by JT Kalnay
“No," Tonia answered, puzzlement ringing in her voice. "How do you know so much about all this computer stuff?" Tonia asked.
"Well... I'm a bit of a computer geek myself,” Jay said. "In fact, I've been offered a great computer job here in New York City.”
"The City,” Tonia corrected him. "No-one says New York City. They just say 'The City'. You don't want to sound like a tourist do you?" she asked. She said tourist like it was a bad word.
"You know what?" Jay asked. "I think I need some more instruction in the ways of New Yorkers. Maybe we could get together tomorrow and you could show me something about 'The City'?"
"I'd like that,” Tonia answered. "Now get me a cab. I can't drive home like this,” she said. "Two beers is my limit and I'm already at four or five. If I didn't know better I'd say you were trying to get me drunk or something,” she teased.
"No ma'am,” Jay answered. Although the thought had crossed his mind. "No way,” he repeated, the finality and conviction in his voice was clear.
Tonia grabbed the bill off the table and paid the tab. “Thanks again for saving me,” she said.
“It was my pleasure,” he said. They both looked at his absurdly swollen right hand and laughed. While winding down their laughs they made their plans and arranged for tomorrow.
Later that night, as Jay lay in bed in the Vista Hotel in the World Trade Center in New York City, replaying the day, smiling and wincing with the pleasures and pains, he wondered if she’d show, if he'd really ever see her again, or whether she would change her mind in the night, or the morning, and leave him alone, all alone, like he had been so often. He wondered if he’d ever have another first date, or first day, that was so unlike all the others that had gone before.
Jay said a small prayer of thanks for having met Tonia Taggert, and a slightly longer prayer that she would show in the morning. As he prayed, his mind drifted away to the hills of Kentucky and the hollows of Ohio, where he would pray alone, and where he would pray with his mentor.
Chapter
The ringing phone woke Jay Calloway. His eyes were plastered shut with sleep. His mouth felt like dirty dried crusty cotton. Who the hell is calling me at... What time is it?
"Good morning sleepy-head,” he heard from the telephone.
"Hello?" Jay answered.
"Hello. Jay? It's Tonia Taggert. Remember? From last night? The baseball game?” Jay could and did remember. He started to regain consciousness. A smile lit Jay's face.
"Oh hi Tonia,” he said. His tongue felt like it was wearing a heavy wool sweater, his mouth tasted dry and coppery.
"Could you hold on a second?" he asked. He got up, went to the bathroom, took a whiz and rinsed out his mouth. He returned to bed with a tooth brush in his mouth.
"Sorry. I just woke up, I had to... to get a glass of water,” he said.
"Sure you weren't telling somebody to keep quiet?" she asked.
"What? No, no. Just me here,” he said wondering why he suddenly felt guilty.
"Good,” Tonia said. "So you're a jogger right?" she asked.
"Right.”
“You weren’t lying last night? You really jog? And you really want to go jogging this morning?”
“No. Yes. Yes.”
"Okay, I'll be there in an hour for a jogging date,” Tonia said. Before he could agree or disagree she had hung up and was gone. Jay lay back on the bed for a minute, leisurely dry-brushing his teeth and thinking about the happiness and unexpected joy of the previous day. He found himself thinking about Tonia, how she looked, how she sounded, how she had seemed to fit so nicely into his life. He slowly drifted back to sleep.
Bang, bang, bang.
BANG, BANG, BANG.
"Hey sleepy-head, get up,” Tonia called through the door. Jay, realizing what had happened, leaped out of bed and rushed to the door. Opening it he saw Tonia with her fist raised ready to pound again. She rapped gently on his forehead.
“Good morning silly. Your are so not ready to go,” Tonia teased. Jay knew he was in for it.
"Uh, just give me a minute,” he answered.
"Running on three legs this morning are we?" Tonia asked. Jay suddenly realized that while he'd slept, dreaming about Tonia, he'd become aroused. He blushed three shades of red and turned away from her.
"I'll be ready in five minutes okay?" Jay asked. She narrowed her eyes, enjoying his early morning panic and plain embarrassment.
