Six months had passed since that fateful summer of forbidden love. It was late in the evening at the advertisement firm, third floor, where Gregor used to work. The peppy and charismatic Camron, a long-time employee at the firm was making his rounds through the office cubicles looking for a cultured type of company for what he had in mind.
Most of his co-workers had already left, tired and exhausted, but he knew the hold-outs would be all the more easily persuaded to join his little venture. Though not his top choice, he stopped at Vivian's cubicle. "So Viv. Any chance you would like to join me to blow off some steam at that new club at the end of the street?" he suggested with a salesman smile.
Vivian merely looked back with disdain. "You know that's a strip club right? You'd invite a female co-worker to there of all places?" Vivian said insulted, as if she was talking to a braindead fool. Vivian had a reputation as "Vivian the Vicious" thanks to her merciless sales approach and her habit of being openly hostile and confrontational to anyone who entered her line of sight. A stark contrast to Cameron's perpetual can-do attitude.
"They cater to guys and girls for the record! You can stare at the half-naked fireman at the south end!" Cameron said trying desperately to land the deal. But Vivian's aggression-first policy was not waning.
"Keep your sales focused on customers who will actually buy your product." Vivian said curtly, raising a valid point. Keeping his positive momentum going, Camron shifted his focus one cubicle over to Gregor's desk whom he knew historically was the easily persuaded type. However, the desk was completely vacant, and had been vacant for several months.
"Oh right...I totally forgot about that..." the peppy Cameron now said with a heavy heart. He stared blankly at the open space for a moment as reality broke him out of his sales pitch. "I still can't believe he's really gone. In the past I always figured him for a passive sap who lacked the motivation and conviction of will to even ask for a refill at a bar, much less go through with what he did." Cameron reminisced as he recalled the circumstances of Gregor's departure.
The shrewd Vivian was far less sympathetic however. "Don't tell me you actually miss that conniving bastard? I say good riddance! At least now I don't have to sit next to that man anymore. More peace of mind for me!" Vivian said crudely, making her blunt opinion perfectly clear of what she thought of Gregor.
At that point, footsteps from someone approached the two office workers from behind, and the new figure spoke. "Still as brutally honest as ever, Vivian." he said. The new cast member in question, was Gregor himself.
Gregor stared at Vivian awaiting a response after her rant about him. "What? I stand by what I said!" Vivian said doubling down. "A weak-willed, scheming bastard like yourself is hardly worthy of that hefty upstairs promotion the higher ups gave you. I've been working aggressively towards bringing in more business, clients, and new projects with great success, and yet I'm still stuck on this floor." Vivian said in contempt and envy.
"To be fair you are on the shortlist of promotion too, but your forceful and confrontational approach is as much a detriment to your work as it is a boon. I know you have to be a shark in this business to rise up in the food chain, but you need to learn more manipulation, and less intimidation. Maybe be less of a great white and more of a...cuttlefish?" Gregor mused, using a metaphor to explain the walls to Vivian's rise up the corporate ladder, but the fact that a cuttlefish uses hypnosis to hunt its prey was lost on Vivian.
Camron then chimed in himself. "And in Gregor's defense he has changed a lot in the past half year. That weak will has long since been replaced with a confident bravado that clients pick up on and trust. That lack of confidence he had in himself was honestly the only thing holding him back. I'm not sure how he suddenly found that conviction, especially after his wife died, but hey, you can't argue with the results!" he said touting Gregor's rise as if it were his own.
Camron then resumed his strip club sales pitch. "Since you're here visiting us corporate peasants, why not let off some steam with the two of us at that gentleman's club at the end of the street? A man of your stature deserves to indulge himself for working his way to the top, and the girls there are truly top notch! Most having just turned legal." Camron said trying to sweeten the deal.
"Thanks for the offer, but I'm really just here to drop off some forms before heading home to my daughters." Gregor said, turning down the offer.
Camron was floored by such a sad excuse. "Come on man! You're not even forty yet! You're still way too young to be just some boring family man stuck at home looking after your kids! Live a little! I think you've worked hard enough to deserve this!" Camron said, sounding less like a salesman and more like a whining child with each passing sentence he spoke.
"I am more than content as I am, thank you. And I can assure you that I have plenty of fun with my daughters." Gregor said, ending the discussion.
At which point Vivian chimed in. "Camron, don't you have a wife and three-year-old at home yourself? Should a husband really be keeping his wife and child waiting while he dumps his paycheck in singles to half-naked strangers?" Vivian said now quick to redirect her hostility back to Camron for his own debaucherous lifestyle.
