Good Friends

Elliot Carson looked at the screen on his HAAS controller. He pressed the buttons that would run the program at 25% rapid and in single block mode. Running in single block, meant that the huge machine would execute only one single block or command in the program at a time. It would then wait for him to prompt it before doing anything else.

He closed the door to the machine's cavernous machining envelope and wished for the best. He'd been tweaking this program for more efficiency and hoped that he'd finally gotten it right. If so, it would cut down on the machine's cycle time and save the company more money. Saving the company more money meant that Elliot's production numbers went up and that his profit sharing check would be bigger.

Elliot lost all thought of that as it happened. He'd been so pre-occupied by the machine that he'd lost track of the time and almost missed one of his two favorite times of the day. Watching "her" arrive at the plant was the best. Watching "her" leave was a close second.

She walked briskly to the time clock and looked for her card. She punched the card, put it back in her slot and walked up the stairs towards the office. Today as usual she was wearing a skirt that stopped just below her knee. Her calves were beautiful and her ankles were as spectacular as the rest of her. Her ass was perfect, not huge, not flat just perfectly proportionate for her frame. Her breasts were just there as far as he could tell. They weren't huge by a long shot and they weren't flat. They stood out from her torso, but not a huge amount.

It was her face and that luxurious mane of hair that Elliot noticed first. Her face was perfection. She was blessed with huge blue eyes and a Cupid's bow mouth. Her nose was cute and covered with a light coating of freckles. He dreamed of looking into those eyes someday and kissing those lips, but it would probably never happen.

Her hair was a golden blond color and was literally the longest mane of hair he'd ever seen. It extended all the way down past her ass nearly to her knees. It was always tied up or restrained in some way. Today it was in one long pony tail that swished and bounced off of her ass as she walked. Elliot watched her all the way until she disappeared from view into the office upstairs.

"Earth to Elliot. Earth to Elliot. Come in Elliot, are you there?" laughed the voice of Elliot's best friend, Mark Daniels.

Elliot turned around and barely noticed his friend. It always took him a while to return to normal after seeing her.

"Elliot, can you hear me?" asked Mark.

"Yeah, of course I can," snapped Elliot. He was embarrassed that Mark had caught him staring at the woman and hoped that maybe his friend wouldn't notice.

"Man, you zoned out over that one," said Mark, removing all hope of Elliot maintaining his dignity. "You really went gaga over her, Bud."

"No I didn't," snapped Elliot. "I don't even know what you're talking about. I was going over my calculations for the radii in this program because if I got them wrong, I'm going to fuck up a pretty expensive casting."

"Hmm, it seems pretty coincidental that your calculations started right when that blond came in and ended right when she disappeared from view," said Mark. "But I believe you. After all you are my best friend."

"That's because I'm the ONLY guy who can stand you for very long," said Elliot.

"That is probably true," said Mark. "Anyway, lunch today? On you of course, I'm technically broke until we get paid tomorrow."

"Okay," said Elliot turning back to his machine. "See you then."

Mark quickly went up the stairs and into the office. He looked around and saw the blond woman. She was sitting at a desk near the center of the room. All around her were other secretaries and assistants. He stared at the woman trying to see exactly what was so special about her that had drawn his friend's interest.

There had to be something. Elliot hardly ever looked at women, let alone spaced out in the middle of the shop floor over one.

Mark went and spoke to Sally, the office gossip. Sally smiled broadly as Mark leaned over her desk. She leaned forward to give him a better view of her chest and quickly looked around to make sure that the other women in the office were watching her.

"I told you, you'd be back," she said. "What happened, did you run out of single women to go after?"

"Sally, you getting married is one of the worst things to ever happen to me in my life," said Mark. "I really wish you hadn't done it, because now we can get together every once in a while, but it can't be anything regular. It would arouse too much suspicion. And I don't need any husbands beating down my door."

"You had your chance, baby," said Sally. "You could have married me yourself. Shit, you still can."

"Sally what do you know about the blond over there?" Mark pointed at the woman that Elliot had been staring at.

Sally looked to see who he was talking about and then turned her head back. Her eyes had changed. "Mark you need to stay the fuck away from her," she snapped.