"Five,” she said.
"So where are we going?" Jay asked.
"That depends on how far you want to run," Tonia answered.
"Oh I don't know, 5 or 6 miles I guess,” Jay said casually, like he ran that far every day, which he didn't. Two or three miles a day was more like it.
“Will your hand stand up to that much punishment?” she asked.
They both looked at his swollen, discolored hand.
“No problem,” he boasted. “I won’t be running on my hands.” Tonia scanned him from top to bottom, took a good hard look at his hand, then decided.
"Alrighty then, let's get a cab to Central Park and do a loop up there okay?"
"Sure six isn't too far for you?" Jay asked Tonia. He had no idea what kind of shape Tonia Taggert was in. She turned to look sideways at him.
"Not for me,” she said casually. For the first time Jay noticed how trim she was. Yesterday she'd been in loose fitting clothing and he'd been staring in her eyes, at her hair, at her lips. This morning, as they waited for a cab, his eyes drank in her body.
She was wearing blue Lycra running tights. Her calves were developed and firm. Her thighs were thin yet toned and sculpted with muscles. Her rear end was high and tight. Jay was slowly coming to the realization that he might not be able to keep up with her. She seemed to be in great shape. His eyes tracked higher on her figure. She wore a t-shirt from a 5K race on Long Island.
It was one size too small so Jay could clearly make out her trim waist and small well-shaped breasts. Her shoulders were a little wider than most. He figured she must lift weights of some type. Tonia Taggert was certainly an athletic woman of the nineties. Jay smiled.
Tonia caught him scrutinizing her and noted his smile.
"Well?" she asked sharply, "Are we going to get a cab or what?"
"Yeah right,” Jay answered. He figured to try to bluff his way out of being caught staring at her. "How did you do in that 5K in...?” He leaned closer trying to fake reading the small lettering on the shirt.
"Nice try,” she said, spinning away and diving into the arriving cab.
"Are you coming?" Tonia called. Jay dived in beside her. The ride to Central Park passed quickly while Tonia pointed out some landmarks to her tourist running date.
"Ready?" Tonia asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be,” Jay answered. They finished their stretching and started off at a slow pace. Jay noticed that there seemed to be a large number of rolling hills in Central Park. He'd just assumed that since it was New York that everything would be flat. Six miles was one thing, six rolling, hilly miles was something completely different. After leaving the steep hills of his rural home behind, he’d succumbed to the flatlands of southwestern Ohio. His speed had increased, but his endurance had decreased. He broke a sweat, partly from the jogging and partly from wondering if his slightly hung over body would last through six miles. He should have gone straight to bed when he got back from the game. He should not have stayed up half the night playing Centipede in the World Trade Arcade.
"So you never answered my question,” Jay said.
"What question, silly?" Tonia asked.
"How'd you do in that race?" he asked, pointing at her shirt.
"You really want to know?" she asked.
"Yeah I really want to know,” Jay answered.
Tonia accelerated away from Jay in a surprising burst of speed that caught him flat-footed. Her long graceful strides were a thing of beauty and power. Jay understood now that she was about to completely dust him. He set off after her as best h
e could. Yesterday's beers and pizza didn't help. After two miles of furious chasing, and falling farther and farther behind, he saw Tonia slow down and jog back towards him, looking for him, waiting. A couple of minutes later he finally crested the low rolling hill where she was waiting.
Sweat poured off his face. Jay bent over, putting his hands on his knees and gasping for air. He thought he might vomit as an acid copper liquid filtered up into his mouth from his raging stomach.
"Oh. About that race? I won,” she said, hardly out of breath.
"I believe it,” he answered.
"Would you have believed me if I'd just told you?" she asked.
"Yeah,” he answered.
"Liar.”
"Busted," Jay said. They both laughed at his honesty, and at his being caught.
"You want to just trot back?" Tonia asked.
"Trot. Or walk,” Jay answered. Jay even considered getting a cab. Tonia and Jay set off again at a leisurely pace. They were talking and joking and enjoying the beautiful, cool, Sunday morning. Jay was getting the idea that every day in New York City was better than the one before and better than could ever be had anywhere else.
