Stormwatch - A Blizzard in Buffalo

He reached in his pocket and pulled out a heavy brass coin, one side showed the specter of death pointing two swords downward at a thirty-degree angle. The other side showed an AC-130 gunship in a thirty-degree roll to the left, the left side of the plane bristling with guns, on the top the coin said GHOST RIDERS. Below that it read, "Only the dead have seen the end of war" and below that was engraved his call sign "Bounce 27." This coin is never looked at, never taken out, but always in his pocket. He blinked and his head, shoulder and arms were covered with snow, how long did he lose himself staring at the past through the lens of this brass coin? Shaking himself he returned to Orchard Park NY and the problem at hand. He raised the coin and banged the edge of the coin on her window. It hit with a resounding Crack! But she didn't move. Josh began banging the coin in a rhythm he thought he had forgotten, but his hand remembered how to tap the coin... How many bar tops and beer-soaked tabletops has he tapped out that same rhythm?

Slowly Veronica came out of whatever waking nightmare had her in its grasp, and she turned toward the source of the sound that roused her and there was Mr. Gravely. Josh saw the look of relief that washed over her as she recognized him. Her door opened a little and she leaned toward the door, "I don't know what happened... it won't start, can I get a jump from you?" She sounded scared and embarrassed.

So many bad comeback lines were available to Josh, but he didn't utter a one. "No ma'am, the county has banned travel, looks like we have to wait this one out."

Veronica took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "Ok, but no more "ma'am," got it?"

"Ma... uh Miss van Köster, my momma would reach out from her grave and slap my mouth if she would hear me call you anything but ma'am."

The window closed and the door opened a bit, "That Miss van Köster stuff has to go too." She took his proffered arm as she got out of the SUV. The sidewalks were shoveled, but that's when they're at their most slippery as the falling snow melts and turns into a slippery coating of half frozen slush.

"What should I call you?"

"Anything but Betty," she replied but she looked at his face and didn't see a glimpse of recognition. "You know Betty from the Archie comics... Betty and Veronica?"

"Oh, I get it now... but I thought Betty was the blond..." Josh was feigning ignorance trying to get Miss van Köster's brain going and off of the predicament she was in, she must have been freezing out here. Her legs barely kept her up and he put his arm around her narrow waist to steady her as they walked up the slippery sidewalk. "Isn't Betty the nice one?" he asked getting one more poke in before they got to the door.

"You must be thinking of a different Betty," she said as they got to the door. By now she was shivering violently, "I'm sorry for being a burden, I'm so cold," she said softly.

Josh's hands were full of Veronica so he couldn't easily pull out his storm watch badge to scan and unlock the door, and she made no move to pull her badge out, in fact her foot slipped a little more and she held on to Josh tighter. He finally got his badge out with his left hand, then the door opened, but her legs gave out. In a flash he scooped her up and carried Veronica into the warm building. He took her to the reception area, more reminiscent of someone's living room than a networking company. It has comfortable couches and chairs arranged around coffee tables where salesmen could set up their laptops and start their presentations. Josh often called it the furniture store.

Josh eased Veronica into a couch then he stood, kicking himself. He had a slice of heaven in his arms, she could be sitting on his lap right now, but he set her down and stepped back, that's what you get for being raised a gentleman. "Ok," he sighed, "If you're ok, then I suppose I'll get back to work," and he took off his jacket and hung it on the antique coat rack near the door. There goes spending the night on Ant's hide-a-bed watching Jackie Chan movies. As a gentleman, he knows he's going to give up that bed up for her.

"Effy, please, I'm freezing. Can you get me a quilt from my closet in my office?"

"Sure ma'... I mean Veronica, I'll be right back." Josh headed over to executive row and used his storm watch card to get into Veronica's office. Her office was a buffer between Ant's office and the VP offices. He had to use the card to get into her closet too, which turned out to be an executive office supply depot, a storage spot for Andalon.com swag, and a storage area for a couple of outfits, coats, shoes, cosmetics, and a few blankets. He grabbed what appeared to be a handmade quilt and headed back to Veronica. As he passed her desk, he saw neatly laid out on her desk was her security badge, her handbag, and the starter fob for her SUV. He considered those items for a long time before returning to Veronica.

