Animate Me (41 page)

“Arnauld,” Ruiz warns. He must be able to tell that I’m about to snap.

“Is there anything else?” I ask, trying to neutralize my voice.

“Nope, that’s all. Right, Ruiz?”

“We’re done for now. Have your lawyer contact me directly so we can discuss how we’re going to proceed.”

When I go to stand my knees almost give out on me. I falter for a moment, but somewhere inside I find the strength to stand tall and gather myself. I turn towards the Monkey.

“I know I have what you want, but you’re fooling yourself if you think money and lawyers are going to make what’s mine, yours. You have underestimated me before, and I assure you, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

I don’t wait to see his reaction or hear his response. I’m done. I try to remember to breathe as I head out the door. I need to pass the threshold before it does an Alice in Wonderland and the doorway suddenly shrinks to a tiny size or turns sideways.

I’m so stunned that I just start walking down the hallway…so disoriented that I’m not even sure where the elevators are. I wish someone, any one of my friends, was nearby so that they could help me.

“Mr. Evans, you need to stop.” I turn to see Cathy, the HR woman that assisted me once with straightening out vacation days, rushing after me, a security guard only a step behind her.

“I need to get out of here,” I say out loud, not specifically to her but more to myself.

“Yes, yes, the guard will walk you out. But do you need to gather any personal items from your cubicle? We can make arrangements another time for you to do it, if that would be better.”

I think of my iPod, books and my figurines. I fear they’ll all disappear by Mojo’s mandate if I don’t take them now.

I turn towards her. “No, I want to get my stuff.” I’m right on the edge of my sanity, but I need to keep it together. Once I get the hell out of this building I can have my breakdown…but not now. I try to shift into autopilot, pushing all my devastation and panic behind a closed door in my mind.

“Okay, I’ll come downstairs with you. The guard will need to be there as well. When you’re done, he’ll escort you out.”

“Is that really necessary? I’m not going to do anything. I swear; I’ll just leave.”

“I’m sorry, Nathan. It’s policy,” she confirms pointing towards the elevators.

During the ride down I wonder where Brooke is and how I’m going to reach her. They said they were going to interrogate her. She’s probably in there right now hearing the horror of it all. I think I’ll go mad if I don’t get to talk to her soon and understand how she’s feeling. I couldn’t get a clear read on her at all in Arnold’s office. Was she upset and angry about B-Girl, or trying to pretend that it didn’t matter to deflect the situation from me? Why didn’t she even look at me after she heard the news?

As we approach the production area I see the team gathered in the hall near Nick’s office. They all turn and gawk at me and my entourage before quickly disbanding.

Andy heads back to his work area several steps behind us.

Once I’m inside my cube he peeks over the top of our shared wall. “Whoa dude, what’d you do anyway? Did they catch you doing on-line porn at work or something?”

He looks genuinely concerned, not just for me, but it appears for himself, too.

“No, it wasn’t on-line porn, Andy, and if you don’t mind, I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Sure,” he says, seeming to understand that I need my space. “But I’m sorry man, whatever it was. I’m going to miss having you around.”

I look up at him and his face is distressed. Who would have thought that the butterball’s a softy? He’s the last person I expected that from. “I’m sorry too, Andy,” I reply, realizing that I’m really sad to leave my team this way. They’d become like a second family to me.

I look sideways and realize that HR Cathy is standing outside my cube, and she’s pulled out a pad and pen. She sticks her head inside.

“Sorry, Nathan, but before you leave I have to write down what you take.”

“Really?” I say, irritated as all fuck.
Now I’m a goddamned criminal.
The guard hands me an empty box, and I slam it on my desk.

“Spiderman,” I call out tauntingly, waving it in the air for her before sticking the figurine inside the box. “iPod…Daffy Duck mouse pad…” I rattle off the titles of my reference books, and she gives me a suspicious look. “Hey, I brought them from home.”

“They’re his,” an angry voice responds, supporting me.

I turn to see Joel standing in my doorway.

“Nathan?” he asks, his hands straight out, palms turned upwards. He looks like he’s in pain. “What happened, dude? I
need
you here. What the hell?”

