"You...You...Can go." Kaplan said almost a whisper. The men filled out quietly.
"Y'all wanna go out or something?" Alex asked the guys, including Peter.
"It's Mother's Day, remember?" Evan retorted.
"Yes but none of us have any plans until at least 6 'cause we don't get off until 5:45, and I'm the only one who's a father, so they could see their wife!" Alex said.
"Hem hem!" E-Z said.
"Yeah but your not married, or dating the baby's mom." E-Z had a child when he was 18, he has full custody of the child who's now 8, but she sees her mom every once in a while, like today.
"What about you?" E-Z asked.
"Wife and kids are in Florida." Alex was the third oldest person out of all of them, at the age of 32. He's married and has one daughter who's 2 and a 3 month old boy. The rest of the guys had had girlfriends or boyfriends, but the only significant one is Peter. Peter is married to a man named James. Peter loves James more than his life, so they were surprised when Peter didn't leave to go see James.
"So yawanna go or not?" Alex asked.
"The Pub?" Jeremy asked. They all murmured in agreement and set off by foot
They continued walking down the concrete sidewalk talking about their family's or work. It was really more of complaining about work.
"So are we all going to ignore the elephant in the room?" E-Z said in the middle of their careless banter.
"First of all, were not in a room, and second of all-" Jeremy started to say when Evan cut him off.
"I don't see an elephant!" They all laughed.
"Really though." Bryon said. They all knew they could possibly all lose their jobs because of this development. The current president was the one who ordered this branch to be in place but Dr. Kaplan may decide it's not needed, or not in this specific way.
"Hem hem Mr. I'm gonna risk my job." E-Z said.
"Hey I wanted to get through that and find that file as quick as we could so we could be done on that project. I told him we already checked that file. That's all I meant to do. I didn't know he was gonna blow up."
"He's never not blown up." Toby said.
"Your the new guy, how'd you know."
"Not supposed to tell anyone, but, he's, uh, my uncle." Toby revealed.
"Oh shoot!" Jeremy yelled before he could stop himself.
"And he still doesn't know your name?" E-Z asked.
"Doesn't even though I'm alive, let alone his nephew!"
"Ugh." Alex said.
"How many?" The waitress said as they all walked into The Pub.
"7." Peter said quickly.
"9." A woman said. They all turned to face the one who was talking.
"Karèné!" "Linda!" They all said. Karèné and Linda are married and they both work with the gang.
"Where are the kids?" Evan asked.
"With my mom." Linda said.
"We were just here but since y'all are here we might as well all eat together!" Karèné said. She had a slight French accent.
"So how's Dr. Boden?" Linda said as they were sitting down at their table. Everyone glanced in her direction surprised by what she had just said.
"Dr. Boden?" Peter said chuckling. "Ok I do everything to annoy Dr. Kaplan but never in a million years would I call him by his first name. I just wouldn't go there."
"Even at family dinners and stuff everyone calls him Dr. Kaplan, I don't think anyone has called him Boden since his mother died." Toby jokes.
"Family dinners?" Linda asked.
"His nephew." Toby says raising his hand as if to say 'that's me!' then shaking Linda and Karèné's hand. "I'm the new guy." Toby concludes. All of a sudden you could almost see the lightbulb light up over his head as his eyes lit up and he jumped. "Did not get this job because of it though, he doesn't know my name. I got here myself."
"Yes and I'm sure having the Vice President as an uncle didn't change anything." Linda says jokingly.
"President." E-Z says quietly.
"Where's Meyer?" Karèné asks. They go silent for a moment.
"Asked for the day off." Alex said breaking the silence that always seemed to come for some new reason after mentioning Dr. Kaplan. Then Alex made the 'hand cut through neck' motion. They all knew.
More to come
