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aaron woodside
Member
since 2001-09-26
Posts 256


0 posted 2006-02-02 02:52 PM


Hope you like.  It's long.

To See in Color

Jeffrey Pulsin was late.  His second god-damned week and he was late already.  He had toyed with the idea of calling in sick, but decided that was just as bad and he would blow one of his already scarce vacation days.  “No” he thought “I’ll just suck it up, make something up about the traffic being heavy.  They’ll understand it’s not like no one has ever been late before.”  At least he hoped someone had.  Landing a job with Rainbow Investing had been a stroke of pure luck in Jeffrey’s eyes.  From the start of the interview process he thought he had no chance, that he was just one of those people they give interviews too, so that it didn’t seem like they had already their minds made up in favor of the CEO’s neighbor’s cousin’s best friend.  But not this time it seemed, his first interview had gone well and soon after that his second.   Within three weeks he had a message on his answering machine with a job offer.   The pay wasn’t as good as he’d hoped but much better then working at the local Burger Barn.  So after a quick discussion with his parents, he called back and accepted.  Now two weeks later, here he was rushing up the steps outside the thirty-five story gray monolith that was the Rainbow Investing HQ.  
The guard behind the front desk looked up as Jeffrey burst into the lobby and hurried towards the elevators.
“Sir, Sir!  ID please.” said the guard.
“Oh crap…yeah hold on” said Jeffrey.
As he was fumbling around in his pockets for his ID card, he tried to remember if he had even brought it with him.   He could remember it sitting on his coffee table, right next to last night’s fried rice.  He had meant to grab it but then the phone rang, and he had to drop off the bills in the mail and he was out of stamps and…
“I must have forgotten it at home.  You know me by now don’t you?  I’m kind of in a rush.” Jeffrey said.
“You know I’d love to, but rules and all.  Your supervisor will have to come sign you in for the day.” replied the guard as he started walking Jeffrey back over to the front desk.  “Who did you say your supervisor was again sir?”
Jeffrey said “Michael Rizzo…”
The guard looked up with a sly smile on his face and said “Mr. Rizzo, huh?  Now I know why you were in such a rush.  I’ve heard stories about him.”
“So have I and truth be told, I’d rather not find out if they are true.  Come on, can’t you just let me pass this one time.  I promise I’ll bring the card tomorrow.”
The guard had already dialed Rizzo’s number and shook his head no and put a finger over his mouth before he started speaking into the phone.  
“Dick” thought Jeffrey as he waited in silence. “You just had to be a dick didn’t you?”
The guard hung up the phone and turned to Jeffrey, “Mr. Rizzo is too busy to come down and sign you in.  He did express displeasure in what time it was…” the guard smiled smugly “Anyway, he said he’d come sign you in later this afternoon but to let you go up now.   Ohh and he wants to see you in his office when you have time.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Jeffrey said as he walked over to the elevators.  
The ride up to the 32nd floor seemed to take forever.  He watched as each floor ticked by…11…12…13…almost in time to the corny music playing quietly in the background.  At around 20 he started pacing back and forth…30…31…32.  “Finally,” he thought as the doors opened.  Staring back at Jeffrey were two women from accounting.  He could tell they were from accounting from the bright yellow badges on their hips.  When he had first heard about the color coded badges, he had thought it was quite a silly idea.  Dumb even.  It was only after working in the office for almost a week did he realize how nice it was.   Not for any real business sense, it was easy enough to remember that Alice was in accounting and Jimmy was from Payroll, but because the office was gray.  The walls were gray, the desks were gray, the floor was gray, the sky outside the windows was gray, hell even the people looked gray.  The ID badges brought some life to his surroundings.  Red, yellow, green, blue, orange, and purple, it didn’t matter; they all added some small amount of pleasure to his day.  He particularly liked his own red badge.  Red had always been his favorite color and red was for investing analyst, one of the more prestigious positions in the company.  He almost felt proud to wear a red badge.
Aside from the badges, his office building looked just as he had expected it to look.  Gray and boring and professional.  Jeffrey sighed as he walked past the women, who whispered back and forth behind him, and headed to his cubical.  He sat down, flipped on his monitor and was greeted with a message saying he had eight unread emails.  Sighing yet again he went to work.