"She's been through a rough enough time already. She doesn't need you pumping her up and then dumping her on a whim, or because after you've fucked her a couple of times you're just bored. She's not your type and you're not hers."

Mark looked at the woman again. Her face seemed plain, but she was kind of pretty. He'd seen better though. She had hardly any tits. She wasn't very tall or very short. She didn't wear a lot of make-up or jewelry. Her clothes weren't very stylish. Shit, she was the most average woman Mark had ever seen. The only thing that stood out about her was all of that hair. Holy shit, he wondered. How the hell did she go to the bathroom without getting shit all over it?

"Don't worry, Sally," said Mark. "I'm not the least bit interested in her."

"Yeah right," said Sally. "She has a pussy, so you're interested. But if you mess with her, every woman that works here will make sure that you lose your job."

"Honest to God Sally, I'm not interested in Rapunzel," said Mark.

"Her name is Kathy," snapped Sally. "And if you're not interested in her, then why the hell were you asking about her?"

"A friend of mine is kind of nuts about her," said Mark.

"Well tell your friend to stay the fuck away from her," snapped Sally. "Or else...."

"Or else what?" asked Mark, bringing his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. She wondered if he'd actually kiss her here in the office in front of everyone. Mark was such a bastard. She was sure he would. He'd do it without even a thought, her marriage and reputation, be damned.

"Or else we'll make sure that both you and your friend have problems," said Sally, snapping out of her near swoon. Mark was trouble. It was all she could do to keep from pulling her panties down and handing them to him.

"Don't worry," said Mark. "I doubt that anything will happen. You know how shy Elliot is."

"Elliot," snapped Sally. All of a sudden her entire demeanor changed. "Ohhh, the poor baby. Tell me what's going on."

A few hours later Elliot sat at a table across from Mark in a mom and pop restaurant near the plant where they both worked. Mark was a salesman and a very good one. He used his charm to schmooze people into buying everything he sold, whether they needed it or not.

Elliot was a CNC programmer and he was also very good at what he did. The two men had been friends for most of their lives. Mark was outgoing and friendly, on the surface. Elliot was more reticent and shy.

Those qualities were only on the surface though. Mark would walk up and talk to anyone he saw. He'd ask them all kinds of personal questions and make them think that he really wanted to know them. A good example of this was when they were in their last year of high school. They got a new science teacher who was a really beautiful woman. Mark walked right up to her and was soon asking her all kinds of questions. What's your daughter's name? How old is she? Oh it's too bad she's in a wheelchair. Her birthday is when?

Elliot on the other hand almost went into shock when having to meet new people. He hung back and stayed off to himself. People sometimes thought he was aloof or just plain snooty until they actually met him. But in reality nothing was farther from the truth. Elliot would go a long way out of his way to help anyone. Even people he barely knew. In our example about the science teacher, three weeks later was the science teacher's daughter's birthday.

Mark totally forgot about it. Elliot went into the classroom early and left a present for the child. When he got caught doing it, he claimed that Mark had told him to do it. The overwhelmed teacher went to thank Mark and found out that he had no idea when her daughter's birthday was. When she went back to Elliot, he apologized profusely and told her that he wanted to get the child a present but was embarrassed to do it because she hadn't actually told him about her daughter, it had been Mark.

People who knew both of them for any period of time came to love Elliot, while Mark tended to get on their nerves after a while. With dating it was the same thing. Elliot had one girlfriend from his early teens all the way until his second year of college, when her family moved out of the country. They kept in touch for years and he was heartbroken when time and distance ended the relationship.

Mark dated someone new every time the wind blew. Most of the women he dated more than once claimed they'd date him again occasionally but not seriously. "He goes out with a lot of different women..." said one. "...Because he only has enough bullshit to last for one or two dates. After that, he just gets on your nerves."

"Her name is Kathy," said Mark as the two men ate. "She's from a small town in Ohio. She moved here three weeks ago and has been working here for two weeks. She isn't dating anyone. She lives alone. She doesn't have any kids. She likes your car, so that might be a way for you to start a conversation with her."

