You Had Me at Halo

had said, but to be honest she had been too busy staring at his fingers to pay attention. “Just a couple of…er… router…server…operator system…errors,” she improvised as she threw in every word she’d heard the technicians talk about. “Can V…I mean can I bring them over first thing tomorrow?”

“I don’t suppose you could do it now?” Lorraine asked in a hesitant voice. “It’s just Stuart was pretty pissed off they weren’t here. He’s getting a bit sick of the way everything keeps freezing.”

“Oh.” Holly rubbed her pounding temples. “It’s just I sort of have something do.”

“I know it’s late, and honestly I couldn’t give two hoots if I never see my computer again. The stupid thing crashes more often than a test dummy, but like I said, Stuart’s on the rampage. He’s even talking of pulling the account if the computers aren’t here by the time he comes back from a location shoot tonight. You know what he’s like.”

Not really.

Which was a bit of a problem.

Holly glanced at her watch. This was not good news. She had just over an hour before she had to meet Gemma at The Pool Palace, but there was no way she could ignore this. Vince’s job was in jeopardy and it was her fault. What if this Stuart Peterson really did pull the account? She’d never be able to forgive herself.

“Sure.” She crossed her fingers and hoped she was owed some karma because that was the only way she was going to pull this one off. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Then Holly put down the phone and tried to overlook the fact she didn’t even know where Peterson’s Productions was, let alone how to explain what had been wrong with the darn things. Oh, Vince, why aren’t you here?

* * *

For once Holly was pleased of the excessive Baker Colwell work ethic that kept so many staff at their desks long after their official knock off time, since the security guards didn’t even blink an eye as she swiped Vince’s ID card and hurried down to the workshop. This was bad. Very bad. For a start Holly had hoped to grab a shower and perhaps change Vince’s shirt before she went to The Pool Palace, but it looked like that was out the window.

The laptops were on the bench and Holly looked at them doubtfully as she grabbed Vince’s address book. She flicked through to P and was happy to see that the studio wasn’t too far away. In a day full of failures and setbacks Holly found it more than a little reassuring that something was going her way.

Now, where were those manuals they had printed out? She was sure Vince had put them in am A4 envelope next to the laptops but they certainly weren’t there now. Then she looked at his desk and frowned. Not that she’d been paying too much attention earlier, but she was fairly certain there hadn’t been a paper explosion on it.

Holly tried not to curse as she sifted through the papers. Come on, come on, she kept repeating to herself as her heart beat out a panicked rhythm. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter about the manuals? In fact, they would probably be overshadowed by the fact that while she might be able to deliver the laptops the only technical knowledge she had was on how to work her TiVo.

She glanced at her watch again and tried not to panic. She needed to do this for Vince, but she needed to get over to The Pool Palace and see Todd to ensure her safe passage to Level Two.

‘Hey, Vince. I thought you were going home?” a voice said from behind her and she jumped as she realized Andrew had just walked through the door. He had loosened his Homer Simpson tie and his hair was looking a bit less combed. It was definitely an improvement.

Holly stared at him, trying to work out if his appearance was a good thing or yet another bad thing in a day full of disasters. Well, he wasn’t looking threatening or surprised to see her there, so she might as well go with the ‘good thing’ version.

“Lorraine from Peterson’s called. Todd promised we’d drop these laptops back and I forgot. Now I can’t find the damn manuals we…I mean I did earlier.”

Andrew glanced at the desk. “I see Fluffy’s paid you another visit.”

Holly stared at him blankly before catching sight of a telltale white strand of dog hair on the computer keyboard. Vince really hadn’t been joking when he said the little dog didn’t like him. Brilliant.

“Are you alright?” Andrew frowned. “You’ve gone a bit pale.”

Holly rubbed her temples. Her headache had now turned into a rampant jackhammer. “I just didn’t need this tonight. I have this…well I have something really important that I need to do, and looking for manuals and delivering computers isn’t making it any easier.”

“Do you want me to drop them off? I only came back to pick up my tools because I have an early call-out tomorrow. But I pass right by Peterson’s.”

Holly felt like throwing her arms around Andrew in delight but somehow she managed to hold herself back. She’d done enough to ruin Vince’s credibility in the last twenty-four hours so she had to settle with giving him a manly clap on the shoulders.

“That would be fantastic.” She beamed just as she caught sight of a bright yellow envelope with Manuals scrawled across the front. Thank you, thank you, thank you, she silently mouthed as she snatched it up.

“It’s no big deal. You help me out all the time?”

I do? Holly frowned before realizing he meant that Vince helped him out all the time. That she could imagine since she was quickly discovering Vince Murphy was an all-round nice guy.

“Still,” she said in a gruff voice. “I really appreciate this.”

“Sure.” Andrew shrugged as he scooped up the laptops and Holly popped the envelope of top for him. “Oh, and by the way, about that Gemma thing we were talking about, just forget I said anything. I don’t think I’m going to ask her out.”

“Why not? What’s wrong with Gemma?” Holly bristled before she could stop herself.

Andrew knitted his eyebrows together in surprise. “Are you kidding? Of course there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s gorgeous. I just decided I could do without the humiliation factor right now.”

Oh. Holly chewed her lip. “But I thought you were going to give it a go anyway,” she said as she recalled Vince’s words. Funny, she’d never thought about it from a guy’s point of view before.

“Yeah, I was, but Simon Trimmer was in Bar One before and he was boasting about how he was going out on a date with her tonight at The Pool Palace, so there’s no point really.”

“Trust me, she won’t be seeing that moron for long.”

Andrew shifted the laptops around in his arms. “How do you know?”

Because I’m her best friend and I’ve recently discovered Simon is a loser, Holly was about to retort, before realizing this might not be so prudent. “I just have a feeling,” she said instead before impulsively adding. “You should ask her, just in case.”

“I don’t know, man.” Andrew shook his head and frowned. “Somehow I don’t think I’m her type. I mean she doesn’t look like the sort of girl who would go for a tech-head. I think I was just deluding myself for awhile.”

“Why, you think she doesn’t like nice guys who are smart and have a good job?” Holly raised an eyebrow at him. Of course he would stand a slightly better chance if he wasn’t wearing one of those ties, but she decided now was not the time for fashion advice. Especially from Vince Murphy who seemed to perpetually live in Doc Martens and leather jackets.

“You really think I should?” Andrew sounded like he was faltering.

“Yes, I do.” Holly made a mental note to explain to Gemma why she should say yes. After all, just because Andrew didn’t dress in a flash suit like Simon Trimmer, was no reason at all for her to automatically rule him out.

For a moment she shifted uncomfortably as something nibbled away at the edge of her mind but before she could put it under the microscope, she caught sight of her watch. Phew. No time for deep and meaningful thoughts.

She said a hasty goodbye to Andrew and then she ran. If she wanted to get back into Level One, memory intact, then this was her best shot.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Oh, you gave me a shock,” Gemma yelped as Holly came to a halt where her friend was standing by the bus