Author's Note: Here's another of the stories that have been distracting me. I got the first three chapters done before I figured out how I wanted it to end. So, I thought I'd start posting it. Thanks go out to Elrod for creating the MAU Universe. I'll try not to break it. Thanks to all my beta-readers for their feedback and support. Djkauf for his magical editing.

Sadie’s fifth job interview in two months was over, and like the four previous; she doubted she would be offered the job. Five interviews out of twenty applications were actually pretty good, but she felt fairly certain that she only got the call due to her new gender.  Michelle confirmed it for her by explaining how companies are audited on their hiring to ensure they followed the Equal Opportunity laws.

It took a significant amount of willpower to stop from activating her main cannon and blowing away the front doors of the headquarters building of Rogers Technology, Inc.  Only two things stopped her from following through with the impulse. One, it would blow her cover and two; it would ruin her brand new interview suit Michelle insisted that she buy and wear.  Michelle claimed that the clothes made the woman and real clothes would help Sadie feel more human.  

“Dress for success!”, was Michelle’s mantra, ignoring the fact that Sadie could make her own clothes simply by scanning them into her system. Sadie was sure Michelle took a little twisted pleasure in watching her life mate get dressed and fumble with female clothing design. She was getting better, but still didn’t understand why women’s clothing design insisted on putting the buttons on the wrong side.  It’s been almost a century since it was common practice for women to have maids to help them get dressed.

On the career side, Sadie felt very frustrated with how things were going because no one wanted to hire a fresh out of college accountant when there were so many experienced accountants flooding the market.  As Greg, she had over five years of experience, but as Sadie, she had zero due to her new identity.  Adding salt to the wound was the fact that Hector, as Jenna, was away on some tropical island filming a movie and living the movie star life. All Jenna had to do was go to some party, kick a dude’s ass, get noticed by some big shot Hollywood producer and bam! hired.

Okay, maybe not, because ‘Jenna’ was putting in 12 to 16 hour days filming and doing stunts for the movie. Natalie wasn’t with her either, because she was in school, but Hector was going to be a movie star while Sadie was stuck trying to find a low-paying, entry level accountant job, and failing. Life, or what passed for life as a robot woman, seemed so unfair at times.

Sadie sighed with frustration, but she was able to take some consolation by the fact that she surprised and impressed the hiring manager and the HR representative. They both said they considered her a top pick, but the experience requirements put her behind the other two candidates they were looking at.  At least they were honest about her chances and didn’t try to blow sunshine up her butt.

Thank god Michelle had a good paying job and it didn’t hurt that they still had some of the cash they ‘found’ at the warehouse, but Sadie hated feeling like she was mooching off of Michelle.  The feeling became even stronger when Michelle was officially diagnosed as being two months pregnant with their child last month.  Despite how simple and cheap nature makes getting a woman pregnant, artificial insemination was not a cheap process.

Even without their link, Michelle could tell how depressed Sadie was feeling and she tried tell her not to worry about it, but Sadie’s last bit of male pride wouldn’t allow her to relax.  She had a family to support and raising a kid was expensive.

“Miss Williamson…”

Sadie heard her name being called from behind her.  She turned and felt a slight flutter of hope tingle through her circuits as the manager she interviewed with motioned for her to come back into the building.  “Yes?”

“I’m sorry, but I thought you were an awesome candidate. I only wish you had more experience.”  Mr. Kramer looked genuinely sorry. “I’ve got a friend at another company who might have an open position. Would you mind waiting in the lobby while I run back to my desk and give him a call to find out?”

“Umm, sure?” Sadie realized she sounded a little too indecisive. “I mean, yes sir, I’d be very grateful for the lead.”

“Great! It should only take five to ten minutes, tops. Do you mind if I forward him your resume?”

“No, not at all, thank you very much!” Sadie smiled gratefully at him as she felt her eyes starting to lubricate from the pent up emotion.

“Good, I’ll be right back!” Mr. Kramer grinned as he hurried back toward the elevators.

Sadie turned back to find a seat in the lobby, accidently bumping into someone who was attempting to walk past her.  The impact felt light to her, but the man, wearing an expensive looking business suit, was knocked onto his butt. The impact caused him to drop his slim metal attaché case. It clattered against the marble tiled floor and come to a slowly spinning stop a few feet behind him.

