"Morning sunshine!" Howie said as he yanked the blanket off of Dani and gave her a swat on the butt.
"Howie!" she snapped. "Go away and let me sleep." She grabbed the blanket away from him and wrapped herself back up in it.
"Oh, no," he said reaching for the blanket again. "You told me to make sure you got up this morning because you had to take care of that problem with the CD first thing. So that's what I'm doing," he told her. "Besides, if Sam wouldn't call at three in the morning, and you wouldn't stay up half the night working. . . . ."
"You're at least partly responsible for my lack of sleep, you know," Dani fussed. Howie smiled and crawled back onto the sofa with her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her seductively. "Care to start the day off with the same fireworks we finished with yesterday?" he growled.
"Nope," she said coyly. "I've got work to do and I should have started an hour ago." And with that said, Dani scooted out from under Howie and hopped up, leaving him with a puzzled look on his face. "Oh, come on Dani," he whined playfully.
"Next time," she purred, "don't slap me on the butt." She picked up Howie's shirt from last night, put it on, and bounced out of the room. Howie groaned for effect, but as soon as she was out of earshot, his groans turned to laughter. Dani's playfulness was just one of the things he loved so much about her.
An hour later, Dani settled herself into the chair at her desk and called up the files on the enhanced CD. She looked every bit the woman who worked at home. Her long, brunette hair was still wet and she wore no makeup. A Disney tee shirt with shiny fireworks added a touch of glamour to her sweat pants and bare feet. She wore the shirt solely to get in a little dig at Howie. It worked. He came into the room and burst out laughing. "Smart ass," he said as he handed her a lunch tray containing a sandwich, fruit, and some hot tea. "I thought you might like a little brain food before you got started," he said solicitously. "Since you're wearing your slob clothes, I assume you're going to be at the computer all day?" he asked.
Dani smiled. "I think you're getting to know my habits a little too well, Mr. Dorough."
"Ummhmm," he murmured as he leaned down, placing his hands on the arms of her desk chair and kissing her. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about what's got you so concerned?" he said, sensing her worry.
"No, hun, it's nothing I can't handle. Really," she insisted. "I'll take care of it. Thanks for the sandwich," she added, trying to change the subject."
"Okay," Howie sighed. "I'm gonna get out of your hair for the afternoon then," he told her. "I'll be over at Kevin's working on that new song if you need any help with the CD. I love you," he said.
"Howie," she said, "programming is my job, music is yours. Now go and do your job and let me do mine. I love you too," she said, softening her tone and raising her lips to his. She kissed him lightly and then shooed him off with her hands. As soon as she was sure he had gone, Dani opened the file containing the program she had discovered last night. The seriousness of the situation hit her as she realized exactly what the program's capabilities were. "If this gets out," she thought to herself, "it could ruin their careers. Who on earth could want to hurt them like this?" Dani picked up the phone on her desk and dialed her assistant, Jeff. Her hands were shaking as she punched in the number and lifted the receiver to her ear. "This is Jeff," came a happy voice through the phone.
"Jeff, this is Dani. . . ." she said seriously.
"What's up?" he interrupted. "You sound upset. Did you and the Latin lover have a spat?" he added jokingly.
"Not yet," Dani said under her breath. "There's a problem with the CD," she told him.
"Oh, great!" Jeff complained. "The powers that be are itching to get it into production. They've called twice today from the plant in Dallas to see if you've given your go ahead," he informed her. "Everyone else is on board. You're the lone hold out. What's the problem?" Jeff asked, dreading that this was going to turn into a long week.
"Please understand," Dani began, "but I can't go into details just yet. What I need from you are the names of everyone who had any programming access to the CD besides you and me. And I need it yesterday."
"You've got to be kidding!," he exclaimed. "There are dozens of people that could have had that kind of access. I don't even know everyone that could have been involved and I handed out the assignments. At least tell me why I've been demoted to your secretary all of a sudden," Jeff demanded.
"Jeff, come on, I know full well that you are second in command. But you handed out the assignments,and you are in New York City and have access to the files," she told him. "I'll handle the reprogramming. I just want to make damn sure this is fixed, and I want to find out who tampered with the programming. When Jive calls again, tell them that I'm fixing a little glitch I found and that I'll have the corrected version ready for production by the beginning of next week."
"You're the boss," Jeff said, clearly agrravated. "It'll take a few days for me to track all that information down, but I'll have that list for you by Friday afternoon at the latest."
Dani spent the rest of the afternoon working through the altered programs on the CD and beginning the daunting task of removing them. Whoever had put them there knew what they were doing. The instructions were extensively integrated with the other files which made them extremely difficult to track down and remove.
Howie returned a few hours later to find Dani with her head down on her desk. Asleep. He placed his hands on her neck, leaned down, and whispered softly in her ear, "Wake up, Baby." Dani's head shot up at the sound of his voice. She had only planned to close her eyes for a few minutes. Realizing that the incriminating files were still open on her computer, she reached over quickly and closed the program. "Hey, you're back," she said hoping he hadn't noticed her panic.
"Dani, what is going on?" he asked her seriously. "That's twice now that I've walked into this room and you've immediately shut everything down. What are you trying to hide from me?" Howie said, his anger beginning to build. Dani averted her eyes. "I wasn't. . . . I was just shutting down so you. . . . .could take me to dinner," she said innocently as she stood up and wrapped her arms around him. Howie pushed her away slightly. "Dani, come on. What are you keeping from me?"
"I'm not keeping anything from you," she insisted. "It's just that this has taken a little more
programming than I thought and it's been a long afternoon. My eyes are tired and I want to get out of
this room for a while. Let's go eat," she said, walking out of the room. Howie sighed as he followed
after her. "The woman wants to eat, so we eat," he muttered to himself.
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