by J. S. Badham
The board had apologised for their mistake, were told by request from the CEO that her position should be resumed and malicious attempts had been made to jeopardise her position, but nothing else was said as to who did it.
Claire felt some pity towards Zack, but then again, it was more than likely his fault for her job loss.
***
The coffee tasted horrid at work. It wasn’t like the brand she liked; it was bland, and it made her mouth only drier. God, she hated Wednesdays. They were always in the middle of the week. Too close to Monday and too far from the weekend. Why couldn’t it be Friday? She wanted to be at home, tucked up in her blue, soft blanket, eating an entire Galaxy bar whilst muttering to herself at criticising the film. Instead, she was here. At the table, adding another spoonful of coffee grains into her cup and sighing at the dreary scene of her colleagues tapping away at their keyboards.
Although it at least gave her some sense of normalcy, drew her mind into actual work than dwelling on Monday’s catastrophe.
She wished Darren was here, but she knew that was selfish.
Perhaps that was her other concern for their relationship. Could they be open about it? It was bad enough last year when Claire was crowned employee of the year at the annual work party; she had covetous stares for several weeks. Wouldn’t they run wild if they were invited to this newfound information?
But why was she even thinking like that? Claire did not normally care what others felt. After all, she had become a trendsetter in college when she turned up in her class with a giant penis drawn on her forehead. Long story, but it wasn’t a sober night for her.
“God almighty,” she grumbled to herself, flopping her head further onto her propped-up hand. Here she was again. Thinking about him. He who shall not be named kind of shit. Her job was supposed to keep her mind off things, but it just wasn’t working. And what did she expect? His fucking name was plastered on the front of the building.
“You okay? I just wanted to say it’s good to see you back. Graves announced to the department about what happened. I feel shitty about it…’cause at one point I thought you…did.” She looked up to see Jason settling himself into the chair opposite.
Claire felt defeated. It was like some member of the Ghostbusters had sucked her entire soul away into a vacuum. How she felt so lost, so indecisive, so empty. But she wasn’t going to admit that to Jason. “It’s fine. Hey, with evidence like they had, it would be pretty darn silly not to believe it. I’m just glad I’m back, too. You don’t realise how much the day drags when you’re sitting at home,” she replied with a short sigh. “God.” She pulled a face of grimace. “This coffee tastes horrid. They really need to up their game. I know this is snobbish, but I can taste its cheapness.”
Jason laughed at that. “Hey, I agree. Although I’m more of a tea drinker, so I’m glad the teabags are at least decent here.”
Claire nodded in agreement, smiling a little, genuinely thankful for some sort of communication with another.
Jason rubbed the bottom of his chin, flicking his eyes around the room as a pause filled the space in between before finally he plucked up a question. “So, where’s Zack?”
“He’s…away at the moment.” It was the only response she could think of on the spot. What else could she have said except, “Hey, did you know he’s our boss?” No, she just stuck with something that anyone could cook up as an excuse.
“Oh, not that—I was—” Jason blushed. Claire was unsure why, but before she managed a word, he continued hastily. “Graves was speaking about him earlier on the phone. Something about dismissal or something? I was just curious.”
“Oh,” Claire said. This was new to her. So he had already left then? What was his game plan next? “I don’t actually know. He’s not exactly staying at mine at the moment. He’s…away, like I said.”
“Ah, I see.” Jason nodded, brushing his hands together awkwardly. “So, good weekend?”
Claire shrugged her shoulders. “Well, I suppose. It was my brother’s wedding, so that was nice. Proud sisterly moment, you could call it. Other than that, it was all right. You? I saw your Facebook post. You booked a holiday?”
“Y-Yeah, I did. I booked some time off work. I thought I deserved some time to go backpacking in Europe. And…well, kinda because I met someone,” Jason explained, itching his palm with his cheeks reddening slightly.
