Matthew sat down, preparing for another day at work. Upcoming meetings and deadlines clouded his mind, barely finished work weighing him down. He would be fine, he knew he wouldn’t be fired, but the pressure of failure was just enough to sour his mood. As it was every day. The computer whirred to life in front of him, the bitter coffee quickly cooling in the mug beside him. He breathed. “One more day” he thought. As he did every day. A rapid repetitive dinging sound filled his ears as he was notified of all his new emails since yesterday. Scrolling through them in case there was something relevant, but there was only spam and trash and pointless emails about company events he wanted nothing to do with. As there always was.

After starting everything up and seeing nothing immediately pressing to deal with, he decided to get fresh coffee. Not that it was needed. Grabbing his mug, he made his way to the elevator. He jumped when a hand grabbed the door just before it finished closing, preparing himself for some more boring talk about how wild this mild weather is, he was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by his co-worker Todd.

“Aren’t you supposed to be off on holidays getting a suntan? Or did the threat of relaxing for once scare you off in the end?” Matthew asked, with a friendly smile.

“Oh ha-ha, very funny. As it turns out my integration project got pushed up by two weeks, so I have to stay here to oversee that. When I’m taking breaks from bugging you of course.” Todd replied, returning the smile.

“Damn, that sucks. Sorry about that, I know you were looking forward to some time off. Since you’re here anyway do you want to grab a drink later? Drown your sorrows away?”

“For sure.” Replied Todd sarcastically. “I’ll be drinking until I forget what a holiday even is.”

“Or the usual two pints and then home?”

“Yeah, two pints then home sounds slightly better.”

The ding of the elevator interrupted their friendly catching up and they waved to each other as they went their separate ways. Michael dodged between people as the morning rush for the cafeteria was in full swing, filled with people looking for an excuse to put off starting work for even just a couple more minutes. Chatter about various projects and acquisitions and various other things the company was in the process of filled the air. That and the occasional comment about to weather to fill an awkward gap between people close enough that they can’t ignore each other, but not close enough to actually have anything to say.

“Matty! Matty! Over here!” came a yell from Matthews left.

Matthew turned right.

Not wanting to get tied up in a conversation more boring than the work he was avoiding, Matthew rushed through the various groups of people, making a bee line for the coffee machine. Pressing the americano button started the slow stream of black coffee. Just like every other button. After filling his mug again he, quickly hurried back to his desk. He could make out various chatter in the cafeteria, and at one point even swore he heard something about acquiring a streaming platform. This was an insurance company, so that certainly seemed odd.

Arriving back to his desk, he reached into his drawer and grabbed the small carton of milk hidden there. It might not be stored in a fridge like the one in the cafeteria, but it was significantly less out of date, so he tended to prefer it.

“Shit!” He cursed, as he started to read through his emails again, actually paying attention this time. The PPA system was slowing down. That was something he actually could get fired for. He quickly restricted its usage to only people in the company. Various stockholders liked to be able to play with it and there might be a few other companies that are paying big money for the right to use it, but if he didn’t cut them off, the whole system would shut down, and then nobody would be happy. Having bought himself more time he began actually earning his pay check for once, digging around and trying to fix the problem.

“Uhh, Matty right?” A disinterested voice said behind him. He was pulled out of his train of thought, thirty minutes into trying to fix the issue.

“Matthew.” He replied, turning to see his boss’s boss, Mr Wilson. His actual boss appeared to be almost cowering behind him.

“Yeah, right, listen, we have some angry calls coming in, apparently a lot of our customers have lost access to our PPA system. I need to know why someone using your login details cut them off. Do you think you could tell me who did that Matty?”

“I did sir, but the server was slowing down and-“

“You did? You cut off some of our most valued customers? You know you work for them too right? That’s what customer means. Now why would you decide they didn’t deserve access anymore?”

“Well sir, like I was saying, the server was slowing down and it was about - “

“The server was slowing down? Matty, who is in charge of making sure the server stays up and running smoothly?”

“Well uhh, I am sir.”

“Right, so the server slowing down sounds like it is an issue with you? Not our customers?”

Matthew would usually be more angry at this conversation and the condescension being thrown at him, but he was very aware that he needed to get back to work on the server quickly. Something was causing issues, something big, and if he didn’t fix it the whole server would collapse, potentially destroying billions in company profits and, more importantly, his job.

“Yes sir, you are absolutely right, this is my problem and I shouldn’t have cut off our customers. I will add them right back this instant, I apologise for the mistake and it won’t happen again.”

“Oh I already granted them access again, and yes, make sure it doesn’t happen again, Matty.”