On the couch she had taken off her quilted coat and was using it as a blanket. "Grandma's quilt! I forgot I had it here!" she gasped as Josh spread it out on top of her.

"Would you like me to hang up your coat?"

"No thank you," she shivered, "But could you please help me off with my boots please?"

Josh smiled and sat down on the coffee table and lifted a foot into his lap and pushed up her pants leg. Her boots were nearly equivalent to Go-Go boots, they were just about knee high and skintight. "Do these count as compression stockings?" Josh asked as he slowly pulled down the zipper on the first boot, "I ask because my Doc mentioned compression stockings and these are awful tight," he eased the boot off of an elegant leg and held it up, "and I have something that would go with these."

Veronica looked at Josh for a moment then realized he was kidding, and she burst out laughing. It was a beautiful, musical laugh, Josh thought that if angels laugh, this is what they would sound like. She was still laughing as he eased off the second boot, the thought of a tough, bearded, ex-military guy saying he's got an outfit to match high heeled women's boots... "I'm sorry," she finally said through tears of laughter. "But that was the first good laugh I've had in a long time." Her delicate little feet were still on his lap, and they were covered in black nylon stockings. "Do you need compression stockings?" she asked as he began to massage her feet. Her laughs changed to little mewling sounds as his strong hands massaged the aches of the day away.

"My doc seems to think so and... oh shit!" He suddenly realized where he was and what he was doing and who he was doing it to. "I... I'm so sorry! I shouldn't be doing this... I didn't mean... it was just..." he struggled to get away, but he was tangled in the quilt.

"No!" she gasped, "It's ok, I don't mind." she reached forward and captured one of his hands and patted it, "please don't stop, it's just what I need."

Josh relaxed and went back to work massaging her feet. "I'm sorry, but I'm a guy. We walk into HR, and they say "GUILTY! Now... what is it that you were you accused of?"

"We don't do that here," she said indignantly, "where did you come to us from?" Her eyes rolled back in her head as he hit a spot on her foot that felt soooo good. Yeah, he'd be in HR if he did this to someone during office hours... Lacy in HR would want a foot massage too.

"I came from XCom," he said. "They were pretty vicious."

"Oh yeah, them." Veronica sighed sadly. Those giant multi-nationals were meat grinders, they snagged up the brightest and the best and spit out shell-shocked animated corpses. Bodies were stacked up as sacrifices to the unholy goddess named "Restructuring" whose appetite was ravenous. Veronica eased her happy, tingling feet to the floor and patted the couch next to herself. "Do you mind? I'm still freezing."

Josh sat down on the couch next to her and she threw the quilt over him then snuggled up next to him, basking in his bodily warmth. He nervously put an arm around her still terrified of the dragon that lurks in each HR office, but she snuggled closer with a happy purr. "Why do you need compression stockings?" she asked.

No harm in answering, Josh thought, they know all about me any how... here goes... "I was on a plane that was in pretty bad shape. It hit the runway kinda hard and I wasn't secured. I bounced around some, and my innards got shook up..." He cannot forget that night, a nasty mission in "Buttfuckistan" and their AC-130U was on target. He was forward working a jam on the 25mm gun when they took ground fire and a shell hit the rear ramp blowing half of it away and knocking out the gun crew on the 105... their blood was everywhere... he got his injured crew members bandaged and strapped in on that mad dash for home, there was nowhere to strap in and before he knew it the runway came up and slammed into them and he bounced around that cabin quite violently. He spent the rest of his career working on computers for Uncle Sam before early retirement and a job with XCom.

It felt so good to Veronica, just snuggling with this man, he's not grabby, he's not looking down her blouse, he's not planning to show her off like a deer he just shot. It's been a long time... "Let's play a game," she said, "tell me where we're going on our date."

"When? now? I guess we'll go to Ant's office and play Red Dead Redemption on his Xbox."

"How about after the roads open," she said wondering what a Red Dead Redemption was, "where do we go?"

"Hmmm... ok, I got it. Friday afternoon we go to Chestnut Ridge Park and go tobogganing. The toboggan runs are so incredible there, and when we're done with that, we upgrade to the inner tubes. That's some serious fun. Hot apple cider with maybe a splash of schnapps between runs, then we go to the Ellicott Manor in Lancaster for fish fry."

"What's on their fish fry?" she asked. Fish fry in Buffalo is almost a religious experience, it's everywhere and everyone has their favorite place to enjoy it.