“Really? That’s so good to hear—”
“It’s not official…yet. We met online. She’s from Germany…hence the Europe trip. I’m a little nervous to be honest,” Jason interjected, a little distress in his tone.
“That is spontaneous, but I’m sure you’ll be fine. She must mean something to you then. Love at first click?”
Jason cracked a nervous one. “Yeah, I suppose. I just wanted to do something. I know this isn’t exactly good to bring up, but with Darren’s…” He paused as he licked his bottom lip. “I just wanted to go for it. And—”
“I get it,” Claire put in. “It’s good. Do let me know how it goes.”
“I will. So, how is Darren?”
Claire looked down into the fairly transparent liquid in her cup. “He’s—he’s all right. I mean, no. But he’s coping. I think. Honestly, he…” She looked up at Jason. “He doesn’t act the same. Like it literally is like a missing part of him has died along with his boyfriend. And I wish I could help him. But I can’t.”
“It sucks,” Jason agreed solemnly. “Hey, tell him I send my love. You know? It is strange not having him around the office. After all, you could always hear Darren from where I sat.”
“True.” Claire smiled lightly. “And I will.”
Jason nodded his head before he got up and headed out, returning to his desk that sat adjacent and little more than fifteen footsteps from the office’s compact kitchen. Claire was grateful for that small interaction; it meant something. It fed her mind with healthy thoughts to take it all off Zack. And it was nice that things between them both weren’t rocky considering a few months back, their friendship had become turmoil by the potential romance.
After three hours of tackling work, she headed to the sandwich bar down the road for lunch, tucking into two neatly cut triangles of tuna and sweetcorn. It was delicious, and it was able to fill that void in her stomach that had been attacking all morning. Guess she could say those cereal bars weren’t exactly filling.
***
“God.” Kyle coughed slightly, waving the smoke from his lips. “Try this. It’s fucking weird but nice at the same time.” He passed over a made-up cigarette towards Zack, who was preoccupied with the assortment of contracts that Olivia had kindly posted to him yesterday.
“Since when do you smoke?” Zack asked, receiving the cigarette. He was hesitant to take a puff as he frowned. “What is this, anyway? It smells like shit.” Moving it in between his fingers, the retching smell licked the tips of his nostrils.
“Some herb. Oh, I don’t know.” Kyle smirked enthusiastically, clasping his hands together. “It’s on trial. Some pal of mine recommended it. Just shove it in your mouth and suck on it.”
Spurring Zack on, he slapped his friend’s knee. Zack rolled his eyes, shoving the contracts on the coffee table before him away as he brought the cigarette to his lips. The taste was not so bad once it hugged his taste buds for a second or two. It didn’t stop him from coughing, however.
“God…” He exhaled, passing the cigarette back. “That’s some strong stuff.”
“It’s nice, though, right?” Kyle said before taking a long drag himself.
“It just fucking stinks.”
“Just like weed then,” Kyle replied, blissfully enjoying the taste upon his tongue. “So, anyway. How’s all this going?” He dashed his hands towards the paperwork. “What are you actually thinking of doing?”
“Yeah, well, I am,” Zack confirmed, suddenly distracted by his phone that he had swiped out from his back pocket. “Guess I’m just going to dance with fire. I have a plan to gain
access to that money I spoke about that the business never sees. Get them to fund more of my projects. The one my father has control over. The chairman of board, I think, can be arguably persuaded if they are tempted by the flash of a little money here and there. My father gave them more control of it than me.” He didn’t remove his eyes from the screen.
“So, you’re going to blackmail them?”
“Yeah, something like that…” Zack muttered, his brows scrunching together as he remained glued to his phone, ignorant to his friend’s presence.
“Hey, what the fuck are you even looking at? You got some porn stashed on that thing?” Kyle blurted, snatching his phone from off him.
