Measure of a Man

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On a Thursday a few weeks later, Lucy walked into the bullpen with her large cup of hot black tea, just as she did every day. Lucy began to hum the tune that she had in her head the day that she and Mike first did laundry together. She remembered that afternoon, and with a smile, sat down at her desk in the bullpen. After all, who would have thought on that day that she and Mike would eventually be so happy with each other?

The boss walked into the center of the bullpen. "Ok guys," hollered the boss, "listen up. We're going to have a special guest in here next week to do some security training. He's going to teach us the latest and greatest techniques to hardening the security on the latest server version, as well as a few tricks on how to minimize downtime in the event of an equipment failure.

"I'm sure you'll welcome him with open arms. Our trainer will be our friend Brad, who moved to the Tucson office not too long ago. He'll be here for about three days, after which he'll be going back to Tucson for some more training himself."

Lucy nearly dropped her cup of tea into her lap. Brad was coming back? She paused in momentary fear, and then put her cup of tea on her desk.

"Chief?" Lucy said, "Do we need to do anything special, like give him access to anything, like his own cubicle or something?" Lucy knew she had to say something to keep from going into a noticeable panic attack.

The boss replied, "No, he has his own laptop and is bringing his own projector. But you may want to book the conference room so that we don't have anybody else grab it up."

Lucy took a deep breath. "Ok, boss. I'll take care of that."

After reserving the conference room, Lucy stood up and walked outside for a breath of fresh air. She pulled her cell phone out of her skirt pocket and called Mike.

"Hey babe. How are you today?"

"Hey Lucy. So great to hear your voice. Is everything ok?"

Lucy paused for a moment. "Lucy, is something wrong? What's going on?" asked Mike. Lucy sighed audibly. "Mike, we're having a training next week."

Mike said, "Ok, so are you going out of town or something?"

"It's Brad. He's coming to do the training," said Lucy, nervously. "I wanted you to hear it from me, as soon as I knew."

Mike said, "So, are you worried about that?" Lucy replied with a strained, "Yeah, a little bit." Mike said, in as calming a voice as he could muster, "Look, Lucy, you have to do whatever you have to do, ok? If we're going to be successful as a couple, we need to stick together and try to work with each other.

"I trust you. Whatever happened with you and Brad is in the past, right?"

Lucy took a deep breath. "Yes. Of course. I'm your girlfriend. I'm with you."

"Ok, then," said Mike, "I trust you. I'm not worried about you, or Brad, or anything else. If you say there's nothing there, I'm going to believe you. If you want to talk about it later, we can."

Lucy smiled. "You're too good to me, Mike. I love you. Maybe we can talk tonight." Mike replied, "I'll be in late, but if you're still up, text me and I'll come over."

After hanging up, Lucy was so relieved. She thought, if Mike isn't going to stress over this, then neither should I.

__________________________

The next Wednesday, Brad came into the office at 9 AM. Most of his former coworkers are excited to see him, since Brad was so well liked in the office. The one holdout was Lucy.

Lucy stood up from her desk. "Hi, Brad. Long time." Brad set eyes on Lucy, smiled, and said, "Wow, I'd forgotten how..." Brad realized his gaffe and said, "... how hot it gets in this place. Boss, hasn't anybody complained yet?" Lucy rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, nice to see you too."