Cancelled (24 page)

“Put him on a horse. Let the Rough Rider show them then!” Eric nudged his way to the company seats, gingerly balancing three cups of beer in his hands.

Alex playfully smacked Johnathan. “You didn't tell me Eric was coming.”

Johnathan gave a sheepish grin. It had been a long time since the three of them went to a ball game together. “I didn't know he was going to make it. For sure.” He gave Eric a look for being so late, to which Eric responded with a quirky face of lowering his jaw down as if to say “What?”

Eric passed out the beverages, keeping one for himself, and sat down on Alex's right side. “How are the Nats doing?”

“We've blown a lead of three down to one, but we're up to bat.” Alex didn't stop to look at Eric, keeping her focus on the game resuming down on the field.

“Oh, I called Zach. He's doing better, says he can move his arm again...”

Johnathan tried to motion for Eric to shut up, but his friend missed the cue until it was too late.

“What's wrong with Zach?” Alex moved her head to see around the man walking in the section below so she could see the batter.

“Nothing,” Johnathan said.

“The Claw tried to eat him,” Eric said.

Alex broke her gaze away from the game and looked at both of them. “So which is it?”

“We had a slight accident on Friday. We were testing the Claw and Zach jumped too close. It grabbed his shoulder, but he's fine. I even went to the hospital with him.” Johnathan came clean.

“Why didn't you
call
me? Did you file the insurance paperwork? Alert the customer?” Alex tossed the kernel of popcorn in her hand back into the small box.

“I filed the paperwork with the insurance company. We're all good, there,” Eric said.

“And we're not going to tell Hedis. This was an internal test, not one mandated by them. We aren't obligated to disclose our findings outside of the scope of work.”

“What?!?” Eric spat out. “You mean you're going to let that thing go out into the field after we saw what happened to Zach? What if it's a six-year-old child trying to pick up food supplies being dropped?”

Johnathan glared at Eric. This wasn't the time or the place. He lowered his voice and kept his tone sharp. “There is nothing in the design to opt for photo recognition of humans. We both know that. We're cut tight on this project as it is. It's my decision, and I've made it.”

Eric's eyes bulged in response to Johnathan's demands of leadership. He noticed Alex remained quiet through all of this.

“What about you? You agree with him?” Eric demanded of her.

“I don't know. I need to check the scope and contract before I'm comfortable siding with either of you. If he's right, it might do more harm than good if we disclose the issue.”

“It's going to hurt people!”

“Eric, these people know what they're buying. It's not like this is the first of its kind out in the field. But the reality is these machines are made to be blown up instead of our soldiers. Our guys will be aware of the dangers. Trained to avoid it. And you know, it might help keep the technology out of the wrong hands, too.” Johnathan could honestly see both sides of the issue, even though the image of a child crushed by his invention made him slightly sick to his stomach.

Eric finished his beer and crushed the cheap plastic cup in his hand. “I'm getting another one. Alex, you want another?” She held up her cup still three-quarters of the way full and shook her head. “Alright, then.” Eric started for the end of the row. Johnathan called after him he was ready for another round, but his friend ignored him.

“How bad was the accident?”

Johnathan grabbed Alex's hand and gave it a squeeze. “He has a deep bruise, that's it. He'll probably still have the sling on Monday, but the doctor even told me, a few days and he should feel fine.”

Alex tucked an errant wavy lock that escaped her hair elastic back behind her ear. She turned her head, facing Johnathan with a fierce look. “Don't lie to me about company information ever again.”

Johnathan was galled. How could she say such a thing with the hidden “Article 19” folder sitting in the home office? He held his tongue though about the folder, since he couldn't very well bring it up when Eric would be back at any minute.

“It really was nothing. Do you want all of the mundane details about the design side of the house, too? How about when I number a drawing? Do I need your approval for that?”

“You're being ridiculous. All business owners should be notified when anyone is injured on the job. Period. And I will read the contract language when we get home. I won't let you leave the company wide open for a billion dollar lawsuit.”

“And how will you do that? All of the files are at work.”