“Oh, my god!” Embarrassed to her core, Sadie crouched down to help the man to his feet. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there. Are you okay?” She scrambled to retrieve the man’s case while he bemusedly brushed off his suit. She felt grateful by the fact he wasn’t yelling at her, but it wasn’t until she handed the man back his attaché case that she got a good scan of his face.

“Not again!” Sadie gasped when his face matched up with the man she had bumped into at the hotel so many months ago. “I think you’re cursed sir…”

Initially, the man looked more amused with a touch of embarrassment, but now he studied her with confusion. “Do I know you?”

Sadie felt her blush routine starting and scrambled to cancel it before her face turned completely red from embarrassment. “Sort of?” She hesitantly smiled. “I accidently ran into you at the hotel in Long Beach a few months ago and you paid for my coffee. Umm, by the way, thanks…”  Sadie glanced around and prayed that the manager would return so she could leave before things could get more uncomfortable for her.

The man’s eyes flared with shock and recognition. “That was you?! Wow, what are the odds?”

“Apparently,” Sadie grimaced. “Rather good, or bad, depending on how much you enjoy getting run over by strange women.”

The man chuckled and extended his hand to shake. “I didn’t get your name last time, but I’m Kurt, pleased to bump into you again.”

“Sadie, ummm, Sadie Williamson.” She shook his hand, careful to apply just enough force to give a firm, yet gentle handshake without breaking Kurt’s hand in the process.

“What brings you to Rog-Tech?” Kurt gestured toward the lobby chairs after a quick glance back toward the anxious looking receptionist.

Sadie took his hint and not wanting to look rude after knocking him down; she preceded him into the lobby. He motioned for her to take a seat while he sat down opposite of her chair.  Hoping that the manager would return and save her from further embarrassment, she anxiously glanced back toward the elevators before tentatively sitting down at the end of a chair, automatically smoothing her skirt underneath her legs and brushing a stray lock of red hair behind her ear.  “Well, I applied for an accountant position here and was waiting for Mr. Kramer to return. He said he might have a job lead for me.”

Kurt pursed his lips with thought. “Oh, so does that mean you didn’t get the job?”

“Well, I doubt it. It would be nice, but they are looking for someone with more experience.” Sadie sighed. “And, I don’t really have any, but I think I impressed the folks here, so maybe?” She shrugged hopefully.  “What brings you here? Do you have a meeting with the CEO or someone important?”

“Everyone’s important at Rog-Tech!” Kurt grinned with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “But, yes, I do have a meeting with the CEO.”

Sadie mentally reviewed some of the data she had on the CEO. “Ahh, well, good luck. I hear he’s pretty darn savvy and brilliant at spotting a good idea to develop, which is kinda surprising since he’s supposedly also a bit of a technophobe. So, I hope you’re not trying to sell him some high tech gizmo.” She grinned at his surprised expression.

Kurt leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. “Actually, I do have a proposal I’m hoping he’ll think is worth pursuing. Would you be willing to take a look at it while I wait for my appointment, maybe you’ll spot something I missed before I go in front of the SOB?”

Sadie smirked at Kurt’s ‘friendly’ euphemism for the company’s CEO.

“I’m not sure if I can spot anything…” Sadie hesitantly accepted a glossy, slick looking prospectus from him. “But a second pair of eyes never hurt, right?”

Sadie reluctantly accepted the offered folder and glanced back at the elevators again, silently praying for the manager to return and rescue her before she made herself look stupid. No luck, but to humor Kurt, she quickly scanned each page of the 20 page document.

Surprisingly, it proved to be more interesting than she expected.  After scanning it into memory, she returned to the fifth page and pointed to one of the estimates. “This was calculated incorrectly, it’s off by 20%, which throws off the other estimates, but even worse…” She felt a little surprised when Kurt sat down next to her, his leg pressed against her hip as he focused all his attention on the part of the document she was pointing to.  The contact seemed innocent and he didn’t seem to be doing it on purpose, but it was hard for her to say since she hadn’t had a ton of experience dealing with men as an attractive member of the opposite sex.