Lunch came and went without Jeffrey noticing what time it was.  He had so much to do and he was having trouble adjusting to the amount of work expected of him.  He was almost done with his analysis of the Blasto Tools stock price drop of the day before when he heard someone clear their throat behind him.  
“Jeffrey.  I thought I asked the guard downstairs to have you drop by my office on the way up.” said Mr. Rizzo.  
Mr. Rizzo wore a rather conservative gray suit with white strips going down it.  His thin gray hair on top his head was combed over in a vain attempt to hide his receding hairline.  Mr. Rizzo even wore a slightly off color gray necktie that did anything but inspire respect in his subordinates.  In fact there was nothing spectacular or flashy at all about Mr. Rizzo and yet he seemed larger then life to Jeffrey, a veritable giant among men, one who could smash you and crush you on a whim.  It seemed to Jeffrey that Mr. Rizzo was like an extension of the building given life.  If you looked at him from the corner of your eye, you almost couldn’t tell he was there.  And of course, as a senior manager, his ID badge was gray.  
“Yeah, I’m sorry, I just got so caught up in my work this morning that I forgot to stop by.  This Blasto stock price drop may have major ramifi…”
“Yes of course it may.  They all may.  Save me the details and just file the report.  Now, why were you late this morning, and don’t give me any heavy traffic story.  I listen to the radio every morning and it was light today.” said Mr. Rizzo as he casually straightened his tie.
“Yeah well…ummm…you see…” said Jeffrey.  “What am I going to do? I can’t tell him I over slept because I hit the snooze button three or four to many times.”  Normally Jeffrey would have made up an elaborate lie on the spot, but Rizzo’s nonchalant actions coupled with his frightening tone just plain scared him.
“Did you over sleep Jeffrey?” said Mr. Rizzo.
“…Yes” said Jeffrey.
“Then why didn’t you say so and save us both some time.  You’re not the first and I doubt you’ll be the last.  It happens every time we hire someone new.  It’s an adjustment period I’ve heard.  I guess it could be that.  But they always feel the need to lie or make something up.” Mr. Rizzo walked into the cube fully and started peering at Jeffrey’s computer screen.  “How are you doing with your workload?  Are you ready to accept a full schedule yet?” said Mr. Rizzo.
“This isn’t even a full workload…”
“I’m doing alright, this Blasto file is really complex and coupled with the three other files I have I’m pretty busy. I mean, I guess I could take a little more on right now but…”
“Good.  I’ll see to it that you receive three more case files by end of day today.  I expect that you’ll be able to coordinate your schedule to accommodate the added responsibility.  I also expect that you’ll be staying late tonight to make up for this morning. “Mr. Rizzo said as he glanced repeatedly at his wristwatch.  “You’re going to make me late for a meeting.  Do we understand each other?”  
“Of course Mr. Rizzo.  It won’t happen again.  I’m sorry.”  Jeffrey said.
Mr. Rizzo nodded his head impatiently and turned to leave the cube.  He looked over his shoulder and gave Jeffrey a shark’s grin.  “I don’t buy into adjustment period bullshit, Jeffrey.  You sink or swim by your own hand at this point.  I’d suggest if you want to keep this job, you really make an effort to swim.” Then he was gone down the maze of cubicle walls, leaving Jeffrey staring after him.  
He turned around and picked up the red stapler given to him by his best friend.  It was a rip off from this movie they both liked, “Corporate World”, a comedy about a guy who goes through a mid career crisis and there was this red stapler in the movie.  Apparently after the movie came out these things were quite a hot topic and everyone just had to have one.  It was a nice stapler, solid steel and heavy.  It did the job a stapler was supposed to do passing well and it was color.  It stood out on his desk, a bright shining beacon to the drab corporate world, screaming “Look at me, I’m here and I’m not like everything else in this place”.  Whenever things got too hard for him, he would sit and stare at the redness of the stapler.  Sometimes he imagined the color bleeding off and filling his desk, flowing over his cubicle walls and covering everything in a nice coat of red.  Then he would look around and see all the grey and sigh and place the stapler back on his desk and get to work.
Nine o’clock rolled around and Jeffrey was still sitting at his desk.  The new case files Mr. Rizzo had sent up were much more complex then anything he currently had, and he thought that Blasto Tools was bad.    He finished typing his early morning analysis report and stood up.  “God it feels good to stretch” he thought as he started packing up his laptop.  
The building was nearly empty as he was leaving, the guard downstairs silently sleeping behind the desk.  It was a different person, a woman this time and she had her hat pulled down low over her eyes, but Jeffrey could tell from the way she was slumped over she was asleep.  He walked quickly out the door into the cold night air.

