Throwback

by Zeia Jameson

  “I guess,” I respond. I don’t know what time it is, but we haven’t been in here too long, so I’m guessing it’s middle afternoon or early evening by now. But I don’t care what time it is. Any opportunity to sleep with Jeremy wrapped around me is one that I will not pass up.

  Jeremy stands up and out of the tub and grabs a towel. He reaches for me to help me up. I step up and he wraps the towel around us both. He looks me in the eye. “Do you believe me? About what I said about your body? You are fucking sexy as hell and I don’t want you to think any differently. You are My Livy. My wife. The mother of my child. I fucking love you and you are fucking sexy. Clear?”

  I smile. “Crystal.”

  We dry off and head to the bedroom. We crawl into bed and, just as I had hoped, Jeremy drapes his entire body around me, exactly like he did when we were on the sofa earlier. “I love you, Livy,” he says just before I drift off. “I love you too, Jeremy.”

  My heart is full.

  The trunk is wise.

  I thought I’d lost myself but maybe I really didn’t.

  I thought I’d lost Jeremy but maybe not.

  At that moment just before I fall asleep, I think that perhaps everything is just as it should be.

  We sleep for seventeen hours.

  I wake in the same position I fell asleep. Jeremy is still wrapped around me. I don’t think we’ve moved the whole time we were lying here. As soon as I open my eyes, Jeremy kisses me on the neck. His facial scruff brushes against my skin and gives me goose bumps. “Good morning,” he says. His voice is husky and it makes me want to roll over and sit on top of him. He uses the arm and leg that are wrapped around me to squeeze me into a full length body hug.

  “Do you want some breakfast?” he asks.

  “Sure.”

  Slowly, we get up and dress and head into the kitchen. I call Rosalie to check up on Amelia while Jeremy rummages through the fridge for something to cook. While I’m talking to Rosalie, Jeremy’s phone rings.

  His work phone.

  Jeremy looks at me as if asking me what he should do. “Rosalie, I have to let you go.” I hang up before she has a chance to respond.

  “Are you going to answer it?”

  “I should. Marcus said he would only call if it was an emergency.”

  I huff and wave my hand. “Fine. Go.” The high I had from the events of yesterday is immediately washed away by a stupid fucking ring tone.

  Jeremy is on the phone with Marcus for twenty minutes. This must be really bad. When he hangs up, he walks back to the bedroom without saying a word. I follow him. I reach the bedroom and see Jeremy putting on jeans. “Where are you going?”

  “I have to go to the office. Accounting fucked up and billed the wrong time to the wrong accounts. Multiple accounts. They are blaming the software or some shit, I don’t know but they can’t figure it out. I have to go help before it gets worse. Goddammit! I knew this was going to happen.”

  “You knew the software was going to break?”

  “No, Livy that isn’t what I meant. I knew something would go wrong. This was just too good to be true.”

  “Jeremy, if it’s software issues, it would have happened whether you were there or not. You can’t blame this on anyone. It didn’t happen because you weren’t there. It just happened.”

  “Either way, I still have to go fix it.”

  “But the trunk said no work. We still have envelopes left to open and you aren’t supposed to go back to work all week.”

  “Livy! This is money we are talking here. My money! Our money! If I don’t go fix this, our clients are going to be pissed and our reputation is going to get tainted.”

  He was right. I couldn’t defend a stupid trunk over potential tarnishing of the business reputation.

  But the trunk was working. At least I felt like it was.

  “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

  Jeremy is putting on his watch. “I have no clue, Livy.”

  The gentle man that loved me last night was gone. Jeremy was right back into businessman asshole mode. This business was stealing my husband away and there was nothing I could do about it. It might be time to decide that nothing in that trunk is going to work unless Jeremy is ready to let go.

  “Ok. Fine. I’m going to go get Amelia. I miss her and I’m not sitting around this house alone waiting for you to come back. It was really idiotic to think a trunk full of instructions would fix us.”

