I'm blown away by the love for this story - each review, follow and favorite means a lot to me.
I'm on a roll, so here's a new chapter. The muse is spoiling you, dear readers. Enjoy it while it lasts. There's no guarantee to how long she's as willing as she has been lately.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.
-Chapter 9-
"So, are you ready for tomorrow," Annie asked Auggie over dinner the first Sunday in January. The following day would be his first day working from the Murphy offices in DC and he was nervous. A tech crew from Murphy had been out to get his equipment the previous Friday and they would set up his office over the weekend.
"As ready as I can be, I guess," Auggie said as he dug his fork into his pasta. "I know the job, that's not changing. I'm just a bit weary about people's reactions."
"I know and I understand that I can't be easy, but you're only 29 years old Auggie, you can't spend the rest of your life coped up in this house. I think it's time for you to re-join the real world."
"I know Annie," Auggie said with a smile. "For the most part I'm looking forward to it, I know most of the people I'll be working with already. Anyway, have you got a new assignment yet?"
"No, I got a request to do a travel piece, but I turned it down. I'm done with travelling for a while. I want to spend some time living a normal everyday life with you."
"I like the thought of that too, but I understand if you have to go away to work from time to time. I know that your job does involve some travel."
"I appreciate that Auggie, I just don't feel like travelling right now. For the first time in my life I feel like settling down. You have a lot to do with that. I've never felt so at home anywhere before."
"Really?"
"Really. I told you I grew up as a military brat, right? My childhood was pretty rootless. My college years was the first time I actually lived somewhere for more than a year and a half."
Auggie nodded. Annie had told him a bit about her upbringing, living at military bases around the US and a few places overseas as well. "I'm glad you feel at home here. I like this house a lot better with you around. I didn't realize how empty and quiet it was until you came into my life."
Annie reached over and grabbed Auggie's hand. "Good thing we found each other."
When Auggie pulled into his parking space in the basement of the building where the Murphy offices were located he felt more nervous than he'd anticipated. He hadn't gotten much sleep that night and he felt a bit silly for feeling so nervous. With a sigh he pulled the parts of his wheelchair from the seat beside him and reassembled it. Just as he transferred from the drivers seat to the wheelchair the booming voice of Arthur Campbell called out his name. Auggie closed and locked the car and turned to face his boss.
"Good morning Arthur," he said with a smile. "Enjoy the holidays?"
"As much as you can expect with the in-laws in town," Arthur said with a small chuckle. "What about you? Have a good time?"
"Absolutely. My girlfriends parents and one of my brothers and his family spent Christmas with us, it was good."
They reached the bank of elevators and waited in silence. When they were alone in an elevator Arthur spoke again.
"Rumor has it that you're in a relationship with Annie Walker. Is that true?"
"Yes. She moved in right after we finished our assignment, but we started dating a couple of months before that. Why, is that a problem?" Auggie suddenly felt worried. He knew Murphy wasn't thrilled about inter-office relationships, but because he'd met Annie before they were assigned to work together and Annie wasn't a Murphy employee he hadn't thought it was a problem.
"I have to admit I wasn't thrilled when I heard about it. You do know our inter-office dating policies, right?"
"I'm aware of those, but I knew Annie before we started working together and since Annie's not a Murphy employee I didn't think it was a problem. I really didn't mean to break any rules." Auggie realized he was stretching the truth a bit, but it was clear that Arthur wasn't happy and he wanted to get him off his back.
"It's okay Auggie. Just don't run around and hit on every secretary in the building, okay?"
"I don't think Anne would appreciate that and I plan on keeping her in my life, so you don't have to worry about that."
The elevators reached the 11th floor, the lower level of the Murphy offices were located there and Auggie headed out of the elevater.
"Good. I'm glad to have you back at the office Auggie. Well, you should head down to HR to get a set of keys to the offices and an updated employee ID. I'll talk to you later."
"Thanks Arthur. I'll see you around," Auggie said as he turned and headed down the hallway to the HR office.
"Here's your office Mr. Anderson," Shelley from HR said as she walked in front of him into a decent sized office with floor to ceiling windows on one wall. It was furnished with a big, L-shaped glass-topped desk. One side was filled with his computer equipment; the other was empty with two black leather chairs in front of it. The wall behind the desk was lined was lined with low shelves, containing a few binders and some computer equipment. Auggie was blown away; he hadn't expected a big, fancy office at all. All of a sudden something hit him; they'd probably given him a bigger office because of his disability, to make it easier for him to get aroun. The thought made him cringe. Special treatment was the last thing he wanted.