"Halibut," he started, "beer battered and deep fried to perfection."

"Of course," she nodded.

"French fries, cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, and apple slaw."

"French fries and potato salad? That's a mighty bold choice!" she chuckled but Friday fish fry made keeping trim such a chore.

"Yep, that's me, always looking for the avant garde to impress the ladies." That caused her to smile and hold back a giggle.

"What about after?" she asked.

"I don't know, what we're doing right here is awful nice, I think after dinner I'll let you drive. If we wind up on the couch watching old movies, I'm down with that." That surprised the hell out of her, guys always want sex, and she said a little prayer that it wasn't a lie intended to get her off her guard. Then he asked, "What's your idea of the perfect date?"

She thought for a long time then finally said, "I don't know, I've never had one." Guys were always trying to impress her. She remembered one guy who flew her down to Miami for dinner prepared by an executive chief in a roof top penthouse garden overlooking the ocean. A delightful dinner was followed by some really disappointing sex. Another guy flew her to Paris, and they took in the sights, strolled through museums, had a nice dinner, and the hotel was beautiful, but he got so stoned he couldn't get it up and blamed his impotence on her. Right now, tobogganing and apple cider sounded better than Miami or Paris.

"Humor me," he said.

"You know what? I've haven't been on a picnic in ages. I want to go on a picnic, under a tree by a lake or a stream," she said. "A real picnic, with cold fried chicken and homemade sides, not grocery store sides, and cold beer not some pretentious bitter wine."

"That sounds like heaven," said Josh. "Maybe a drive-in movie later?"

"Yes!" she gasped, "With something good, classics like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Smokey and the Bandit." She was quiet a long time dreaming about a picnic then she finally asked, "How did a southern boy like you end up in Buffalo?"

"My granddaddy used to work for Fisher Price, and I would come up in the summer to visit. We'd go to Niagara Falls and fish on Lake Erie, and to me it was heaven. So, when I got out of the military, I had an opportunity to work for XCom in their West Seneca office..." and that's when Josh discovered that she had fallen asleep.

Veronica woke from the best nap she's had in ages, but she was alone. She was curled up on the reception area couch with her head on a pillow that Josh provided, and the lights were down dim. She noticed a note on her boots which were standing on the table.

Veronica -

You were asleep so nicely, so I didn't want to disturb you. I went back to my office to finish some work and get ready for tonight's maintenance at midnight. Let me know when you're hungry and I'll make dinner. -- Josh

Veronica walked barefooted back to the tech area and found him in the server section's work room. He had a server laying on the work bench, a monitor and keyboard connected to it, but he was also accessing it through a laptop that was plugged into one of the network ports on back of the server and he was monitoring something on his desktop PC. He was idly watching the screens waiting for something to happen, such is the life of a server technician. Finally, he leaned forward and looked at something that interested him on the PC screen. "Yes!" he cried in victory, he then leaned back and raised a pistol. He yelled "Bitch!" and fired off a round in Victoria's direction.

She gasped when she saw the gun come up and almost screamed even though she saw it was made of bright yellow and orange plastic. As if in slow motion she watched the foam tube spring from the Nerf gun and sail toward her then strike the wall just a foot from her head.

"Oh God I'm so sorry!" gasped Josh as he came around the corner of the desk, "I honestly didn't know you were there."

"Don't apologize to me, Effy," she pointed to a picture taken in profile of a buxom Hispanic woman on the wall with a suction cup nerf dart stuck to her butt. "Anyone we know?"

"Yesenia," he said frowning, "my ex."

"I'm sure you have a story," said Veronica as she inspected Josh's Night Strike Blaster Nerf pistol. "I'm acquainted with things, exes and office warfare; we all have stories." She handed him back his toy gun and said, "You promised to feed me?" her perfect eyebrows raised up waiting for an answer.

Soon they were dining in the empty lunchroom, Josh had grabbed a couple of frozen meals from his hidden stash and combining some of their contents with other frozen dinners that he "procured" he came up with a surprisingly acceptable Chicken Parmesan on spaghetti with a drink that Veronica loved which turned out to be Sprite mixed with lemon aide served in a margarita glass. They chit-chatted about life at Andalon.com until Veronica said, "So what about your ex... Yesenda?"

