This is Number Five.

Tod turns to me. “You okay?”

“Of course I’m okay. You think that knucklehead can get to me?”

“Dude, your legs are jiggling. It’s like you’re all amped up.”

“Oh.”

I had to pee.

I had to pee pretty badly, but this is by design. I enjoy the feeling of delayed gratification. By this point in the day my legs usually are jiggling; I’ve tried to control it in the past, but the muscles will move involuntarily. I hide this by keeping my legs under the desk, but I had swung around to face Nick directly in the aisle. Now Tod can see the crazy legs dancing all over the place.

I turn and put my legs back under the desk.

“Yo,” says Tod, “It’s going to be nuts for this spinoff, are you going to need some help? You should ask Johan to help out.”

“Why, you sit right next to me, why do you want—“

Tod is looking at me.

“Never mind. No, Johan is not helping me out. You’re going to have to make this work. You can take everything in tech under a two hundred lot.”

Tod looks back at his screens.

You should never get tangled up with girls at work. Nothing but trouble.

I look at my turret, an array of buttons and lights, and pull the microphone towards my face and hit the VOL HOOT button: “Hey, we have the PALM spinoff in about twenty minutes, Tod is going to take all the agency orders and everything under two hundred contracts, and I am going to take the big stuff. It’s probably going to be a fast market, so please be precise and let’s prevent errors. Thanks.” I can hear my voice echo around the floor. I can see the sales force start picking up phones, making outgoing calls. Good. Everyone needs to know that we are going to be the axe in the name. I would like to have lots of two-way flow.

There are now fifteen minutes until the spinoff. I decide to give T22 one last try, because using Lamont for this trade will be a disaster.

Ring ring ring. “What up, bra?”

“Hey man, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you.”

“Sorry my friend, my mistake. How many did I miss?”

“You missed none. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for this 3Com thing.”

“Three what?”

Jesus. “The spinoff. 3Com is spinning off PALM in about a half an hour. I need you to look sharp.”

These floor guys are complete dopes. But I relied on T22 more than I cared to admit. I tried lowering the rate I pay him once, and he wouldn’t take orders from me for a month. It was my worst month ever trading. It’s infuriating how much I pay him, knowing that it probably all goes up his nose, but I can’t function without him.

I open a Diet Coke.

This is Number Six.