RING! RING!  Jeffrey jumped out of bed with hardly a glance at his alarm clock.  He already knew he was screwed.  He vaguely remembered hitting the snooze button more then once and now it was well past time for him to leave and he hadn’t even showered.  He decided to go without and started throwing some clothes on.   Within ten minutes he was out the door and half an hour later was walking into the Rainbow consulting building, disheveled but on time.  He had only had to cut three people off, get flipped the bird five times, run two red lights and nearly flatten a grandma and her baby carriage on his way here.  All in all it was worth it to shove his red ID badge in the snotty guards face when he asked for it.   The man only nodded and waved him through but Jeffrey felt some sort of pride in that.  
He sat down at his desk and flipped on the monitor.  He sent off the report from last night and went to go get himself a cup of coffee.  It was there in that stale grey room with the cracked floors that he saw her for the first time.  She stood arguing with Mr. Rizzo getting right in his face.  She was a few inches shorter then him but stood on her toes to get an even footing.  Her face was a bright red, flushed with anger or excitement he couldn’t say but it made her all the more beautiful.  She wore a rather liberal red dress that showed her cleavage nicely.  Her long brown hair hung down her back and she would impatiently hop from foot to foot as she listened to Mr. Rizzo talk.  Jeffrey noticed he was staring when Rizzo looked his way and hurried to the coffee dispenser.  Rizzo looked back to the woman and began speaking.
“Listen, I don’t care that you had to go out late last night, I don’t care that your car broke down, and I still wouldn’t care if your cat died and you had to rush it to the hospital.  You will start getting here on time or you will not have a job.  Is that understood?”
The woman looked ready to say something when Rizzo waved his hand and motioned toward Jeffrey.  “Have you met Jeffrey yet, Jessica?  He’s near as much of a slacker as you.  I’m surprised I don’t find the two of you cutting out early everyday.   Now if you’ll excuse me, some of us have work to do.”
Mr. Rizzo walked out of the room as Jessica opened her mouth to say something, and then slammed it shut and stood pouting.  Jeffrey wanted to say something, anything to her but couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t sound stupid, so he just said the first thing that came to mind.  “He’s such a dick.”  As soon as he said it he wished he had kept his mouth shut.  She turned to look at him, her eyes wide open, green eyes, a rich dark green, a green so deep and wonderful he felt like he was being pulled in and drowned in the wonderful color.  She stood staring at him for a moment and then…
…she laughed.  She didn’t giggle or politely chuckle.  She laughed and it was the most wonderful sound Jeffrey had ever heard.  She laughed and laughed and soon Jeffrey was laughing with her until both of them were completely out of breath.  They stood there, gasping for air smiling at each other when she reached over and flipped his red badge up.  
“Jeffrey huh?  Well Jeffrey, can I call you Jeffrey or do you like Jeff?  It doesn’t matter I like Jeffrey, that’s ok right?  Good.  Well Jeffrey it seems we are both on…” she stopped and smiled warmly at him “the dicks shit list.  And anyone who can piss that man off deserves lunch.  You hungry? It’s on me.”
Jeffrey couldn’t believe his ears, this amazing woman was asking him out to lunch, him!  It was all he could do to nod and not make a fool of himself.  
“Uhh yeah of course, I’d love to go have lunch, I’m pretty hungry now, where were you thinking of going?”
She laughed again, “No Jeffrey not now, it’s barely nine thirty.  Tell you what, here. “She grabbed a tube of lipstick from her purse and wrote a number of his hand. “That is my work number.  Call me around noon and we’ll go grab something to eat.  Do you like Chi’chas?  It’s this great little Mexican place I know.  Oh I can’t wait Jeffrey.  Talk to you later.”  She twirled her hair in her fingers as she walked away.  Green eyes.  She had green eyes.
