The IT Guy by Wynter St. Vincent

 
     
    CHAPTER ONE
     
    “I can’t believe this is almost over with,” I said, looking at the screen.
    Luke chuckled. “ Almost is a subjective term. We still have quite a bit of work to do before we can rest on our laurels.”
    It was late Friday afternoon and I was going nearly cross-eyed from looking at the computer. Luke and I had been working on getting the new branch set up for three months now, and it was finally almost done. Our company had decided to open a new branch office on the east coast and it was my job as the office manager to set things up before the company moved in. They also sent Luke, the IT guy, along with me to handle the tech side of things. I was thankful they had, too.
    Luke was an absolute wizard when it came to anything tech related, and was always willing to lend a hand with things outside his responsibilities. The two of us worked really well together, and had hit it off immediately, becoming friends.  It was isolating being across the continent from everyone I knew. I spoke to my family on the phone regularly, and my best friend Julian had even come to visit the month before, but it was still really far from home, and having someone my age to talk to was appreciated.
    We had grown to be pretty close, but I could sense there was still a bit of a wall up for Luke. Your classic tech geek, Luke suffered from social anxiety that seemed to be at its worst when women were involved. He wasn’t necessarily awkward or anything, just shy and seemingly incapable of taking it to the next level. He was far from ugly - he was kind of handsome, actually, with thick, shaggy blond hair and clear blue eyes that were somewhat obscured by an ill-advised pair of square-rimmed glasses. His style could definitely have used some updating: it wasn’t terrible, just classically nerdy - polo shirts and khaki pants. I always thought he would have had pretty good luck with girls if he just put himself out there.  Nonetheless, he never talked about any women or dates, even though he had significant amounts of free time and more than a little money to burn. I had to admit having developed a sort of intense fascination with Luke’s sex life, but because he was so quiet about the subject, it always seemed too rude to bring it up.
    It was also likely that I was focusing on Luke’s sex life as a way of ignoring my own. I had met a few guys since we got here, but they had all turned out to be bums. The latest one, Dan, was unbelievably hot, with dark hair and eyes and a Superman physique. He was a Superman in the sack too, but unfortunately the resemblance ended there. Dan was a lazy self-absorbed jerk who tended to only be around when it was convenient for him. I had been mooning over him for a bit, as even though I knew he was a jerk, I just couldn't shake my desire for him in bed. We had made plans to see each other that night in fact, but when I tried to confirm with him the night before, he never even bothered to respond to my message.
    “Shit,” said Luke, snapping me out of my angry daydream, “this isn’t working as well as I had hoped.”
    He was staring intently at lines of code I couldn’t make heads or tails of, and rubbing his chin in deep thought.
    “Well, it’s nearly five anyway,” I said, deciding that not having a date didn’t have to mean sulking at home, “Why don’t we go grab a bite to eat and get back to this on Monday? We aren’t gonna solve anything tonight.”
    Luke seemed reluctant to leave the computer. I admired his dedication to his work, and had no doubt that if I didn’t insist he would have stayed there all night fixing the problem if he had to.
    “We could go to the pub and have a pint with dinner,” I suggested.
    His eyes lit up and a smile split his face. I had said the magic words.
    Luke was a definite beer guy, and was obsessed with craft beers and microbrews. There was an incredible little pub nearby with a tasty menu and over a dozen local brews on tap, and he and I