Everything to Everyone

by Sherryl Hancock

  “I’ll give you a list of her priority projects,” Rayden told her. “She can take smaller projects, but you’re going to need to talk to her about timing on things. I’m not sure if she’s fully aware that there are only twenty-four hours in a day and that she has to sleep at some point.” Rayden said the last winking at Shiloh.

  “I’ll make sure I remind her of that often,” Shiloh said, grinning.

  “Good plan,” Rayden said, laughing.

  Chapter 2

  Shiloh began going to meetings with Harley. During the meetings she’d take notes and ask whatever questions she needed to in order to have a conversation with Harley afterwards. She noticed that Harley looked surprised when she asked questions in the meetings.

  In one meeting, she inserted herself into the conversation by stopping Harley from saying she could take on the project. Shiloh instead told the manager that they’d get back to her about whether or not Harley had time in her schedule for this particular project. Once again, Harley looked surprised by Shiloh’s statement, but said nothing.

  “Okay, so what kind of time will this project take?” Shiloh asked as she sat down opposite Harley’s desk back in her office.

  Harley looked back at her surprised by the question, then looked like she was calculating the time. Finally, she shook her head.

  “Not sure, I need to look at what all is involved.”

  “Okay, what does that entail?” Shiloh asked.

  “Well, I need to see what they are using right now,” Harley said, still looking befuddled by all the questions Shiloh was asking.

  “What do you need to know about what they’re using?” Shiloh asked then, undaunted.

  “I need to see what operating system it is, what the program is, what language it’s written in…” Harley said, seeing that Shiloh was writing it all down and nodding.

  “And I should be able to find that out, right?” Shiloh said.

  Harley looked back at her for a long moment. “I said I need to…”

  “I know, and I’m saying that I can check it out and tell you,” Shiloh said.

  “What do you know about code language?” Harley asked.

  “Well, I know there are a number of them, but I know that some of the more in demand languages are SQL, Java, Javascript, C Hashtag”

  “C Sharp,” Harley corrected, with a grin.

  “Oh, is that how you say that one? Okay. And then there’s Python and, um, C++?” She queried the last one.

  “Right,” Harley said, smiling, finding it endearing that Shiloh had apparently done some research on coding to try to be helpful.

  “And the other ones I read about were PHP, IOS, and Ruby on Rails.”

  Harley grinned, nodding. “Okay, and how are you going to know what the program is written in?”

  “Google?” Shiloh replied, smiling.

  Harley pressed her lips together, finding it endlessly amusing that Shiloh was trying so hard to help her.

  “We’ll talk about how much it’s not that easy later,” Harley said her blue eyes dancing amusement. “But I suppose what you can do is sit down with them and get their business process for what they’re doing now and how they do it and why it’s not working for them.”

  “What will that tell you?” Shiloh asked.

  “It’ll tell me if I need to create a whole new program, or if I can just fix what they’ve got by adding some coding.”

  “So one takes a long time, the other not as much,” Shiloh clarified.

  “Exactly,” Harley said nodding. “Then I need to help them test it and verify, and then go forward.”

  “Okay, but can I do that part?” Shiloh asked.

  “Which part?” Harley asked, her mind already racing with everything she needed to do that day.

  Shiloh could see she was losing Harley’s attention. Harley was reaching over to plug in her phone, which meant her music would start soon, and it would be impossible to get her back. Reaching out, Shiloh put her hand on Harley’s arm, feeling Harley jump slightly when she did.

  “Just stay with me for one more minute, okay?” Shiloh said her look serious. “Can I work on the testing stuff with the program? They just need to test out your changes to their program and see if it works, right?”

  “Right,” Harley said, grinning. “And yeah I guess you could do that part… Getting them to test stuff is always the hardest part, they don’t understand it.”

  “Okay,” Shiloh said, nodding her head. “I’m going to read up on that part. You go ahead and get to whatever you were doing. I’ll leave you alone for a couple of hours.”

