Seven
Archer
I drowned in a pool of images. I saw the woman. She was blond and tall, but I couldn’t remember her name. Snippets of conversation came back to me. She told me she owned a bakery, and that she hated it. Little details were no problem, but there was no chronological order to the events of last night, and there were pieces missing in my head.
“Oh, no.” I opened my eyes and sat up in bed. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t drink a single drop of alcohol last night. I would’ve remembered that, but I felt like I blacked out. Why? Was something wrong with me? Should I have gotten a checkup? The only explanation I could think of was that I was so tired that I was nodding off, but she didn’t notice. Did she? Maybe she did, and she didn’t say anything, or maybe she did, and I didn’t remember.
I could still smell her perfume, like sandalwood and vanilla. She was in my room. I knew that much, but we didn’t have sex. My pants were still on. She must’ve left when I passed out. I tried to remember her name while I made my bed. She told me. I was sure she did, but I must’ve spaced out.
I stood up to inspect my bed. It was perfect. When I turned around, I saw a neatly folded piece of paper sitting on my nightstand. It had her number written on it, and her name—Zoe. I held it up, staring at her bubbly handwriting. I wanted to call her, but I knew that I couldn’t. There was no way that a woman who worked as much as she probably did would ever stick around once she found out I was a father. She had a business to run, just like I did.
I knew that I had to forget about her, but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of her number. I saved it in my phone and started getting ready. Mona had texted me last night to tell me that the boys were fine and that she wanted to bring them by when I got off so she could give them some time to rest. I texted her back and told her that it was okay. It would give me some quiet time to get my head straight while I got ready.
I kept trying to put the pieces back together, focusing as hard as I could on what happened, but all I got was a blank space and some vague notion that I made an ass out of myself. Images did come, but they weren’t very clear. I saw lights moving over a dark bar, a strange man with thick glasses. Now I remembered. He was trying to talk to Zoe, but she didn’t want him to, and her friend was ready to attack him. I had a pretty good idea about what happened last night. I just didn’t like the idea of not knowing everything. I was used to being in control.
The phone calls started early. The Navy was testing the Hawkeye, and the higher-ups had a million questions about the device. The office workers were just as bad. There were some board members coming in that afternoon, and they were all running around trying to make sure that everything was perfect. Now that I’d finally gotten some sleep, I had a chance to make up for the time I lost at work. I worked as fast as I could, sending message after message, making as many phone calls as possible. There was no time to waste.
When I got to the office, things were in better order. Several people were waiting to speak with me in the hallway outside my office. I listened to each one, offered them the best solutions I could, and moved on. People were mostly concerned about whether or not they were going in the right direction. That was the important thing at Sans Contracting. We had to push out new technology as consistently as we could, which meant that we had to focus our research on obtainable goals that we knew would get results. It wasn’t easy. Most of the time we had to focus on improving existing technology rather than creating something new.
Angela was on the phone when I walked into the reception area. She waved me down and motioned for me to come over to where she was sitting. “Just a second,” she said, before putting the phone on mute. “That guy from the testing department has been looking for you.”
“Did he say why?”
“Something about the Hawkeye. He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Oh, all right.” I grabbed the coffee she had set out for me and carried my things to my office. So far as I knew, the Hawkeye was working the way it was supposed to. There were no signs of glitches, and if there were, Rick would’ve caught them by now. I’d never admit it to him, but he was my best mechanic.
I went over my messages, called everyone I could, and started on the stack of forms. I wanted to get as much done as I possibly could before I walked down the warehouse, and I was making good headway when I heard the knock on my door.
“Come in.”
Angela opened the door and walked in. “The guy from the testing department is here to see you.”
“Tell him to come in.”
Rick looked like hell. His eyes were baggy with half-moon circles weighing down his cheeks and eyes so red he looked like he’d been smoking weed for a month straight. He slumped down into the chair across from me.
“How’s your head?” I asked.
“Like something’s piercing through my skull.” He lifted his hand to block off the light from the window behind me.
“Tell me.” I leaned back casually. “How could anyone as stupid as you possibly get through the Navy?”
“I was gonna say the same thing about you.”
“Did you, do it?” I asked.
“Do what?”
“Oh, come on. That girl was fine as fuck, and she was all over you.”
“Nah, I got too drunk and had to call a cab back. She left right after.”
“Ooh.” I cringed.
“What about you? I saw the way that girl was looking at you. She wanted you bad.”
“She did,” I reaffirmed.
“So?”
I sighed. “I don’t think we did anything.”
“What do you mean, you don’t think? You either did it, or you didn’t.”
“I don’t remember. I think I passed out before we could.”
“Dude…”
“You remember how I was. I can’t even remember everything that happened; it was so hazy.”
“That sucks. Maybe we should try again.”
“Nah, it’s not worth it.”
“You like her,” he said.
“I don’t know. She didn’t seem to mind that I passed out. In fact, she left her number on my nightstand.”
“Call her.” He met my eyes. “I don’t care what you’re worried about. You want this girl, and she wants you. What more could you ask for?”
“A chance.”
“Whatever.” Rick wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. “Look, I’ve got some ideas for the Hawkeye. I was hoping to run them by you.”
“All right.”
“We’ve got every sensor we want, and we’re constantly expanding on them and building more, but each one is its own separate unit, which raises costs and forces the Navy to pay more for our products. I was thinking that we could integrate all the sensors into one unit. That way, we can save space, lower the cost of the unit, and work on one sensory device that we upgrade at regular intervals.”
“You’re a genius.”
“So, you’re gonna tell the board?”
“I’m gonna get to work on it right away.”
The muddy look in his eyes faded for just a moment. A smile crossed his lips. Then he went serious and looked me right in the eye. “Call her, Archer.”
“Okay. Okay. You’ve said your piece.”
“All right, man. I’m gonna get back to work.” He got up and left.
I wanted to call Zoe. I couldn’t think of anything else. Rick was right. I wanted her, and she wanted me. Maybe I could take a risk. She didn’t know that I had the twins. I could send them over to Mona’s for the night, so we could be alone together. It could work.