Page 50 of Love to Hate You

She shakes her head.

“That pains me, baby,” I say. “As soon as we get back to New York, we’re having a movie night.”

“I don’t usually watch a lot of movies.”

“This is more than a movie,” I say. “It’s a cinematic experience that you will never forget.”

She chuckles. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

“Crazy for you,” I say without even thinking.

I notice the edge of her mouth lift even though she’s trying not to smile. Right before we walk into the building, she stops and turns to me. “We can do this, right?”

“Wewilldo this,” I say.

“You’re right,” she says in a firm voice.

The Silver Network offices take up three floors and when we arrive, a receptionist guides us into a conference room.

“Would you like anything to drink?” she asks.

Of course, we’re both dying for caffeine, and she returns with two piping hot, black coffees. When Micah, the CEO, arrives, we stand up and all shake hands.

“Micah,” Charlie says, “this is Nash Beckett, Thomas’ son.

“Nice to meet you,” Micah says. “I had a great relationship with your father and I’m sorry to hear about his passing.”

“Appreciate it,” I say.

“Thank you for getting out here so fast,” he says. “We’ve never had problems like this with your software before. That update is killing us, Charlie, and I’d hate to have to go elsewhere but it’s been tough.”

“That’s why we’re here– to help figure it out. We’re going to bring Samuel in via Zoom, if you don’t mind, Micah,” Charlie says.

“He’s one of our top software developers and should be able to straighten this all out for you,” I say.

“Well, that would be wonderful because I’m at my wit’s end.”

For the next few hours, we all discuss the problems they’ve been having, and Samuel walks us through the fixes that he makes on his end. Being able to have someone like Samuel remote into a network from across the country is an amazing thing.

After explaining their issues, Micah lets us do our thing while he jets off to a couple of meetings and has his receptionist order lunch for us while we work. If we’re lucky, we can clear most everything up today, but only time will tell. Charlie and I work well together with Samuel and it’s amazing. The three of us are like a well-oiled machine and by 4:30 p.m. we have cleared up all of the major issues.

“I have a couple more kinks to work out on my end, but they should be good to go,” Samuel tells us.

“Thank you, Samuel,” Charlie says.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I add. After signing off, I turn to Charlie and lift my hand to give her a high five. She gives me a crooked smile and hits her hand against mine. “Good job, Langley. I think we saved the day.”

“I hope so,” she says. “I’m going to offer Micah free use of the latest app.”

“Keep him happy?”

She nods her head. “And I’m also going to pitch the new software to him. If he switches over, that’ll be more money for TB Tech.”

“You love a challenge, don’t you?”

“You know I do.”

Leave it to Charlie Langley to not only save the relationship with Micah and Silver Network but also successfully convince the man in less than 30 minutes to change his entire operating system.

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