"Are you sure? Three years ago I was in one of the cubicles," he asked as she handed him the keys for the office. "I don't want special treatment because I'm in a wheelchair. A cubicle will work just fine."
"Three years ago you were an entry-level junior engineer fresh out of college. All of our senior engineers have similar offices. It has nothing to do with your disability."
"Oh, well…thanks."
"No problem. If you need anything you know where to find me," Shelley said as she patted Auggie's shoulder and left the office.
An hour later he was sitting by the desk, reading through the specs for the next project he'd be running. The junior developers Eric Barber and Stuart Heatherton were assigned to work with him for the duration of it. They had worked together from time to time in the past year and he liked both of them, but they'd never met in person. Just when he thought he ought find out where in the offices the worked or call them into his office to say hi and take a look at the project a knock on his doorjamb caught his attention.
"Speak of the devil," Auggie said with a smile. Stu and Barber were standing in the doorway, Auggie recognized them from their Skype sessions. "I was just about to call you or find you to say hi. Come on in."
"I guess we beat you to it," Barber said with a smile. "Nice to finally meet you Auggie. Looks like we'll be working together for the next few months."
Stu and Barber shook hands with Auggie and he suggested they get their laptops and copies of the project specs so they could go through it together. That seemed to surprise Stu. "Really? I mean you're running the project. Most of the time the senior engineers just dump the tedious stuff they don't want to do themselves on us."
"I'd like to think I'm not one of them. I know I'll be running the project, but I'm hoping we can work together and make it a team effort."
"We share the office right across the hall," Barber said. "We'll be right back."
Both men left the room and a few minutes they were back and settled in on the chairs by Auggie's desk.
When Augge entered the house that evening he was surprised with the aroma of Mexican food hitting his nose. Cooking was usually his department, Annie wasn't as much of a klutz in the kitchen as she pretended to be, but she was far from as capable as Auggie. He hung his brown leather jacket and his scarf in the closet in the foyer, deposited his wallet, house- and car keys in their place on the table there and headed into the kitchen. Annie was just finishing setting the food on the kitchen table when Auggie entered the room.
"You cooked! This is a pleasant surprise," he said with a smile. Anne quickly headed over to him and kissed him passionately on the lips.
"Well, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't have dinner ready for my man when he's been at work all day? How was it to be back in the office?"
"It was great. The new project I'm working on is going to be demanding, but I'm working with two great developers, I've worked with them a few times before."
"I'm so happy to hear that! Well, is served, are you hungry?"
"Starving. We were so immersed in work that we forgot to eat lunch. I just had a power bar and a lots of coffee."
They settled in by the table and while they ate Auggie told Annie about his day, but he decided not to tell her about his conversation with Arthur Campbell that morning.
"What about you? Did anything happen for you workwise?" Auggie asked as they started to clear the table.
"I got a couple of translation assignments, but nothing major. I'm almost regretting turning down that travel piece," she sighed.
"Don't worry. I'm sure something will come up soon."
"I hope so," Annie said as she turned the dishwasher on. Auggie came up to her and pulled her down so she was sitting on his lap. "Otherwise I won't have rent money this month."
"Annie, rent is the last thing you need to worry about," he said as he pulled her in for a hug.
"I know that and I really appreciate it, but I want to pay my share of things."
"I realize how strongly you feel about that, but it's not like I depend on your rent money to get by. Can we please move on from the rather tedious subject of money?"
"Yeah, we can," Annie said. "I'm ready to watch some TV, how about you?"
"Maybe a little. I'm knackered and I'm going to bed early. I have a feeling I won't be much fun on weekdays anymore."
"As long as you're fun on the weekends I can live with it," Annie said with a smile as she kissed Auggie and got to her feet. "It's only 8 at night, I'm sure you can manage an hour or two of watching TV before your head hits the pillow."
"Yeah, and if I fall asleep on the couch you'll just have to carry me to bed."
"Oh har... You think you're so funny."
So, Auggie's working in the Murphy offices again and Annie is living with him...
What do you think?
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