  “Okay,” Harley said, nodding, already starting to open programs on her computer.

  Shiloh shook her head. The woman was singularly minded.

  Shiloh had found out quickly that Harley’s tendency to forget things interfered greatly with her personal life. She forgot dates, birthdays, holidays, and her tendency to stay at the office all hours of the night didn’t help either. Shiloh was finding that lesbians tended to get paranoid when their girlfriend didn’t come home at night.

  She had this graphically illustrated to her a soon after she started working for Harley.

  The woman Harley was dating at that time came storming into the office. She barely slowed at Shiloh’s desk, so Shiloh had to jump up to follow her as she threw the door open to Harley’s office. She walked into the woman screaming at Harley.

  “Who the fuck is it, Harley!” the woman, a diminutive blond, yelled.

  Harley, who’d obviously just been dragged out of some kind of programmers trance, looked back at the woman like she couldn’t comprehend what she was asking.

  “Who is what?” Harley asked, looking completely baffled.

  “Whoever you’re fucking behind my back!” the woman yelled.

  Shiloh quickly closed Harley’s door behind her, staying in the office in the event that she needed to call security.

  Harley looked back at the blond for a long moment her mouth open, then she shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  The woman put her hands on her hips, her look accusatory. “You didn’t come home last night!”

  Harley’s eyes widened. “I was here last night,” she said, holding up her hand in futility.

  “Right, sure you were,” the woman said, looking unconvinced. “If you want to break it off Harley, just tell me.” She said the last with a sigh.

  Harley’s mouth dropped open, then she closed it, still looking baffled. Then a look of defeat crossed her face as she shrugged.

  “If that’s what you want, fine,” Harley said, her tone dispirited.

  “Fine!” the woman yelled, and then turned to storm out of the office.

  Shiloh, who was leaning against the door trying to remain inconspicuous, scrambled to open the door and get out of the way. The woman threw her a nasty look as she stormed past. Shiloh looked back over at Harley, who sat looking rather stunned.

  “Are you okay?” Shiloh asked.

  Harley looked back at her for a long moment, and Shiloh knew she wasn’t really seeing her at all. Finally, Harley blinked slowly, swallowing convulsively and then nodded, turning back to her computer and turning her music back up. Shiloh bit her lip in concern, but knew she needed to leave Harley alone.

  Shiloh got the opportunity to ask questions of someone who knew Harley a day or two later. She met Devin Boché when she came to the office and stopped in to say hi to Harley. Devin walked up to Shiloh’s desk, smiling, her bright green eyes sparkling.

  “So, you’re the poor soul they hired for Harley?” Devin asked, grinning.

  Shiloh looked up at the woman standing at her desk. She was beautiful, but also a bit quirky looking with purple streaks in her black hair and multiple piercings in her ears. She was dressed very stylishly with her makeup matching her mint-green shirt and jewelry.

  “I’m Shiloh,” Shiloh told the woman.

  “I’m Devin Boché,” Devin said, extending her hand
to Shiloh.

  “You’re the one who recommended Harley to SAC Black Wolf,” Shiloh remembered, as she took Devin’s hand and shook it.

  Devin nodded. “Yeah, she and I went to MIT together. I knew she was the best programmer out there, who was willing to work for the light side of the force.” She said the last with a wink.

  Shiloh chuckled, nodding. “Well I’m trying to make sure she can keep doing that without killing herself.”

  “And I appreciate that,” Devin said, smiling. “So if there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”

  “Actually there is,” Shiloh said holding up her finger. “Would you have time to grab some coffee sometime?”

  Devin looked at her watch, a very expensive looking Movado. “I have time after I say a quick hi to Harley. Can you break away?”

  Shiloh took a quick look at Harley’s calendar. “Yeah, she’s got another two hours of programming time before I drive her insane about eating lunch,” she said, smiling widely.

