Right away!

You get back to your cubicle to find your computer much as you left it: with an ugly, dire-looking error message on the screen. You make another brief, hopeless attempt to repair the problem yourself, but you only succeed in producing a small flock of additional error messages.

?Now what have you done?? a voice asks.

You look up and are surprised to see Rebecca standing at the entrance to your cubicle. You?re not exactly surprised to see Rebecca herself; you know that she?s one of the best technicians in the IT department, and she?s the person mostly likely to get your computer up and running ASAP. What you are surprised to see is how Rebecca is dressed.

She?s in her early twenties, with curly dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin ... and you can see quite a bit of her skin, since she?s only wearing a pair of orange and white micro-short shorts, a bikini top of matching colors, a pair of sneakers, socks, and an MP3 player. Her flat stomach and smooth, lean thighs show that she?s in excellent physical condition, which you had always suspected, though it was previously hard to be sure under the t-shirts and jeans that she always wore.

?I see they?ve changed the dress code in IT,? you tell her.

Her confident grin gets wider. ?I was getting ready to walk home when Ms. Wu called. It?s a beautiful day and I don?t live far away.?

?You?re going to cause a traffic accident.?

?Is it my fault you guys can?t keep your eyes on the road? Now scoot over and let me see the damage.?

You shift your chair so that she can stand at your keyboard. She sets down a little wallet of tools, takes hold of your mouse, sets to work immediately. Windows and prompts flash past as she types, but the nearby heat of her body makes it difficult for you to pay attention to what she?s doing. Rebecca?s conversations with you have always carried a certain note of innuendo; you?ve never been sure whether she was hinting or just joking.

She mutters a few arcane phrases, rattles off a few more commands with the keyboard, and says, ?Well, that?s not good.?

?Uh - how not good?? you ask. ?I?m supposed to finish a report in the next forty-five minutes.?

?You?re kidding, right?? She looks down at you and pushes a lock of hair out of her eyes. ?You?re not kidding.? She blows out a breath, looks at your computer screen, and then back at you. ?Well, I?ll see what I can do. But if I pull this off, you owe me.?

?Just name it.?

?Dinner. Tonight. I choose.?

?Deal.?

?And maybe breakfast tomorrow,? she says, and before you can react to that, she adds, ?But we?re not going anywhere until I get this fixed. I?m going to crack open the case and have a look inside. You can go down to my desk and get me the case of disks in my top drawer.?

Well. Looks like she wasn?t just joking after all.

You duck down to the IT desk and get Rebecca?s disks, then return as quickly as possible. When you return to your cubicle, you see that she is already putting your computer back together. Actually, what you see specifically is Rebecca?s hindquarters, since she is on her hands and knees under your desk reconnecting the cables to your computer tower.

She hasn?t heard you coming, so you are able to take a few moments to appreciate the view. Her shorts are really dangerously short, and so her position under your desk gives you a clear view of most of her bare ass. Like the rest of her, it?s smooth and well-formed and tempting.