“Well, umm…” She turned back to the technical diagram as her own system modeled and tested the part in real time. Her internal simulation of the part caused it to blow up, and blow up spectacularly, when it overloaded the proposed voltage regulator. “The voltage input seems a little too high for this part here. I’m guessing it would fry it unless they added additional cooling, lots of additional cooling...” She glanced back over at the Kurt and realized she probably shouldn’t have said as much as she did. She was an accountant, not an engineer.

“Hmmm, that’s surprising...” Kurt’s eyes widened with surprise as he studied the diagram.

She berated herself for getting fancy and tried to backpedal because how could someone applying for an accountant position know anything about this kind of stuff? “Umm, I think, but I’m not an engineer…”

Embarrassed and ashamed, Sadie quickly handed his prospectus back to him and stood. “Well, I guess I’ve done enough damage to you for this year, umm, I should probably leave before I accidently step on your foot or something worse.” She anxiously clutched her laptop case in front of her body.

Instead of calling her questioning her assessment or looking angry for pointing out the possible problems with his prospectus, Kurt glanced over at the receptionist. “Sheila, have Nancy and Frank meet me in my office in five minutes. I want Frank to review this-” He held up the prospectus. “Actually, scratch that, send this to him, have his team review it and give me his assessment, in…” He checked his watch. “30 minutes or less.”

“Yes, Mr. Rogers!” Sheila jumped up and shot me a faintly apologetic look as she took the prospectus from Kurt before she hustled to out of sight.

“Kurt, Kurtis Rogers? Oh shit…” Sadie wanted to run. “I’m so sorry sir. I didn’t know, I mean, I didn’t...Oh god, I’m such an idiot!” She felt her blush routine turning her face a bright red to match her hair. Embarrassed beyond measure, she turned to leave before she made herself look even more stupid in front of the billionaire founder and CEO of the company.  Now she knew 100% that she wasn’t going to get the job here.

“Miss Williamson, Sadie, wait!” Mr. Rogers called out as she beat a hasty retreat for the exit doors.

Sadie halted, her hand ready to push open the large glass exit door and turned back. “I’m very sorry sir…” She pushed open the door.

“Do you still need a job?” Mr. Rogers asked, with a mischievous, satisfied grin.

“What?” Sadie paused, turning back with hope, but afraid she misheard the man and that he was now messing with her.

“I need an Executive Assistant and I think you would be perfect for the position.” Mr. Rogers smiled and motioned for her to come back.

While Sadie didn’t have a picture of the CEO, her research into the company and CEO had shown that he was hard on his assistants. He has had five different assistants within the last three years alone. “Umm, I don’t have the training or experience for that job and, well…”

“What? I’m a bastard to work for?” Mr. Rogers chuckled.

Sadie grinned in spite of herself.  Whatever his faults, the man was honest. “I couldn’t say sir, but you have gone through a lot of assistants over the last few years…”

Mr. Rogers nodded with agreement and sighed. “Yes, I do seem to be a tad hard on my assistants, but I’ve got a good feeling about your chances.”

“Hmm…” Sadie thought it over. While the possible job wasn’t in her chosen field, it was still a job and maybe she could work out a deal. “I guess I could do one more interview today.”

“I got a job!” Sadie couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice when Michelle picked up her phone.

Michelle giggled. “See, I knew you would, babe!”

“Well, maybe…” Sadie hedged as tried to figure out how to break the rest of the news to her.

“Maybe?”

Sadie debated on how to explain it to Michelle. “Yes, well, you remember that dude I ran into at the hotel and who paid for my coffee?”

“Yeees?”

Sadie could hear the curiosity and suspicion in her voice. “Well, turns out he is the CEO of Rogers Tech and I kinda knocked him down again in the lobby of his own building.”

“Oh my...do tell!” Michelle pretended to be surprised as she dug for the scandalous details.

“Well, after I helped him up from the floor, he sorta offered me a job as his Executive Assistant, but after the last few assistant disasters, his wife also needs to interview me. ‘We’ have been invited over for dinner tonight. Is that okay?”

“We? Does he know?” Michelle asked the $100 question.

