November

NOVEMBER 3, 2032: A CEO REALITY

NOVEMBER 3, 2032: A CEO REALITY

1

Emma Hawkins woke up from a dead sleep at her desk. She took some kind of pill immediately, without thinking much of it. Suddenly, she realized things were not right. What the hell was that pill? She looked at the pill bottle's label. Xanax. She had rarely taken Xanax in her normal life. At least she didn't think. The phone rang:

"Hello?"

"Miss Hawkins, your ride to Infinity Inc. is ready. Shall I grab your bags?" It was a sweet young woman's voice over the phone.

"Yes?" Emma said as a question. She wasn't really sure what was going on. Then, she really took in her surroundings. It was a massive office. Glass windows. A golf-putting green. It was the right size though. It wasn't too big. Then, she noticed the plaque on her desk:

Emma Hawkins

C.E.O. of Byte

"What the fuck is a Byte?" She asked aloud to herself. Then, her secretary came into the office. It was the woman from the phone. Wait, she was called Miss Hawkins? Was she not married here? Wherever here was...

"Are you ready to go, Miss Hawkins?" Her secretary, Sofia, asked. She was thirty-years old. She had long black hair and was quite possibly the most beautiful human Emma had ever seen.

She began to blush, "Ah, yes of course." Emma grabbed her bag from her chair.

"Let me take that, Miss." Sofia nearly ran to grab the bag from Emma. She got a closer look at her now. She seemed familiar but Emma couldn't piece it together.

"Thank you...?" She felt the name on the tip of her tongue. "Sofia?"

"Yeah, that is my name, Miss Hawkins. Are you feeling okay? I can get you medicine or something. Or we could..." And that was when Emma Hawkins discovered she was having a relationship with her thirty-year old secretary. And then she thought to herself, how old am I? She grabbed her phone out of her pocket. It didn't look familiar to her. Then, she realized it was a smartphone made by her own company. It wasn't too different from the smartphones she was familiar with, except it was ultra-thin. It was almost like a thin piece of glass in her hands, except with rubberized grips right on the back of the phone. It had a self-enclosed case that protected it from nearly any damage. She suddenly remembered that Byte had a policy of replacing any phones with physical damage for no cost, well, except to the environment on a daily basis. She was wondering why she knew certain things. It was almost like a part of her did indeed live here but she knew this wasn't where she belonged. Then, she pulled up the calendar on her Byte Phone. It was November 3, 2032. That would make her forty-years-old. She still wasn't married? God, she thought, I'm disappointed in myself. She thought she should be more concerned to be in the year 2032 but at this point, it felt like life was merely happening to her without her input. She was just along for the ride.

"Miss Hawkins?" Sofia had waited patiently as Emma stared at her phone. Emma pulled up the camera app and looked at her face. Wrinkles had come in, but she had clearly gotten some plastic surgery. Her long brown hair was starting to thin. She didn't like looking at herself older. It scared her. It scared her to be closer to death. To be closer to some unknown she could never understand until she got there.

"I'm sorry, Sofia. Let's get moving," Emma said.

"Of course, Miss Hawkins," Sofia said, carrying Emma's massive Gucci purse. She had a feeling she might not be too crazy about this reality either. None of it felt quite right.