"Mark, what are you babbling about?" asked Elliot.

"You dream girl," said Mark. "I went and got you the 411, because I knew that left alone you'd just sit there and stare at her until someone else started dating her. Then you'd watch her in secret until she got married and broke your heart."

"Mark, I still don't know what you're talking about. I'm not interested in any of the women at work," said Elliot. Inwardly he was really excited to know her name.

Later on at work that afternoon, Sally and a couple of the other women in the office took Kathy on a tour of the plant. They walked her around to all of the other departments and introduced her to everyone. A lot of the men in the plant were very outgoing. They smiled at Kathy and tried their best to charm her. Unfortunately a lot of them were also married.

When they got to Elliot's office he wasn't there. "He's probably on the shop floor," said Sally. "Those are the only two places Elliot ever is. Either in here on his computer, writing programs or down on the shop floor, testing them. He's a really nice guy, Kathy. You'll like him."

When they got to the shop floor, most of the guys there were eager to meet the pretty new secretary as well. Everyone who worked on the floor came over to meet her, except for Elliot who wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Mark, you're full of shit," said Sally later. She walked in to Mark's cubicle and slammed the door before she realized that he was on the phone. She smiled a shit eating grin in embarrassment and sat down. As soon as Mark hung up the phone, she started in on him again.

As Sally took a deep breath to start yelling at him, Mark smoothly stood up and kissed her. Instead of coming out as a scream her breath was released as a sigh. Mark reached out and mauled her breasts though her clothes and Sally got weak in the knees.

"Now what were you about to say?" he smirked.

"I think you're lying about Elliot," said Sally. "We took Kathy around on a tour and he was nowhere to be found. If he liked her, don't you think that he'd have been there to meet her"? We did it that way so it wouldn't put him on front street. He'd just be one of many people she was introduced to, this afternoon. I think that you're lying to me and are just trying to get into the poor girl's panties. I think that you're using your best friend just to advance yourself to another conquest."

Mark reached around and patted Sally on her ass. "So what if I am?" he asked as he rubbed.

"Maaaark, stop that," crooned Sally. Mark noticed that though she'd said stop she didn't move away from him and took no action whatsoever to actually make him stop.

"Well, she's a really nice girl and she's been through hell," said Sally. "I can't let you hurt her."

"I'm wounded, Sally," said Mark pulling her to him. "Elliot is my best friend and I swear to you that he really likes her. I wouldn't lie about that. Besides, there's really nothing special that I can see about her. He can have her, if we can get them together. I have no interest in her or even in fucking her. She just seems kind of weird to me with all of that long ass hair. But since you don't believe me, I propose a bet."

"What kind of bet?" asked Sally? At that moment she was wishing that like Kathy she'd worn a skirt that day. Mark was rubbing her pussy through her pants and she was tempted to take them off.

"If I can prove to you that Elliot is the one who likes Blondie, then I get to fuck you in the ass. If I can't prove it then I swear on everything that I hold dear not to ever even speak to her," he said.

"Mark, I haven't even let my husband have my ass," whined Sally. "Pick something else."

"Scared huh?" asked Mark smiling.

"No, I'm sure that you just want to toss that girl on the scrap heap after you have your way with her," said Sally.

"Then make the bet," said Mark.

"But what would my husband say?" whined Sally.

"First, he's not going to say shit because he's not going to find out," said Mark. "And second it's none of his business anyway. I want to fuck your ass not his. And since you haven't given it to him yet, you're probably saving it for me anyway."

"I am not!" snapped Sally, turning red.

"Think about it Sal," said Mark. "Your husband just loves your pussy doesn't he?"

Sally nodded wondering where Mark was going with this.

"Well I was there before he was, to warm it up for him," said Mark. "So someday if he ever does want to fuck your ass, I'm sure he'd appreciate me having warmed that up for him too, don't you think."

"I don't know," said Sally. "He gets pretty jealous."

"But if you're right, it's not going to happen anyway is it?" asked Mark.

"I know I'm right," said Sally. "Because I know you, Mark. You're the noise a donkey makes."

"What the fuck are you talking about Sally?" laughed Mark.

