I stood in my old office at the museum, looking around at all the memories I created. I was taking each of them and packaging them away in the huge cardboard box on my desk.
I got here early enough to not risk running into Meech. London was here, though, and I regret leaving her to clean up the administrative mess I made by quitting on a whim. She had to get here earlier than normal so she could make up the work that I would have gotten done, but I promised that she could still use me as a resource since she had been so good to me during my time here.
My office was almost empty when I saw Meech enter through the front doors on my surveillance camera. I let out an audible sigh, and made sure to dramatically roll my eyes, even though no one was looking. He's never been here before 7 AM but with my luck, I should have expected as much.
I watched him on the camera as he started toward his office, but stopped when he saw my office lights were on. He turned on his heels and appeared in my door frame. He was met by me, looking him up and down with my arms folded across my chest.
"Indica, please do not do this," he said, slightly out of breath, "We can still work something out."
"There's nothing to work out, Meech. I refuse to work under someone for the rest of my career."
"You have to understand that it's out of my hands. If it was up to me, you would have that spot in the bag."
I rested my hand on top of the cardboard box and scoffed. "And the minute you found out it wasn't in your hands anymore, you should've told me. I know our relationship wasn't always perfect but I deserved more than to be undermined the way you did. Not only that, I had to find out from someone else. And that someone else just so happens to be the person who's taking my job."
This conversation sounded a lot like the ones I've had with Charlie, and Lord knows I was tired of repeating myself.
He stood in the doorway, quietly, observing me throw the last few things of importance into my cardboard box. I lifted the box off of my desk and tried to place it on the trolley that I stole from the loading dock. He tried to help me, but I shooed him away.
As I wheeled the trolley, past him, I slapped my key to the museum against his chest and went on my way.
The trunk to my Tesla slowly rose as I began loading my things in side. When I closed the trunk, I started to walk around the car, looking both ways before opening the driver door. My eyes spotted a familiar car parked on the opposite side of the street and my suspicion was confirmed when I read the front license plate: TANA.
I narrow my eyes at the car trying to look inside. It looked empty, but the windows were heavily tinted so I couldn't be 100% sure. I decided to walk towards the car but it peeled out and sped off before I got halfway across the street. Weird.
____________
"My momma wanted me to check on you," Orien said as he slid me my drink.
"Check on me? For what?"
"She said you look scared when you was at the house. She ain't believe whatever excuse you gave her."
"Oh..." I nervously took a sip of my latte as I tried to come up with yet another excuse. "Tell her I'm fine, seriously."
"I tried! You know she don't let nothing go."
"I'll call her," I sighed, "See you later, O."
I moseyed my way into my group session. It had almost been three whole meetings since the last time I've been here, but I needed Quin's professional guidance today, no matter what subject we would be covering. I needed help on all fronts.
