This is the third part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I and Part II before continuing.
“The boss is really working you hard today, huh?” said Tony, Hugh’s driver, leaning against the car and smoking a cigarette as he watched Chris come out of the building with a package.
“Man, tell me about it. I just got back from picking something up for him over on the east side. Now he wants me to go all the way back there to drop this off for him!”
“He’s gonna run you ragged,” Tony said, shaking his head back and forth. Then he took a long drag on his cigarette and lazily blew a stream of smoke out of one side of his mouth. “I wouldn’t take it if I were you. If you let him run all over you now, he’s gonna think he can do that forever. You don’t wanna be an errand boy forever, do you?”
“No, I don’t.” Chris was just about to announce his resolve to go back inside and throw the package in Hugh’s face when he saw Sandra walking by. Once she noticed him watching her, she stopped, pulled a compact and lipstick out of her purse and very slowly applied a completely unnecessary layer of bright red lipstick. She took her time rubbing her lips together and smacking them before giving Chris a pointed look and sashaying away.
Chris thought about that kiss she had given him in the classroom and her promise that he wouldn’t get another until he got promoted. So he stood up straighter, tucked the package under one arm, and saluted Tony, saying, “Off I go!”
Tony could have sworn the guy actually marched off down the street.
Once Chris had disappeared around a corner, Sandra doubled back and leaned up against the car next to Tony, who was using his toe to grind the stub of his cigarette into the sidewalk. Sandra took another cigarette out of her purse, lit it, took a drag, and handed it to Tony. “He’s quite the little worker bee, isn’t he?” she said, tilting her head in the direction Chris had headed off in.
Tony nodded. “I keep telling him not to put up with it, but he just keeps on doing whatever the boss tells him. One thing after another. It never ends with that guy.”
“It never ends with Chris, or with Hugh?”
“Either one! They’re two peas in a workaholic pod.”
Sandra laughed. “Yeah, I guess they are, aren’t they? But you know what they say about people like that.”
“That they’re crazy?”
“No. That there’s no stopping them.”
To be continued…