“I know, Joel. This is so messed up.” I look down and shuffle my feet.

“What can I do? I’ll go upstairs and fight this bullshit, whatever it is.”

“There’s no fighting this,” I say. “I’m sorry. This is really, really bad. Believe me; I never would want to let you down like this.”

“Fuck,” he curses, looking down. “You were my best guy, Nathan. And besides that, I liked working with you.”

“Me too,” I agree, feeling worse by the second.

He turns and looks back at Cathy and steps closer. “Hey, I’ll give you a call later, and we’ll set up a time in the next day or so to go out for drinks. Okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Thanks man.”

He punches me lightly on the shoulder and then steps back. “Damn.”

“I know.” I nod sadly.

“Okay, later, Nathan.”

I try to refocus, quickly riffling through my drawers and shelves for anything I don’t want to leave behind including my black Darth Vader shaped coffee mug and joke-of-the-day flip calendar. I pull open the bottom drawer, and I feel a huge surge of relief to see it’s completely empty. They never would have let me carry those drawings out of the building now. Nick and Dani came through for me.

I stand back up, and realize that I’m finished here. This part of my life is over.

“I’m done,” I tell Cathy and she looks relieved there hasn’t been more of a scene. But just then Dani and Nick push their way past Cathy and the guard.

Nick gets to me first. He pulls me into a hug and leans into my ear, speaking in a low voice, “We’ve got you covered, Nathan. Where are you headed now?”

“I don’t know…” I answer, because I really don’t.

“We’ll meet you at your house in about an hour.” He quietly states.

As he pulls away, I see Dani looking at my box and crying.

“It’s okay, Dani,” I say, pulling her into a hug. “I’ll be okay.”

“It’s not okay,” she argues. “This is so fucking wrong.”

“Excuse me,” Cathy interrupts. “He was just leaving.”

Dani gets a fierce look on her face and squares her shoulders. “Hey…back off! Do you understand that this is an outrage? He doesn’t deserve this, and you should be ashamed to be a part of it.”

Cathy starts to respond and then seems to think better of it, taking a step back to talk to the security guard.

“Dani, believe me, I’m better off getting the hell out of here, after what went down. I’ll fill you in later, okay?”

She nods solemnly, wipes the new tears away, and gives me one more hug. “Later,” she whispers.

I grab my box and head out. As the guard and I walk towards the elevators, Genna and Kevin step forward. I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. I’m barely holding it together.

“I’m so sorry, Nathan,” Genna says softly. “We’re really going to miss you.”

“Me too,” I offer, giving her a weak smile. “Hopefully I’ll see you guys around.”

Finally in the elevator heading to the lobby, I look at the security guard. He’s new to Sketch Republic. I’ve only noticed him around for a couple of weeks. This must be a really shitty part of the job.

“You seem like a nice guy,” he comments during our descent. “This must suck.”

I realize that he’s too green to understand he shouldn’t be sympathetic to the fallen. “It does suck,” I admit. “I’ve never been fired before.”

He shakes his head. “Wow. And that was a good job I bet.”

I nod. “And you know what else? You’re right…I’m a really nice guy. I guess that didn’t get me far.”

“I guess not,” he agrees. He follows me into the parking garage, watches me load my box into my trunk and drive off.

I’m in a surreal haze coasting down the street when my missed call prompt goes off. I pull over, and look at the phone’s screen: Morgan. I shut off my car and hit send.

“Hey, Morgan, it’s me, Nathan.”

“Damn, are you alright?”

“No, not alright at all,” I say. “Do you know where Brooke is?”

“That’s why I called, to see if you knew what was happening with her. She came running in here a while ago, grabbed me and pulled me into her office. She was crazed.”

“Fuck,” I swear. “What happened?”

“She took this tote bag out of her closet, opened her locked file drawer and stuffed some files and two flash drives in the bag.”

“Did she say why?”

“That’s the thing. She was shaking and rambling about only having a minute before she had to get back. Something about her telling someone she was sick to her stomach and was going to throw up, so she could get away to take care of this.”

“Oh, Brooke,” I sigh.

