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Chapter 2

"He's a dinosaur, Mila!" Veronica exclaimed from her seat as she drummed her newly manicured fingernails against the wood. "He's old and he keeps saying, 'I've been in the game for years, kids'. It's condescending."

"Vero's right," Louis agreed. He unconsciously straightened his bowtie as he propped his Converse on the large oak table that ran nearly the length of the room. "He's got nothing."

"As much as I hate to say this, I'm with Vero and Louis," Shawn replied as he rolled his wheelchair up to the table. "I love the guy, I do. You know I do."

"We all do," Louis spoke up. "But he's dropping the ball here."

"I understand where you're coming from, " Camila said as she stared out over the city and watched the late morning drizzle give way to the sun. She spun around in her chair and caught the table to stop her momentum. After a moment, she ran her fingers through her long hair in frustration. "I know he hasn't really contributed lately."

"Understatement!" Veronica squealed.

"But!" Camila eyed her. "He's not a dinosaur. He's barely 40. And he's just in a little slump."

"Huge slump," Louis murmured.

"He's part of our team, we're not kicking him out."

"He's supposed to be our jingle man, Mila," Shawn argued. "And he hasn't written anything in months."

"That's a lie, he has written stuff," the brunette argued. "It's just not very jingly."

"The last thing he wrote had the same tune as the Halloween theme," Veronica reminded them.

Camila nodded sadly. "Hey, what about the one about the Sham Wow meeting the wet wipe and falling in love? That was really good."

"Honey," Veronica leaned in to take her hand, "it had an eight minute instrumental break and ended with a chorus of 'Die, Wet Wipe, die.' I don't think that meets the criteria Whoopsies is looking for."

"I thought it was catchy and was the perfect description of the product...until the end and the uncontrollable sobbing," Camila shrugged. "He's going through a painful divorce, guys. We can't kick the guy when he's down."

"Okay, well, let's just nudge him really hard, then," Louis accentuated the words with a kick from his propped foot. "You're the team leader on this, Mila. It's your call, but we're going to be in trouble if you don't do something."

"It's not like we haven't had to get past everybody's little quirks," Camila pointed at all of them. "Louis, we've all overlooked the schellacking on your head, Shawn always sitting down on the job-"

"That's completely inappropriate," Shawn said under his breath.

"And Vero-"

"I'll give you a thousand dollars if you skip over me," Veronica said as she reached into her purse to pull out a wad of cash.

Camila accepted the money and then announced with conviction, "You made my point for me. Thanks."

The round table discussion was effectively ended when the man in question slunk into the room. His appearance was disheveled to put it mildly. The knot of his tie hung loosely around his neck and he pulled on it a little more. The man satchel that he often carried was obviously empty, as it was just folded and shoved into his jacket pocket. The metal buckle of the strap hit against his thigh with each step. The shirt he had on, Camila could have sworn he'd worn for at least the last week and a half. It had a telling ketchup stain, or from the smell that permeated the room, maybe a Bloody Mary stain.

"Hi kids," Liam greeted them with what was probably meant to be a smile, but ended up as a one sided grimace.

"Hey Liam," Shawn said grimly.