[chapter five]
Disclaimer: If you've heard of
them, I don't own them. Everything else is mine, so no stealing, pretty please.
;-)
**
"Hey." Chad said, walking into his office several weeks later where Faye was surrounded by binders and file folders. "Whatcha doing?"
"I'm putting all your race day files in track order so you don't spend 20 minutes in here every day trying to find what you need. I thought a little organization was in order." Faye explained, standing up and brushing her hands together.
"Oh. Cool. Thanks." Chad said, sitting down in his chair heavily.
Faye eyed her friend, noting his rumpled clothes and unshaven face. "Did you sleep at all last night?"
"Sure."
"Chad?" Faye asked warningly. "Those are the same clothes you had on yesterday. Did you even go home?"
"Charlotte is next week, and I'm not ready. We're not at all ready." Chad explained, running a hand over his eyes and sighing heavily. "I don't know what I'm doing."
"You have to sleep, Chad."
"I will after Charlotte." Chad answered.
"Can I help?" Faye asked, flopping down on his broken down couch and putting up her feet. "With anything?"
"Nah. It's all just specs and stuff on the computer. I can only run it from here, so I spent the night here looking at everything and trying to find something that will work." He explained.
Faye watched him for a moment before being struck by a thought. "Why don't you wire it at home? Just load the software there and dial into the network here? That way at least you could go home at night - and you could send Jimmie home at a reasonable hour. I don't like him out so late on school nights." She grinned and Chad laughed weakly.
"I don't know how to get it at home. I'll just work from here." Chad said. "But I promise to send Jimmie home before curfew."
"Why don't I send Mia over to your place? She can totally set you up. She knows everything about software and hardware and networks and stuff. She's great!" Faye said.
"I don't know…" Chad began before Faye cut him off with a wave of her hand.
"I do. I'll have her come over to your place tonight. Be there at 7, and I'll have her meet you. It'll be on me." Faye smiled.
Chad regarded her for a moment before nodding his acquiescence.
"Thanks, Faye." He said softly. "What would we do without you?"
"Well, you'd starve to death after fainting from exhaustion, and Jimmie would die a shell of a broken man without my sunny presence every day." She teased, sticking out her tongue.
"Well put."