You Had Me at Halo(66)

Stop wriggling, Vince whispered in her mind and Holly almost melted at the sound of his voice. It was suddenly so precious. But he was right. She didn’t have time to go all dreamy. Vince’s job was on the line. She needed to pay attention.

“That’s right.” Stuart Peterson was now holding the envelope up in the air. “It’s not the manuals that I was expecting. Do you have an explanation for this, Vince?” the man asked and Holly felt Vince shake his head.

“I have no idea,” Vince replied as Stuart Peterson pulled out a slim folder from the envelope. “But I’m sorry if you received it by mistake.”

“Don’t be sorry.” Stuart shook his head. “It made for interesting reading. It’s an article on software licensing.” As he spoke, Holly noticed that Todd’s pinky finger was twitching the way it did when his team was losing a game.

What’s going on? Holly wanted to know but before Vince could answer Stuart Peterson continued.

“Yes, it was a very enlightening article. Would you believe that every company is required to document the license for every software program installed on every computer? I certainly had no idea. But of course, just like I trust my accountant to do my taxes, I was sure Baker Colwell would be looking after my computer needs. It’s certainly what I pay them for.”

Vince, Holly hissed again. I have no idea what he’s talking about.

Remember I told you that’s why their system kept crashing. Well, it looks like Peterson has just figured it out. I think things could get interesting.

Good interesting or bad interesting? Holly demanded since her nerves were getting pretty frayed here and she wasn’t quite sure how much more they were up for.

I guess that would depend on whether you intend on trying to sort things out with Todd Harman.

Holly inwardly growled and she could feel a flicker of a grin spread across Vince’s face.

Well, if that’s really the case, then I think you might enjoy this because I have a feeling your almost fiancé is about to find himself in a spot of trouble.

Stuart Peterson folded his short arms. It had to be said he didn’t look happy. “So imagine my surprise when I went through the files to find all of this documentation I supposedly needed. Then when it couldn’t be found I went through our invoices to see if we’d in fact paid for all of our software licenses. But no, we had not.”

“That’s when Stuart called me.” David Harris folded his arms. “I told him that we would never sell a system that ran on unlicensed software. Which is when I started going through some of your other accounts, Todd. Now I’m starting to see why you’ve been winning so many quotes. And it seems that was just the tip of the iceberg...”

Holly widened her eyes as she realized Todd was no longer looking quite so smug. So not only had he cheated on her, but he’d cheated on the company and his clients as well. To think she’d spent the last year dreaming of the day she would be Mrs. Todd Harman, all the while unable to see just what a jerk-off he really was.

xxx

“Nice work,” Martha from reception called out as they walked past fifteen minutes later. Even Fluffy seemed to look a bit less growly. Boy, Holly was still quite amazed at how many people had disliked Todd and by the time they got back to the workshop, she felt like the pied piper, the way a stream of people had tagged on behind them.

Once they were back everyone wanted to talk about how Todd Harman had been sacked because he’d deliberately kept things off a quote just to come in at the right price. Then there were the other things David Harris had started to list off but Holly had hardly been listening as she realized Vince was still firmly in possession of his job.

Not that she would remember it soon, but it mattered that she didn’t leave Vince worse off than when she’d first landed in his body yesterday. Also, a small part of her couldn’t bear for him to think ill of her, and who knew what the unemployment line might’ve done for his memories?

“Well done, buddy.” Andrew grinned. “That guy has screwed too many of us around to not deserve it. So tell us everything.”

Holly would drink to that and despite her upcoming mind-wipe she felt a small sense of satisfaction as she listened to Vince’s colleagues congratulate him. It wasn’t until she felt Vince shake his head that she was rattled from her own pleasant thoughts.

“Sorry, guys,” he said as he grabbed the car keys from his pocket. “You’ll have to get the rest of the story from someone else. I’m going to take a personal day.”

What? Holly said in surprise as Vince started walking toward the stairs that led back up to the main entrance. You’re the most popular guy in the building right now, probably the planet. You should make the most of it.

I’ll let them fawn all over me tomorrow. He shrugged. Right now my time is your time. So what else can we do?

Nothing. Vince it’s too late to try anything else. We just need to accept that I screwed up, Holly insisted as she tried to turn his body back around, but he stubbornly dug his heels in.

There must be something? He growled and Holly, who was about to shake her head, suddenly paused as a thought occurred to her. She had screwed everything up, but there was one thing she might be able to fix.

Actually, you’re right. There is one thing we could do...if you don’t mind.

Just lead the way. I’m all yours.