Chương 54: Ch 31a - Memory: Tom

Swearing she stabs at the green button. Somewhere there is a disgruntled, sadistic software developer who has written the code to ensure the printer stops working before the most important meeting in her calendar. There is no other explanation as to why the pissing thing breaks down when she has less than five minutes to print out six board packs. It works perfectly fine when she would welcome extra time away from her desk.

But no, someone somewhere has written the code to scrape her calendar, identify the most painful meeting for her to be late to and trigger the printer to kick off a software update or decide it doesn't understand how to pass the paper from one compartment to the other.

"Fuck you, you fucking fuckwit," she hisses at the printer. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Error 47, blinks the printer.

"Have you checked paper drawer three?" a man drawls from the doorway to the stationery room.

"That's where it usually jams on me." Not waiting for an invite, he crouches down to pull out the bottom drawer of printer paper. He looks up at her as he feels into the empty depths of the machine, his face transforming from concentration to delight.

"Here's your problem," he announces, brandishing a half-crumpled page of A4 with a dark inked line smeared across it. He stands up and presses the green print button. The printer beeps happily as it whirls back into life.

"Thanks," she mutters, wondering how long he had been listening to her swear at the machine.

"Tom," he says, "Marketing."

"Cara," she says, "HR."

"Nice to meet you Cara from HR," he says, his smile widening to flash his white, not-too-perfectly-straight, teeth.