The System is Down!

"Alex," the baritone voice of Jeffery Anderson snapped him out of a report he was trying to make heads or tails of, "The mail room says they aren't receiving any of my emails. I thought that keeping our internal infrastructure working was your job. Is there a problem?"

Alex looked up at the mustachioed face poking up over his cubical wall. While Alex didn't hate his job, he didn't love it either. One of the reasons for this lack of affection was Jeffery Anderson. Young. Hip. Eager to point out the shortcomings of others. Jeffery had a solid post-grad degree from a fancy university, and loved to point out that he _chose _to work there, that he could move on if he wanted. He was also Alex's immediate supervisor.

"Oh, thanks for letting me know," Alex said, immediately turning to the desktop computer on his desk to begin diagnosing the issue, wanting to minimize the encounter with the insufferable Jeffery, "Nobody had told me."

"Well I'm telling you now," Jeffery said in a syrupy, condescending voice, "I would have thought you would be on top of these things."

"Sorry Jeffery," Alex said, his back to his supervisor, talking through his teeth, "I'll get it fixed and let you know when it's running."

Alex expected a deep sigh, or a further complaint that he wished the entire company could have the level of commitment that he held, but what he got was the last thing he expected.

"Thanks babe!" the baritone voice said cheerfully, before the mustachioed face moved on back toward Jeffery's office.

Alex blinked. Had he heard that right? It must have been the office din. It must have been.