77
The four of them had arranged to meet at a city bar after work on Friday. Christy had a relatively quiet afternoon in her office, so she spent time catching up on paperwork and invoices. Later, she dialled up some porn and had a quick fap watching two hot BBWs destroying each other with a thick, ribbed dildo, before locking up for the day. April disengaged with her maze of spreadsheets, closed her files down, and logged off. She knew her spreadsheets will still be there on Monday morning, taunting her, threatening to ruin her weekend. Milo finished his job (nobody knew what he did for a living, and almost unbelievably, nobody had ever asked) and headed into town to meet the others.
In a nearby building. Marcus noticed the time was approaching five o'clock. He worked until the digital clock in the bottom right-hand corner of his screen ticked over to the top of the hour before logging off and shutting his computer down. Two more days to go. He'd been a perfect employee since his expletive-laden outburst at HR a few mornings ago. He had no line of sight to his personal 'metrics', but he had no doubt they'd have been exemplary these past few days. From a corporate perspective, his attitude was faultless, and he knew it. He was ruthlessly task-focused, and everything that was assigned to him was dealt with promptly, efficiently, and immediately. He didn't take any of his coffee breaks, he returned from his lunch breaks fifteen minutes ahead of time, and his bathroom breaks were kept to a bare minimum. Now that the finish line was in sight, he really didn't care about the pointless effort he was putting in.
His colleagues wondered what had gotten into him. Marcus had never seemed lazy or disengaged, and he'd always seemed like he wanted to do a good job, but he was in overdrive mode this week. They wondered if he'd been put on an incentivised salary scheme, or if he'd started mainlining ritalin. They also wondered if something catastrophic might've happened in his personal life and whether he might be burying himself in work to distract himself from it.
Five o'clock, and Marcus's colleagues did the same as him: log off, shut down; end of the story for another week.
One of his colleagues nervously approached Marcus. "Hey, man. If it's none of our business, that's cool, just tell me. But a few of us have noticed just how dedicated you've been this week. Like, you've been a machine. Fucking hyper-focused. You haven't stopped. You've barely said a word to any of us. Some of us are worried about you, including me. Is ... is everything OK?"
"I'm good, man, but thanks so much for asking, I really appreciate it," Marcus replied as he and his team prepared to leave the floor. "Actually, I'm better than good. I'm gonna miss you guys, but I'm outta here. I've resigned. My last day here is next Tuesday."
Jaws dropped. "We had no idea," said his colleague. "Fuck! What are you gonna do? You got a better job? You going back to college?"
"First of all, I want you to know I was gonna tell you all I was leaving before I left. I wasn't gonna walk out the door on Tuesday and then not show up the next day without saying goodbye first. But by the same token, I don't want anyone to make a fuss over me when I go. And secondly, no, I'm not going to college, and I don't have another gig to go to."
"So what will you do?"
"I'm going to try to write something. A novel, or possibly a play, I haven't decided on the format yet. You probably know I read a lot, and I've got some ideas about some things I could possibly write myself. I love literature way more than I love ... this." Marcus waved his hands around the office floor to indicate what he meant by 'this'. "But ideas need time to develop, and I can't find the time while I'm chained to this desk eight hours a day."
"Wow, man. That's fucking brave. How will you pay the rent?"
"That's what makes it easy. Rent's taken care of. I gave up my apartment a few months ago, and I've been living with my partner. She's encouraging my creative side in full knowledge that I won't have much of an income for a while. We'll have less money coming in, but we'll manage. Besides, I don't spend very much money except on food, books and weed."
"I'd kill to have a partner like that," said another colleague. "So supportive."
Marcus could only nod meekly in response. He knew how lucky he was.
"But wait," probed another colleague. "If this is your last week, and if I heard right, you've only got two days left, why the hell aren't you wrecking the place before you go?"
"Because earlier this week I gave Human Resources a sendoff you wouldn't believe. I can barely believe it myself. I was savage beyond recognition, and they deserved every fucking word of my tirade. I called them a bunch of hypocritical assholes who pretend they care about their employees, but in actual fact couldn't give a shit about anyone but themselves, their stock price and their profit margin. I was like Mussolini screaming from the balcony. They were obviously shocked, all the colour drained out of their faces. So I know they'll be looking over my shoulder until I leave to try to find something they can use to reduce my payout, and so in response, I am now the perfect IT helpdesk employee. For at least two more working days."
"Man, seriously, well done. Thanks for telling those pricks how it is. Like, not just for you, but for all of us. You deserve a drink."
"I know. I'm just about to go get one. Have good weekends, everyone. See you all on Monday. We'll swap phone numbers and email addresses. I'd love to keep in touch with you guys. HR, on the other hand, can get fucked."
"Amen to that. Have a great night, man," said his colleague as Marcus walked out the door.
*
78
Marcus strode across town like a boss. Entering the bar, he noticed the others were already there before him. April, in particular was grinning at him, her wiry green hair running down her back. Marcus gave his Miss Christy a hug and a kiss. The others all had drinks in front of them, so he sidled up to the bar to order a beer for himself.
"Hey," said April, as Marcus returned to their table. "Christy mentioned you had some exciting news for us."
'Fuck, I hope she doesn't think I've gotten Miss Christy pregnant,' Marcus thought to himself.
"Yeah, I do. I quit my job." He took a deep, satisfying draft of his beer.