  “No!” Jeremy rushes over to me. I’m sitting on the bed. He sits beside me and wraps his arm around me. “No, Livy. We aren’t done. I’m not giving up. I’m sorry I’m freaking out and if it were anything other than financial issues, I’d tell Marcus to figure it out. I swear. These last few days have been awesome. Well, except for the first part, of course, but even that was good, I think. We got it off our chests and I think I at least understand more about why you were so upset. I don’t want to quit. We are almost done. Don’t you want to see what’s left?”

  “Of course. But we’re breaking the rules. You are going to work. We were supposed to open the next envelope when we woke up. We haven’t even done that yet. Plus, I don’t want to sit around here by myself staring at that trunk. It’s too intriguing.”

  “Come with me.”

  “What?”

  “Come with me. You’ve used accounting software before. Come help. Come with me.”

  I don’t know what it is about those three last words. Jeremy wants me to help. He wants me to be a part of it. He wants me there by his side.

  He wants me.

  “Yes,” is all I can say.

  “Great! Get dressed. We need to hurry.”

  “Ok.”

  ***

  45

  Jeremy

  Work

  The whole ride to work, Livy doesn’t say a word. But she’s smiling the entire time. A genuine ear-to-ear grin. I’m not sure what it was about me asking her to help that made her so happy but it did. And that makes me feel like a goddamn rock star.

  I pull into my parking spot and look over at her. “You ready?” I ask.

  “Of course,” she says. I don’t know how she forced words out of her lips, her smile is so big.

  “I’m going to remind you that these guys are construction workers. I try not to hire douche bags, but they still have penises and you’ll probably get whistled at...”

  “Jeremy, hi, I’m Livy, have you met me? I can handle it.”

  “I know. But you’ve been different, you know, so I was just checking.”

  She stops walking and looks at me with a frown. After a moment of thought, her face straightens. “Fair enough. Thank you.” And she leans in to give me a peck on the cheek.

  We walk through the spaces, and there really isn’t much whistling after all. Perhaps these meat heads have enough respect to not make moves on the boss’s wife.

  I head to accounting and look for Claire, the accounting manager. We have three accountants working for us. There isn’t really very much for Claire to manage, but she’s been here the longest. She has two kids and her husband died nine months ago overseas fighting in Afghanistan. I gave her a fifteen percent pay raise, as much as I could afford, and told her to be a manager. I had to have justification for the raise to prove it wasn’t favoritism. That shit is illegal, apparently, and will get your ass sued in a hot second if you get reported. However, no one has had any complaints about me promoting Claire.

  “Hi, Claire, how are you today?”

  “Not great, Jeremy. I don’t know what happened. When I printed the logistics report this morning and reviewed it, I just happened to notice that Shaw overpaid their bill. I remember billing them last month and for some reason I noticed that the payment they submitted was more than what I billed. So, I checked it out and the bill that was sent out had the wrong amount. They didn’t even question it and just paid it. So, I reviewed all of the other clients we billed last month, and only two received the correct bill amount. Everyone else eith
er underpaid or overpaid.”

  “Shit!”

  “I know, Jeremy, I am so sorry! We’ve been using this program for so long, and it’s been so reliable. I don’t even look at the bills anymore to verify. I just mail them.”

  Claire starts to cry. Fuck! I hug her and hand her a tissue. “We’ll figure it out. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not upset with you. But we do need to figure it out.”

  “I’ve gone over and over everything. I just don’t know what happened.”

  “Ok, we just need fresh eyes to look at it. I need you to get a memo started that we can send to our clients, alerting them of the situation. Just make it generic. No specific details. Be very apologetic.”

  “Ok.”

  “Did you guys have any system updates of any kind recently?” Livy interjects. “Possibly between last month’s billing and this month’s billing? Did you check to make sure last month’s billing was correct?”

  Claire looks at Livy as though Livy’s speaking a foreign language. “Um.”

