PICKING UP THE PIECES

Even before reaching the office, Miranda decided to alight claiming that she never wanted the gossip sites to spot her. Well to be accurate to spot Jen Blue. It would probably make reporters go crazy to hear that I am in a relationship with one of my recent employees.

Entering the office once again proved to be more trouble than I thought it would be. This was made so by the people who stood outside the building who wanted to hear what I had to say about the whole situation. Miranda bookmarked many of the ridiculous stories that they had published about my quarantine with some convinced that it was a disease that was attacking the rich as punishment for having more money than others. Some went as far as to claim that it was a way to eradicate the rich and only live the middle class and poor who would then go to demolish capitalism and replace it with a better system. But what did I know about all the politics that happened? My mind was taken over by ideas of Gendwall and The Executive to the point wealth was just something I had to attain my goals. Other than that it felt like being famous and being a millionaire was bound to happen. The attention was a small price to pay for all I was able to achieve and I just had to deal with it the best way I could.

After spending about thirty minutes trying to clear the air about my illness, I finally got the chance to enter the building and finally go back to how things were before that make-believe story was made. I was hoping for a quiet and tranquil return to the office with my daily walk around the office and then going to my office to see a load of work. By then I should have known wishful thinking was a waste of mental space in my brain. Entering the office I was suddenly hit with confetti and a whole crowd shouting, "WE ARE GLAD YOU ARE BACK!

Before I could properly compose myself I felt a sudden jump on my back that almost made me fall. I

"Your back!"Glenn exclaimed as he wrapped his hand on my neck

"Yeah this is a bit too much don't you think," I said trying to stand up straight.

"We thought you were going to die what do you mean this is too much," Glenn said

"Well thank God I made it out alive," I said still disoriented.

"And to celebrate I called up the donut shop downtown and got a huge deal on an office celebration order. The assortment was crazy they had so many flavors and they sent all of them in. I tried the coconut flake one and it was so good. and then there is this new one which is called the surprise donuts that have random flavors inside and you only find out once you take a bite and then it gushes out beautifully. It's like opening up a present every time you eat."He said showing me a pile of boxes.

"I am glad that your love of food is still the same, don't you have school right now?"

"I took an off day, this was too important to miss your grand entrance."

"Let me guess this was all your idea?" I asked looking around at the people who had now turned to talk to each other.

"No, it was Patrick's idea."

"Really ?" I asked confused.

Patrick was one hell of an assistant but he was the least spontaneous person I knew. A surprise glad you are back event was way out of his comfort zone. Unless he was passionate about doing a whole thing just to make me feel good. Either that or in the span of a week everyone had been replaced by their alternate universe selves and all of that was an act to get me killed. I chose to believe that if that ever happened then Miranda would have already avoided it by doing something crazy and Patrick had his own reasons to do all of that for me.

"You should probably say something," Glenn said looking at me spacing out.

"What?"

"say something to your team, they have been waiting for their king to give an address," Glenn said in a way that made me feel like he was trying to make fun of me.

Naturally, I said some small words to act like a boss, thanking them and wishing for a safe path forward. As much as I would have liked to put them back at work I just allowed them to lounge around and enjoy the donuts that Glenn had got for the celebration. They probably had a rough and stressful previous week I never wanted to be the type of guy who would overwork them to the point of resenting me.

I looked at Glenn happily talking to people looking at his donut as if it was the love of his life, Miranda stayed with a small group, the rest seemed generally happy as I went asking some of them about how they were. The only people who were missing were the team who were working on the contest and curiously Patrick had slipped away from the crowd. I knew that the contest was still ongoing even a week later they had not found a promising participant which was kind of a disappointment that our entire idea had just gone to complete waste in the search for XR.

Looking at both Miranda and Glenn I knew that we could not manage to discuss anything about how things went with The Executive until the end of the day so I had to push away any thoughts on XR to the back of my mind and focus on just trying to readjust myself in the fake world that I had molded for myself. I was back to the young hard-working genius persona that I had made for the world who only wanted to see technological progress in the world. That was what I needed to be at that very moment.