  Devin laughed at that, nodding. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

  Devin walked into Harley’s office without bothering to knock, and left the door open so Shiloh could see what she did next. She walked over to stand behind Harley who didn’t even seem to have noticed Devin’s entrance. She put her hands on each of Harley’s shoulders and leaned down, kissing her on the cheek. Harley immediately stopped typing and turned her head to the side, glancing up and back at Devin, smiling.

  “What’re you doin’ here?” Harley asked, as Devin moved to lean on Harley’s work surface next to her.

  “Had to come talk to Jericho about a case they’re looking at having me consult on.”

  Harley nodded. “Cool.”

  “Okay, well, I don’t want to bug you, I know you’re busy,” Devin said, leaning down to kiss Harley on the head. “I’m stealing your assistant for a little bit though.”

  “Okay,” Harley said, grinning.

  Devin walked out of the office and heard the music go right back up. She just grinned and shook her head.

  “Come on,” Devin said, nodding her head to Shiloh.

  Twenty minutes later, they were settled with coffee in a corner of the cafeteria upstairs.

  “So what do you need to know?” Devin asked.

  “How well do you know Harley?” Shiloh asked, unsure if she should really ask all the questions she had.

  Devin shrugged slightly. “Probably better than anyone else here, why?”

  “Does her… I don’t know what to call it…”

  “ADHD, insanity, one-track mind…” Devin supplied.

  “Right, all that,” Shiloh said, waving her hand around in a circle to encompass all that Devin had just said. “Does all of that cause her relationship problems?”

  Devin looked back at her, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Always,” she said simply.

  “Does she even understand why?” Shiloh asked. “I mean, I know how that sounds, but I don’t mean it to be mean… You know?”

  Devin grinned as she took a sip of her coffee. “The answer is that, no she doesn’t get it at all,” she said. “She goes along being her, she draws women in, unintentionally most of the time; she just has that cool, aloof vibe. The problem is that once they’re with her, they expect her to pay attention to them. That’s where the problems start.”

  “She doesn’t pay attention to them?” Shiloh asked.

  “She does when she’s there, but then she’s… well, here or home on the computer, or in her head at The Club… And they get sick of it… That’s when the games start.”

  “The games?” Shiloh asked.

  “Yeah, the pay-attention-to-me games,” Devin said, her green eyes sparkling in malice. “Some of them just blow her phone up, others get dramatic, others pull stunts to get her attention, and it’s really bad sometimes.”

  “Like what kind of stunts?” Shiloh asked, sounding concerned.

  “One chick got really drunk and got herself into a huge fight with a butch that had Harley getting in the middle of it,” Devin said, shaking her head. “She ended up in the emergency room when the other chick pulled a knife on her. Harley can fight, but she’s not equipped to handle crazy.”

  “So this girl just got into a fight to get Harley to pay attention to her?” Shiloh asked, shocked.

  “Unfortunately,” Devin said. “But that was before she was hanging with the group. Now we keep an eye on her, at least at The Club.”

  “The group,” Shiloh murmured. “I’ve heard of them a few times.”

  Devin grinned. “Well, it’s just a group of us that have ended up connected in one way or another. We do stuff together; Harley was an easy addition.”

  Shiloh nodded. “I’m glad she has that at least,” she said. “Some girl walked into her office the other day screaming at her about not coming home.”

  Devin rolled her eyes. “That would have been Sheri. She was a bit psychotic, afraid that Harley was cheating on her all the time.”

  “Yeah, that’s what she thought. At least that’s what she screamed at Harley, anyway.”

  Devin nodded. “How’d Harley take it?”

  Shiloh shook her head, looking frustrated. “She just gave up and let the woman break up with her.”

  Devin shook her head slowly. “Yeah, Harley’s not about confrontation.”

  “I can see that,” Shiloh said. “I just felt so bad for her.”

  Devin looked at Shiloh, wondering. “So can I ask you something?”

  “Sure,” Shiloh said.

  “What happened between you and Harley back in high school?”

