KEVIN AND JENN

KEVIN

Bits and pieces of the conversation he had with Matt, an ex-classmate and developer at Facebook came back to him as he jogged on the treadmill.

"...start ups either rise or fall. Yours did." Matt pointed out, without smiling, "But it's a dead end for you."

Matt was married now. He had a gold ring on his finger and proper brown shoes. His desktop was a picture of his wife and kids instead of half naked bikini girls. Even his neck tattoo had been removed.

"What do you mean?" Kevin had asked, "By a dead end?"

Matt paused, his eyes travelling around the room like he was searching for the right way to phrase things.

"That company your friend founded? It'll be dead in five years. So you can either ditch now or get laid off later." Matt quirked his moustache and gave Kevin a sympathetic pat. "I wanted to tell you before but you seemed so set on staying."

"Yeah." Kevin responded, still reluctant to acknowledge the truth. "I was."

Matt pulled out a bright blue business card out of the side pocket of his laptop case.

"Here. My headhunter. Tell her I referred you." At the moment, the name card was sitting in the pocket of his khaki pants at home, lying on the bathroom floor. He had tried to call her before the work out but didn't have the guts.

So he went to his condo gym and passed buff guys and slim girls to get on the treadmill. Unsure of what to set the speed to, he picked a low number that left him almost out of breath and held onto the bars for dear life as long as possible.

Twenty minutes later, he went stumbling and shaking to the showers, where he doused off most of his sweat and his anxiety. He would do weights tomorrow, he resolved. 

Today would be for talking to the headhunter.

She picked up immediately. Matt had apparently emailed the head hunter and put in a good word. She told him that he needed to update his LinkedIn and that there were openings in several companies that would suit him.

"You called at the perfect time. Everyone's hiring." she told him. "I'll bring you up to some of the big fish first-expect an email from me in a week."

The optimism in her call was the courage he needed to quit. The next day, he walked into office with a box. 

Because it didn't matter whether or not his job prospects were as bright as the headhunter promised. 

He was done here.

"What the hell?" his best friend asked with a look of bewilderment, "you got promoted already?"

Kevin chuckled. His friend always knew how to crack a good joke. "No. I'm leaving."

"Whaaaaat?" He unbuttoned his crisp suit and sat down in Kevin's swivel chair. "Weird."

"I know. I sent you a letter of resignation today morning. Not sure if you saw it." He avoided eye contact as he neatly stacked his manuals and slid them into the half-packed box. "It's time I move on."

"Aww. Well, we'll miss you here." With that his best friend, or rather former best friend swaggered out of the room.

He didn't even spend five minutes talking to Kevin.

"Goodbye." he nodded politely at the office staff. As he waited with his box at the elevator, he felt a conflicting rush of joy and fury.

Joy, that he was finally getting out of that suffocative trash can of a company.

But fury that he'd wasted years under the impression that his hours meant something.