It was ten o’clock.  Jeffrey just finished his report and was leaning back thinking about the wonderful day he’d had.  He had called Jessica at noon and they met down in the lobby for lunch.  Mr. Rizzo had been standing down there as well and scowled at them both but didn’t say anything.  They went out to Chi’chas and just like she said it was really a nice place to eat.  Their waitress wore a bright blue shirt, as blue as a summer sky, with little white frills on it.    They split a bowl of nachos as they waited for their food and talked about the weather.  She had a fajita and he ate some tacos with sour cream and hot sauce.  He found out she had a thing for horror movies.  Jeffrey had never been much into scary movies, but asked her to come over the following weekend to watch some with him.  She accepted and promised to bring something suitably scary and gory.  Then she had kissed him on the cheek as they walked back to the office.  With a triumphant shit eating grin on his face he turned off his computer and walked out the door.
The doorbell rang twice as Jeffrey finished shoving his dirty laundry into his closet.  He made a quick stop in the bathroom, checked himself over and pushed some errant hairs back into place before walking over to open the door.  She stood there dripping wet from head to toe, her hair clinging messily to her face.  A drop of water ran down the bridge of her nose and hung dangling for a few seconds before she huffed a little and blew it off.  She wore a casual black jacket; open in the front, over a white low cut tee-shirt and jeans.   She smiled at him and shook her head wildly flinging drops of water all over him.  He jumped back laughing.
“Hey, hey, I just took a shower.”
She walked in, leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek and said “Yeah me too.  I wanted to share the fun.  Besides, if I have to look like crap and be all wet, so do you.”  
He gave her a mischievous grin and said “I kind of like the wet look on you.”
She gave him a mock look of shock and said “You would.  You got a towel?”
“Yeah, let me get you one.  There’s some beer in the fridge and I figured we could order pizza.  You like Checkers Pizza right?” he said as he walked back into the bathroom to grab a towel.  When he came back out she was seated on his couch with two beers on the coffee table.  He handed her the towel and watched as she dried her hair.  She really did look good with her hair all wet like that.  They ordered a large pizza, half supreme and half pepperoni and sat watching scary movies and drinking beer all night.
Jeffrey woke up at seven a.m. the next morning and rolled over and kissed her on the forehead.  She looked so peaceful sleeping, her head curled up into the covers.  He got out of bed and put a pair of boxers on and went into the kitchen.  He had just cracked open two eggs when the phone rang.  He answered it and heard Mr. Rizzo right away.
“Jeffrey, I need you to come down to the office today.  Something came up with the Blasto stock quotes you gave me and I need you to correlate your findings with the market.”
Jeffrey groaned and said “But its Saturday.  I’m off on Saturday.  Can’t I just do it on Monday?”  He heard Jessica closing his bathroom door.
The line on the other end of the phone was silent for a few seconds before Mr. Rizzo continued. “No, you may not.  I need you here, this is important.  Our client is depending on the validity of this report.  We owe the client that much and this report is wrong.  You wrote it, you fix it.  Look if you can’t do the job right, I’ll find someone who can.”
Before he could hang up, Jeffrey said “No, no.” he sighed “I’ll come in.  Give me like an hour to get ready and I’ll see you there.”
The toilet flushed and Jessica came into the kitchen wearing one of his extra large tee-shirts.  It hung down just above the top of her knees and she gave him a quizzical look.  He rolled his eyes.
“You have a half hour.  Hurry up.” CLICK.  The phone went dead as Mr. Rizzo hung up.
“What was that all about?” she said as she toyed with a lock of her hair.
“Mr. Rizzo wants me to come down to the office and work today.  I couldn’t really say no.  It was my fault the Blasto file is wrong.  I told him, it was going to fluctuate.  The market is just so fickle right now.  But did he listen.  No.”  He sighed again and started putting the food back into the fridge.
“That blows. Go tell him to screw himself.”
“I need my job Jessica.”
“You need your free time too.”  She put on her puppy dog face and said “You’re going to leave me all alone.  I was hoping we could have an encore show from last night’s fireworks.”
“Goddamn she looks good.” he thought as she walked over to him and ran her hands down his chest.  After watching movies last night, she had climbed on top of him and started kissing him.  Soon enough they were in the bedroom.  He wanted nothing more then to jump right back in the sack with her and spend all day getting better acquainted but work was work and money was money.  Besides he figured to be out in a few hours and they could meet up again tonight.  She was nibbling on his ear.  He looked her in the eyes, such amazing deep green eyes, and asked if she wanted to come back that night.  She sighed, but said yes.