Mr Wilson turned to leave as Matthew cursed inwardly. That idiot had given everyone access again? That cut his time to fix this issue down to a fraction of what it was. He had to get back to it. Turning back around to his computer he prepared himself for a tough time but was surprised to see that everything was back to normal. The server was fine. Just as he was thinking about what could have possibly caused this the office was filled with a rapid repetitive dinging, like everyone suddenly had a backlog of emails coming through. Matthew checked his and saw three more emails, the earliest sent 10 minutes ago, but only arriving now, like everyone else. “Now that doesn’t make any sense at all” thought Matthew, confused.

Matthew was about five hours into trying to solve this problem that had apparently stopped existing when he was interrupted by a fresh mug of coffee being places next to him.

“Its rare for you to be so passionate about work that you miss your lunch, what’s up with that?” Remarked Todd.

“Oh I’m just so inspired by you I thought I would work extra hours.” Replied Matthew sarcastically.

“I like to think I inspire, but I thought you were the only one immune from my charm.” Smiled Todd.

“Well there was also a mysterious issue that could have cost me my job that still confuses me, but I think it’s mostly the inspiration… for sure.”

“Oh yeah, all the customers getting booted off? I heard chat about that in the cafeteria, a bug in the account system or something?”

“Oh that? That actually works fine, I cut the customers off myself. On purpose.”

“Fuck, no wonder you’re afraid of losing your job, why the hell would you do that?”

“It was either that or let the whole system crash. I figured a couple people losing access momentarily was a hell of a lot better than everyone losing access for up to a week! Not that Mr Wilson cared, he’s head of IT but I don’t know if he has ever been interested in a computer in his life.”

“Shit. Thats serious. Did you report the cause?”

“Haven’t a clue what the cause was. Thats what I’ve spent the day trying to find out. The problem just disappeared about half an hour after it came up.”

“Freaky…” said Todd quietly. “Still on for pints though yeah?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.”

After trying for a few more hours to fix a problem he was almost starting to doubt the existence of, Matthew gave up for the day, instead deciding this was an issue for Monday. Powering everything down as soon as he was contractually allowed to, he left the building. After sending a quick message to Todd to explain he was leaving quickly to avoid any more questions about the events with Mr Wilson, he turned down the street and started the walk towards the bar. Cars slowly trudged past, heavy rush hour traffic filling the streets as it always did when Matthew was finished for the day. He made his way away from the bright buildings and flashy advertisements to a quieter section of town, where the big displays with ads only gave him a mild headache instead of a severe one. Entering the slightly depressing bar he waited in line before ordering himself a cider. Sitting down in a secluded nook he was finally able to relax for the first time today, sinking into the uncomfortable chair.

“Damn, that bug must have really scared you to make you actually work hard.”

Matthew jerked awake, he wasn’t even aware he had been falling asleep. Phone, wallet, keys, pint. Check. Nothing stolen then. Todd looked down at him in his seat with a smile equal parts amused and concerned.

“No bugs.” Replied Matthew groggily, still partially asleep. “I checked every way I know how, and a few I only learned today. The system is fine, must have been a fluke or something.”

“The system doesn’t have flukes that big.” Replied Todd, sitting down across from Matthew.

“Then the diagnostics is broken. Reported issues that weren’t there. I’ll email whoever is in charge of that on Monday.” Matthew stretched and yawned. “What time is it?”

“Six thirty, how long were you asleep?”

“Fuck, I was out for an hour.” Matthew looked around, embarrassed, but luckily there was nobody around in this small nook of the bar.

“You sure you’re okay? You can go home you know, if you need to.”

“No, no I’m okay. Just tired. Your inspiration made me work too hard is all.” Said Matthew snarkily.

“Hmm, I’ll try and hold back around you a bit so.”

“Much appreciated.”

A little over two hours later, Matthew and Todd were waving goodbye again. Feeling tired but at least more relaxed after hanging out with Todd, Matthew made his way home, stopping off only to get some chips, before he was in the elevator up to his apartment.

“Oh Matty!” An old voice called out, just as the door started closing. Matthew reached out and grabbed them, knowing the buttons to keep them open wouldn’t work. Mrs Chester quickly shuffled into the elevator. At three times his age and half his height, Mrs Chester was the exact stereotype people would have for a doting grandmother.

“Matthew.” Corrected Matthew, quietly.

“What was that dear?” Asked Mrs Chester.

“It was nothing Mrs Chester, never mind. How is the printer working for you now?”

“Oh it’s working wonderfully now, thank you for fixing it. I still don’t understand how it broke.”

The printer didn’t exactly break, it was just registered to her late husband before he died. Once news of his demise reached the printer it seemed to decide it didn’t have an owner anymore and promptly locked up. Of course for a processing fee you could call up the company that issued the printer and they could switch the accounts. After proving proof or death and next of kin and his id card and her id card and probably some extra stuff they would make up on the spot. Or Matthew could have a look, and with enough technical knowledge it was possible to momentarily trick the printer into thinking Mr Chester was back again. Then he ripped out the internet connection so it could no longer get any updates. Subtle and brute, a combination often required with stubborn technology.

