Page 80 of Decoding Emma
I held Emma’s door open as she grabbed her bag.
“You look well rested.”I glanced at Ben who had a wide grin on his face.“You must have had a good night.”
I stared at him.“I did thanks.”Did Ben suspect I’d been with Emma?Did it really matter?
Emma appeared a second later with her bag.I took it from her, and the three of us made the short trek to the office.
We weren’t even off the hotel property before Ben and Emma began debating Avengers versus Justice League, which concluded with a promise to resume later just as we stepped up the curb to enter the FI building.
A friendly debate on a mutually enjoyed subject.So why was I even the slightest bit jealous?I couldn’t bethatinsecure.Could I?
“I need coffee,” Emma remarked as we entered the building.
“Me too,” Ben said.
“Someone is late today,” Amelia observed as we lined up for coffee and muffins.
“Late night,” Emma said.
“I heard.”She pegged Ben and me.“Thank goodness you guys put my system on a separate whatever you called it thing from the company’s.”
I chuckled.“It’s called a server.We did it because while you operate this fantastic coffee nirvana in our building, you aren’t a corporate division of FI.Makes the IRS and Accounting happy too.”
Ben and I gave Amelia our order.When we looked at Emma, she was barely moving, her gaze focused on something.I scanned the area, nothing unusual.
“Emma, you with us?”I prompted and waved my hand in front of her face.
She recited her order as if it was a second thought.
“Just something that popped into my head.I’ll explain upstairs.”
I’d seen this happen before.Distracted, deep in her head.The result was almost always a solution of some sort, be it to a problem or a better way to do something.The metamorphosis reminded me of cartoons I’d watched as a kid where a glowing lightbulb appeared over a character’s head.
Amelia brought our coffee and muffins.Ben raised his card.
“I’ve got this.I’m headed downstairs.”He looked a bit askance at Emma, shrugged, glanced at me and headed for the elevators, shaking his head.
Amelia watched us, her expression conveying a silent question.Emma’s mind was definitely elsewhere as she picked up her coffee and muffin then began walking to the elevators.I looked at Amelia, shrugged, and whispered, “She gets this way sometimes, usually when she’s cooking up some idea.”
She tilted her head and smiled.“No need to explain.I’ve seen that expression a lot around here and labeled it ‘coming attractions’.The idea vibe is strong with that one.”And nodded toward Emma’s departing back.
Emma said nothing in the elevator, and when the doors opened, she headed for the door to our office, definitely on the trail of something, and my curiosity quotient was rising fast.
Once inside, I watched as she set her coffee on the desk, dropped her purse and backpack, tapped her keyboard to wake the box, and turned on her monitor.
“Is keeping me in suspense deliberate, or is the plan to let me in on whatever’s going on in your head?”
She took a bite of her muffin followed by careful sips of the hot coffee, then raised a finger in a cleargimme a minutesignal.I stashed my stuff and tapped the keyboard to wake the box.I was about to take a bite of my muffin when Emma spoke.The reveal…maybe?
“How much do you know about coders, not code, but about coders?”
“Probably not enough.I’ve been trying to decode you since I first saw you at that party.Why?”
“Ha, ha, ha.I’m going to remain a mystery.”Another bite of the muffin, the coffee chaser, a raised finger.I kept quiet.“Do you read a lot of fiction?”
Where’s this going, Emma?“Sure.And in answer to your likely next question, most of the genres.I’ve even read paranormal romance, if you can believe that.”
She giggled.“If you enjoy science fiction, why not PNR?”She switched gears in the blink of an eye, now all business.“Okay, just like people’s signatures are unique and authors’ styles—some call it voice—are unique, coders are the same.Work with them long enough, and you can recognize their coding style, signature, if you will.”
