Savage Genesis, part 19

"Oh," Bob said defeated. He walked back around his desk and sat down.

"Oh?" Adam asked.

"Well, I'll be honest with you. You were a good worker but the way you left. I'll just say it left something to be desired."

"I didn't really have a choice. I didn't want to get into it but I was kidnapped by aliens."

"I understand," Bob said.

"So you can see that I was forced to miss work."

"Well, I know that now but..." Bob trailed off.

"But what?" Adam prompted.

"Well, when you left the way you did, I put in the paperwork at the main office. It put you on the 'no rehire' list and listed you as a bad reference."

"Can't you just call them up, tell them what happened and say you made a mistake?"

"Well, I could. But you see, there's going to be an opening for district manager in about six weeks and I don't want the boys in the main office thinking I'm the type who makes mistakes."

"But you did make a mistake," Adam pointed out.

"Well, I know that and you know that but there's no need for the boys upstairs to know that." Bob paused. "Tell you what, when I get the promotion and Jerome takes over my job, I'll instruct him to hire you."

"Let me see if I got this straight. So you want me to wait six weeks to see if you get a job and if a guy who I trained will give me back the job that I shouldn't have lost in the first place?"

"Exactly," Bob responded apparently missing out on Adam's shock and horror at the proposal. "But there is a hitch."

"None of that was the hitch? Do tell."

"The hitch is that you're going to have to take a paycut."

"A paycut?"

"Yeah, you see I'm going to have to do your paperwork as if you were a new hire so that I can get around the 'no hire' list."

Adam was enraged. All those times he'd come in when he didn't have to, all the overtime he put, all the time he'd worked here and this is how he gets treated, with such little regard. He didn't know how to put into words all the things he felt.

"Okay," he sighed. He cursed at himself for giving in so easily but consoled himself by reminding himself that he had wanted to get back to living his life as much as he had been as was possible.

Adam left. He drove to the Salvation Army in Cambridge and stocked up on some clothes that would better fit his new frame. He packed it all in his car and drove to his mother's house. He was shocked to see Britney's Taurus parked in his mother's driveway and Britney herself sitting on the front porch. Adam stopped the car, got out and walked over to where she was sitting.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi," Adam replied.

The two stood in silence for a moment.

"Sorry if I scared you yesterday. I didn't know you were..." Adam started. He found he couldn't say the word engaged.

"It's alright."

"I hope I didn't hurt whatever-his-name-is."

"Chris. No, he was a little banged up but none the worse for wear."

"That's good."

The silence caught back up to them.

"So, when's the wedding?"

"What?"

"Yesterday I saw the ring. I sorta kinda figured it out."

"Oh, it was set for late April but I'm going to postpone it indefinitely."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Adam, I thought you were dead. It almost destroyed me but I moved on with my life. I don't regret that. But now that I know that you're alive, it turns everything on its head. I can't leave you behind twice. It hurt too much to do it once."

"Britney, I love you. I love you so much it hurts. The whole time I was gone, I kept thinking about you. That's what got me through. But it'd never work between us. Not after everything that happened."

"I still love you."

"I know and I still love you. But you've grieved for me and I idealized you. It wouldn't be fair to either of us if we got back together."

"What do we do then?" Britney asked. She turned away from him and crossed her arms across her chest. She clenched her eyes shut and Adam didn't know if she didn't want to see him or if she didn't want him to see her.

"Go home. Get married to what's-his-face. Live your life and enjoy it. Remember what we had and be glad for it."

"I'll miss you."

"I already miss you."

She ran into his arms. He held her tightly. He could smell her hair, its delicate floral scent. He had forgotten that smell while he had been imprisioned. Holding her in his arms he was tempted to shout out that he didn't mean it, that he thought they should go and get married right now. But he knew he was right and what's more, she knew it too. She broke off the embrace.

"Maybe I'll see you around," she said. Then she turned and walked quickly to her car. She started the engine and began backing out.

"Yeah," Adam muttered to himself, "maybe." He watched her drive off and lingered there on the porch for a moment longer. He was saying goodbye to a dream, a beautiful dream that had allowed him to endure more hardship then he ever could've imagined.

He saw headlights approaching and for a few brief moment he fantasized that Britney had ignored what he had said and was returning to him. He frowned as he saw it wasn't Britney's red Taurus but instead was a stretched black limousine.

The long sleek car pulled in front of the house. It sat there for a minute as Adam was left to wonder at who was inside the limo. Finally the door opened and a little man stepped outside. He was no taller than 5'6" and had his thin black hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was speaking into a cell phone that he had clutched tightly to his face.

"No. Tell him I can him an extra two and a half percent out of the back end but that's it. If he doesn't like it then I'll just sit on his contract until it expires at the end of the year. Tell him to just think about the loss of merchandising revenue. If he thinks I'm bluffing he can just try me. I got a dozen guys just like him."

Catch up on past installments of Savage Genesis!

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Catch up on past installments of Savage Genesis!

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