"Thanks for the run,” Tonia said when they got back to where they had started. Jay thought it sounded like she was saying good-bye. Something was different in her voice. She seemed unwilling to look him in the eyes.
"Oh no, thank you,” Jay replied. "I'm not sure I would have done this if you hadn't got me out of bed.” Tonia looked at Jay. Jay could see in her eyes that she was apparently trying to make some decision.
"Look Jay. You're a nice guy, kind of cute, a lot of laughs. You like baseball and you jog. Maybe if we'd met under different circumstances..." she trailed off. Jay was cooling off from the run and suddenly a chill went through him that was more than just the cool breeze blowing through his damp clothes. She went on.
"I had a lot of fun yesterday, thanks again for knocking down that line drive, but I gotta go.” She made motions to leave. Jay sensed that she was torn by her decision, her choices.
"Wait,” he said. "Why don't we trade phone numbers and call each other once in a while okay? Maybe go for a jog. Nothing serious," Jay asked. She didn't answer right away. She wouldn't look at him. Jay looked around and saw a policeman writing up a ticket for a cyclist who had been going too fast in the fifteen mile per hour lane in Central Park. Jay sprinted over to the cop, borrowed a pen and a piece of paper. He carefully wrote down his name and phone number at college. He scanned his note, considered, and then added his parent's number as well. "I've got a couple weeks left at school, then I'll be at my parents for awhile until I move and start work.” Jay was trying not to sound too pathetic and too pleading. But he really wanted to see Tonia again. He decided to make one last try.
"So, if you want to go to a ball game or you need a jogging buddy to slow you down sometime, give me a call, no commitment, okay?"
Tonia finally looked up from the spot on the ground where she'd been staring. She moved closer to him. Her navy blue eyes focused in on his. Her blonde hair, pulled back by a runner's head band, shone a dull gold in the tree filtered morning sunlight. Joggers and cyclists and roller bladers streamed past in bright Lycra or dull grey sweats. She took another step toward Jay and reached out and pulled him towards her, gathering him into a tender, then quickly frantic embrace. She held him and put her head on his shoulder for what was just an instant but what Jay remembered as being much longer. Stepping back, she broke the contact. Tears seemed to be welling, she was struggling to keep them from bursting out of her incandescent eyes. She looked straight into his tired baby blues.
"I can't,” she said evenly. "I can't,” she repeated, more slowly with sadness in her voice and tremors in her lower lip. "I can't.” And she was gone. She turned and ran away. Leaving him standing there with his heart that had been so newly awakened now slowly breaking. Jay walked back to the hotel, mile after lonely mile through the suddenly desolate streets of the big city that he was learning to love and hate at the same time. Only miles later did Jay notice that somehow Tonia had managed to slip the note with his phone number from his damaged hand.
In a non-descript van, parked only thirty yards from where Tonia Taggert and Jay Calloway had embraced and parted, a man poured coffee into a mug for his partner and then for himself.
"She's really something ain't she?" the one man asked.
"Yeah. I'd do her,” the other answered.
"The boss ought to love these pictures,” the first said.
"No shit,” the other answered. The two men finished their coffee then slowly stored the camera equipment they'd had focused on the two joggers. They set off after Jay at a slow pace. They figured they knew where he was going so they laid back a long distance. The rest of their day was going to be very easy.
Jay arrived back at the hotel. He was ravenously hungry, despondently lonely, and near exhaustion from the walk. He ate, showered and spent half the day in bed watching baseball and listlessly looking at his offer sheet from MacKenzie Lazarus. The other half he spent down in the arcade, racking up high scores on his favorite machines. As he played, he worked the numbers on the offer sheet. The numbers cheered him up a little, and so did the benefits. Three weeks’ vacation to start, full relocation expenses, a 401K plan that he was eligible for immediately with one for one matching. MacKenzie Lazarus would pay for his first and last month's rent and the deposit on an apartment in Battery Park City, the nicest neighborhood close to his work. The one thing he noticed that was missing, however, was a job description. They'd told him what he'd be doing and who he'd be working with, but there was nothing in the offer sheet about his duties. He made a note about it.
