"You can have whatever's inside," the strange man said as he handed back the key.
The apathetic employee at the storage unit rental looked puzzled. He extended his hand to accept the storage key and gave a listless, "Thank you sir," and then returned to reading something on his phone.
The strange man didn't seemed perturbed in the slightest. He swept away like he was wearing an imaginary regal cape. But of course he had nothing of the sort adorning his broad shoulders.
The employee manning the front desk was about to return the key to a wall of hooks with various keys dangling interspersed throughout its rows and columns when his manager popped into view from the back room.
"Was that uhhh, Figgis?" Came the manager's evenly paced mild mannered voice.
"Yeah, it was," was the reply.
"Didn't he just check that out yesterday?"
"Yeah, he did."
"Do you give a shit about anything, Carl?"
"No, I don't," Carl said. His answer wasn't wry or joking, it was quite literal.
"Fuck. Well, do you want to go clear out the storage unit?"
Carl shrugged.
The manager's temperature rose a few degrees as his cheeks took on a reddish tinge and the muscles in his jaw gave evidence of his clenching his teeth.
"Do you just want to save it for an auction tomorrow or something," Carl said, his eyes half lidded.
The manager blew his top. "He had. The storage unit. For ONE DAY. ONE FUCKING DAY." The manager balled his hands into a fist and unclenched them enough to point an accusatory finger at his employee, "We don't get anything from it, you're done. Done. You hear me?" The manager shouted.
Carl remained unphased, "Yeah, I hear you."
The manager disappears into the backroom and Carl puts the key back in its place. Unit 729.
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The next day, the manager stood patiently outside storage unit 729. There were already a few potential buyers but the manager knew there would not be many. The storage unit had only been occupied for 1 day. The contract was for 1 month, and the fool Figgis had paid the additional fee for the severance clause. The manager was all smiles and while he didn't talk to the potentials, he kept a smile plastered on his face for optics.
Carl trudged into view along the row of outdoor storage units, "Phone call for you," he said to the manager as he got closer.
The manager gritted his teeth in his smile and threw an arm around Carl and turned him away from the onlookers. "Don't bother me now, I'm taking care of this mess because you didn't want to clean up this shit so we could rent it out again."
"You could have cleared the unit," Carl said flatly.