Everything Solid has a Shadow by Michael Antman

Author:Michael Antman [Antman, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amika Press
Published: 2017-08-07T23:00:00+00:00

6

Though the two events were not, in my mind, directly connected, I drove over to Alisa’s condo the Saturday after my conversation with Willa to pick up some of my things. As I was getting out of my car, Gilbert called.

“Catch you at a bad time?”

“No, I’m just at Alisa’s. What’s up?”

“It’s never an easy thing to say, and it’s never a good time to say it.”

“What? What are you telling me, Gilbert?”

“You understand I have a business to run.”

“Are you telling me I’m fired?”

“Children to feed. Two in college. You know that, Charlie.”

“So, yeah, I understand, I know all about your kids, but what I’m asking you is, am I fired?”

“I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. That characterization. I would say that we are mutually and reasonably reaching a point where we’re going to have make a decision about your future with the firm, fair enough?”

“I guess. So I’m fired?”

“Look, we can parse this seventeen ways to Sunday. We can do this all day if you’d like. You’ll have two weeks, okay? You can come in, use your office, look for your next job, you can tell everyone that this was a mutually agreed upon decision, which has the added advantage of being the truth. You’ll be locked out of our files, of course, but you can make phone calls, work on your résumé, whatever you would like.”

“And after the two weeks?”

“You go with my blessings.”

“But I mean, severance? I’ve been with the firm for seven years.”

“Contractually, you understand that I’m not obligated to provide you with anything in that area. But I would be happy to set you up with a woman I know who runs an outplacement business.”

“So you’re telling me no severance?”

“Charlie, what I’m telling you is that I’m opening up your future for you. If you were wise, you would just take it and run with it.”

“Is this because of ClickEver? Did we lose ClickEver?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that, Charlie.” But at that moment, Gilbert sounded almost jubilant, as if, somehow, the sale had gone through. In some fashion, evidently, he’d managed to keep Jason from walking away with the business, and neither the new agency nor, apparently, Gilbert, had any further need of me.

“Okay, thanks.” I mashed the little red button with the miniature red telephone on it to end the call and stepped into Alisa’s place.

The front door was open; Alisa was lying on her side in front of the television, crying.

“What’s the matter, baby?”

“Nothing. What are you doing here?”

“Well, it would appear that I’ve just gotten myself fired.”

“I’m so sorry.” She was still crying and sniffling from whatever other thing had been troubling her when I first walked in.

“So what’s going on with you? I walk in, it’s the middle of the day, you’re lying on your couch crying, is it me?”

She looked surprised. “No, it’s nothing. They’re just back and I got upset, that’s all.”

“They’re back? Who?”

Alisa motioned over to the corner of the living room, where the heating grate was.

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