Chapter 9

Paul was doing some work on his laptop on the table at his office. He also connected an earpiece he used to listen to music to his laptop.

He would occasionally stop pressing the keys on the laptop to see if there were errors in the work he was doing, but he never stopped shaking his head to the tunes of the songs he listened to.

He drew his chair even closer to the table so that the earpiece connected to his laptop would still get to him, so he sat back and closed his eyes. He remained in that position for some time when someone knocked on the door of his office and entered. He opened his eyes to see who it was, and it was a woman he recognised.

"The boss wants to see you," she said.

"She could have called," Paul replied with the right bud of his earpiece in his right hand.

The woman shrugged and began to leave his office.

"Thanks, Jan," Paul said after her.

Paul got up and sighed, he muttered some word to himself, and he checked his table to see if there was anything he should take along with him. He got out of his office and went straight to the toilet a few meters away.

He had no interest in using the toilet, instead, he checked himself out in one of the mirrors there; he adjusted his tie, washed his face with water and dabbed it with toilet paper. He threw the now wet toilet paper in a waste basket and made his way out of the toilet.

His boss' office was demarcated with glass, so she could see people who approached her office. She could shut that view out with blinds if she wanted but she didn't this time.

Paul was about to knock her door when she gestured at him to come inside. It wasn't Paul's first time in her office so he knew he could sit down.

She kept working on what she was doing before Paul came in, for some time, before she decided to attend to Paul.

"So, Paul," she said suddenly, "I'll cut to the chase."

Paul slightly adjusted his sitting position; he felt nervous. He remembered that it was the type of nervous feeling he got whenever his mom called him as a kid to discuss something important.

"You've been a good addition to our company, and we really appreciate that, but we have to let you go."

Paul's face looked relatively calm and that surprised his boss, she expected to see him wide eyed immediately she dropped the bomb but that didn't happen.

"Are you going to give me the actual reason or the bullshit reason for letting me go?" Pete asked calmly.

Jenner slightly adjusted herself in her chair and placed both hands on the table, looking at Paul directly.

"The only reason we're letting you go is because we needed to cut cost and we’re getting rid of redundancies," she said. “Like I said, you’ve been great, but we need the company to be profitable.”

"So, the bullshit reasons. How about I give you the actual reason," Paul said.

Jenner didn't reply.

"I'll start with this question; how long have you been fucking my dad?" Paul asked.

It wasn't a question Jenner expected. She was surprised and Paul saw that.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Paul said, sounding apologetic. "My dad isn't someone you should trust. One would think if you fucked someone for so long, you should know what they're like. I wonder how many people my dad gave that information to."

"I don't know where you got your information from, but it's wrong," Jenner said, regaining her composure. "And why do you think I would care about people knowing I fucked a guy? If he's willing to put it out there that we fucked each other, I'm fine with that. But I think it is time for you to leave."

Paul remained rooted to his chair for some time before he got up. He began to make his way out and almost opened the door when he stopped and turned around.

"Say hello to my dad for me the next time you see him," he said, as he put up his middle finger briefly before he left the room.

He got back to his office and thought of what things of his were useful that he'll have to get out and what weren't that he could leave behind.

He could feel the anger in him welling up, but he restrained himself from taking it out on the things in the office by hitting and kicking them.

He sat in his chair, bowed his head and began to hit it on the table, softly at first but the force began to increase after each hit until he couldn't take it anymore and stopped.

He didn't know what to do, he didn't plan for what just happened to him. He thought he would rather die than work for his dad, especially after what just happened.

He got up to pack what he needed to get out of the office. A lot of the things in the office were not his, including the laptop; it was for the company. He restored factory settings on laptop and got himself out of the office with the door open.

He wanted to go straight to his dad's company to confront him, but that would only make him think he got to me, he thought.

"Let's make this seem like it's no big deal, shall we? We'll find something new," he said to himself as if he was speaking to someone else.

He did that all the time.

He hailed a cab and gave the driver his home address, he wanted to sleep, he wanted to think about what he was going to do next with his life, he wanted a shoulder to cry on, to discuss his problems with, but the only thing he did at that moment was sigh and the driver heard it.