THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 20

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 20

“So, what is the surprise?”, I asked Irene smiling to diffuse the obvious tension that was building up inside me.
“Don’t worry, not yet time”, Irene answered looking at me from the corner of her eyes smiling softly. That instant, I heard a soft knock at the door and Dan the CCTV engineer came in.
When Dan came in, he gave Irene a wide smile almost laughing, am sure it was due to what he saw about her acting in my office. 
“Hi bro, how are you?” Dan asked me before turning to Irene and greeting her, “How are you madam, I hope you are fine. I can see with your smile your day is bright”.
Our work was not to proof test every camera if it is working and that involved clicking each camera in turn to see what was in view. Dan was smart at it, his laptop had a console for accessing each camera. I knew Dan would not give it to me but I really needed it. But how was I to get it?
I decided to try a trick, I logged in to our internet router and disabled dynamic IP allocation and that meant Dan’s laptop would have to get an IP address from me. That done, his laptop lost network connectivity. So, I suggested that I give his computer an IP address of which he agreed. Upon accessing his laptop, knowing he would be so keen to look at what am doing in his laptop, I told Irene, “Please open the windows it is getting a little hot in the room”, to which she agreed immediately. As she was standing up I pretended to be stretching my legs and she unknowingly knocked my legs which made her lose her balance which sent her flying towards the window nearly falling, with Dan’s laptop in my hand Dan had no option than to rush to hold Irene before her head hit the floor. That diverted Dan’s attention and it gave me 5 seconds of accessing his folder which had the software and I shared it thus enabling me to access it over the network. 
“Oh! Am so sorry Irene, I was just stretching my legs”, I said as I placed Dan’s laptop in the table and stood up to apologize. 
“Do you want to kill me? I would have hit my head on the wall”, Irene said looking at me sternly breathing heavily like someone who had just stopped running. But the look on my face convinced her am really sorry. 
That done, I was able to access the console software at the comfort of my desk with ease.
“Hey, Tony, am feeling so hungry where do you eat around here?” Dan asked. It was around 1030 HRS and I knew he must be. So, I told him to accompany me to our company cafeteria where we could drink some tea before doing anything else.
We took our seats at a corner and Sally upon seeing me came smiling to us and told us, “Feel comfortable, what would you wish to have?” before I even answered she told me, “I know what you take, that question is for your friend over there”, she said pointing at Dan. 
“I will take black coffee and 4 doughnuts”, Dan said. 
She disappeared and within minutes she had brought for me a cup of drinking chocolate with 4 doughnuts and black coffee and 4 doughnuts for Dan. After serving us since there was nobody else in the café, I motioned her to come and sit with us, told her to take something but she declined. 
“So, you are installing CCTV all over, are you saying now we will be monitored everything that we do?” Sally asked. Before I even answered Dan told her, “Yes. Your boss will be able to see you everywhere you are, what you are doing, at what time, as well as see if there is any security threat to the company in real time. But don’t worry sister, if you are a good employee nothing to worry about. Your boss wants to catch naughty guys like Tony who keep on downloading latest movies from internet during work hours.”
“Am not naughty, am just a nice guy who knows how to make maximum use of company resources.” I added while looking at Dan over my cup of chocolate almost touching my nose. 
“That is why I hate IT people, they can monitor what you do when you don’t want to be monitored”, Sally added looking at me smiling. I knew she was trying to provoke me somehow. 
“Yes, I will be even monitoring if you boil the water for tea up to 100 degrees or you prepare tea for us with just warm water”, I reiterated looking at her. 
“Hmmm, who are you trying to lie to? CCTV does not have a thermometer, it just has eyes”, Sally added. At this point, Dan just began laughing and asked, “What are you two talking about? You are funny. Talking of thermometers in CCTV, hahaha” He finished by laughing out louder.
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The café phone extension rang and Sally went to answer it close to the counter. Upon receiving it, she looked at me. “It is yours”. I wondered who could be calling me with café extension. I went and took it.
“Hello, have you finished taking tea? I need your assistance here at your office”. It was Irene on the other end talking as if she was in an emergency situation. I felt a bit irritated by her urgency.
“Ok, cool down a little bit. I will be there in 5 minutes”, I answered her and hung up without waiting for her reply.
“Your woman is losing patience”, Dan said. That statement drew an expression on Sally’s face who looked at me a little puzzled, as if she had a question that she could not ask in Dan’s presence. 
“With Irene, everything is always an emergency. Whoever shall marry her shall have a rough time”, I said.
“Well, that could be you, you know. I know of so many people who worked together in same office who ended up being married.” Dan added. I knew Dan was trying to be funny, but how I wished he would just change the topic!
I finished with my chocolate and told Dan it is time to go to the office. 
“See you later, today don’t be late I want to pass by your office as I go home.” Sally said as we left. 
We got to my office and Irene was there with her laptop. She had an excel worksheet open and she was trying to do some budget upon where she told me she was stuck with some functions, specifically an absolute cell reference. She was working out on money needed to procure some extra computers at a shop that promised some discount when you purchase more than 5 items, hence why she was not able to get the final amount once the discount is applied. 
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My phone buzzed with a message. I opened it and it was from Sally. It read, “Honey, I want to talk to you in the evening please find time for me”. I replied, “don’t worry, we will talk ❤.”
Upon scrutinizing Irene’s worksheet, I realized all formulas were ok, but she had just mistyped an item which inflated the figure to seem like instead of getting some discount the shop was over charging us. I corrected that and told her.
“Oooh! I was in a hurry typing the figures I must have mistyped that.” Irene added.
“Is this why you sounded like the office is on fire? You could have told me over the phone and I could have directed you on what to do.” As I was talking, Dan intervened sounding like a village elder, “Young man, when your lady is in trouble, you are supposed to attend to her regardless of the magnitude of the problem.”
“Yes, tell him, Dan.” Irene added looking at me smiling.
I had no option that to smile and admit, “Yes, your highness, your call.
“Thank you,” Irene replied with a high-pitched voice before blowing a kiss in the air “Mwaaaah”
>>>To be continued>>>