“Well the important thing is that is does work now, if you have any issues please tell me, I hate to imagine you struggling with something I could easily fix.” Said Matthew, smiling genuinely.

“I will of course! You must come over to my apartment, I cooked way too much food and need someone to take some of it off of my hands, and you are about the only person who appreciates it!”

It was true that he appreciated the food, she was an amazing cook, a skill that was becoming rarer and rarer. He had an urge to politely decline, as he did any time anyone offered him anything, but having only had cheap chips for dinner so far, a nice home cooked meal did sound very appealing.

“I would love to, I have some things to take care of in my apartment but I will pop over as soon as I am done.”

“Wonderful, I look forward to it!”

The elevator pinged, reaching Mrs Chesters floor and she said her goodbye and shuffled out. Matthew leaned back on the railing in the elevator as he continued upwards. He always found himself standing straighter around her, not out of fear, just not wanting to disappoint her he supposed. She never spoke much about herself but he had a suspicion that after her husband passed away, she didn’t have anyone else. Another ping interrupted his thoughts as he reached his floor, getting out and walking towards his apartment.

He unlocked his door and disabled the alarm. Most alarms could recognise their owner entering from their phone, but the smarter the technology got, the more finicky it tended to be, like with Mrs Chesters printer. Matthew preferred to use technology that he himself was in control of and familiar with. Of course, that didn’t make his house low tech, on the contrary, he had his own personal server running that kept track of his security systems, cameras in his home, music, streaming from his personal TV and movie collection, dietary tracking with an FDA database he found online, exercise tracking that he had personalised to push him to make the most of each work out with a sprinkle of AI involved. Not that he used most of it. For the most part he built these systems to prove he didn’t need the fancy high tech versions rented out by one company or another. He also enjoyed sharing them online and getting feedback from others with similar hobbies, under a false name of course. Some of these things were a copyright lawsuit waiting to happen, and even if he would in theory win the case, he didn’t have the money to try.

Boiling the kettle he started preparing himself a cup of coffee, with a dash of whiskey to take the edge off. Looking around his studio apartment he decided to open a window. The apartment was small enough that boiling the kettle increased the humidity a lot, which wasn’t something he wanted to come back to later. His apartment consisted of a small kitchen area, with a dining table that was just barely small enough to fit, a very thin fake wall that separated his “bedroom” from the kitchen, and a small bathroom. Modest was the nicest way of describing the apartment.

He leaned on the counter, quietly sipping his coffee, taking a moment to think about the day. Something bugged him about what happened with the PPA system. It was well funded and had plenty of computer power behind it, it shouldn’t have had any issues. Usually he only thought about work during work, and even then it was rare, but this issue was weird and he didn’t understand it. Not to mention he came close to losing his job if it had crashed. Vague ideas of what to do floated through his head but he knew none of them would work, it would just be trying something for the sake of trying something. It unnerved him how unprepared he was, work was usually easy enough to consider dull.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he finished his coffee and left to go to Mrs Chesters apartment. He knocked twice and heard her calling him inside, telling him the door is open. He has mentioned countless times that she really should lock the door, but she insisted that the people in this apartment building were too nice to do anything. Entering the apartment he smelled what he thought was a lovely stir fry.

“Hello Mrs Chester.”

“Hello dear, I’m just in here.”

Matthew made his was into the kitchen. Mrs Chesters apartment was much larger than his, she actually had multiple rooms. He saw Mrs Chester frying up a nice variety of vegetables and had some noodles and chicken cooking too.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked.

“Could you make the stir fry sauce? Just like I showed you, do you remember?”

“Of course, I’ll get right to it, I could use the practice.”

Matthew got the ingredients from the fridge and started measuring them out as be remembered.

“So how is work going? Have you gotten a raise yet?”

“Haha, no, no raise yet, I’m not sure I will get one at all. My bosses boss had to have some words with me today so Im sure I won’t be considered for one for a while.” Matthew laughed sadly.

“Oh Matthew, what did you do? I told you, you can’t be taking out your frustrations on your boss.”

“Oh I just made the mistake of saving the company billions at the slightest of inconvenience to some of our customers.”

“Well that sounds like something to be promoted for! I’m sure if you could explain what you did you could clear things up? I don’t pretend to understand anything you do but saving money is usually a good thing.”

“Oh I thing they’re just looking for excused to not promote me if I’m honest. I’m the best at grunt work there, so they can’t promote me too much. It might damage their egos.”

Mrs Chester sighed, practically slamming down the fork she was using to stir. Matthew walked over, the concern on his face was obvious.

“Are you okay Mrs Chester?”