“So she gives me her car keys and tells me to immediately go lock this bag in the trunk of her car. That I needed to be very casual so that no one notices what I’m up to…then come right back up and just do my job like nothing’s happened.”

“Do you know what was in the folders and on the flash drives?”

“I have no idea. I’d never seen them before. But another thing she did before she left was open up a cupboard and stack up every one of those Starbucks cups you did for her and then put them in the bag. I didn’t know she’d kept them. Did you?”

My heart thunders with hope at this simple, yet significant gesture. “Yeah, I knew.”

“And then this is the last thing she said to me before she tore out of here, ‘Morgan you have no idea what’s in these folders or on the drives…I never showed them to you or talked to you about it. Do you understand me?’ She was so intense that she totally freaked me out. And then just like that, she was gone.”

“Damn,” I groan. “So what did you do?”

“I got the bag in her car and came back up like she asked. And now I’m waiting for her to return from HR. What’s going on Nathan? I’m completely freaked out.”

“Arnold’s trying to destroy me, and he’s trying to use Brooke to make it happen.”

“She won’t stand for that,” Morgan states emphatically.

“I know, but he may not need her to do it. He seems to be doing pretty well on his own.”

“No,” she gasps. “It’s that bad?”

“That bad,” I confirm.

“Fuck. Fucking Arnauld. Mother fucking Arnauld.”

“Exactly.” I take a deep breath. “So Morgan, please do me a favor. I’m going to leave Brooke a message on her cell phone, but as soon as she comes back from HR have her call me. I desperately need to talk to her and they escorted me off the premises. Will you do that?”

“Of course…whatever I can do to help, Nathan.”

“Thank you.”

“Brooke will figure this out. She’s smart as hell and she loves you.”

“I hope you’re right,” I say softly.
On the first and last counts,
I think. For as much as I can’t stand it, I have to be realistic. After the bomb that was dropped on Brooke today, I can’t be so sure of her feelings for me anymore.

I sit in my car for a minute trying to calm myself down, before giving up and tapping her name on my screen. Her phone goes straight to voicemail. I clear my throat and begin to stutter.

“Brooke…it’s me…”

I pause, my mind racing to think of how to explain what’s in my heart.

“I’m so sick with worry right now…I’m panicked, and I desperately need to talk to you, hear your voice….I need you.”

My free hand grips the car door handle tight. “By the time you get this you will know about the camera in the conference room. Fuck it all…I don’t even know what to say about that. I’m just sick as hell that all those fuckers saw us like that. They can accuse me of whatever they want, all that matters to me is that you’re okay.”

I feel myself start to break down and my voice cracks with my next words. “I need to know that you still love me…”

I can feel my eyes fucking tearing up. I feel like such a loser.

“Knowing you still love me is the only way I’m gonna get through this.

“You do, don’t you?…you know…love me? Cause the way you acted in his office…well I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.”

I take a deep ragged breath.

“I’m so sorry about B-Girl. I wish I’d told you that the character was you in the very beginning. But I was so afraid you’d think I was a creepy freak for worshiping you from afar so long. Was I wrong about that?”

My stomach flips over.
I hope I was wrong. Was I?

“Anyway, I can’t undo all of this shit, and now I’ve messed up not just my life, but yours too. Damn…I can’t believe this is happening. Everything was so perfect last week and now it feels like the end of the world.

“I love you so much, and I’m here waiting for you.

“I need to see you. I need to hold you.

“Please, Brooke…

“Call me.”

“
Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream?” ~Homer Simpson
^xxv

“N
o, fucking way!”

Dani looks like she’s going to kill somebody, well, Mojo to be precise.

“Can he do that?” Nick asks, looking sick to his stomach.

“I’m not sure. If I fight it—even if he doesn’t win the lawsuit—it sounds like he’s going to drag me through court for a long time. I think he’ll keep it going until he breaks me financially and emotionally.”

They both stare at me with horror etched across their faces.

“But in some ways he’s already broken me. If you could’ve seen Brooke’s face…”

“Fuck,” whispers Nick, shaking his head.

“And the asshole is like, ‘Brooke I’m so sorry for what this sniveling loser has done to you…’ like he’s going to comfort her from my freaky exploitation and abuse.”