Alex gave Johnathan a funny look, but scoffed at his statement. “There's a copy of everything in my filing cabinet, just in case.”

Johnathan was almost baited into bringing up the mysterious buy-out papers, but Eric showed up again. He handed a beer to Johnathan.

“Oh. Thanks, man.”

“Yeah, I don't agree with you, but that's nothing new. We're still good.” Eric side-stepped back to his seat.

The three resolved to not talk shop for the rest of the game, instead enjoying the Nationals' win over the Padres by one-run in the bottom of the ninth. Such an exciting game certainly befit the massive fireworks display over the stadium. There was nothing quite like Washington, DC over Fourth of July weekend.

Finally caught up on paperwork, AJE Robotics experienced a brief lull in activity in the middle of July. Alex pounced on Johnathan about some detail for the wedding or engagement dinner with regularity. True to their Friday night date night, Johnathan's patience was already thin from Alex dragging him to see the third movie in the silly romance books she read. The books weren't even written for adults, but for teenagers! The movie theater swarmed with gaggles of pubescent girls shrieking every random minute as they waited to get into the theater.

“We need to pick a place for the ceremony so we can order invitations.” Alex sucked on her over-sized diet soda, leaving Johnathan to manage the popcorn and his own drink.

He wrinkled his nose trying to think of a wedding venue. Anna would want him to get married in the church, but he didn't consider himself a practicing anything.

“Are you thinking a church?” He held his breath.

Alex scanned the rows of seats and walked as high into the nose-bleed section as she could. Johnathan preferred to sit more in the middle, but this was her movie. He'd probably just nap if the teeny-boppers would shut up.

“If we were getting married in Jersey, it's be a done deal. St. Paul's in Princeton. But we agreed to get married here. And pay for it ourselves.”

“Your dad's still mad about that?” He trudged up the steps, and finally squeezed by young girls who refused to move in and hold their positions on the end of the row.

“I'm his only daughter. How would you feel?” Alex grabbed a handful of popcorn.

Johnathan couldn't even think about the baby getting married, she wasn't even born yet. So he just gave a shrug in the dim lighting.

“What do you think about the Four Seasons?” Johnathan threw out the only place he knew for weddings. Anna mentioned going to weddings there for her friends' children.

“Ha! Did you want to get married in two years?”

“Two years?”

“Hon, the Four Seasons is going to be booked solid, unless we're hiring a wedding consultant.”

Johnathan groaned. The topic of a wedding consultant was still a sore one. He just couldn't see paying someone $30,000 to plan a wedding when they could do it themselves and use Anna to help.

“Did you have a suggestion? In our price range?”

Alex pretended to mull it over, but Johnathan wasn't fooled. She only brought up this discussion because she was ready for him to rubber stamp her choice.

“What about the Decatur House?”

“Did you already see if it's available for April 16th?”

“Yes and it—”

“Done.”

“Wait, don't you want to hear about it?”

“If you love it and we can afford it, then what do I care?”

“But it's your wedding, too.”

Suddenly, the theater darkened, raising the squeals of the kids. Johnathan shushed his fiancée by placing a fore-finger over his smiling lips.

“It's the previews. You really want to watch the previews?”

“Shhh. This will be the best part of the movie.” He gave her hand a squeeze and turned to watch the screen. He grinned at her fake act of being insulted, knowing she was probably happy to have a location for the wedding. Now he just wondered how much it was actually going to cost him.

The chip sets for the Hedis prototypes didn't arrive until the first Friday in August. There had been a backlog on the part number. Johnathan found this odd for the specialized chip; the firm purposely avoided designs requiring the more popular chip. The FedEx shipment finally arrived two hours later than usual and Zach immediately alerted Johnathan in his office.

Johnathan made it two steps into the Cave before noticing Eric's body language was all wrong. He stood over the small box with a scowl on his face and studied the shipping paperwork.

“You bought the wrong chip.” He jerked his hand holding the shipping work out towards Johnathan.

“No, they must have sent us the wrong order.”