  Livy goes over to Claire and holds out her hand for a shake. “I’m Livy, Jeremy’s wife. We met at last year’s Christmas party, remember?”

  Claire smiles and shakes Livy’s hand “Oh yeah. I’m sorry I just didn’t recognize you. You look...different.”

  “Yeah, it’s what nine months of being pregnant and six months of hanging out with an infant will do to you.”

  Claire, laughs. “Tell me about it. Well it’s nice to see you again. And to answer your questions, I’m not sure about any updates. That’d be a question for Bruce. He does all of our computer maintenance around here. He only works part time and he’s not here today. I think Marcus tried to call him, but I don’t know what happened with that. And I’ve been so frantic worried about this billing cycle that I didn’t even consider last month. Oh God!”

  Livy, puts her hand on Claire’s shoulder. “Claire, it’s fine. We’ll figure it out.” She turns and looks at me. “Jeremy, you go find Marcus and find out what the deal is with Bruce.” She spins around and points to Vanessa. “Vanessa, pull up last month’s logistics report and verify the billing statements were accurate.” She spins back around. “Claire, do you have a copy of this month’s logistics report printed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Let me see it and pull up the system so I can take a look at what’s going on.”

  “Ok.”

  Before I leave the room to go find Marcus, I watch Livy in action. Her full focus is on fixing the problem. She’s gone into that zone where she won’t quit until she makes it right. She’s been given a mission and she won’t relent until it’s been completed.