  Shiloh was taken aback, she wasn’t aware that anyone knew about that.

  “Why? What did Harley say?” she asked, worried suddenly.

  “She just said that you were the headmaster’s daughter and that she got kicked out of school for making out with you.”

  “Did she say what school it was?”

  “No, what difference does that make?”

  “Because it was a private Christian high school,” Shiloh said. “And what happened between Harley and me was a huge violation of the school’s honor code.”

  “And what happened?” Devin asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

  Shiloh bit her lip, looking hesitant.

  “Would it help if I tell you that I was her first in college?” Devin asked.

  Shiloh’s mouth dropped open in shock. “You were?”

  “Yeah, and she was mine,” Devin said, smiling fondly.

  “Wow,” Shiloh said, truly surprised. “I don’t know if it helps, but I guess maybe you understand how easy it is to get drawn into her.”

  Devin nodded. “Yes, I do. Like I said, she draws women to her all the time, even when she doesn’t try. She never seems to get what she did.”

  Shiloh laughed softly. “That would actually kind of explain our encounter,” she said, smiling as she shook her head.

  They were in Shiloh’s room at her parents’ house. Harley was trying to help her study for the final exam. Shiloh was beyond nervous. Over the last few months, she and Harley had come to a kind of a friendly relationship, not that she ever acknowledged Harley at school. Her friends would never understand that at all! Harley never seemed to care. It was apparent from Harley’s appearance that she hadn’t slept the night before. It was for that reason that Shiloh wasn’t surprised when she asked a question and Harley didn’t answer. She looked over and saw that Harley was asleep on her bed. Harley was lying across the bed with her legs dangling at over the edge.

  Shiloh got up and walked around to look down at Harley. She saw that Harley was really a pretty girl, and could be so much prettier with makeup and better clothes. Sometimes Shiloh felt bad that she had so much when kids like Harley didn’t have anything it seemed. Well, her father was a biker, what kind of job would that mean he had? Shiloh heard that the guy was never home and when he did come home, he was a drunk.

  She was still looking down at Harley when the girl op
ened her blue eyes. Shiloh was struck by how blue they were. She found herself smiling down at Harley.

  “You have such pretty blue eyes,” she said, her tone wondrous.

  “I like yours better,” Harley said, smiling wistfully.

  “Why?” Shiloh asked, moving to sit on the floor next to where Harley’s head lay.

  Harley turned over on her side, looking at her.

  “They’re just really different,” Harley said, smiling tiredly. “So, do you think you’re ready for the test tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to remember everything I need to remember the formulas and all that,” Shiloh said, shaking her head.

  “You can, you just have to know that,” Harley said, smiling, her blue eyes sparkling.

  “You really think so?” Shiloh asked, looking doubtful.

  “Yeah I do,” Harley said, her look sincere.

  Shiloh looked back at Harley and their eyes connected for that long moment. Shiloh felt something shift in her heart; she didn’t understand it, but suddenly she was focused on Harley’s lips. Harley’s look flickered and, as if in slow motion, she reached her hand out to touch Shiloh’s cheek, sliding to the back of her head and pulling her slightly forward. Shiloh shifted forward, trembling as she did. Their lips were so close; Shiloh could feel Harley’s breath on her cheek. Their eyes connected and they paused, Harley’s eyes searched Shiloh’s. Shiloh closed the slight distance between them, pressing her lips to Harley’s.

  They both jolted slightly as their lips connected and Harley’s hand at the back of Shiloh’s head tightened slightly. Shiloh moaned softly and Harley immediately deepened the kiss, moving her other hand to caress Shiloh’s cheek. Shiloh reached up her shaking hand and touched Harley’s cheek as they continued to kiss.

  Suddenly Shiloh realized what she was doing and she thought about what her father would say. She quickly pulled away.

  “I can’t, I’m sorry, I can’t,” Shiloh said, moving back.

  Harley looked shocked for a moment, but then started to nod as she sat up, looking a bit shell-shocked.