“Umm, probably not, but he said I could bring my fiancé, if I wanted.” Sadie cringed a little as she considered the possible bad reaction scenario occurring at her possible boss’s front door.

Michelle giggled softly. “Oh, so, I’m ‘just’ your fiancé now, huh?”

“Pah-lease, you know better, but since the stay of effect was just removed on gay marriage, all the places are booked solid, thus, officially, you are my fiancé, right?”

Michelle’s warm and infectious laugh filled Sadie’s core with love. “Of course babe, I was just messing with you, but you didn’t tell him I’m a woman?”

“Umm, no?” Sadie found herself pouting a little from Michelle’s gentle admonishment.

“This could be fun!” Michelle cackled with glee.

Sadie knew she shouldn’t ask, but she had to anyway. “So, you’ll go?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it for the world, plus he’s a bazillionaire and I’m sure his house is loaded with goodies!”

“Michelle…”

“I won’t ‘borrow’ anything, honest, but a girl can dream, right?” Michelle acted wounded by Sadie’s admonishment.

Sadie cringed at the idea of taking Michelle to what could essentially be a mansion. “I think I made a mistake with the Catwoman and Black Widow blend.”

“Au contraire, mon amant. I think you did a purrfect job!”

Sadie groaned at Michelle’s Catwoman pun. “You’re hopeless, but I guess that’s why I love you.”

“Ahh, you’re so sweet...” Michelle’s saccharine filled voice made Sadie’s teeth ache and her power core fluctuate with affection. “So, what time is dinner?”

“6:30...” Sadie felt a little worried about what to wear and that made her worry about feeling worried because it wasn’t something she was used to worrying about. She wanted to scream with frustration because a few months ago, the only question would have been which clean shirt to wear with which clean pants.  Now, she had to worry about shoes, hair, makeup, dress, maybe slacks and a blouse, but if a dress, then how long or short. Oh yeah, accessories too.  Thank Cybertron, she could simply make all those as part of her Pretender bot function, unless Michelle insisted she wear real clothes so she could tease her in the bedroom later.

“Cool, umm,” Michelle paused, hinting that her next topic was going to be tricky. “Could you do something with Wheelie?”

Sadie cringed at dealing with the little guy. He had their apartment spotless and was getting bored. She would take him over to Hector’s house, but without him home; there wasn’t much for Wheelie to do there either. “Sure, I guess I will take him over to Mama Vasquez’s house, or maybe my parent’s house this afternoon.”

“Thanks, the poor guy’s going a little stir crazy.” Michelle softly giggled before abruptly stopping.  “Oh! Boss alert. Gotta go, love ya! Chow!”

Sadie squirmed a little in her chair as she readjusted her panties. Wearing real women’s clothing could be such a pain in the butt, literally, but tonight could be the start of a new job for her and way to help provide for her soon-to-be family.  With that in mind, she picked at her salad as she surreptitiously watched Michelle dig in with gusto. It had smoked salmon in it. So, of course, Michelle would love it.

She was sure it tasted wonderful, but except for the very trace amounts minerals in the food, she received no enjoyment from eating it. Dessert was probably going to be something chocolate and awesome looking, which would only make her feel like crying. She would have to link up with Michelle tonight and get a taste from her memories.

Mrs. Rogers, or Nancy as she preferred, proved to be a very nice woman, after she got over the initial shock of discovering their relationship.  If anything, Sadie thought she detected a hint of jealousy from Nancy.  Mr. Rogers looked more than a little flummoxed by the fact that the pair was a couple, but Sadie could tell that the wheels inside his head were furiously spinning.  She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“So, Michelle, how long have you known Sadie?” Nancy delicately asked after taking a sip of wine.

“Oh, I’ve known her for almost a year, but it wasn’t until the last three months that we started dating and now I can’t imagine not having her in my life.” Michelle possessively clutched Sadie’s hand under the table.

Nancy paused as she struggled with her reply. “Pardon me if I sound rude, but it must have been difficult for you growing up as a lesbian; you both look so happy together and, at the risk of sounding like a liberal...” She grimaced slightly before continuing. “Well, I’m glad you both found each other. Seeing the pair of you sitting together almost reminds me what is was like when Kurt and I started dating.”

