Adultery All In My Head by xleglover-COMPLETED

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"Mike, stop," she said grabbing me. "We've both been so busy. Let's not fight okay?"

I took a deep breath. "You're right, I'm sorry." I hugged her. "I guess I'm stressed about work."

"Is everything alright?"

I thought of the anomaly. But I said, "Yeah, just a lot to do."

We had a nice day and we made love that night, but still everything wasn't right between us.

We hardly saw each other because of our jobs, and when we did it felt like we were both walking on egg shells. Each time I saw her I was afraid she'd say something like, "Mike, we need to talk, this isn't working for me, I'm not feeling it ..."

A week later Jen told me she had to go to Vegas that weekend. Google execs were at a big tradeshow at the Venetian and this was a good chance for networking. "Allie and Scott will be going with me," she said.

"Okay," I said, feeling my stomach tighten up.

Then she delivered the bombshell. "It's Scott's birthday this weekend. I'd like to ... hang out with him."

When had "hang out" become "fuck his brains out"?

"Okay," I said again, feeling numb. What else could I say? They'd be together all weekend, they'd do it no matter what I said.

She rubbed my arm. "Are you okay? I won't if you don't want me to, it's not a big deal."

I shrugged. "I'm okay with it," I lied. What was the point?

She eyed me. "You look upset. Good upset? Bad upset?"

I forced a smile. "I'm not upset at all," I said lying again.

That night she tried to seduce me. That's how I started thinking of it. Seduce me to make me feel better, so she wouldn't feel guilty being with Scott. Deep down I knew it was unfair, but I couldn't help thinking it, I was hurting too much.

I gave her the "I'm too tired excuse" again. In bed she rolled her way and I rolled mine.

Then on Thursday the shit hit the fan.

We got the latest performance data on Sapphire. Its return was lower than my projection. Not a lot, but moving down. It didn't make sense.

Then Brian, Steve and Elaine came into my office. Their faces looked like death. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"The brainiacs just called about the anomaly," Elaine said.

"Okay, what?" I asked.

Just then Eric burst in. "Mike, my office, now!" he practically shouted.

Eric closed the door as we walked into his office. Old man Jacob and three other powerful partners were there, Moe, Larry, and Curly (that wasn't really their names, but everyone called them that behind their back). The number crunchers were there via video conference. So were partners in Chicago and London. This did not look good.

"Have you seen the anomaly analysis?" Moe demanded.

I shook my head. "We just received it."

"Well let us enlighten you!" Larry yelled. "Sapphire doesn't fucking work!"

"This is a disaster," Curly said putting his head in his hands. "A fucking disaster."

The number crunchers said the fundamentals of Sapphire were all wrong. That was the reason for the anomaly. The brainiacs said the problem was with the alpha progression, it was all wrong, a major fuck up. But it was clear the brainiacs didn't know what they were talking about. They hadn't figure out what was wrong. I hadn't either so I couldn't defend myself.

"This is a fucking nightmare!" a Chicago partner yelled. "This is worse than Enron, worse than the home mortgage scam, worse than the auto bailout!"

A partner from London said "Sapphire is a farce. Our clients will lose everything – tens, hundreds of millions. Expect law suits gentlemen."

Always the pessimist, Curly nodded his head, resigned. "People are going to jail over this."

Jacob held up his hand, and everyone stopped talking. "Calm down," he said. "This can be managed, as long as we are proactive. Mike, who is in charge of the alpha progression?"

"It's a team effort," I said immediately.

Jacob frowned at my answer. One of the brainiacs said, "Brian is in charge of Alpha, and Steve assisted."

Larry knew where Jacob was going. "Fire Brian right now," Larry ordered me.

A Chicago partner said, "That won't be enough. Steve needs to go too."

"You're right," Larry said nodding. "Mike, fire Brian and Steve right now, today," he ordered me. "Fire that kid too, the blonde with the big tits, what's her name, Elaine?"

"I worked on Alpha too," I said.

"Mike, your job is safe," Eric said reassuringly. "Everyone still believes Sapphire was a brilliant idea. You still have a great future here."

All the partners nodded, agreeing with Eric. Old man Jacob nodded too, and said "It's not your fault. Your team let you down Mike. Brian, Steve and Elaine need to go."

