iBusiness

Luke sat in his new car, in Alister’s driveway. He sighed, and then honked the horn. He was still a bit shaken from the events of yesterday, though “shaken” isn’t exactly the right word. He was embittered. Alister came from nowhere and knocked on the passenger side door.
“What took?” Luke asked as Alister climbed in. Alister glanced at his watch.
“What do you mean? It’s only nine thirty,” Alister said, “I’m usually out a lot later than this.” Luke rolled his eyes.
“Just because you can be late doesn’t mean I can be,” he said, looking Alister straight in the eyes. Alister wriggled his nose, which he usually did when he was annoyed.
“Maybe I’ll walk,” he said. Luke unlocked his door before he could. Alister stepped out and slammed the door. Luke drove off without a second look at Alister shook his head, and started walking on the sidewalk. He was going to be at iMagine around his normal time today.

Gina walked up to the doors of iMagine. Today, even she was late. As she walked in, Alf glanced at her.
“Where have you?” He asked, not looking away from his handheld. Gina sighed.
“I was up half the night,” Gina said, “Not any of your business really.” Alf’s eyes narrowed and he began to nod.
“Oh, I see. Got you a slice last night?” He asked, Gina shot a look at him.
“No! And that’s not something co-workers talk to each other about!” She cried. Alf shrugged.
“Oh, okay. I see. It’s a secret,” he said. Gina rolled her eyes as she removed her coat and hung it up. The front door opened, and Luke walked in. He didn’t say anything as he removed his own jacket and hung it next to Gina’s. Alf watched. “Hey Luke. Gina got some last night,” Alf said. Gina glared at Alf, who was trying to stop himself from laughing. Luke raised an eyebrow and looked at her.
“Come on Gina, I haven’t eaten breakfast yet. I didn’t need those horrible, horrible images in my head right now,” Luke half-joked. Gina could tell by her tone that he half-meant that. She sighed and walked away. Luke walked into the kitchen where O was. She shot out of her chair and threw her arms around him.
“Luke!” She cried. Luke hugged her back.
“O,” he said, half-imitating her shocked tone. They parted and he walked to the fridge for some food. O watched him.
“What happened to you yesterday?” She asked, Luke turned to face her and leaned against the counter.
“In a nutshell, I learned that Mark is a huge ass,” he said, biting into an apple. O nodded.
“This is true,” she said simply. Luke laughed at that. O smiled. She peered into the lobby. “Where’s Alister?” She asked. Luke took a huge bite of his apple, chewed, swallowed, then spoke again.
“He decided to walk,” he said.

Alister turned the corner, and could see the parking lot of iMagine. He sighed, and kept walking. A car pulled up next to him. A young woman, maybe a bit older than Alister, drove it. She rolled down the window, and spoke to Alister as she drove. He continued to walk.
“Are you Alister?” She asked, her voice had an accent Alister didn’t recognize. Alister stopped in the parking lot. She parked her car into a spot, and got out. Alister could see her better now. She was short, but only a little bit. She had jet black hair, and her eyes were serious and classic, like an actress from the fifties. Her clothing was vintage as well, a simple, sleeveless black dress rested comfortably over her figure, and simple black shoes on her feet. She carried a black, strapless pocketbook, that was, again, simple. Alister finally spoke as she came to him.
“I’m Alister, yes,” he said. Looking into her eyes, he felt strange. It was like staring at a star-filled black hole. He looked away; half-afraid he might fall into them. She never took her eyes off of him.
“I need an app made,” she said.

Alister sat at his office chair, Gina stood behind him. The woman from outside sat in the chair across from them.
“My boyfriend’s phone isn’t working right,” she said in her accent. Gina nodded. Alister did the same.
“So, what do you want us to do?” He asked. The woman looked from Gina to Alister.
“Just a simple app that forwards his texts messages to my iPhone,” she said. Gina shook her head.
“We can’t do that,” she said, “How do we know that the number you’re going to give us is actually from his phone?” Gina asked. Alister nodded again. The woman’s expression didn’t change.
“You have nothing but my word,” she said. Gina glanced at Alister. Alister sighed softly.
“Can you excuse us a moment?” He asked. The woman nodded, got up, and left. Gina sat in the chair across from Alister.
“I don’t trust this lady at all,” she said. Alister nodded without saying anything. Gina thought for a moment. “What should we do?” She asked. Alister thought it over too.
“I…think she’s telling the truth,” he said. Gina looked at him.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s a gut feeling,” he said. Gina nodded.
“Okay,” she said. She got up and started to leave. She turned to Alister as her hand landed on the handle. “I was up late last night. I was trying to contact Maxy,” she said. Alister looked at her.
“Why?” He asked. Gina shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she said, “She was just on my mind.” She left Alister’s office.

Luke and O sat in the kitchen, working on the forwarding app. Alister walked in, and sat next to O. She noticed the tension between him and Luke. She looked at Alister.
“What’s up?” She asked. Alister shrugged.
“I just felt like hanging out with you,” he said. O smiled at that. Luke said nothing. Alister saw O’s phone vibrate with a new message. It said it was from ‘Dad’. O glanced at and said nothing. Alister looked at her.
“You have a message,” he said. She said. Alister grabbed her phone and slid it open. O dropped everything she was doing. “It says he wants to talk,” Alister said. O took the phone from him.
“I know,” she said, sighing. Alister looked at Luke.
“Don’t you think you should give him a call?” Alister said. Luke stopped what he was doing.
“Nope,” he said. Alister raised an eyebrow.
“Was I talking to you?” He asked, slightly smiling. Luke sighed. O spoke before he could.
“Luke said no to talk to my father. Father’s aren’t good for anything,” O said, repeating Luke. Alister shook his head.
“That’s nonsense,” Alister said. Luke gave Alister a look.
“Nonsense? This coming from the guy who-,”
“Yes, nonsense,” Alister said, cutting him off, “If anything, you should try to rebuild what you’ve lost,” Alister said. “The only reason Luke has a problem with dads is because his-,”
“Proved how much he loved me,” Luke said, cutting Alister off the same way Alister did him. Alister glared at him. O looked from Alister to Luke and back. She didn’t know of either of their pasts. Her phone vibrated again. Looking at it, she saw it was another message from her father. She ignored. Luke smiled at that. Alister shook his head and left the room.