“Oh, I’m not a lesbian. Well, I guess I am now, sorta, but Sadie is the only woman I find attractive.”

“What?” Mr. Rogers looked confused.

“I like men. Always have and probably always will.” Michelle giggled as Nancy and Kurt glanced at each other with confusion. “It’s kinda strange, but until I meet Sadie, I never once considered another woman sexually attractive. I was never one of those sexually confused teens who felt like they had to hide their feelings because I never once questioned my sexual orientation. I don’t know how, but I, no, we, have this bond that runs deeper than anything I’ve ever experienced before in my life and now, I just can’t imagine living without her.”

Sadie nodded with agreement. “Ditto, except I’ve always liked women.  I hope this doesn’t mean you don’t want me to be your assistant anymore, but I refuse to hide our relationship with each other and I would rather you learn about it now versus later.”

Nancy rushed over to Sadie and Michelle, hugging them both. “Oh, no! I’m delighted and I’m sure Kurt is too.” She glanced over to her husband. “Right, dear?”

Mr. Rogers looked like a deer in the headlights for a second before he coughed and regained his composure. “Oh, yes. Perfectly fine.”

Nancy giggled at her husband’s reaction. “See, now, I won’t have to worry about some money-grubbing tart claiming Kurt tried to cheat on me and based on the fact you’ve knocked him on his butt twice now, I’m pretty sure that if he tried anything, it would not end well for him.” She turned back and faux whispered into Sadie’s ear, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You have my permission to hurt him if he tries.”

The main course proved to be heartbreakingly stunning for Sadie. Their chef, yes, chef, served them lobster. Each lobster had to weigh at least five pounds and they looked so good.  Michelle practically had a food-gasm over the seafood, but she expected nothing less from Michelle.  She wondered if Jenna/Hector still considered this kind of food a luxury now that she was on her way to being a big time movie star.

She sighed with frustration. Once they got home, she planned on treating herself to a bite or two of high grade steel dipped in motor oil with a shot of Helium-3 from her ‘generator’ for dessert. The stuff ‘tasted’ like heaven to her and gave her fusion power core a nice boost.

“What’s the matter dear? Is there something wrong with your lobster?”

“Oh!” Sadie glanced down at her barely half eaten lobster and compared it to Michelle’s clean plate. “It’s wonderful, but I’m just not used to eating so much.” She patted her stomach as if she felt full as she snuck another peek at Michelle’s plate. “Umm, would it be crass if I offered the rest of mine to Michelle?”

After Michelle polished off Sadie’s lobster and ate an extra share of the chocolate mousse, they all retired to the large living room. Nancy proved to be a very perceptive woman. “So, Michelle, when are you due?”

“What?” Michelle jumped.

Nancy laughed. “Oh, please tell me I’m not wrong, but your food cravings coupled with the fact that Sadie here is acting very protective of you, leads me to believe that you might be pregnant. Am I right?”

Michelle and Sadie both blushed as they reached for each other’s hand. “Yes, I’m about two months along now.”

Nancy turned to Mr. Rogers. “Sadie will get a minimum of one month’s maternity leave when the baby is born, correct?”

Mr. Rogers sighed with defeat. “Of course, dear.”

“So, Sadie, what about you? Are you planning on having a child?”

“No, I can’t. I had a problem when I was born and it’s impossible.” Sadie stretched the truth a bit.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, dear. I didn’t know.” Nancy rushed over and hugged Sadie.

“It’s okay. I’ve always kinda known I could never be a mom, but now I’ll be able to live vicariously through Michelle.”

“I don’t know about that because I’m sure you will make an excellent mom, you both will, and I’m very glad Kurt bumped into you because I also think you will make an excellent assistant for him. Lord knows the curmudgeon needs someone to work a computer for him!”

Sadie glanced hopefully between the pair. “So, does this mean I got the job?”

Nancy laughed as she returned to her husband’s side. She held his hand. “Well, what do you think dear? It’s your decision...”  She grinned mischievously up at him as she implied he had a choice in the matter.

Mr. Rogers cleared his throat. “Yes, well, Sadie, when can you start?”

