L A T E N I G H T S E C R E T A R Y

13 - Patience is Key

Tyler is back at Erde with his colleagues who are celebrating his extended term. Tyler had the usual gel in his hair, eggshell colored shirt, brown striped tie, black slacks, comfortable work shoes, and his glasses of course.

"Tyler's term here has been extended to one year!" Somebody proclaimed and soon everyone began to huddle around Tyler and cheered as if it were the Fourth of July without the fireworks and patriotism.

"Everybody, I'm looking forward to working with you again!" Tyler said cheerily, but his eyes showed otherwise, luckily no one noticed with all the commotion going on.

"Truth is we had no idea if we'd make it without you!" A woman said.

"It's really reassuring to have you here again! Welcome back!" Another man said.

Tyler just smiled a polite smile and after everyone was ordered back to their posts everything became normal again in the work space. While he was getting some documents ready his thoughts wandered over to how this day was supposed to be the day he was back at Polverini Corp. Before he could delve anymore he stopped himself and remembered his promise to be patient and to wait for Jared. 'I know I have to be patient... But! It's already been an entire week since I last saw Jared! I practically begged him to just contact me at least for work! What the hell is his problem!? His intentions may have been for my health, but does he even think about the possibility of me being worried over him!?' After his silent tirade Tyler was thinking of calling Jared, but was interrupted when he heard a familiar voice call for him.

"Tyler." Tom said dressed in a plain dark blue colored shirt, aquamarine tie, black pants, coiffed hair, and glasses that were also similar to Tyler's.

Tyler turned around at the sound of his name and was surprised to see Tom right behind him.

"President Welling!" He said and stood up.

"How's you're health?"

"Fine, thank you. I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble."

"Guess, we were relying too much on your hard work."

"Something like that is-"

"There's no need for you to work alone. We're all doing our jobs here." Tom said with a smile and walked off.

"Yes, sir..." Tyler replied. 'I think I understand why all the employees adore him. He's reliable, considerate, and a good leader... He's the perfect boss.' After that thought came through suddenly he had a flashback of Jared and how instead of going to his meeting skipped it to have his meal. ' ...So why on earth do I have a boss like that...? He's always putting on airs and such...... Even if I know that's his way of showing concern...' He remembered when Jared helped him out and a blush colored his cheeks. 'I miss you.'

* * * *

Back home Tyler took out his laptop to check over Jared's schedule. "The schedule... it's completely blank..." He was beginning to panic and calmed himself enough to try the other sources on the computer and began to furiously type and click. When that didn't work he tried calling Jared's phone and was answered with, "The number you are trying to dial is not available or it may be out of range-". He clicked it shut before it finished and tried again, but was answered with the same monotone message. 'There has to be some kind of mistake...'

The next day back at Erde Tyler still hadn't given up on checking on Jared so he was still on the computer typing at a furious pace. He was dressed in a dark black long sleeve with matching black pants, but his hair and glasses were still as neat as ever. 'Did he delete his schedule by mistake? And his phone... maybe it just died on him...' He thought worriedly and was pulled out of his musings when he heard some talking down the hall. Walking over there he spotted Tom surrounded with his employees in some kind of heated discussion.