"Jack!"
Jack jumped backwards. His lab stool hit the floor and bounced twice; his multimeter swung from the probe he was holding and rapped him smartly on the breastbone. "Darnit, Jan! Don't do that!" He prodded his chest gingerly. That was going to bruise for sure.
Jan didn't look very apologetic. In fact she looked pretty pleased with herself—or with him.
"Why, Jack," she said, "I don't think I've ever heard you swear. That was—" She paused and considered. "—Lame. Very lame. Pathetic, even."
Jack grinned. "Yeah. I guess it was, wasn't it?" He put down the multimeter and righted the stool. "So how do I merit a special yelling visit? I only paid for nonyelling."
"You were resting your eyes so assiduously the first two times I called you, that I decided to throw in the third time for free."
"I was sleeping? What time is it?"
"Not that bad," she assured him. "It's only ten o'clock. I was doing a little work on my own time on the company computer, and noticed your light still on. But you look awful, Jack—the circles under your eyes are starting to get circles under their eyes. Go home!"
Jack yawned. "You're right. It's just that I don't think I'll ever get a good night's sleep again until I crack this thing."
"Look at it this way—if it's going to be bad no matter what you do, would you rather have a bad night's sleep in bed, or a bad night's sleep bent over a lab bench?"
"Point taken." He stretched. The idea of bed seemed very welcoming right then. "Come on, I'll walk you to your car."
Jack killed his bench light and locked the screen on his workstation. Jan flipped the overheads off, and they were out the door. All the other offices on the corridor were already dark. They headed for the stairs.
"I got a call today," Jan said, "from an old friend at Rockwell. I've had my feelers out, and he says they're hiring. I told you I've got other offers. If I get this one, I think I'll have to take it. Shall I pass him your résumé, too? He's connected—it'll completely bypass Personnel."
Jack held the stairwell door open and they started down. "Thanks, Jan. I've got my own in at Rockwell, but I'm not ready to use it. For now I'll tough it out here." He listened to his steps echoing in the stairwell and thought about working somewhere else, doing something else. "Where else am I going to get a chance to work on spaceships? To ride one? NASA? Forget it. It's been more than twenty-five years since they put a man on the moon, and they'd wet their shorts if anyone asked them to do it again." He gave Jan a tired smile. "I'm going to stick here until the bank starts carting off the furniture."
They came out into the front lobby, and walked out into the parking lot. The night air was damp, but clean. The storm had moved off towards Raleigh. Jack waited while Jan rattled the doors behind them. The locks held.
"I hear what you're saying," she said. She arched an eyebrow. "But are you sure that's your real reason?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, but that was more a formality than anything; he figured he already knew what she was aiming at.
"You couldn't have some other type of launch on your mind, could you? You know . . . what we were talking about the other day."
He'd been right. "Yeah, I remember, but—"
Jan reached up and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him down to her eye level. "Jack, I'm serious," she said. "Rhea's interested in you. I'm sure of it."
"She tell you this?"
"No. But she didn't have to. I've seen the way she looks at you. I've seen the expression on her face when your name comes up. You can go for it, or you can screw it up."
"Or I can get fired for sexual harassment."
Jan let go of his shoulder and grinned once more. "No," she said, "you can't harass your boss. Shit doesn't flow uphill—but if you play your cards right, you can be the harassee."
He stood by her car as she opened the driver's door of the '55 and slid smoothly under the wheel. The dome light shone down on the trackless reaches of the back seat and Jack appreciated for the first time exactly what he had missed by being a teenager in the age of economy cars.
She caught him lusting at her vehicle again and said, "Beats the hell out of a Volkswagen Rabbit, doesn't it?" She keyed the ignition. Jack nodded agreement, and stepped back. She dropped the three-on-the-tree into first, popped the clutch, and roared off for Cornwallis Road.
Jack watched bemusedly for a second, then got into his own car, where he sat and thought. Maybe Jan was right. Should he make a serious play for Rhea? Jan was sure. Jan, however, was also sure that if Harrison Ford stopped into Celestial just once, he would fall head-over-heels in love with her and ask her to marry him. He needed to keep that little data point in mind before turning his life over because of something Jan said.
Right now, he was one out of two in the relationship arena. That wasn't a great record, but he'd hate to drop it to one out of three. He especially didn't want to go to one out of three by being pushy. He yawned and turned the key.
The Camry started smoothly and ran like silk. It might not have the flash and power of a '55 Chevy, but he'd love to see anyone get three hundred thousand miles on today's Detroit iron. Before he could take that thought any farther, a car turned off Cornwallis and headed across the lot straight at him. He was caught like a possum in the headlights. He gripped the wheel and spun it frantically with his left hand while his right slammed the stick shift at the elusive reverse, the bane of all Toyotas. The shift clicked home, and he threw out the clutch. The Camry bucked but didn't move. The brake! He released the hand brake and the car began to pivot, but there was no way he was going to make it. His heart was pounding and sweat rolled down his forehead. Jack braced for a crash.
Suddenly the oncoming lights swerved to the side, and he heard the screech of brakes as the other car came to a stop beside him. Gradually his dazzled eyes began to work again, and he could see Jan rolling down her driver's window.
"Hey," she called. "You were looking pretty ragged when I pulled out. Just wanted to make sure you didn't drive home asleep. I could just see you forgetting and going in the front door."
Jack pried his hand from the wheel. There were new indentations in the hard plastic. The front and back of his shirt were soaked with sweat and he was aware of each individual beat of his heart. "Thanks, Jan," he said finally. "I don't think sleep will be a problem now."
She threw him a cheerful wave, yelled, "Great," and peeled back out of the parking lot.
He watched her taillights as she left again, then turned his car off and got out as the engine rumbled to a stop. He thumbed around his key ring for his building key. He was suddenly wide awake. Might as well make some use of it.