Chapter 33.

Our entire conversation was hushed down to avoid others from hearing us. At some point we'd already arrived at my desk halfway through our discussion whereupon she immediately departed without giving me another chance to find a way to weasel my way out of treating her.

There were a few juniors who were curiously looking in our direction throughout our entire exchange, but none of them dared to approach the two of us while we were in the midst of our quiet back and forth banter.

The only thing I gained from our one sided discussion just now was an outlet to unwind a bit. Despite her formalities at times, it didn't feel awkward when I was with her; instead it was somewhat fun and entertaining. The weird things that happened recently had been completely pushed to the back of my mind thanks to her. Deep down I was somehow thankful for her pushiness despite my wariness towards her due to my own personal reasons.

She never explicitly makes clear what her true intentions behind her actions may be, but it feels like she genuinely shows concern for her employees in her own way; however, be that as it may, my gut instincts told me to remain cautious around her. On the surface I saw a boss who really was concerned about her employees well being. She also maintained a professional boundary to a certain degree. On one hand it felt like she tried to be more down to earth, while on the other hand, she somehow felt a bit above you at the same time.

If it was any other man with their sanity fully in tact, I'm sure they would jump at the chance to get to know her better.

"Uhm. Excuse me... Senior Dio, what were you discussing so seriously with the boss just now?"

With stern eyes, sunken brows, and a serious frown on my face; despite still contemplating and ruminating over boss, I gave a curt to the point response, "Business."

"I get it's business, but what type of business? The two of you looked like you were in a major disagreement over something just now. It looked pretty heated even. Are any of us getting the boot? With the whole thing with Rick, would she really do something like laying us off when everyone is in such a sensitive and emotional state? She wouldn't be so heartless, right? She doesn't suspect us of being involved or anything, does she?"

"No. It's nothing of the sort. You don't need to worry about your job being in jeopardy or anything. We were really just discussing future plans."

"What future plans specifically?"

"Sorry, that is confidential information of world shattering proportions."

"I'm being fired after all, aren't I?"

"Look, Peter, you're not being fired. Just chill out man."

"What else could be world shattering other than that."

A scandal where a boss blackmails her employee to buy her a meal at a fast food restaurant. It's pretty world shattering if you ask me. My paycheck is seriously suffering you know.

"Get back to work already before the boss sees you slacking off and really considers firing you."

"Yeah. You're right."

After I was finally really left alone without anyone else coming over to bother me, I spent another day grinding away fixing up a bunch of malfunctioning electronics. Today there was a rather large amount of work orders assigned specifically to me, totaling them altogether there were eighteen devices. I somehow managed to power through all of them with only an hour remaining until the end of my shift.

I'd completely engrossed myself in my work and I hadn't really taken any breaks in between. By the time it was over, I was both sleepy and starving. Since I finished all my work, I figured I'd take a short nap.

I looked both ways to make sure a certain cheapskate boss wasn't around and propped up a few open books in front of my desk to make it look like I was reviewing schematic diagrams. I folded my arms on the table and put a face mask on top of my head to make it appear as if I were looking directly at the books in front of me. If anyone came over I could move my head into the mask and make it appear as if I was awake the entire time. It was truly the perfect crime. I was already a repeat offender and life was meant to be lived dangerously on the edge like a rebel.

Okay, I admit, it was neither a perfect crime, nor was it really living dangerously on the edge like a rebel. I know that, but a man can dream, right?

I set an alarm to go off in an hour. I really didn't want a repeat of this morning's incident in my car.

When I was certain the timer was set properly, I shut my eyes tight and buried my head in my arms on the table. With a minimal amount of effort, it didn't take very long before I dozed off.

…

In front of me was once again, a woman. However, this was a woman I was able to easily identify.

"Boss? What are you doing?"

She was looking down over what appeared to be a deep overarching cliff.

"What are you looking at so intently boss?"

She turned her head and peaked at me for a moment before nonchalantly turning back as if she were entranced by the sight below.

When she didn't respond to me, I moved closer to her side so I could determine what she was so engrossed with. When I looked down, all I saw was a never ending abyss of darkness. There was absolutely nothing that could be seen. It was a world of the unknown as far as the eye could see. Whether there was a bottom to the cliff was a mystery to me.

"Boss, is there really anything interesting enough down there to draw your attention?"

She didn't respond, but instead, she glanced behind us while showing a listless expression. When my eyes followed in the direction of her fleeting cursory glance, I came to the realization that all that lay in wait behind us was a dreary, desolate, barren wasteland devoid of any form of life.

Her gaze returned to below the cliff, but this time she raised her right arm, extended her index finger, and pointed directly across from us. About ten meters in front of us and twenty meters below was the other side of the cliff. Far into the distance on that side, the vegetation was bountiful, there were all sorts of wildlife and even an oasis where everything lived peacefully in harmony with one another. It really drew a stark contrast to the barren wasteland behind us. I now understood what she was truly interested in, it was the overwhelming appeal of the other side that had actually drawn her in rather than the seemingly bottomless chasm down below.

"Why not jump?"

She shook her head and peaked at me with a look that seemingly implied she was curious as to whether I was actually a complete idiot.

When my pride took a bit of a hit, I sought out a rational explanation to justify the plausibility to my suggestion. To redeem myself, I squat down and I drew out a few calculations in the dirt with my finger. If I assumed the average human was running at a speed of about sixteen kilometers per hour and since I knew the acceleration due to gravity came to approximately 9.8 m/s^2; with some simple mathematical equations any high schooler who took a physics class should know, I could easily figure out whether it was possible to jump the gap.