  Goddammit, I love that about her.

  ~~~

  It’s been four hours and still no resolution. The good news is that the billing last month was correct. The bad news is that no one can get in touch with Bruce. He’s just a part time college kid who maybe doesn’t have as strong of a work ethic as I thought he did. We may have to evaluate that when he comes into work tomorrow. Livy scoured over the software looking for any sign of where the problem might lie. After we gave up on trying to contact Bruce, Livy called the software vendor’s help line.

  “Ok, listen, John, is it? Good. Here’s the deal. I’m twenty-seven years old and I’ve touched a computer before, ok? More than once, if you can believe it. I’m kind of seasoned on the whole turning on the computer, opening up the software process, alright? So, let’s just go with what I’ve already told you and troubleshoot the actual issue, ok? I need to know if an update for our software was sent to us within the past thirty days and if you are aware of any bugs that may have been part of that update. Our system allocated billing inaccurately by $250,000. Do you understand how substantial that is? That’s a quarter of a million dollars, John. So I would very much appreciate it if you would quit coming at me with that condescending tone and help me figure out what your software screwed up. And if you can’t overcome your compelling, pathetic attempt to try to make me feel like an idiot, then put someone on the phone who can help me. Are we clear?”

  There’s a pause. Then, Livy begins writing something down on a notepad.

  “Great. Where can I find that documentation, John?”

  She writes more. “Good and where can I find the information about the patch?”

  She goes to the keyboard and types in a few things. A few clicks of the mouse...

  “Lovely. I’ve got it. And what happens if this patch doesn’t work? Fantastic. That sounds great. And that’ll be free of charge right, since it’s your screw up? That’s what I anticipated you’d say. Ok. I will be sure to give you a call back if that’s what we need to do. Great. Thank you.”

  Livy hangs up the phone and looks up at me. “There’s some documentation online that details an update that was released fifteen days ago. If it was implemented on our system, the documentation tells you where to go to look for the update serial number. If we have that serial number, John says there is a patch that we can download and install that will fix the existing glitch and prevent it from happening again. But if we don’t have that serial number, or if the patch doesn’t work, we can call back and have one of their tech members come out and take a look first thing in the morning...no cost.”

  That is my wife. My take-no-shit, get-the-job-done, wife. My Livy.

  “So according to the documentation,” Livy begins, clicking away at the mouse again. “I have to go to this tab under this setting and ok...” She’s looking back and forth between what she wrote on the notepad and the screen. “Yep, ok, so we do have the latest update, according to the serial number, which means we should install the patch onto the server. Do you know how to log into the server, Jeremy?”

  “I do.”

  “Good, that’s what we have to do next.”

  “The server is in my office.”

  “Well let’s go!” She jumps up and is out of the door before I can turn around. I follow and jog a little to catch up. When we reach my office, I grab her hand and spin her around into my arms and kiss her. “You are so beautiful when you’re working.” She gives me a smile and pulls back. “Thank you. Now, focus, Jeremy.” She pats me on the cheek.

  I walk over and log into the server. “There, now what?”

  “Go to this site and download a file called this.” She’s pointing to her notepad.

  I follow her orders.

  “Ok, now, open the file so it can install itself.”

  “Ok, now we have to reboot the server and it should be fixed.”

  “Rebooting now.”

  It takes a good five minutes for the reboot to happen. Livy and I are both holding our breath for the entire time. I don’t know what she’s thinking but I’m praying this works. And it’s not even because of the money. It’s because I want to go back home and finish the trunk.

  So I can have sex with my wife.

  Because right now, I’m looking at her, leaning over my desk, anxiously waiting for the server to start back up. The intensity in her eyes and the way her hair is slipping out of its clip is making me want to send everyone home right now so I can take her on this desk.

  I’m such a pervert.

  But only for her.

  Livy speaks and pulls me out of the fantasy I was having, “Ok, now we just need Claire to re-run the logistics report from this month and see if it’s been fixed.” She runs out of my office and down the hall. I stand and adjust myself before making my way down to the accounting office.

  Claire is looking intensely at the screen. And then she screams. “Oh my God, I think it worked! I’m going to have to print it out to verify, but it looks like it worked!” She jumps up and hugs Livy, “Thank you! Oh my God, thank you!”

  Livy hugs her back. “Not a problem. It was a pain in the ass, but not a problem.” Livy looks over at me and winks. She mouths to me a “thank you.” I put my hands in my pocket and rock back on my heels. I smile at her and mouth back “you’re welcome.”

  ***
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  46

  Livy

  Back at home

  The feeling I have right now is exhilarating. Jeremy asked me for my help and I was able to help. That sense of being needed mixed with the pride of accomplishment gives me a feeling I haven’t felt in a long time.

  Once Jeremy settles the car into a space in the parking garage, my feet hit the pavement before he turns off the ignition. I’m sprinting to the elevator. I don’t even know why I’m sprinting, but I hear Jeremy’s foot falls right behind me. I’m giddy and I giggle like a school girl being chased by a crush on the playground. I reach the elevator and press the up button repeatedly, as if doing so will make the elevator arrive faster. Jeremy catches up to me and wraps his arms around my waist and kisses me on the back of the neck, sending goose bumps all over.

  This is what we’ve been missing. The compulsion just to be near each other in an embrace. Smiles. We’ve been missing smiles for each other. The Jeremy and Livy of six years ago that met in a bar and impetuously grew a relationship based on trust and desire and respect. A relationship that grew hastily into love. Love that was broken by parenthood and a career. Remove those elements and we have Jeremy and Livy back. But what happens when those elements are replaced into their proper position and we have to go back to being who we were last week? The trunk helped us remember who we were but I’m really hoping that it won’t end there. I’m hoping that the trunk will give us something to help us move forward so we can stay Jeremy and Livy from the past and still be proper parents for Amelia.

  The elevator dings and Jeremy pushes me into the car. Before the door closes, he spins me around and places my face into his hands. He kisses me and inhales at the same time. “Livy, of all the sexy things I have ever seen you do, that, by far, was the sexiest fucking thing. We have got to finish this trunk soon so I can show you just how sexy that was.”

  I laugh. Pride swells in me again at the thought of how sexy he thought I was standing naked in our bathroom yesterday and again, saying it to me right now, fully clothed, all because of the way I handled the situation at the office.