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“Sounds good.” I followed him back to the office where he poured us both a tumbler of scotch and then went to work with gathering the paperwork. I’d always despised filling out papers, but it was a necessary evil sometimes. I had to do it to officially accept the job.
I finished up the paperwork and handed it to Josephs. “Well, that is done. When can you start? I was thinking a week from today.”
“That should be fine,” I replied. “I’m really looking forward to this. To new beginnings,” I said holding up my glass. He touched his to mine to complete the toast.
“To new beginnings for both us,” Josephs said. He took a large gulp of the scotch. “Now, what am I going to do with myself? I’ll probably be bored out of my mind.”
“Well, you could move somewhere warm and take up golf,” I said.
“You’re a funny guy. They will love that around here,” he said.
We finished up and I left his office. Suddenly, Josephs said, “Hey, you got a minute? I want you to meet someone.”
I turned to him. “Sure.”
He led me over to an office just down the hall from his. The door was open now. It had been closed before with the blinds drawn. I could now see that there was a light on and I heard someone rustling around in the office.
Josephs poked his head into the tiny office. “Hey, I want you to meet your new Chief.”
A moment later a face appeared at the door. My heart stopped. This was not happening. I was dreaming, or hallucinating. I closed my eyes tightly and then opened them again. She was still there. I felt faint. My legs were wobbly and I thought my heart was going to seize up at any second. How was this happening? What was going on here? A strange twist of cosmic fate or coincidence…? What?
I was looking at Shelly. She was right there in front of me. Shelly was there.
How did this happen?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Shelly
I felt sick all over. I instantly broke out in a cold sweat. I felt feverish and like I might vomit and pass out all at once. Gary was there. He was right in front of me. He’d found me. In fact, he’d tracked me down. I should have known I could never hide from him forever. He loved me that much. He had come looking for me.
But why was he so surprised to see me? If he knew I was there, if he had in fact tracked me to here, why did he look like he’d seen a ghost?
Unless…
He didn’t know I was there. Wait, did Josephs just say Gary was the new chief? What…that was what happened? He was going to be there from now on. He was my new boss… no… this couldn’t be… I wasn’t ready yet. Why? Why was this happening?
I was going to faint. I knew it. Any moment now the ground was going to raise up to smack me in the face. Shit. Fuck. I was in so much trouble. This was really happening. There would be no running from this. Still… it was too soon. I couldn’t deal with this.
“Shelly…?” Gary asked. His voice came out in a whisper. He looked like he was going to be sick, too.
“Oh, you two know each other?” Josephs asked.
Neither of us said a word for a moment. Finally, Gary said, “From long ago.”
“Ah, it’s a small world,” Josephs said. “Well, I’ll let you two get reacquainted, and I’ll see you on Monday.”
“Sure,” Gary said. “Absolutely.”
Josephs went back to his office.
“What are you doing here?” Gary asked. “Why…what…?”
I could tell he was speechless, too. Somehow, I found the words to speak. “I’m sorry… I… I have to go.”
I couldn’t deal with this right now. It was too much, too extreme. I felt like the world was crashing down around me all at once right now. I was really going to lose my mind here.
I started to head for the door. As soon as I was outside, a hand grabbed me and pulled me back. It was Gary. He pulled me over to the side out of sight of the windows to keep this as discreet as possible. I appreciated his forethought.