“This is our order. It shows right there you ordered the Z-55. Not the Z chip ending in 54.”

Johnathan stared at the paper in disbelief. He knew the chip they were using by heart; his design decision saved them from needing the more popular Z-55. Johnathan slumped onto the bare metal stool next to the work bench.

“I can't believe this happened.”

“Really? You really can't believe this happened?” Eric stared his friend down as the sound of high-heels on cement clicked behind Johnathan.

“I heard there's a problem with the parts?” Alexis rarely came into the work space. Zach must have tipped her off.

“Jackass here ordered the wrong part.” Eric turned away in disgust and shoved three Claws in various states of development to the far side of the work bench along the opposite wall.

“I'll fix it. We can order more chips.” Johnathan looked at the time, he had ten minutes to leave in time to pick up Kellie and take her to the appointment.

“You know that'll take weeks! That's it, we've blown the bonus.”

“Wait, we're that tied up in these things?” Alex asked.

“The chip is one of the most expensive parts. It's the brains.” Eric pointed to his forehead for Alex's benefit, before turning it into a gun-gesture and pretending to pull the trigger. “You're looking at a 40% restocking fee to send these back, and if they can immediately ship us all ten chips we're still looking at another four week lag. That kills finishing all ten by October 1 for the 7% early schedule bonus.”

Alex's face drained of color. She turned to Johnathan. “That's over half of our profit margin, right?”

Johnathan felt ill to his stomach. How could he have made such a huge mistake? He cleared his throat before fessing up. “You know the figures.”

“So I'm right?” she asked as more of a statement than a question.

Johnathan nodded.

“Fix this.” She turned on her heel to walk out, but Johnathan reached out for her arm.

“I can't. I have to go. I can come back after the appointment, but the order won't go until Monday anyway.”

Alexis narrowed her eyes at her business partner. “Let me guess, another doctor's appointment?”

“It's the last one I'm going to until the baby is born. It's a hospital tour so I know what to do when the time comes.” Johnathan tried to explain how important it was. Any other appointment he would just blow it off, but he was Kellie's only ride. He promised her he'd be there.

“Give it here.” Eric snatched the paperwork and stormed off to this office.

Alex gave Johnathan one last look before stomping out of the Cave. Left alone, he sat on the stool for a moment before taking a deep breath and owning up to his responsibilities. Besides, how many times had he covered for Eric in the past? By the time Johnathan had reached his car, his guilt over ordering the wrong part had melted away. He wondered if there would be another last ultrasound because he’d love to see his daughter again.

While the hospital tour was a nice review, Johnathan felt disappointed he didn't learn anything new from their false labor scare two months ago. Dr. Harper mentioned that Kellie was 1-2 cm dilated, but that women can stay dilated for weeks before going into labor. The baby could also come at anytime. This made Johnathan cringe. The last thing he needed was another run out on work when their backs were against the wall on the Hedis project. Wrongfully, he had assumed a due date meant more punctuality.

Driving Kellie home, and stopping for her favorite fast food slushy on the way, the prospect of the baby's arrival felt too real to Johnathan. He wasn't ready to be responsible for a baby. He couldn't even keep Alexis happy most of the time.

“—so anyway, I wanted to invite you if you'd like to go,” Kellie finished her statement, making Johnathan realize he was too lost in his own thoughts to hear her speaking.

“I'm sorry? What do I need to go to?”

“You don't need to go, that's what I was just explaining. But I'd like it if you came to my baby shower. It's on Sunday the 21st, at two o'clock. We're holding it at my church.”

Johnathan stumbled mentally for a moment about a baby shower for an unwed mother in a church's parish hall, but was smart enough to not say anything. “Sunday the twenty-first?” Johnathan frowned as he parked the car next to the curb. “I can't, that's the night of my engagement dinner. It was the only night the restaurant was willing to rent out on a weekend.”

Kellie's face darkened from the hopeful look she held inviting him. “Your engagement dinner? You—you're getting married?” A slight quiver in her voice alerted Johnathan that he was on very shaky ground.

“Yes, I thought I mentioned it before.”