It was almost seven p.m. when she called.  He had long ago finished the Blasto stock quotes, but when he finished that Rizzo had given him another issue.  Then another and another.  Now it was time to meet up with Jessica and he still had close to four hours worth of work.  He told her so and she sighed.  He promised to take her out to a nice restaurant tomorrow, the one down by the stadium that she had been talking about and she said ok and hung up.  Alice from accounting stopped by a few minutes later and handed over the financial reports he needed.  Her badge was grey.  He could have sworn it was yellow this morning when he came in.  She saw him staring at her, gave him a queer look and walked off.  He shrugged and decided he needed some coffee, but knew the store downstairs was already closed.  He picked up his stapler and savored the color.  He felt that feeling come over him and closed his eyes and saw the redness creeping off the stapler covering his hand.  It kept going and soon covered him from head to toe.  The floor and his cube were next.  In his mind he stood up and saw the entire office being devoured in a rolling wave of redness.  Chairs, cubes, computers all covered in a bright shiny glossy coat of red.  The color kept going out the windows, covering the buildings across the street, the people on the ground, the sky itself until the world was covered in a red as red can be.
He woke up with a start, drool inching its way down his chin.  His stomach growled.  He was still sitting in his cube, his feet up on the desk.  The clock read eleven p.m.  “God damn it!” He knew he was going to be stuck here all night and went to work.
The restaurant, The Golden Star, was an upscale five star Chinese restaurant.  He remarked that with the prices on each plate he hoped they would be served on golden plates with golden silverware.  He was almost disappointed when the food was served with dull grey silverware, well used and worn.  Still the food was excellent and Jessica seemed to be having a great time with him.  They made plans for the following weekend to go out with some of her friends.  After dinner they went for a walk in the park near her house.  They had ice cream under the stars and went back to his place and finally had that encore show.
He continued to see Jessica every weekend and most days of the week for lunch.  They really seemed to get along well and after three weeks they were already joking about moving in together.  Things were going well in his life for once, except for all the work.  His time he got to spend with Jessica slowly dwindled each week as more responsibility was placed on his plate.  First it was just the occasional Saturday or late night, but now it seemed he was staying late every night and working every Saturday.  Jessica made mention of this one Monday when she was leaving his house in the morning and he blew it off.  “Work was work, you do what you have to do” he thought as they walked to the car.
It was Thursday before he had time to talk to her again.  She had called him on Tuesday to go get some lunch but he was so damn busy all the time.  He really didn’t have time to talk with her and cut her off when she was saying something about leaving something at his house.  He told her to meet him at Chi-Chas that night at seven and hung up.
Rizzo kept dumping more and more work on him.  Jeffrey figured it was an attempt to get him behind so he could fire him, but he was able to keep up.  His confidence in his ability to predict the fickle market was growing as each day passed and his Blasto analysis became ever more accurate.  Even Rizzo had some praise for him on that but warned him not to slack off.  They needed this client for the financials.  According to Rizzo this was going to be a big quarter for Rainbow, and those who helped contribute were in for some rewards.  Jeffrey wanted a reward.  
Rizzo stopped by right as Jeffrey was turning off his computer.  He was wearing his usual grey attire and his hair was combed over in the usual goofy manner.  
“Jeffrey, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sure.  I’m kind of in a rush tonight, but what do you need?”
Rizzo stepped into the cube and sat down on the desk.  “I just wanted to tell you, you’ve been doing an excellent job lately.  Don’t think I haven’t been noticing.  Your work on the Blasto file has been extremely helpful.”