Monday morning and her first day on the job came way too fast for Sadie.  Her weekend was spent in a whirlwind of clothes shopping, and not just any clothes, but professional women’s clothing.  It pained her how much money was spent on providing her a wardrobe when she didn’t need to actually buy anything, but Mrs. Rogers, err, Nancy insisted on taking her shopping and paying for everything.  Nancy didn’t shop at regular department stores either. Oh no, she took Sadie and a very bemused Michelle to the stores where all the salespeople styled themselves as ‘fashion consultants’ or ‘image specialists’ and the clothes were priced accordingly.  Like, low earth orbit.

Nancy spent 4k on shoes alone. $4,000 for five pairs and she got a discount.  Crazy, but Michelle was beside herself with envy and Sadie could see the wheels spinning inside her head as she worked on excuses to borrow Sadie’s new shoes.  Nancy insisted that Sadie have, at a minimum, five different outfits to start with, complete with matching accessories and that no pants or slacks were allowed. Women should wear skirts at the office and that was that.  The skirts were all knee length and called Pencil skirts.  Sadie thought they looked very sexy and was surprised Nancy would want her to wear them while working with her husband.  She expected Nancy to make her wear a nun’s habit or something frumpier.

“Mrs. Rogers, I mean, umm, Nancy...not that I’m ungrateful, but I’m kind of surprised about your choices.” Sadie asked, glancing down at the very expensive, very professional, but in her opinion as an ex-male, also very sexy outfit Nancy insisted she wear to their next appointment.

“Oh, you mean why put you in something so tastefully sexy and feminine because I’m supposed to be worried about what others may think about what my husband is or isn’t doing behind my back?”  Mrs. Rogers smirked.

“Umm, yes?” Sadie glanced over at Michelle to see if she had any input, but found her smiling conspiratorially with Nancy.

“It’s like this dear. I trust you and I trust Kurt, but your job isn’t only to manage his schedule and,” Mrs. Rogers sighed with exasperation. “Print his emails for him.  No, your job is also to distract, or in football terms, run interference for him at times.”

“I’m not sure I understand…” Sadie anxiously glanced between the two smirking women.

“It’s simple dear. As much as it pains me to admit, it’s a man’s world and men are pigs. Even the most well behaved man, and even most women will be distracted by the presence of a beautiful woman.  Kurt deals with a lot of very influential people and there will be meetings where your role will be to not only take notes for Kurt, but also to help give Kurt a break, time to think and put his opponent off their game by offering to fetch the men some coffee or something as simple as crossing your legs and adjusting your skirt.” Nancy sighed while considering how sexist she sounded. “You will also need to be able to blend into the background and not be noticed. As a ‘lowly’ assistant, people will underestimate and dismiss you. “The Help” as some people call the rank and file worker will also tend to be more open and honest with you about their boss and the company they work for.”

“Oh, so I’m kind of a spy?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.  It’s a difficult role, but I’m sure you will do fine.  Just be yourself and if you have any questions, feel free to call me.” Mrs. Rogers giggled. “After all, until we got married, I used to have your job.”

Hair and makeup was next and as the wife of a billionaire, Nancy and her ‘friends’ got the star treatment from the moment they entered the expensive-looking salon.  Even Michelle was pampered and treated like a rock star by the staff.  Sadie’s stylist or ‘hair artist’ as he liked to be called, trimmed over two inches from the back and admonished her for washing her hair in mineral rich water and using a too hot  a hair dryer because he thought her hair felt brittle and metallic to him. Fortunately, only Sadie and Michelle noticed her hair clippings disintegrate after a few minutes of lying on the floor.

Sadie entered the Rogers Technology office building dressed to the nines and feeling extra nervous for her first day on the job.  Her treatment by Sheila, the receptionist, was very much in stark contrast to her first visit.  Sheila’s eyes almost popped out of her head as she looked up at Sadie. “Oh my god! You’re Sadie, Mr. Rogers’ new assistant, right?”

“Yes, you’re Sheila, right?” Sadie didn’t know how to respond to the woman’s excited greeting. So, she offered her hand to shake.

“Wow, you look, well, amazing. I’m so jealous, but you could probably make a burlap sack look good.” Sheila briefly giggled before glancing down at her own body with a slight frown of disappointment.

