleep tight Em."

I put my phone down and looked back at my bed, then fell right on top of it, letting sleep take me once again.

I woke back up around seven. I still felt tired, but was able to get up and get a quick bite from a box of Cheez-Its I had lying around. I picked up my laptop and saw Emma had logged onto Skype using her esteemed alter-ego. I called her.

She picked up after a few seconds, and boy she looked more tired than me. I could see a window behind her and observed the orange glow of the setting sun pass over her head.

"Hi baby." She said with a cute smile.

"Hey Em" I said back.

She tilted her head around in a circle motion and yawned.

"You still tired?" she asked.

I nodded, "Yeah kind of, probably going to go to sleep soon even though I normally wouldn't do so for a few hours or so."

"Yeah, I slept for an hour or so," she said, "then woke up and watched a few movies on cable. I didn't want to wake you if you were asleep. Glad you called, but you caught me right as I was starting to pass out again."

I smiled, "Well that's sweet of you to let me sleep. But you do indeed look tired."

She raised an eyebrow. "You do too."

"Hey" I put my hands up, "I have you and jetlag to thank for my current state. You're just out of practice."

She crossed her arms, "You told me you were too."

I looked up, then smiled again, "I did say that I'll admit."

We both shared another yawn.

"I think I may just watch a movie or two myself then head to bed for the night." I said.

She nodded, "I think I'll just head to bed now thank you very much."

I scoffed, "All right Em. I'll probably wake up before you tomorrow cause I have to go to work..."

She shrugged me off, "Oh yeah, do that. I'll text you when I wake up. Wait, can you be on your phone at work?"

I nodded once, "Yeah its fine."

"Okay," she said conclusively, "Then I'll do that."

We both sighed. I stretched my arms in front of me. "Well, I think I'll be off then."

She nodded, "All right. I really did enjoy talking to you last night Brian, and I wouldn't change it for the world."

I grinned. "I wouldn't dare change it either. I'm glad we did this."

She leaned forward and kissed her screen. "Me too."

I laughed once and followed suit, making her giggle.

"God that was cheesy" I said as I pulled my head back.

She nodded in her slight laughing fit, "Yeah, but it was romantic too."

I chuckled a few more times, "All right, well I'll talk to you tomorrow Emma."

"Okay," she smiled, "Night Brian"

"Night" I said as I clicked off the call.

I leaned back and looked around, realizing I had shifted myself back into bed. I opened up the internet and watched some weird romantic comedy online before the jetlag and sleep synching errors took their toll and put me back to sleep for the night.

I woke up to my alarm and felt surprisingly spritely for a Monday morning. It might have been the weekend that had me in a good mood, the jetlag might have worn off, or maybe just the prospect of getting back to the office.

Either way, I got up and trudged into the kitchen, where Ceasar was pawing on the window, no doubt fresh off a night of exploring the town and scouring for small rodents. I walked over and hastily let him in, then walked back to my fridge and pulled a bottle of carbonated water out.

Despite what I had told Emma our first night together, my diet had improved greatly from what it was in college, and I often found myself eating and drinking very healthy things simply because they were simple and easy. My appetite in the morning had never really existed, even when I was a kid, and I usually didn't eat a large amount until around lunch or dinner.

I sipped on my water and walked back into my bedroom, flipping on my main computer.

I usually had about an hour before I needed to leave for work so I commonly spent my time either writing or browsing random areas of YouTube.

Emma was two hours behind me, so at around eight in the morning I doubted she would be up for a while. I took the time to catch up on whatever news I could and taking the opportunity to Google pictures of Emma. I didn't even masturbate to them; I just spent ten minutes perusing random photo shoot photos and paparazzi photos. Hey, I was allowed to do it before, and now the stalking guilt that someone might feel doing it rightfully wasn't there.

As I drove in, I thought back over the past few weeks. My trip to L.A. had been in vain, but the implication of the fact it was in vain gave me confidence and satisfaction.

It made me think back to the entire history of the company I had helped build from the ground up.

Our company dealt in computer hardware. Motherboards, memory, graphics and video cards, wireless routers, things of that nature. A friend of mine had founded it after two years in a business class at a local college. I offered to help him start it up after the job market fell through and I found myself unemployed for the better part of half a year. So we started a company. The thing that our company liked to say put us above the rest was the consumers ability to modify and adjust our products to their liking, with options being easier to access and varying greater than other types of hardware on the market. Our entrance into the computer consumer marketplace was fairly recent, but our products proved popular and sold well for a budding company like ours.

Still, our marketing and advertising department was just as inexperienced in a world of consumers as one would expect of a new company. That was the purpose of our merger with the L.A. branch of INTELICOM. Their company had been manufacturing computer hardware and software for a little over two decades. We didn't go to them for help selling our product, as it was doing well in the audience we gave it to in the central Texas area. Our purpose of the merger was to open ourselves to the mainstream computing consumer base, across the country. The west coast was our first big jump. In return for their marketing assistance, INTELICOM receives 35% of all sales that are made across our new audience.

It was a more than fair deal, one that the division of INTELICOM based in Los Angeles easily accepted. Within the next few months our new marketing and research department would be giving us the ideas for our second line of products. Until then, it was mostly paperwork across state lines and selling the products we still had in stock.