Jeffrey was speechless.  This was the most he’d ever heard Rizzo complementing anyone.  “Well, yeah. Thanks.  I’m glad you’re happy.”
“It’s not just me either.  The guys and gals upstairs have noticed the turn around too.  They wanted me to let you know that if you keep things up like this, you’re in for a promo this spring.”
“Wow.  Are you serious?  It was nothing.
“I hope so Jeffrey.  I hope so.  Look a bunch of us are going to a conference tonight to discuss the financial ramifications of the new federal tax line on the W2s when concerned with stock holders who own more then thirty-five percent of a single companies holdings.  It should prove useful to your work at Blasto, as you know the majority of the stock is held by one man.  You should come with us.  It will be riveting.”  Rizzo looked at him expectantly.
“Riveting, oh god, I’m sure it will be.  I’d rather be hit by a bus.”  With a nod he said “Sure, I’ll go.  Can I have a few minutes to make a phone call and I’ll meet you downstairs?”
Rizzo was already walking out the cube and said “Sure, just don’t be late.”
Jeffrey stopped into Chi-Chas at close to nine-thirty.  He looked around the restaurant but didn’t see Jessica anywhere.  He had tried calling her, but her phone must have been off.  He had even left his own phone on vibrate during the conference, but the only call he received was from his mother asking if he wanted to come over and watch Matlock with her and his father.  He declined as graciously as he could, though even Matlock would have been preferable to the speaker.  He noticed the waitress from his first lunch with Jessica here and stopped her.  He noticed she was wearing a grey shirt today.  All the waiters and waitresses were wearing grey shirts.  “Guess they changed the uniforms, though I prefer the blue they used to wear.” He asked if anyone had left a message for Jeffrey Pulsin.  No one had.  He walked out the door, tried calling her again, and went home.
When he got home he found her sitting on the front porch of his apartment building waiting for him.  He could tell she had been crying.  She stood up when she saw him walking and folded her arms across her chest.
“So…dinner at seven huh?”
“Jessica look, I had a last minute conference Rizzo made me go to.  I tried calling you but you never answered.  I tried calling at least five times.”
Her eyes blazed in the streetlight, two fiery emerald green eyes.  “You have my phone, remember.  I left it at your place on Monday, you jackass.  I’ve been trying to get a hold of you all week, but you never have any time.  Today was the first time you even picked up your phone when I called.”
He looked down shamefully.  “Aww shit, Jess.  I’m sorry. Ok?  I’m sorry.  Let me make it up to you.  Please?”
She looked at him indignantly and said “Fine.  Let’s get some coffee and you can tell me about this conference that was more important then me.” She walked off towards the shop down at the corner and he followed.
“It was boring and useless.”
“Thanks that makes me feel so much better.”
“You know what I mean.  Rizzo stopped by today and gave me a compliment on my work.”
She snorted.  “Well good for you.  I’m so glad you two have bonded.”
He stopped walking.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means just what I said.  You have been spending so much time with him lately; I was kind of worried you were seeing him on the side.”  She stood across from him.
“This is my job Jessica.”
“Yeah and what am I?  Some fuck buddy?  It’s a job ok, I get that.  But lighten up a little.  It’s only a job, not life.”
“I’m serious.  This is important.  Rizzo says I’m really helping the company and that if I keep things up, I’m up for a promo in March.”
“What’s happened to you Jeffrey?”
“What do you mean?” he asked as they started walking again.
“You are different, you act different, you think different.  Like you used to be like me, work was work.  Something you go do, so that you can afford to do other things after.  Now all you do is work.”
“I’m here with you now aren’t I?”
“Only because I waited outside your apartment for an hour.” She said.
“Yeah.  I really want to get ahead you know.  Rizzo has kind of taken me under his wing.  He’s really not that bad a guy.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Fine.  Roll your eyes.”
She stopped walking.  “Are you really saying that? It’s Rizzo.  The man works 18 hour days, all he lives for is stock options and 401ks.  He’s an ass and you’re making him out to be some kind of hero.”
“Look just because you’re a slacker at work doesn’t make him an ass, or me one for wanting to improve my position.  Maybe you should take work a little more seriously instead of trying to do as little as possible.”