Sadie thought Sheila had a very nice body and as a guy, she would have found her highly attractive and as a result, felt too shy to even try talking to her. She still found her highly attractive, but Michelle took top billing in her silicon and metallic alloy ‘heart’. “You have nothing to be ashamed of and I’m sure you have all the men here wrapped around your finger, right?”

Sheila laughed, using her hand to cover her outburst. “Maybe...a little, but Pete in sales is mine. So, hands off!” She mock growled.

Sadie held her hands up in surrender. “Whoa, hey…” She pointed to the engagement ring Michelle got for her and decided to go all out. “I’m engaged and I only have eyes for her.”

Sadie didn’t expect to get the reaction she got from Sheila. As a guy, if he had told another guy that he was going to marry another man, the results would most likely be negative at best and maybe result in physical violence at worst.  Instead of cringing in horror, Sheila squealed with delight and ran around her desk to give Sadie a quick hug and congratulate her.  “I’m so excited for you! When’s the wedding and who’s the lucky girl?  One of my best friends just got married to her partner. You two should get together sometime!”

New employee orientation consisted of meeting Celeste, the HR person, filling out some forms and accepting receipt of the employee handbook. After the paperwork, Celeste gave her the tour of the building, introduced her to almost everyone with the final stop ending at her new desk.  As a desk, it certainly ranked up there for expensive.  It looked like it was made from real mahogany or some other expensive wood instead of plastic. It was directly outside of Mr. Rogers’ office and was arranged to be an unobtrusive barrier to his office.  The desk was empty of everything except for a LCD monitor, keyboard and a mouse.

“Someone from the IT Department will be up in 30 to 60 minutes to help you setup your PC.” Celeste waved dismissively at the computer when Sadie sat down and gave it a once over.

Once Celeste departed, Sadie inspected Mr. Rogers’ office to learn where everything was. She found a well stocked bar and felt a bit of surprise finding alcohol in the office with the current standards, but Mr. Rogers was kind of old fashioned and who was she to judge?  The coffee maker and supplies were outside his office, next to her desk.  Per Mrs. Rogers’ instructions, she gave her a call to ask her if Mr. Rogers liked coffee and if so, how he liked it prepared.

Sadie got the coffee going and without anything else to do while she waited on the IT person, she decided to play with her PC.  Of course, it was password locked to prevent unauthorized users from logging into it. Bored and frustrated, her interface cable snaked down from behind her back, under her desk and connected itself to the USB port. Unseen by anyone, tiny white filaments wormed their way into the PC and she quickly took it over, accessing everything on the PC from the hardware level.

It took her less than five minutes to discover that her ‘new’ PC was an unmitigated disaster.  Its anti-virus software was compromised and the system full of malware.  It looked like someone had visited every bad social networking site on the planet and clicked ‘Yes’ on every install question. There were two different keystroke loggers, a remote access terminal hidden in the boot sector and the email client was set up to automatically send copies of every email to two different email addresses. The first address appeared to be for a Chinese domain, but the second was an internal Rogers Technology address.

While she could probably disinfect the PC, she didn’t trust it and she certainly didn’t trust Mr. Rogers’ personal and company information with the PC.  Her biggest problem was that she wasn’t sure what to do with the knowledge. It was her first day on the job and he didn’t hire her to be a computer security expert. If she reported it, it would look suspicious because how could she have known?

She needed a new PC. Scratch that, she needed a new laptop and preferably a very small and modern laptop because she didn’t want to lug around any extra baggage when it was time to travel with Mr. Rogers.  Since, she could do everything she needed to do using her own  brain, she didn’t actually need to use a primitive laptop or a PC, but she did need to make it look like she did.

“Oh darn, it looks like this PC’s power supply is bad…” Sadie muttered as she fed a few thousand extra volts of electricity into the hard drive, causing the disk to instantly stop spinning as it welded itself together. She followed that up by frying the motherboard and making it look like the damage originated from the power supply.

Fifteen minutes later, John, the ‘helpful’ IT guy, finally made his appearance and Sadie acted surprised when the PC wouldn’t boot up or turn on. In addition to her PC ‘problem’, she didn’t like the little weasel at all. First of all, he was too nice and shamelessly flirted with her.  Second, he insulted her by treating her like she was a computer illiterate bimbo whose only job was to look pretty and serve her boss coffee.  Well, maybe not a ‘bimbo’, but he pissed her off and she didn’t feel the need to give him any slack.

