You Had Me at Halo(52)

“Sure.” She crossed her fingers and hoped she was owed some karma because that was the only way she was going to pull this one off. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Then Holly put down the phone and tried to overlook the fact she didn’t even know where Peterson’s Productions was, let alone how to explain what had been wrong with the darn things. Oh, Vince, why aren’t you here?

xxx

For once Holly was pleased of the excessive Baker Colwell work ethic that kept so many staff at their desks long after their official knock off time, since the security guards didn’t even blink an eye as she swiped Vince’s ID card and hurried down to the workshop. This was bad. Very bad. For a start Holly had hoped to grab a shower and perhaps change Vince’s shirt before she went to The Pool Palace, but it looked like that was out the window.

The laptops were on the bench and Holly looked at them doubtfully as she grabbed Vince’s address book. She flicked through to P and was happy to see that the studio wasn’t too far away. In a day full of failures and setbacks Holly found it more than a little reassuring that something was going her way.

Now, where were those manuals they had printed out? She was sure Vince had put them in am A4 envelope next to the laptops but they certainly weren’t there now. Then she looked at his desk and frowned. Not that she’d been paying too much attention earlier, but she was fairly certain there hadn’t been a paper explosion on it.

Holly tried not to curse as she sifted through the papers. Come on, come on, she kept repeating to herself as her heart beat out a panicked rhythm. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter about the manuals? In fact, they would probably be overshadowed by the fact that while she might be able to deliver the laptops the only technical knowledge she had was on how to work her TiVo.

She glanced at her watch again and tried not to panic. She needed to do this for Vince, but she needed to get over to The Pool Palace and see Todd to ensure her safe passage to Level Two.

‘Hey, Vince. I thought you were going home?” a voice said from behind her and she jumped as she realized Andrew had just walked through the door. He had loosened his Homer Simpson tie and his hair was looking a bit less combed. It was definitely an improvement.

Holly stared at him, trying to work out if his appearance was a good thing or yet another bad thing in a day full of disasters. Well, he wasn’t looking threatening or surprised to see her there, so she might as well go with the ‘good thing’ version.

“Lorraine from Peterson’s called. Todd promised we’d drop these laptops back and I forgot. Now I can’t find the damn manuals we...I mean I did earlier.”

Andrew glanced at the desk. “I see Fluffy’s paid you another visit.”

Holly stared at him blankly before catching sight of a telltale white strand of dog hair on the computer keyboard. Vince really hadn’t been joking when he said the little dog didn’t like him. Brilliant.

“Are you alright?” Andrew frowned. “You’ve gone a bit pale.”

Holly rubbed her temples. Her headache had now turned into a rampant jackhammer. “I just didn’t need this tonight. I have this...well I have something really important that I need to do, and looking for manuals and delivering computers isn’t making it any easier.”

“Do you want me to drop them off? I only came back to pick up my tools because I have an early call-out tomorrow. But I pass right by Peterson’s.”

Holly felt like throwing her arms around Andrew in delight but somehow she managed to hold herself back. She’d done enough to ruin Vince’s credibility in the last twenty-four hours so she had to settle with giving him a manly clap on the shoulders.

“That would be fantastic.” She beamed just as she caught sight of a bright yellow envelope with Manuals scrawled across the front. Thank you, thank you, thank you, she silently mouthed as she snatched it up.

“It’s no big deal. You help me out all the time?”

I do? Holly frowned before realizing he meant that Vince helped him out all the time. That she could imagine since she was quickly discovering Vince Murphy was an all-round nice guy.

“Still,” she said in a gruff voice. “I really appreciate this.”

“Sure.” Andrew shrugged as he scooped up the laptops and Holly popped the envelope of top for him. “Oh, and by the way, about that Gemma thing we were talking about, just forget I said anything. I don’t think I’m going to ask her out.”

“Why not? What’s wrong with Gemma?” Holly bristled before she could stop herself.

Andrew knitted his eyebrows together in surprise. “Are you kidding? Of course there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s gorgeous. I just decided I could do without the humiliation factor right now.”

Oh. Holly chewed her lip. “But I thought you were going to give it a go anyway,” she said as she recalled Vince’s words. Funny, she’d never thought about it from a guy’s point of view before.

“Yeah, I was, but Simon Trimmer was in Bar One before and he was boasting about how he was going out on a date with her tonight at The Pool Palace, so there’s no point really.”

“Trust me, she won’t be seeing that moron for long.”

Andrew shifted the laptops around in his arms. “How do you know?”

Because I’m her best friend and I’ve recently discovered Simon is a loser, Holly was about to retort, before realizing this might not be so prudent. “I just have a feeling,” she said instead before impulsively adding. “You should ask her, just in case.”