I thought of Brian and Steve, guys I'd worked with for years. They were my friends. Their careers would be severely damaged if they were fired over this. I thought of Brain's 2 kids, his wife pregnant with their third. How would he support them? And Elaine was just starting out in her career. Could she recover from something like this?

I looked Jacob in the eye. "No sir," I said.

"What did you say?" Jacob said in a low dangerous voice.

"That's not the way to do it sir," I said. "I can fix Sapphire. But I need my entire team to do that."

"It can't be fixed," one of the brainiacs said.

"Fire them right now!" Larry growled.

I stared down the brainiac, somehow maintaining my cool. "You looked at Sapphire weeks ago and blessed it. You say Sapphire is broken but you can't explain why. Why aren't you being fired?"

Then I glared at Larry, but I still managed to keep my voice level. "I'm team leader. Fire me if you want. Only cowards look for scapegoats to save their own skin. "

There was a gasp in the room. No one talked to partners like that. I knew my career was over no matter what happened with Sapphire.

Old man Jacob eyed me, an amused interested look. He said "You have until Monday morning, before the markets open." Then he added "If Sapphire is not fixed by then there will be dire consequences." It wasn't a threat, more like a statement of fact.

"Yes sir," I said. I turned and left. As I did Eric was shaking his head. I went into my office and closed the door. My hands were shaking and I found it hard to breath. I felt the world crashing down on me.

There was a knock, and my team walked in. "How it go?" Brian asked.

I needed to see Jen. She was flying to Vegas tonight. We'd kissed goodbye that morning, but she planned to stop by our apartment on the way to the airport.

"I'll be back in an hour," I told Brian. "Be here when I get back, all of you."

Jen was finishing packing when I got home. "This is a surprise," she said kissing me.

I hugged her. I had an urge to pack a bag and take her away, fly to Europe or something, away from Scott, away from Sapphire. But I had to stay. I had to fix Sapphire, if only for Brian, Steve and Elaine.

"Are you okay?" she said worried, looking into my face.

"Yeah," I lied. "I just wanted to see you before you left."

"I'm glad you did," she said smiling running her hand up my chest. Looking at my face she frowned again. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied.

"You know, about Scott--"

I interrupted her. "It's okay, it's his birthday, I'm good with it."

She was about to say something when my cell rang. It was Eric. "Mike, where the hell are you?" he said sounding panicked.

"Jen's going to Vegas for work," I explained.

"Then give her a kiss goodbye and get your ass back here!" he said the panic rising.

"I've got to get back," I told her.

"Okay," she said. "It'll wait until I get back. I'll be home Sunday night." She looked at me concerned. "Is everything alright at work?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," I lied. I kissed her and then hugged her really tight. I didn't want to let her go. Then her taxi arrived and we broke way.

"See you Sunday baby," she said kissing me. "I'll call you okay?"

"Okay," I agreed, forcing a smile.

In the taxi back to the office, I imagined the next few days. I'd probably get fired no matter what happened with Sapphire. But hopefully I could save Steve, Brian and Elaine's jobs, and make back some of the money for our clients so they wouldn't be financially ruined.

Would Jen stay with me if I got fired? I'd have a hard time finding another job with the Sapphire fiasco. Why wouldn't she jump ship to Scott? She clearly had feelings for him. He was better looking, a better lover, and he'd have a good job and bright future, unlike me. I'd be damaged goods. Why would a girl as beautiful as Jen want to stay with a loser like me?

My team and I worked all evening, and then again Friday. It didn't make sense. Everything worked. We checked and re-checked. We couldn't find any bugs. Yes, the anomaly was there, and it seemed to be coming from the Alpha module, but we couldn't figure out why. I personally went through the Alpha software line by line and couldn't see any bugs. What the hell was going on?

Jen called Thursday night. She was surprised I was still at the office. I was still there when she called Friday morning. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I lied. I didn't want to tell her what was going on. If she told Scott and Allie, they'd use this failure as another way to belittle me in her eyes. I'd wait to tell her when she was back home.

There was always a lot of background noise when she called, a lot of partying. It was Vegas after all. I heard Scott in the background, talking over me as I tried to talk to her. More than once Jen giggled and said on the phone to me, "I've got to go honey, call you later."

I imagined her tossing the phone into her purse, me already forgotten. She'd walk off laughing with him, looking into his eyes, his arm around her or holding his hand, getting closer and closer to him.