“Oh I’m sorry Matthew, I don’t mean to throw a tantrum.” Mrs Chester replied, steadying herself. “I just wish you had better luck in work. You’re smart, you should be running that place but they keep you down and give you just enough to stop you leaving, but no more. It’s not fair and they don’t deserve you. You should be working somewhere better, somewhere you would be appreciated.”

Matthew sighed. He appreciated her concern for him, he appreciated that she cared about his wellbeing, but he didn’t have much of a choice with his job.

“Thank you Mrs Chester but I don’t really have another option. This job has the best deal. It comes with insurance, accommodation and free meals in work. Not as good as yours of course. The pay is mediocre but the benefits make up for it, there’s even a social club that goes to events and trips!”

Matthew faked his enthusiasm for the social club, he was part of it once but found the idea of letting the company dictate his social life slightly repulsive. Mrs Chester sighed.

“I’m sorry, it’s not my place to judge your workplace. I just think you deserve better. You have such a bright mind and you so rarely get to use it.”

“I’m okay, really. I have friends, I have you, I have a good life. I like my job, I love working with computers.” Matthew reassured her. An outburst like this was unlike her, but she has been more stressed ever since her husband passed away, which was of course very understandable. Mr Chester was a very kind and friendly man from the little Matthew got to see of him. They worked different hours so they rarely got to meet, but he was always ready to help Matthew with any issues he had, particularly with electronics around the house, which was what he was good at.

“Thank you Matthew, I can only apologise for my outburst. I do still have my concerns about your job, but if you’re happy, I’m happy.” Mrs Chester smiled at him.

“Well I am happy, and besides, if I had some big shot corporate job, I wouldn’t have time to eat all your delicious food.” Matthew joked, smiling back.

“Oh speaking of food, I think it’s almost ready, could you pass me the sauce you made?”

Matthew handed her the sauce, and watched as she poured it over the vegetables and noodles. The smell of the sauce cooking was amazing and Matthew could feel himself getting hungrier. After cooking for another few minutes it was ready to serve. Mrs Chester lifted the wok to bring it over to the plates but suddenly seemed like she was going to drop it. Matthew darted forward, grabbing the wok from the bottom and burning his hand in the process, but at least managing to push it back onto the counter without spilling too much.

“Ow shit!” Cursed Matthew, feeling the skin on his hand burning.

“Oh oh no! Oh Matthew I’m so so sorry!” Mrs Chester looked distraught at what had happened to Matthew. He winced, lightly flexing his hand but stopping as it just made the pain worse. He could see he had a serious burn on his palm and fingers. He rushed to the sink and winced as he started running it under cold water.

“I’m so sorry Matthew, I don’t know what happened. My arm just went numb, completely limp.”

Mrs Chester weakly squeezed her hand, still not feeling her full strength. Matthew noticed this and approached with concern.

“It’s okay Mrs Chester, I’ll be fine, I’ll heal. What happened to your arm? Can you squeeze my hand as hard as you can?”

Matthew took her hand in his and felt a quite weak squeeze. Mrs Chester looked at her hand, shocked at the lack of strength.

“Okay. Okay, Mrs Chester could you raise your arm up for me? As high as you can?”

Matthew stepped back and looked as Mrs Chester struggled to raise her arm, he could see the strain in her face. He grew concerned that there could be an issue with her heart, as he knew that could cause arm issues.

“Mrs Chester? I’m going to take you to the hospital okay. Just for peace of mind, I’m sure everything is okay.” Lied Matthew.

Mrs Chester was pale and looked scared. She was staring at her hand and arm, shocked.

“Come on Mrs Chester, this way.”

Matthew led her out the door, grabbing her coat. He had a small car that he could use to take her to the hospital. He rarely used it as walking was usually quicker during rush hour, but it was later now so the roads should be clearer.

“This was now, easy does it.”

Matthew was doing his best to avoid panicking, but he could feel it at the edge of his mind. A cold numbness that he knew he could let take over at any moment. Horrible thoughts of what could happen flashed through his head and he shook them out. He held Mrs Chesters good hand so she could lean on him, unfortunately that means using his burned hand, but the adrenaline and panic dulled the pain anyway. They reached his car and he gently helped her into the seat. She was paralysed with shock to the extent that he had to put her seatbelt on for her. Running around to the other side he got into the car and quickly took off.

“Just a couple more minutes now Mrs Chester, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

They were about ten minutes away from the hospital. An ambulance could have done it faster but her insurance didn’t cover it and neither of them could afford it.

“Nearly there, we’re going to be there soon.” Matthew tried to reassure her. He took his eyes off the road for a moment to check on her and was shocked to see her pale, eyes closed, slumped in her seat.

“Shit!” Cursed Matthew, slamming down the accelerator, speeding off down the road towards the hospital.