Gina sat in her office alone. She started at her office phone. Should she call? She wrestled with the decision. Why was she suddenly so worried about her sister? She never did anything for her. Maxeen never did anything for anyone, unless they promised her some sort of paymet. Gina rolled her eyes. She didn’t like her sister, not one bit, but still, something was making her worried. Was Maxeen okay? She took out a list of phone numbers she had gather last night, and started making calls looking for her long lost sister.

Much later, the woman from earlier, who later introduced herself as Marilyn, sat in a chair inside Alister’s office. Unlike the other clients, she had not left since her request for her app, and hung around iBusiness all day long. Alister, in an effort to stopping staring at her eyes, left. He stood in Gina office.
“But why?” he whined like a child. Gina rolled her eyes.
“We need to confirm this number Alister. What if this lady is just spying on someone, or she’s a criminal trying to get inside secret?” Gina asked. Alister rolled his eyes.
“That sounds like paranoid nonsense,” he said. Gina leaned back in her chair. She started at Alister, and he stared at her. He caved first. “Fine, I’ll call. But just for your information, the app is already done,” he said. Gina held up the disk with the app on it.
“For your information, I knew that,” she said smiling. Alister smiled at her and dialed the number given to them for the app. There was two rings before someone answer, a man.
“Hello?” the man said. Alister snapped into character.
“Hello there,” Alister said in a thick Southern accent, “Is this Franklin Sintra?”
“Yes, it is,” Franklin Sintra said.
“Why hello there Frank. We have a woman here, her name is Marilyn, and she said you were her boyfriend,” Alister said, “We were just wondering if you could confirm that.”
“Uh, yes, I am. Why?” Franklin asked. Alister made a noise with his mouth.
“Now, now, we can’t go and give away that kind of information. Here at Kernel’s Free Cats, we can’t just go and tell every lover we call that their loved ones are getting them a cat. Wouldn’t that spoil the surprise?” Alister said. Franklin said nothing for a moment.
“Yeah, I guess that kind of would,” he said. Alister smiled.
“Okay, thanks for the confirmation. Buh-bye,” Alister said. He cleared his throat. Gina tried to hold back laughter. “Oh, be quiet,” Alister said, trying to hide a smile. Gina handed the disk to Alister, and he left her office for his. He handed the disk to O as he passed, and they both walked into Alister’s office where Marilyn was. She didn’t turn her head as they entered. Alister sat across from her. O stood next to him. “Well, your app is ready,” he said. Marilyn nodded. O was about to handed it to her when Alister stopped her. “Not so fast,” Alister said. O stopped.
“What’s wrong?” She asked. Alister leaned forward in his chair.
“You know, when we called you boyfriend with that number you gave us, he didn’t answer, his secretary did,” Alister said, “She told me to call back later, or call his cell. I decided to test of his phone really wasn’t working, and guess what?” Marilyn looked worried for a change. Her untouchable air had blown away, and now she was the one who couldn’t look Alister in the eye. “His phone work just fine, it was never broken, was it?” He asked. Marilyn nodded.
“I just…,” she started, “I just…thought he was cheating on me,” she said. O’s jaw dropped.
“Why?” She said, walking over to Marilyn to comfort her. Marilyn placed her head on O’s shoulder.
“Recently, he’s been getting a lot of text messages on his phone, when he does, he sneaks away to respond,” Marilyn said. Alister grabbed the disk on the desk and handed it to her. Marilyn and O both looked at him.
“Take it,” he said, “Stop hurting yourself and answer your questions.” O was surprised at how soft his voice was. Marilyn thanked them both and left. O sat in the chair she was just sitting in and looked at Alister. He shrugged. “I used it beforehand to test it out. He’s not cheating on her, he’s going to propose to her,” Alister said. O smiled a wide smile. Alister continued to look at her.
“What?” She asked, her smiled fading. Alister leaned back in his chair.
“If there is anything we learned her Karen, it’s that communication solves everything,” he said. O nodded, and then got out of the chair and left. Alister sighed.

They five of them stood outside of iBusiness like they always did before they left. Luke turned to Alister.
“I’m sorry man,” he said, “You know, for the way I was acting today.” Alister nodded.
“I’m sorry to,” he said. They shook hands and left. Gina smiled at O, and left for her car as well. O watched as they pulled off. She turned to Alf.
“Until tomorrow Alfred,” she said. He nodded, looking at her, and walked towards his bike. She watched as he left. Her phone rang. Taking it out of her pocket she saw it was her father. She took a deep breath, and then answered it.
“Hello?”

Luke pulled into his driveway. The lights weren’t on at O‘s house, so he assumed she must have stopped somewhere on her way home, and that her mother was still out. He climbed out of the car and walked into his house. He tossed his bag on the floor, and walked over to his fridge to see what could be made for dinner. Suddenly, his house phone rang. He ignored it for a moment, then thought it might be O. He rushed over to it, but the number he saw wasn’t O’s. He looked at it for a minute. He knew it, but he couldn’t remember who it was. He decided to hit the talk button before he missed it.
“Hello?” Luke said. There was a sigh on the other side, a sigh of an old man. Now Luke knew who it was.
“Hello son,” Luke’s father said.