I took my leave from the small party and headed to my office making sure to stop by Patrick's desk. Once again he was not there which made me worried. He was really acting out of character. One he celebrated me and two he was not at the place where he usually is the majority of the time. It made me suspicious of the entire situation. Something was definitely off about him, I could tell even with these two signs that he was either hiding something away from me or he knew something he should not know about. I decided to not think too much about it and entered my office to find a bunch of blueprints and stacked papers on my desk. I sighed but it was a happy sigh of finally being back to my distractions and 'normal life'.

*********************************************************************************************************

"ahhhhhh!" I sighed now in fatigue.

the backlog of work that I had to take care of was a significant amount. It was a lot and when I mean I a lot I mean a lot. It felt like back in the days in high school when your teachers would give you assignments in every class and all of them wanted the work to be submitted on the same day. Then you would procrastinate all the assignments until the very last day and thereafter you speed run everything you put off in one night of energy drinks and caffeinated drinks. It was that bad when it came to taking care of all the things that I had not been done during that week.

Being CEO always looked like an easy job when I saw it written in articles and watched videos on it since it seemed like you are collecting money from other people's work and time but each of those videos and articles and videos failed to show the other side of which responsibilities that I had. Major and minor projects alike could not go through without my permission. Budget approvals and reports were other piles that I never liked to deal with. And not let me get started on the suggestion system that Glenn convinced me to set up getting so many suggestions to the point it felt like the office would just transform to a five-star hotel.

All this coupled with all my meetings being pushed to that week. Just thinking about how the day after I would have meetings from four in the morning all the way to dinner time. Some of them were just useless meet-ups between board members and others were just a bragging session between adults to see who is making more moves than the rest. It was petty but I would just attend do that I could have their support at any moment that I fell off in my own ventures. They were my plan B's to be precise.

I was not even able to make contact with Patrick and he never even walked in to check on me which once again was bizarre. I looked at my watch and I had already missed lunch as the evening was creeping in on me. Time really flew by when you are busy. I felt that it was best to call Patrick since it seemed like he was completely ignoring me and it started to bother me. I had a special buzzer on my table which was connected to his watch and we knew if I used that buzzer then it was a serious emergency.

Immediately I buzzed in, he never even took more than a minute to knock on my door. It was as if he was waiting for me to call him in.

"come in," I said adjusting myself in a more firm position from my previous tired slouch.

Patrick slowly entered the office as if he was a child in trouble. His head was hung low just like a child and walked towards my desk.I looked at him as he acted out of character. Patrick had always been a unique person but this was a bit strange even for me.

"Patrick," I said trying to look into his eyes.

"Yes sir."

"have you been avoiding me?"

"Yes sir."

"Why?"

he kept quiet and looked at me and removed a box out of his pocket and gave it to me. I looked at him and opening it up and i looked at a pocket watch. i held it up and looked at the back and it said I am sorry.

"What is this for?"I asked

"I am so sorry sir it is my fault you got sick.It was probably the food i brought you or the water or the clothes. I committed attempted murder for almost getting you sick.i should be in jail sir. it is wrong. I never should have been in your field view. I deserve the worst. I should resign or had you already planned to fire me. I love this job i still love being here please do not fire me sir.Even if you reduce my pay....."

I looked at him rumbling away you would think he was the one who was put under house rest the way he talked like a total and complete nut job.Patrick was always a bit much but this was really bad.

"Patrick breathe in breathe out. " I said trying to calm him down," i was not going to fire you plus it was my own doing you can not take responsibility of such situations."

"Really?"

"yeah, plus I know you had been a glue that had held everyone together when i was gone you even deserve a vacation for how hard you work."

"Oh thank God that is such a relief." He said holding his chest.

"Was that really the reason you avoided me the whole day?"I asked

"yes sir, It is always hard to deal with guilt."

I was surprised that he really avoided me just because of guilt on something he never did. It would hypocritical of me not to highlight that I was the same sometimes but seeing it displayed right in front of me was different. Unlike Patrick, I was really at fault and the consequences of my actions had really entailed life or death situations.

" Will you keep the watch?"Patrick asked

"well a pocket watch...." as I was about to complete my sentence I looked t Patrick at his eyes met me, he looked like a tiny coffee-colored kitten and made my heart melt a little," yeah I will keep it. "I said putting it into my pocket.

"Oh sir there is a mess on your desk." he said removing a small towel from his pocket and heading over to clean the desk.

It was just like the good old days it really felt like i had come back to some sense of normality.