She was pretty sure that if she was still a guy, the dude would’ve treated her much better. Thanks to Michelle’s warnings, she kind of expected it and she wasn’t really surprised. However, it was the realization that his name matched the email address the old system was forwarding emails to that really got her curious about exactly what was going on with her ‘friendly’ IT guy.   Was all the crap on the PC due to active sabotage or simply an accident?

“Can you fix it?” She asked, anxiously peering over his shoulder.

“It’s probably just a bad power supply. It’s pretty common for them to go bad.” John smiled at Sadie as if he just told her something she couldn’t have known. “I’ll just take it down to my shop and have it back to you in an hour or two, okay?”  He asked as he unplugged the PC and extracted it from under the desk.

“Umm, well, I could actually use a new laptop instead. Preferably one of those new, slim, touch screen things since I will be traveling with Mr. Rogers and I don’t want to lug around anything heavy…” Sadie smiled hopefully at him before glancing at the worthless hunk of metal he had in his hands.

Sadie could tell that he was about to tell her that a new laptop was impossible, but Sheila had arranged to signal her when Mr. Rogers entered the building to give her time to prepare herself for him.  The single ring from the front desk on her complicated phone system was the signal and it had come in almost a minute ago.

As she predicted, John shook his head in denial and pretended to give her request consideration, but Sadie could easily tell he was going to tell her that it was impossible. “Miss Williamson, I’m sorry, while an older laptop might be available, our department has just began evaluating the newer touch screen models and they haven’t been approved-”

Mr. Rogers timed his entrance perfectly.

Sadie stood and greeted him with a smile. “Good morning sir! Your coffee is ready and I can bring you a cup as soon as this nice gentleman from the IT department is done.” She gestured to the now anxious-looking IT guy. “John here was helping me with my PC, but it looks like this one is fried and I might need a new one. Unfortunately, it sounds like the laptop  I want is too new for the company.” She sighed with regret as if she accepted the IT guy’s official pronouncement.

Mr. Rogers glanced over at John. “Get her what she wants. Got it?”

John gulped and nodded. “Yes sir.”

Mr. Rogers dismissed John with a glance, while Sadie moved to the coffee station.  She could sense his studying her every move as she calmly prepared his cup exactly as Mrs. Rogers had suggested.  She wasn’t sure if she should feel demeaned by serving a man coffee when she should be working as an accountant or that serving her boss coffee was simply being a good hostess. She was at work, but maybe it wouldn’t feel so wrong if she thought of it like serving a guest coffee or beer when they visit your house.

Sadie followed Mr. Rogers into his office and anxiously handed him his cup once he was settled into his chair.  He raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he glanced briefly at his cup before taking the first sip. She was rewarded by his sigh of gratitude as he leaned back in his chair and contentedly smiled up at Sadie. “This is the first cup of coffee in two years that was perfect and you did it on the first day.”

Sadie felt unexpectedly pleased by his honest praise, but she covered her traitorous emotion by reviewing his schedule. “Sir, before the old PC died, I noticed you had an appointment this afternoon with the CEO of GenTech. Is that still valid or was the calendar on that PC out of date?”

“Hmm, who is their CEO again?” Mr. Rogers steepled his fingers as he studied her reaction.

“Kent Johansson and the meeting is at someplace called ‘The Pembroke Club’ at 12:30.” Sadie promptly answered, keeping her tone all business as she reviewed the data she extracted from the PC. “I don’t have email yet, but I could call his assistant to confirm the appointment or cancel it for you.”

“No, that won’t be necessary Sadie. Kent and I touched base earlier this week and it’s still a go.”  Mr. Rogers glanced down at his desk, reached into a drawer, pulled out folder and handed it to her. “Please review this before our meeting.”

Sadie glanced curiously at the folder before she tucked it under her arm. “Yes, sir.” She wanted to ask him what she should look for, but figured it was another test.

It was her first day on the job. Mr. Rogers didn’t expect her to join him at what looked like it might be an important meeting with a client, did he?