"You are?"
"Yes, but I need your help to pull some numbers out of the system so I can justify the role."
Noah shared his idea and the information he wanted to gather for Mitch.
Claire listened to everything he had to say, then said, "I think you need Randall's help, too."
"Accounting? Why?" he asked.
"Because Randall is a cost accountant, meaning he knows where all the hidden costs are and how to find them. While I can pull data out of the system for you and stick them in a report, he'll understand better than me exactly where it comes from and what other information you'll want to include."
Noah leaned back, fully relaxing for the first time since Jackie's offer last week. "Yes, that's brilliant. Let's talk to him first thing Monday morning so we can put together a presentation for the leadership team. I have a feeling I'll be pitching to more than just Mitch."
Claire turned around and leaned against him. He snaked his arm around her middle and pulled her close. This was about as close to heaven as it could get. And once they got this job situation squared away, they could begin making plans for the future.
"And since you're not really invested in this show, what do you say to relieving some of your stress?"
"Oh?" she asked. "You have something in mind?"
"I have an idea or two." His fingers trailed lightly up her arm.
Her head tilted up, a slow smile curving her lips. "You're just full of ideas today."
Chapter 37
Outed
"Dadgum it!"
"Claire! Language, please." Chuckles and laughter filled the war room, and Claire glanced sheepishly at Delbert, who had teased her.
"Problem, Claire?" Simon asked.
"I'm sick of these headaches with the documentation system. Every freaking week, it's something new." Claire glared at the error message on her screen. "Am I the only one who's affected? I haven't heard anyone else complain."
Srini leaned over and read the message. "I've never had a problem." The others concurred.
Vicki cleared her throat. "I never have to fix anyone else. It's always you with the problem. Maybe it's because you're too busy thinking about Noah to actually do your job."
Claire's stomach dropped, and her mouth fell open. Aside from the direct attack on Claire, she'd also targeted Noah. With all the hubbub last week around Mitch's promotion, she and Noah hadn't gotten around to announcing their relationship. And Vicki had just outed them.
"WTF, Vicki?" Larry blurted out.
Claire glanced around the room. Her fellow developers glowered at Vicki, but no one had blinked at the revelation that she and Noah were together. Even Simon looked peeved as he stared at the project coordinator.
"That's a little harsh, Vicki. If someone's having a consistent problem logging in, we need to investigate the underlying problem rather than blame the user." Looking at Claire, he asked, "Did you open a ticket with support?"
"N-no." Were they really glossing over the grenade Vicki had launched? She wished Noah were here instead of off printing the production reports needed for his upcoming presentation to Mitch. "I didn't realize I was supposed to. Vicki told me to come to her because she was in charge of it." Crumbs, now I sound like I'm tattling on her.
"If it's only you experiencing the issues, it may be a corrupted user profile. Open a ticket and the support team can check it out," Simon said.
"That's not necessary. Is it, Vicki?" All heads snapped around to the unexpected voice in the doorway. Alex Tanner stood at the room's entrance with her arms crossed, glaring at the project coordinator.
"Alex? What's going on?" Simon asked.
Claire surveyed the room. Lots of eyebrows were raised and Vicki's face had lost all color. Claire was so used to Vicki being part of the MADS team, it was easy to forget she technically worked for the project management office. Alex was her real boss.
Alex stepped into the room with Jackie Turner right behind her. "Grace's team was working on the SharePoint integration to the legacy doc storage system when they discovered an interesting pattern in the logs. It seems we've had an unusual amount of admin activity in the last five months. Files moved and deleted, passwords reset. All targeting one individual."
