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to get back to the office, talk
to Mitch, and if necessary, get rid of his new hire and deal with
the possibility of another breakdown on her part, and accepting a
great loss of money.
    Jeff called a few clients from his
car, and found a few other things to keep him occupied so he didn't
get back until 4:10. When he reached his office building, he was
surprised to find Sera’s car was still parked outside He recognized
it as soon as he drove up. It was hard to believe as tired as he
was, that it had only been that morning that he was soaked to the
bone after pacing around the car for a good ten minutes waiting for
her to acknowledge him.
    Jeff had told Sera she could leave at
4:00. Maybe she had lost her keys again. He was going to tell her
dedication was admirable, but she had a family to go home to, when
he walked in and heard laughter at the end of the hallway. His
office was the last office in the building and it seemed the
laughter was coming from there.
    What the hell was this? A circus? His
office hadn't heard this much laughter ever. Was he paying everyone
to slack off?
    When he put his head inside the door
he saw that Sera was sitting at his desk, on his chair, and Todd,
Mitch, and Alan were sitting on his desk, which apparently had been
cleared of all the paper clutter he had had that morning. Wondering
what shocked him most, the informal party taking place in his
office, or the cleared up desk, Jeff was about to say something
when Sera saw him and immediately got up to let him sit
down.
    The guys followed her eyes, which were
full of guilt as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie
jar, but each one looked at Jeff, waved or nodded, and then turned
their attention back to Sera who had been in the middle of a story
or something. When Sera didn’t return to her seat or the story,
they realized it was probably time to go home or get back to
whatever it is they were supposed to be doing.
    “I’m sorry.” Sera said as she grabbed
her purse to leave. "Is 8:00 all right for tomorrow?”
    “Yeah, uh...see you then.”
    He watched her leave and didn't notice
Mitch watching him from across the hallway until Mitch crossed the
hall and came into Jeff's office smiling.
    Jeff didn't want to deal with Mitch
just now, and instead focused on the room he was in which held no
semblance to the office he had left earlier that day. The place
looked great, but he knew he couldn't put Mitch off too much
longer.
    “Mitch, we need to talk.”
    “Damn straight we do.”
    “Listen, I know we should have talked
about this, about hiring someone to get us organized and all before
I sat her down and signed a contract. I can probably foot this one
on my own, or if you're totally opposed, I understand. I screwed
up; I don't even know if we can afford her.”
    “Yeah, we should have talked." Mitch
said with understanding, but he surprised Jeff with what he said
next. "We should have talked about doing something like this a long
time ago. I don't know if you've had a chance to look around yet,
but she filed everything in those cabinets, and they're already in
alphabetical order. We might actually be able to find something
now. She also set up three separate drawers that are labeled
already, one for work completed, another for on-going maintenance
projects, and the last one for contracts on work that still has to
be done. She said she needs another file cabinet or storage to put
the work completed, so she can better use that particular drawer
for prospects. We've never done that, have we? She said that way
you can target prospects and develop a clientele, instead of
waiting for the calls.”
    Mitch started laughing. “She asked if
she could have my computer to set up billing, payroll, prospects
etc. She actually smiled and told me computers can be used for more
than just games. I think she’ll be great for us Jeff. And even if
it's until she's paid off the debt she owes, we'll be better off
all around after she's been here for a