Page 99 of Body Shot

The acetaminophen takes care of the headache, but my stomach is still feeling off and I eat a plain piece of toast with a cup of tea since just the smell of coffee made me want to heave.

I haven’t had a stomach bug in years, and the timing sucks, but I’m feeling better now and head into the office.

Randy looks up when I walk in.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to be here until three.”

“I was going to review the last section in the customer service manual,” I admit. “I hate doing tech support on the phone, so I want to make sure I’m as prepared as possible.”

He smiles. “You’re really going above and beyond, Claudia. Glen and I are incredibly pleased with your work. Brad, Dana, and Roger are weeks behind you.”

“I don’t love the training part,” I admit ruefully. “I’m ready to dig into the work, so the sooner I get this stuff over with, the sooner I can do the things I enjoy more.”

“Totally understandable. And don’t worry—we’re gearing up to set you up with your first account right after the holidays. You and I are going to work on it together. It’s a new customer I’ve just brought on and they want a lot of customization. It’ll probably be a three- or four-month project.”

“Fun!” I say enthusiastically.

We both laugh.

“I don’t know if you’ll be calling it fun when you’re working sixteen-hour days for weeks at a time.”

I pause, anxious to bring up something that’s been on my mind.

“When I was hired, you said you didn’t care if I worked remotely—is that still the case? I was going to stay in Florida for a few weeks after Christmas because Anders has a light travel schedule.”

He hesitates. “I don’t have a problem with remote work, but with this particular client, you may need to be on site for some of it.”

“Oh.” I hadn’t expected to travel. My employment contract states less than fifteen percent travel during any given twelve-month period. “Where are they located?”

“California.”

Shit.

That’s not the news I was hoping to hear.

“Would you rather I don’t put you on this project?” He frowns slightly.

“No, of course not. I mean, I want to do it. I just may want to spend my non-travel time in Florida.”

“In that case, a flight from Fort Lauderdale to L.A. is no different really than from Philly, so sure. That’s not a problem.”

“Great. Thank you.”

“You okay? You look a little pale. I know I’m not supposed to comment on looks, but if you’re not feeling well, you should relax until three.”

“Oh, I’m fine. My stomach was off this morning, but it’s gone now.” That’s not entirely true, but I feel better than I did earlier.

“Okay, then get to work!” He’s kidding and I nod.

He calls out to me as I turn to go back to my cubicle. “By the way—I’ve just hired a few more people, so I’m going to limit your time on the help desk. A few days this week, just so you get a feel for the other side of things, and you’ll be ready to dig into project work. If you like, we can start the pre-planning work for the newclient next week. That way, you’ll be able to see a project almost from the beginning. They’ve already signing the contract—pre-sales handled that—but this will be everything after that.”

“I’m excited,” I say. “And I’m looking forward to you meeting Hana as well.”

“Me too. She’s brilliant and had some really interesting ideas when we chatted during the video interview. I honestly think she’d excel at pre-sales. She’s attractive—and don’t bite my head off, we both know it matters—but equally intelligent, so I think clients will be drawn to her.”

“And she’s an extrovert,” I say, “so that would be a great fit for her.”

“Someone who can sellandunderstands the technology part? That’s pure gold for us.”

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