Back in his room, Jay lay back on the bed and thought about whether he really wanted to come to New York. His only data points were what he'd heard and what he'd seen the last few days. Jay liked to have a lot more information before making a decision. Finally he decided to postpone the decision until after the negotiations. He also decided to play hard to get.
Jay added twenty percent to the starting salary MacKenzie Lazarus offered. He changed the three weeks of vacation to four and added a first class round trip plane ticket to anywhere in the world once a year. His negotiating plan was starting to take shape. He added two more notes, a single office with a window and a view and access to the corporate fitness club and personal trainer.
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Jay said to himself.
The game he was watching ended and Jay clicked off the television. He reached for the phone, picked through his papers, and dialed the number Rick had given him out west. After ten rings, he hung up.
Jay Calloway brushed his teeth and went to bed.
In the room next door, one of the two men who’d been listening and taping nodded at his partner.
“Did you get the number?” he asked.
“Yes.”
The tired watcher nodded again, and the two men shot rock, papers, scissors. Scissors cut paper, and scissors went to bed.
Chapter
"That's 20% more than we offered. I don't even get four weeks yet,” Dan Landford scowled across the table at Jay Calloway. The Monday morning negotiating session was off to a tense start. Bill Beck's face remained calm. Jay deftly shifted his chair to face Dan and Bill more directly. He had carefully planned his next move, rehearsed it in his room, thought it was worth a try.
"Gentlemen, you've given me a generous offer. I appreciate it. But we all understand how this works. If I come to work here you're going to make a lot of money from my work. If there was job security on Wall St. I'd probably take your offer as is. However....” Jay looked around the room.
"All it takes is one reorganization and I'm out on the street. One trader screws up or screws around and the firm loses $200 million overnight and we're all finished. Guys like you and me don’t get golden parachutes. We just get screwed.” Jay paused for effect. He saw that some of the faces hadn't thought about their vulnerabi
lity lately.
"If I take this position, I'm taking a risk. Betting my whole life on a roll of the dice,” he paused again. Dan Landford was fuming. Bill Beck was patiently waiting him out.
"You know I have other offers, less money but more security, locations closer to home,” he lied. "If you want me, convince me I'm wanted and I'm not some bargain-basement brain-for-hire that you plan to abuse, burn out, and throw on the trash heap," Jay finished. “I know programmers don’t last. I know the next whiz kid is right around the corner. So, I’ve gotta view this like a baseball career. I have a few good years to make some good money, and then I’m out.” He hoped he hadn't sounded too rehearsed.
Jay felt sweat start to roll down from his underarm and drip down his side. He felt his forehead flushing and prayed sweat wouldn't break out on his face.
Dan started to come back right at him but Bill cut him off. Dan glared at Bill. Icicles seemed to form in the spaces between the two men. It was a battle of wills, and Bill won. Dan backed down.
"Jay. We want you. You know it and I know it. But we can't go this far.” Bill pointed at Jay's counter offer sheet. His face took on the look of an exasperated elderly grandfather who wanted to make a deal with an obstreperous child. “You’ve got other offers, we’ve got other candidates.”
They locked eyes, trying to see who would flinch first.
“Dan, why don’t you show Jay around a little, maybe the server room? Get a bite down in the Winter Garden? Then meet me back here in an hour?” Bill suggested. “It’ll give me time to run this counter-offer by some higher-ups.”
“Sure,” Dan answered.
“And this is the largest concentration of computing power on the face of the planet,” Dan said.
Jay was staring. He’d had no idea. After his days in New York he knew that ML ran on computing power, but he’d had no idea. Like most people he had never thought about all the computing that goes into trading. He’d just assumed it was a bunch of guys screaming at each other on a trading floor and a bunch of frat boys taking people to play golf and collecting commissions. “We have about one hundred times the computing power of all the armed forces combined. We have more computing power than all but three countries in the world. I’m in charge of the programmers that use about 20% of that power. You’re going to be one of those guys. And then you’re going to be me.”