She flipped him off and walked the other way to her car.
He got into the office early the next morning.  He needed to send out a request for an IML report from accounting and he knew how slow they were on Fridays.  He stopped in a got coffee on his way up and saw Mr. Rizzo there.  They made a few jokes about the conference from the night before and went their separate ways.  Lunch came and went without Jeffrey noticing.  He was packing up for the day, taking an early night off at six p.m. when his phone rang.  It was Jessica.  She apologized about the night before and asked if he still wanted to see her.  He didn’t really know anymore, but told her yes.  She asked if they could meet up on Sunday for lunch and he said sure.  He hung up the phone and reached for his stapler to finish his work and ship it off.  He stared at what was in his hand for a few seconds before it registered.  “That’s kind of funny.”  The stapler in his hand was a solid grey, with not a spark of red on it.  It looked the same, except for the color.  He hefted it from hand to hand.  It felt about the same weight and it was even made by the same company.  He checked the bottom of it and was surprised to see his initials on it written in a solid black marker.  “Didn’t I used to have a red stapler?” he asked himself.  He thought he did, he hadn’t paid much attention to it in the last couple weeks.  His computer beeped as a new email appeared.  It was from the Blasto stock majority holder and he wanted advice on the new tax line for his taxes.  “A stapler is a stapler, no matter the color.” He thought as he packed the papers into his out box, sat down and started typing.
Sunday came and went and he and Jessica had a fine time at lunch.  They talked and joked and even talked of going off on a weekend cruise.  She wore a dress that showed off her slim figure, open shouldered and had her hair down in long curly waves.  They were just ordering dessert when his phone rang.  It was Rizzo wanting him to come down to the office to work on a new clients file.  This one looked very promising.  Rizzo told if he could get his name attached to this file, a promo was just around the corner.  He said he’d be down in twenty minutes and hung up.  Jessica sat across from him looking downcast at the slice of cheesecake before her.  He didn’t know what to say.
“That was Rizzo, wasn’t it?” she said as she looked up at him.
“Yeah. It was.”
“You’re going into the office again aren’t you.  On a Sunday now.”
“Yeah, it’s a big case.  It’ll be good for my career.”
She stood up and said “I’m glad for you Jeffrey, but I can’t do this anymore.  I won’t let myself.”
Jeffrey watched her pack up her purse.  She really wasn’t that beautiful he thought.  He had fun with her when they had time to see each other, but how often was that really.  “Besides” he thought “all we do is fight and argue anymore anyway, maybe this is for the best.” He wondered what he had ever seen in her anyway, what it was that mad him love her so much.  “Her eyes” he remembered.  That’s what he loved so much about her.
“You’re going to miss me Jeffrey.  Maybe not now, or next week.  But you’ll think about me someday and realize what you lost for your career.” She said as she looked down at him before turning away and walking out of his life.  He had just enough time to look into those eyes he loved so much.  
“Grey eyes” he thought.  “What a funny color.”


The End.


They say the sweet is never as sweet without the sour.  So where's my sweet?

© Copyright 2006 aaron woodside - All Rights Reserved
aaron woodside
Member
since 2001-09-26
Posts 256

1 posted 2006-02-02 02:55 PM


I doubt any of the content is over the line, but if it is let me know and I'll edit it for this site or for the story in general if you can make me believe it's better for the story that way.

I also noticed the italics I put in on word don't show up here.  It shouldn't be too hard to figure out what he's thinking vs what he's saying out loud.

I am still editing this, but needed a copyright right away and don't have time to get an official one in time, so I'm posting here for the copywrite at the bottom.  If this isn't even a good place for this let me know.

Comments welcome!

Aaron Woodside

They say the sweet is never as sweet without the sour.  So where's my sweet?

latearrival
Member Ascendant
since 2003-03-21
Posts 5499
Florida
2 posted 2006-02-04 10:47 PM


A long story but I stuck with it.Interesting and a lot of food for thought. martyjo
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