"Excellent! The House of Happy Endings."
"Thank you, Oliver. Let us hope so. When is the baby due?"
"April."
"Oh, my. Definitely we must celebrate. Whoops, there's the phone." He waved goodbye and let himself into his apartment. Oliver felt something at his feet.
"Verdi! Were you out? Well, well, time to eat isn't it?" He closed the front door behind him, and Verdi ran up the stairs. Oliver followed, seeing a can of coconut milk and a smaller can of Thai curry paste. Basil, a bit of chicken, green beans, rice . . . He was almost out of shoyu, but that wouldn't matter with a curry. Tomorrow he would get shoyu. And more veggies. Jennifer was strong on veggies.
15.
Oliver concentrated on programming. He found and successfully changed the late messages. Dan gave him a list of projects which he put aside until he could finish documenting the system. "You have to understand the data before you can work with it," he explained to Jennifer. "The data is everything. Most people don't know how to lay out a database; they make a mess that just keeps getting worse."
"You did a nice job at The Conservancy," she said.
"At some point, you have to start fresh," Oliver said. "The hospital can get by for awhile—if they don't try to change too much. I don't think they will. I don't think they want to spend the money. I mean, it works—the present system. I'll know what I'm doing in a couple of weeks."
"They're lucky to have you," Jennifer said.