Charlie
There’s a bustle around the office that isn’t normal.
It’s Monday morning. Everyone should be depressed and tired. No one should be perky. They certainly shouldn’t be swapping niceties with each other like they are in this parallel universe office.
Jackie is sitting on reception with a full head of smokey evening make-up, dressed like she’s about to go down the runway.
We must have a really rich client coming to the office. She’s too distracted to even take a swipe at me as I walk past.
I walk onto the 4th-floor open plan office.
This is so wrong. People should be eating their breakfast, scrolling through their social media, talking loudly about the weekend, absolutely anything except for actual work.
This morning, there’s not a single social media page being browsed.
I walk past each desk, and it’s the same body snatcher scene; my colleagues have been replaced with polite clones executing work activities talking in hushed whispers.
Terrifying.
I pass Mike on the way to my desk. He has what looks to be all of this quarter’s reports scattered across the floor. He’s never read those reports before despite us sending them religiously. How did he even find a copy by himself?
“Stevie!” I grab his arm. “What the hell’s going on?”
He looks at me like a moron. “The buyout is done. Today the new diggers come in, i. e., the new
CEO and his management. Get ready for the bulldoze.”
“Oh.” I hadn’t been paying attention to the updates last week. So that’s who the new suits milling around are.
“But they’ve said not much will change- we’ll just have a parent company. They’ll just leave us alone, right? Why does everyone look so uptight?”
“They always say that.” He gave me a sideways glance. “Nexus have bought us. They don’t just leave companies alone. They buy the company, trim the fat and suck the best bets into Nexus.” “Whatt??” I stop walking. “Nexus?” No.
Stevie has it wrong.
There’s been a mistake.
The blood drains from my face down my body and accumulates around my ankles. There is no way that Danny Walker would have bought our company.
“Bullshit.” I spit out.
“No bullshit,” he replies. “You’ll see for yourself when they come in. Get your CV together because that CEO guy of Nexus Group will annihilate half the company. He cherry-picks only the best, and the rest of us will be on our arse down at the job centre.” Suddenly the room doesn’t have enough oxygen.
“It doesn’t make sense. They don’t operate in the insurance sector.” I collapse into my chair, flapping my hands.
“They changed their minds; they do now.” He shrugs, leaning against the side of my desk. “They have taken over all the other markets.”
I swallow air and choke. “OK, but surely they’ll leave us alone?”
“Not likely. From what I’ve read, Danny Walker is ruthless. My mate works at ETech; Nexus bought it last year. 50% of the team chopped. The people that kept their jobs now work 10 hour days.
It’s hell, he said.”
“Are we the fat?” I choke out. “I’ve only been in my promotion a year.”
He grabs my hand, irritated. “Stop drumming your fingers on the table like that; you look like a basket case.”
“Sorry,” I whimper. “It’s just that this is really bad news.”
“I don’t know why you are so worried,” He points at himself. “I’m fucked. I’ve been doing three hours of work a day since I got here. I can fool Mike, but these guys will sniff out my slacking a mile off.”
“Wait,” He frowns. “Isn’t your brother mates with the main man, the Walker guy?” “Yes.” I sigh.
“So you’re fine? He’ll never get rid of his friend’s sister.”
“I’m not fine.” I slump forward in my chair. “For the past 8 years, I’ve barely been able to be in the same room as Danny Walker out of shame. He thinks I’m a hopeless desperado that he prefers to ignore, and now, thanks to Saturday night, has fresh in his mind the idea that I’m a useless employee that doesn’t deserve a pay rise and spends her day sleeping in the toilets at work.”
“So no” I lower my eyes to the ground. “I’m not fine.”
“OK” He stares at me. “I didn’t understand any of that. You are going to have to explain it in more detail.”
Dare I tell Stevie? He knows about every other aspect of my life. He even came to the pharmacy with me to get the thrush medication, for moral support.
At least I’d get a bloke’s perspective.
Mike knocks his fist against the pillar in the centre of the room so I don’t get a chance to elaborate.
“Main boardroom in 15 mins.” He bellows, shuffling from foot to foot. He looks even twitchier than I do. I guess he is worried they will ask him what IT stands for and find out the truth; he’s got no clue.
“The end is nigh,” Stevie declares ominously.
I attempt to swallow the giant lump in my throat.
“Gotta do emails” He turns to walk towards his desk but not before pointing his finger at me. “But
I’ll be back later to hear this story.”
People are already mingling around the boardroom even though we’ve got a quarter of an hour.
There will be zero productivity until this meeting is done. I squint to see through the glass.
There he is.
Danny Walker is leaning against the boardroom podium, talking to some other blokes in suits.
My skin prickles at the sight of him.
He’s wearing a dark blue tailored suit that molds perfectly over his athletic figure. Just a little bit of hair peeps out of the white-collar, and he has a few days of stubble growth, giving him a rough edge. He looks sensational. I’m used to seeing him in social environments. So this is Danny Walker CEO version. I’ve even more rattled than I usually am when he’s in a room, and I didn’t think that was possible.
I feel so stupid. Why the hell didn’t he mention this on Saturday evening?
Am I so insignificant to him that he couldn’t muster the common courtesy of saying, “By the way, Charlie, you know that company that you’ve worked for, for five years and didn’t get you a pay rise?
Well, guess what, it’s mine now.”
My heart pounds at the thought of entering the boardroom. Maybe I could sneak away, and Stevie could tell me what he said?