“Hey!” Zack exclaimed. “Not cool—”
“I thought you were giving the girl some time. Not messaging her. Jesus Christ, Zack, you were telling me earlier how you were going to give her time. And look here, you’re already messaging her. God, you can’t be obedient, can you?” Kyle interrupted, throwing his phone back into Zack’s lap.
“Yeah, well. I can’t help it. I guess you could say I’m not used to this—”
“Yeah, not used to not getting what you want,” Kyle interjected, smirking as he took another drag from the cigarette.
“Fuck off, Kyle. I just…don’t understand her. In fact, I don’t understand women. First, they want us to come and console them, and then they’re practically begging to be left alone. It makes no sense. And you know, I was pretty certain we would have come as close as having make-up sex on Monday. She jumped on me,” Zack explained, vexed.
Kyle chuckled. “Just shut up about it and have another smoke of this. I don’t feel like being your therapist today.”
***
Claire’s hand was already reaching for her mobile phone in her handbag. It had alerted her to a new message. She was not expecting it to be Zack.
Zack the Dick: So, hey.
Received 12:30pm
Claire’s heart began to hammer against her ribcage. What was he doing? What did he even want? Had Monday not made her complete humiliation clear enough? She had also forgotten the nickname she had assigned to his contact. Here was another indication of how shit had gone to the fan.
Claire: What Zack?
Sent 12:32
Zack: How are you?
Received 12:32
Claire: Seriously? Zack, can we not?
Sent 12:33
Zack: Are we not going to talk about Monday?
Received 12:34
Claire sighed, turning away from her phone to look outside at the commotion of traffic caused by the road workers tarmacking the street. She needed something to take her mind off things, but how was that possible?
She felt the vibration of her phone in the palm of her hand, alerting her that Zack had messaged again.
She looked down towards the screen.
Zack: Claire? Are you there? Monday?
Received 12:37
Claire: No. I don’t want to.
Sent 12:38
Zack: It must mean something, the kiss…I love you.
Received 12:38
She almost returned with, “I love you too,” but she couldn’t. Nor could she admit her reasons for that kiss. She just couldn’t. Her mind was just clouded with negativity over this whole affair. She couldn’t yet decide if it was a complete lie or a stubborn judgment on her behalf. And why? She didn’t know, and that was what really ticked her off.
Zack: Claire.
Received 12:39
Claire: What?
Sent 12:39
Zack: We’ll get through this, babe.
Received 12:40
Claire: I’ve got work. Bye, Zack.
Sent 12:41
Then she locked her phone, turning it onto silent and shoving it into her bag. Oh, how she felt like she was being the difficult one here and not the other way around.
Chapter Thirteen
Zack
Not a word from Claire, and Zack was impressed by his own determination to remain silent. It had been exactly two days, which wasn’t exactly a massive achievement, but it was already the weekend of the first week. In those two days, Zack was also able to blackmail the chairman of the board to allow him a subsidy from the stock of cash they were guarding. It worked like a charm. It went along the lines of almost mimicking a badass scene, Zack entering with a sword blazing with fire, its sharp, intimidating end threatening the greying elder closest to the door into cooperating. Then Zack summoned a lightning rod into the palm of his hand as he waved it about to grab the attention of the others to witness the signing of some contract that his assistant, Olivia, dressed in a black corset and rocking red and green hair, had pushed in front of the leading director. All the while, heavy metal blasted into the room with the chant of “sign it!” from several other wildly dressed employees he’d brought along to create the atmosphere of a gladiator arena. It left nothing but the shrivelled old men defenceless to agree and allow Zack to pursue his goal of turning the ship around.