"Yesenia," he corrected mildly. "Please, not on first date,"

"This is a date?" She raised one elegant eyebrow.

"Well, yeah! Not exactly what we were aiming for, but you have your chicken, we're in a nice, secluded spot -- nobody around for miles!" he gestured to the windows which showed nothing but snow piling up by the foot. Then he gestured to the TV on the wall. The sound was turned down, but it was a nature show featuring a swamp somewhere. "And there's your body of water."

Veronica looked at Josh and shook her head. "Ok, it's a stretch but I'll go as far as saying this is a date, but this is no picnic. You owe me a proper picnic, on the ground, Scotch plaid blanket, near a stream."

"Deal. I know a great spot on Trevette road, right where Cattaraugus creek passes under Zoar Valley Road..."

"I know that spot!" cried Veronica, "it's perfect!"

"How do you know that spot?" he asked.

"I've gone fishing there, it's beautiful!" She was so excited! She looked like she was offered a new Mercedes or a vacation in Europe.

"You like fishing?" Josh asked astounded. He was actually more surprised that a brilliant fashion model turned executive assistant enjoyed fishing in a creek more than finding out she knew his favorite fishing hole.

"Why? I'm not supposed to like fishing because I'm a girl?"

"No... it's... you're so... elegant." She glared at him until he added, "It's hard to picture you in cut offs and a t-shirt, I mean... you're in this business suit and you look so beautiful, fragile yet powerful at the same time... and ... I... I'm digging myself deeper, aren't I?"

She nodded her head, "When you find yourself in a hole, the secret is to stop digging, but you're right, I guess that's how people here see me." She frowned and sighed, "It's better than being seen as the boss's kept woman."

"I haven't heard that one," said Josh. "I mean I've heard a lot of rumors about you, but not that one."

"Like what?"

Josh thought for a moment, his next statement wasn't exactly a rumor he heard, it was a fishing expedition. "I heard you were Miss America."

Veronica snorted a laugh. "Miss America? Hardly!" then she softly muttered "I wasn't even in the top ten."

"HA! I KNEW IT! I knew you were a beauty queen!"

She suddenly realized there was no rumor that she was Miss America, he merely said that to find out if she's been in beauty pageants. "Ok, yes, I was Miss Ohio many years ago, I was in it for the scholarship money and the modeling contracts. What does that have to do with fishing?"

"Beauty queens don't go fishing." He had a smug smile of superiority.

"Where is that written?" she demanded with a laugh. "I can fish with elbow length silk gloves and a tiara in hip waders and a torn crop top if I want!"

"I dare you!"

"You're on southern boy!"

There was no anger in their "argument," it was all good natured getting-to-know-you banter. He moved to the chair next to her and they chatted, enjoying the evening as the snow piled high in the darkness outside. Their smiles were genuine, and as they discussed the life of a former Miss Ohio, they leaned closer and closer to each other. Somehow their lips got into that range, the range where you're either going to kiss a person or bite them, but Josh stopped and backed away. "What's wrong Effy? What did I say?"

"No, it's not you, it's ... I ... Look, I really, really like you, I can't think of another person I'd rather spend an evening with... but I don't sneak into another man's hen house if you catch my drift."

"Henhouse? I don't understand... I guess I don't speak country." She looked genuinely sad that he pulled back.

He gently took her slim, elegant hand in his big rough hands and held it gently like it was a newborn kitten. He stroked her palm gently causing shivers to coalesce in areas that haven't shivered in a long time. He then sadly turned over her hand exposing that 2.5 carat Rock on her ring finger. He sadly shook his head as he touched that magnificent ring. "This is what I mean by being in another man's henhouse. I've admired you from the day I was hired and Anthony introduced me to you, but there's boundaries I cannot allow myself to cross."

"Because of this ring?"

"Yes ma'am," he sighed sadly. "Another man put this on your hand, so it's not my hand to hold." He hated being raised a gentleman, but that's all that his parents could afford to give him, so he hung tight to the teaching of his parents in their memory.

"Effy honey," she said sadly, then she scoffed. "This is my right hand."

He paused for a very long time then he finally said, "Then... that's not an engagement ring?" he looked sincerely astonished.

"No! ... well, I mean it used to be, but not any more..."

"You mean all this time I was looking at that ring and I could have been looking at your boobs?"