All this I already knew going to work. But it fluttered around in my head as I tried to take my focus off of Emma and back to my job. Still, she seemed to be lingering in the back of my head. Not really to a point of annoyance on the part of my psyche, but just as sort of an occasional reminder that she was there.

Before I knew it, I had almost unconsciously reached the office and had parked the car. I looked around and rubbed my eyes then shut off my car and grabbed my laptop case.

Walking into the office felt oddly normal, like the past few days had truly been a vacation and now I was back to my daily grind. I smiled to myself, greeted a few office mates at the door, and made my way to the main room.

Our little administrative operation was housed in a neat little one story office complex. A lobby that we used mainly for breaks and socializing rather than an entrance led into the main room, where we had a maze of cubicles manned by interns and lower end employees. Surrounding the room was higher end offices and meeting rooms. My bosses office was conveniently located two doors down from mine, with a large meeting room separating us.

Now don't get me wrong, we were a new company and so while it may seem like everything was organized and clean kept, that was far from the real world. Derelict computers torn apart and currently being operated on were scattered on desks, across cubicle floors, lining the walls, and many were kept in the corners of our meeting spaces. It was run like you would expect newly graduated twenty something year olds would run an office. It worked nonetheless, and I enjoyed seeing computer operating tables in every workspace.

Our office also had a basement. It was a large warehouse type setting where the brunt of our product was kept. In fact, most parts sold were shipped from our office. Our production line was about three miles away in a small facility we inherited from a dying brick and mortar company.

I wasn't always the biggest proponent of our merger with INTELICOM. They were a respectable company but I enjoyed our little homegrown grassroots group based in Austin. I also knew however, that growth was required at some point and without it our company that I had been a part of since the beginning would never go anywhere.

I of course had accepted this long ago and so being the one to go pitch the idea to the wonderful people at INTELICOM wasn't a problem to me.

As I walked through the clusterfuck of computers that led to my office, I gave a jolly "Good Morning" to anyone I ran into. This was normal for me, although I was the only one that knew my cheeriness wasn't simply because of my normal morning mood.

I got to my office, threw my stuff on a chair next to my desk, and looked over the handiwork I had left behind before my trip. An old laptop I had been analyzing was disassembled and in shambles on my desk, with the main board lying in front of my computer monitor.

I sat down and booted up my computer, then looked over the board.

I had been looking over the possibility of creating a laptop motherboard with an interchangeable graphics card. Until this point, most laptops graphics cards were directly soldered to the board, as opposed to desktops where cards could be unplugged and changed for whatever reason. This inconvenienced many people that relied solely on a laptop simply because if the graphics card died, there was no way to replace it without replacing the entire motherboard, a complicated and lengthy task for an I.T. guy. On top of that, gamers who used laptops were stuck with the graphics capabilities the laptop came with when they bought it. There was no upgrading the card. You had to buy a newer model.

I sighed and looked over my workstation. I had been trying to unsolder the graphics card from the motherboard so I could figure out a way to create on with a removable slot it could fit in while still being small and flush to the board. Laptop memory worked in this way, and upgrading your mobile onboard memory was a much easier task.

As my computer booted up I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I reached and pulled it out and in front of me. It was a text from Emma.

"Good Morning! Are you at work?"

I leaned back and typed out a reply.

"Good morning to you as well. Yes, but don't worry. I am allowed to be on my phone while I'm here as long as it's not during a meeting or something too important"

As it sent I felt oddly like this little relationship I was in had been going on much longer than it actually had. I wasn't surprised to hear from Emma this early in the morning, and I was even expecting it to a certain degree. It reminded me of the joys of dating and those mental games you play with yourself to decide what goes too far and what doesn't. When the minutes between texts feel like hours and all that. Not to mention the mental argument you have with yourself when you see another woman that is even mildly attractive.

Man, that chick is hot!

No, no, I have a girlfriend.

Yeah, but if you didn't...

I suppose...

Dude, that's the girl from that one movie! Damn, what I would do to her!

I guess up until this point I had always seen celebrities on a different level when it came to girls I felt attracted to. I remember a specific point in my last relationship where I was watching some romantic comedy by myself, and Cameron Diaz came on screen for the first time. And I got that thought of "man if I wasn't dating such and such". Then my mind switches. "Oh, that's right. She's an actress. When would I ever get a chance at that?"

I fiddled with the motherboard in front of me and let out a slight snicker as the irony of that last thought hit me.

My phone vibrated again.

"Oh, okay, cool! Man now I feel so useless just sitting here all day."

I shook my head slightly with a smile. "Are you kidding? I would love to be in your position! Instead I toil away with circuits and wires 9 to 5"

I opened up a sort of journal program on my computer and typed away a summary of the work in front of me.

Suddenly I heard a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" I answered.

Craig opened it and walked in. "Hey man, how was L.A.?"

I took a breath and shrugged. "Fine I guess... was sort of bored without a meeting to go to."

He laughed. "Yeah. Sorry about sending you out there on nothing, but we got in contact with them last minute and they seemed to have already accepted the contract."