Perhaps it didn’t exactly go like that, but Zack was impressed by his complete, calm persuasiveness to encourage the stuck-up, stubborn men to change their minds. It just required the ingredient of money to get things cooking. It went more a little along the lines of this:
“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Zack announced as the wooden doors swung open into the conference room. The six men sat around a round table like King Arthur and his Knights. With grace, Zack slid a black briefcase onto the head of the table, startling the men further, who were already blinking and scratching their chins. “Great weather, isn’t it? Hope I’m not interrupting.” He composed himself, hoping that it was enough to acknowledge his power within these premises. “Now, I won’t keep you long, as I know you have plenty of work to do for my father, who…” Zack paused deliberately, scanning around the room. “…is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he retired?” His sarcasm made a few red faces amongst the group. “Anyway, how’s this work for you?” Snapping his fingers gently, he instructed Olivia to open the briefcase.
Inside was more than enough to make a grown man cry with joy. Money. Lots and lots of it. “Nice, isn’t it, fellas?” Zack interjected, cocking his right eyebrow up. “Now, I’m sure we wouldn’t mind coming to an agreement over my access towards that hefty lot of money. Now what would we say if…” He clicked his tongue upon the roof of his mouth. “If this money somehow increased your wages?”
There was not a sound in the room. The men remained dumbfounded, but through Zack’s eyes, he could see them clocking it up in their minds. “Now, all you fellas have to do is direct the money elsewhere. Say, a new project that I am already running.”
Now, it was their turn to answer.
The one sat in the centre glanced towards the other slightly greying elder, whose plump face, sunken blue eyes, and rounding belly indicated for sure that this was a man entitled to greed.
There was a short conversation between the two before finally the one spoke. “I think…” He paused as he licked his bottom lip, the greying moustache above his lip kissed with sweat. “I think we could come to a compromise, Mr. Benson. We could have that money immediately transferred towards your project.” He swallowed as he sat a little back.
“Great.” Zack smiled, snapping shut the briefcase. “I’ll have significant rises put towards your wages. Pleasure doing business with you,” he said, lifting the case up as he began to head towards the doors, Olivia meekly following after him. “Oh, and one other thing…” Zack stopped short, his frustration disguised by his growing smile. “Come short of your end of the deal and I’ll have each one of you fired and served with a miserable lawsuit. Guess your histories don’t add up well for you fellas. Wasn’t one of you suspected of supplying illegal drugs to gangs? Or did I get the wrong end of the stick?” He grew more confident by the second due to the sudden distress of one of the men, whose face flushed red. “Have a nice afternoon, fellas.” Zack held the door open as he summoned Olivia to pass by him, allowing him a
final lingering expression of satisfaction.
Closing the door behind him, he thanked Olivia for her supply of information on all six men as they headed down the corridor. It would have been a lot more pleasing to just dismiss them all, but infinitely they were blessed by their experience and running of the entire business for him to dispose of them. So they had to stay. It didn’t mean he couldn’t swap them around and make a more cooperative board in time, but for now they remained under his wing, tempted by the wag of a bone. His father said not to play with fire…but Zack was disobedient when it came to rules.
***
Claire
Claire was fed up. Of course, she didn’t need to worry about the rent as Zack had already paid for his half and “kindly” but without her consent paid for another month’s rent. That again made her feel more like the bad guy.
It also sucked living alone in the apartment. It felt different than when she was alone after Abbey left to reside with her boyfriend. At least then she could cope…now, it just felt so lonely, and without the petty arguments, the wild sex, and the enjoyment of having Zack around, she now hated coming back home to her empty apartment. She didn’t get to have somebody embrace her at night, tell her the food sucked when she attempted a new recipe, or listen to his irritating moaning about hoovering. There was no need for rules or regulations over leaving the toilet seat up, putting dirty laundry in the basket, or picking up food crumbs. None of that. It felt weird to be given back her independence.
Surely, she shouldn’t have minded? But she did. She missed him. What else did she expect? Of course, she still loved him. Her judgment was just overruled by his lies. Did she actually know him? Was he still the same man? Zack Benson…was he really the Zack Chase she had grown to love? It sounded like she was trying to say that there was more than one. That Zack Chase had somehow been kidnapped and replaced with Benson. That was obtuse. Zack had to still be Zack. Right?