Waiting For Ethan by Diane Barnes

her,” she said. “But it’s not even like guys our age have that name. Why didn’t she say Mike or Jim or Steve, for God’s sake, so that you’d have a fighting chance?”
    â€œBecause my husband’s name is going to be Ethan, and I’m not your age. I’m younger.”
    Luci stood. “I need another drink.”
    Â 
    While I wait for Luci to arrive, I check my e-mail. I have one message from Cooper Allen sent at 5:45 this morning, which is probably a late start for him.
    Maybe Cooper is writing to thank me for doing such a great job editing his rush job before the storm? I open the e-mail and see the message is actually to my manager, Jamie, and that I am CC’d on it. “Attached is a report on the worldwide smartphone market. I would like Gina to edit this and all my research going forward. ca.”
    Figures. It’s just more work. I open the attached file. Cooper has written ninety-six pages on cell phone sales. Kill me now. The words thank you appear nowhere in his message.
    In fairness, Cooper probably does believe he is rewarding me, because after all, who wouldn’t be honored to work so closely with TechVisions’ resident rock star? And I have to admit, in a twisted way, I am flattered. Cooper has high standards, and I apparently meet them—or at least my editing skills do.
    Luci stomps into the office fifteen minutes later. “Good morning,” I say as she hangs her coat on the back of the door.
    â€œIt’s really not.” She doesn’t even look at me.
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    Now she turns to me. “It’s Monday, and we’re back here.” Usually Luci isn’t so cranky, so I think there’s more to her bad mood, but I also know not to push. She’ll tell me when she’s ready, or she won’t. That’s Luci Chin. “I’m going to the café. Do you need anything?” She leaves before I answer.
    A few minutes later Jamie comes to our office to talk about Cooper’s message. We are finishing our conversation when Luci returns from the cafeteria. She is clearly annoyed that Cooper has hand-selected me as his editing guru. She slams her breakfast on her desk, sending a clump of scrambled eggs soaring into the air, and then yanks open her bottom desk drawer and grabs a bottle of hot sauce. With one aggressive motion, she twists off the cap and hoists the bottle in the air above her remaining eggs. “Like I haven’t done an exceptional job correcting his grammar and spelling errors the past fourteen years.” She punctuates each word with a violent shake of the bottle, so that by the time she’s done speaking, there’s more hot sauce than eggs on her plate. Jamie responds the way he always does. He turns his back and leaves. Luci shoves a forkful of the brown-yellow mush on her plate into her mouth, makes a face, and then flings the dish into the garbage.
    Now her fingers pound her keyboard as she composes an e-mail to Cooper. She should be celebrating the news that she has one less analyst to work with, but because it’s the first time at work that Luci’s been passed over for anything, she doesn’t view it as a positive thing. I have no idea what Luci is writing to Cooper, but I hope she’s being careful.
    Vice president of research on mobile devices, Cooper Allen is otherwise known as Mr. TechVisions. He used to use his middle initial, T , in his byline, but everyone joked that it stood for TechVisions instead of Thomas so he stopped using it. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the company’s logo has been branded on his backside.
    He is the company’s number-one revenue generator. The media loves Cooper almost as much as the board of directors does. He’s the go-to guy for quotes about cell phones and other handheld devices and the companies that make them. It’s not unusual to see him on the nightly news sitting in front of