"He whore, He whore, He whore," laughed Sally. Then she stuck her hand out "It's a bet," she said. "But you have to prove it to me within 48 hours."

"It won't take that long," laughed Mark. "Just meet me here tomorrow morning about 10 minutes before the morning shift starts."

"And shy Elliot is just going to admit that he likes Kathy?" asked Sally. "Every time we've tried to fix him up with someone it's been a disaster. Honestly he's the sweetest guy I know. He, unlike his friend is perfect husband material. Shit, I'd love for my daughter or my sister to marry him. But he's so God damned shy that he'll probably be a bachelor for his whole life."

"Just be here at 7:20 tomorrow," said Mark, who was stinging from her remark. Oh yeah I'm stinging from you saying I'm not husband material. But by tomorrow night your fat ass will be stinging, he thought.

Early the next morning Mark met Sally outside of his office. He took her to the catwalk that overlooked the floor. He pointed down at Elliot, who as usual was hard at work doing some complicated technical thing on one of his machines.

"Aren't we going to go down there so he can tell us that he likes her?" asked Sally. Mark noticed that Sally had squeezed herself into a skirt that was a couple of sizes too tight to be appropriate for business. Only the fact that the skirt was black let her get away with wearing it.

"Elliot would never admit to something like that," said Mark. "Just watch him. Watch his face. Then after you see what I want you to see, we'll go and talk to him. I want you to watch his face as he tells you he hasn't seen her."

Sally noticed that Elliot was deep into his programming. Elliot got so into it that sometimes he even spoke to people using the G&M codes that CNC machine operated on.

She remembered when he had to deliver the address to the staff about where to go in the event of a fire. He said G00, which was machine code for a rapid movement. No one knew what the hell he was talking about until one of the other programmers burst out laughing and explained it to everyone.

Mark pointed towards the door. Kathy entered the plant and started walking towards the time clock. Sally looked at Elliot. His jaw had dropped open and he was staring intently at the blond woman as if he wanted to etch her features on his eyeballs so he could always see her. His whole body turned to keep her in view. The expression on his face told the entire story. It was like something out of a fucking fairy tale. Elliot would probably die for Kathy without ever having spoken to her and probably without ever knowing her name.

It was the saddest thing Sally had ever seen. It was also too romantic to let pass. But if she didn't do something it would go by without anyone ever knowing. She'd known Elliot for the whole time that he worked here. It took literally months before he would even speak to her and he had to see her every week to collect his check stub. The company used direct deposit, so their pay was forwarded directly to their bank accounts but they still got a pay stub to let them know how much had been deposited and why.

Once she got him to talking, Sally had discovered how sweet Elliot could be. Sally had a tiny little Toyota car that she loved. During the winter especially the car was impractical and also simply too small. Sally had planned a party for her sister's kids and needed to go shopping for a lot of things that she knew would never fit into her car. Elliot had a really nice Mustang that he doted on, but during the winter he drove an F-150. As soon as Sally had gotten done talking about her problem with some of the women she knew, who had suggested that she just make more than one trip, or have the items delivered. Elliot quietly came over and put his keys on her desk.

"Elliot, that is so sweet of you," she'd said. "But I'd be afraid to drive that huge truck."

Elliot had driven her to every store she wanted to go to, and transported all of her packages. He'd spent the whole day shopping for toys and games and food for a party for children that he didn't even know.

After seeing Elliot's reaction to Kathy, Sally knew that she had to help get the two of them together. It was so sad. He watched her walk in and punch her card. Then he watched her walk all the way up the stairs until he couldn't see her anymore. Then he just turned back to what he was doing. He shook his head and smiled and moved on. It was simply too fucking romantic to let go.

Sally also realized as she looked at Mark's smirking face that she'd lost the bet.

"We have to get the two of them together," she said. Mark just nodded.

"When and where?" he asked.

"I don't know, we have to figure out how to get them together without it looking like we planned it," she said.

"Not that bullshit," said Mark. "You know what I'm talking about. First things first. Besides you wanted to lose this bet."

"What makes you think that?" Sally asked indignantly.