The Nexus

Chapter 4

Emma felt a buzz that vibrated in her bones when she walked through the door to work on Monday morning. It was 7:45 a.m. and the information she had gathered all weekend was set to hit the world at 8:15 a.m. from an anonymous IP address. Everything was prepared so that she could actually witness a part of Deborah's downfall herself. She was so excited it was hard for her to contain it as she sat down at her cubicle and logged in to her computer.

She wished she had even gotten to work later so that she didn't have to wait the agonizing 30 minutes until Deborah figured out that her life was about to fall apart. She decided to go on the Internet and get on some local new sites and YouTube so that she would be completely ready for the shit to hit the fan. Emma had dug up a ton of information about the affair between Deborah and the CEO of AmeriFoods, but the icing on the cake was a video the slime ball had actually made of the two of them having sex. It didn't seem like Deborah knew that the video was being taken, but when you live on the edge like that you have to expect that your secrets will all get out eventually.

"Hey there, Turbo," came a cheery voice from behind her. Emma turned and looked at the smiling face of Cheri, who was leaned against the wall behind Emma's cubicle. Cheri was shorter than Emma, probably about 5' 5," with skin the color of coffee and wild curly hair that naturally bounced everywhere Cheri went.

Cheri worked in accounting and was the closest thing that Emma had to a friend at AmeriFoods, despite the fact that Emma first judged Cheri as completely a clueless nerd. "Hey, Dork," Emma replied.

Cheri snorted out a laugh at that. She was wearing pants that were a little too short for her, and Emma chuckled a little at that, considering how short Cheri was to begin with, only she would be a person who could find pants that were showing her ankles.

"What did you do this weekend?" Cheri asked. Cheri was also the only person who Emma could remember knowing, who actually did care what other people did over the weekend.

"Not much," Emma replied, "just drank, smoked, gambled, and got into a few bar fights," she joked. This was the relationship that her and Cheri had built. She played like she was tough and Cheri would laugh at all her jokes. "What did you do?"

"Well, the kids and I went to the zoo and it was so much fun, but Jake golfed all weekend so I got pissed off at him by Sunday afternoon. I know I let him go golf, but then he just comes home and sits his ass on the couch and watches TV like he's been working or something and needs a rest. Uggh!"

"Did you make up?" Emma asked. She glanced at the clock and it was 8:00am, Cheri was helping time go by a little faster.

Cheri sighed, "Yeah, I guess, but he promised that next weekend he would spend all his time with us and help clean out the garage. We'll see."

Emma knew that the Cheri really wasn't mad at Jake. She knew that Cheri actually loved Jake like crazy along with her kids. Cheri talked about her family non-stop, to the point that some of the other ladies in the office complained that she was bragging, but Emma didn't mind listening. Cheri was someone that Emma wanted to be, or at least pass for. Emma studied her and listened closely when Cheri described the feelings she had for her son and daughter. It didn't take much to get Cheri to tell her how excited she was when her daughter was the fastest at a swim meet, or when her son hit the baseball. She had even gotten Cheri to describe how it felt to watch her children sleep at night, the warm glow in her chest and the tears that would spring into her eyes when she would imagine that there might be other children in the world who don't have a mother looking over them at night. Cheri had even choked up a little in front of Emma at that point and it was amazing to Emma. Emma wanted to be like that, she wanted to feel things so strongly that she might shed a real tear one day; instead of the tears she could fake in case of an emergency.