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Hey, this is the prequel of Not So Bad, Just Violent. I’ve been working on it so I thought I’d might as well post it. So, yeah, if you haven’t read Not so Bad, you don’t have to but you should.
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Richie sat in his car and stared at the building numbly. He felt more than nervous. His stomach was flipping in every direction and his breakfast rolled around his stomach like bricks. He pulled himself together as practiced his smile in the mirror. It took him a while to perfect his smile and turn it from naive innocence to total confidence. According to his best friend, Cedric Rogers, it was that innocent smile that led to so many lousy guys falling for him. After his last relationship, he began to believe it.
A look at the time evoked a gasp from Richie, he grabbed his suitcase and scurried to the building door. He swipes his brand new employee ID and enters. He walked in strides to his new job, in a new city, with new people for his new life.
He went up to the receptionist and said tentatively, “Hello, I’m Dallas-Miller’s new advertisement employee, I was told to check in with Terence Corveli before going to my department.”
The pretty, young receptionist smiled flirtingly, “No problem. What’s your name?”
Richie didn’t even notice, his nervousness fogged his brain cells, “Richard Manning.”
“Oh, do you go by Richard?” She slid her hand onto his.
Richie furrowed his brow. Nothing but the fact that she was wasting his time registered in his mind. “Can you please hurry? I don’t want him to think that I was late.”
She frowned and took her hand back, “Fine.” The receptionist dialed a number on one of the land lines and talked for about ten seconds before hanging up the phone and pointing towards a comfortable small seating section of the lobby. “He says he’ll be with you in ten minutes.”
“Right,” Richie huffed, “Thank you.”
She waved him away and went back to her paperwork.
He sat down on a fluffy love seat and rocked himself nervously while waiting for his employer. The ten minutes were dreadfully long, every second ticked by like an hour. Eventually, a middle-age man in a navy blue suit came strutting towards him. The man had a trimmed black beard and slick black hair, his every step smelled of Armani and Versace. “Richard Manning?” he held out a hand, “Welcome to Dallas-Miller.”
Richard stood hastily and shook his hand fervently, “Thank you Mr. Corveli. I’m happy to be here.”
“Call me Terence,” his black eyes glimmered, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the Ad crew. Your new manager is a bit,” he paused thoughtfully, “Well, he’s just not welcoming to new hires. He’s like a dog, he just needs to get used to you then he’ll be,” he paused again to think of the appropriate word, “civil,” he concluded.
“Civil?” Richie echoed, “You mean there’s no chance of him perhaps liking me?”
Terence laughed, “Nope, no chance at all. That’s a nice goal to keep though.”
Richie chuckled along uneasily and followed the man to the elevator. During the ride up, Terence gave Richie tips on how to make it in Dallas-Miller’s Ad department. Most of it included not bumping heads with his manager. Richie grew more and more nervous as the seconds passed and the ding of the elevator made him jump three feet in the air.
Terence laughed, “I’m sorry, I’m making you nervous, aren’t I? You seem like a nice kid, you’ll be fine. Let’s go meet your colleagues.”
He grabbed Richie by the elbow and led him down the hallway. Before he knew it, they took a sharp turn into the bee hive. People and files were being sent from place to place, going from desk to desk and the chatter was deafening to Richie. He was used to his small town office building but this, this was something completely different. In the center of it all was a man standing like a red light in human traffic. Everyone wanting to get pass him stopped to talk to him first. His every reply was short and barked, even his honey brown eyes couldn’t level out the amount of bitterness in his distempered frown.
“Hey, guys,” the whole floor stopped and looked at Terence, “You have a new colleague. Come say hi to the new hire.”
The whole floor dropped what it was doing, probably happy for the break, and surrounded Terence and Richie.
Terence patted Richie on the back and said lightly, “Go ahead and introduce yourself.”
Richie smiled shyly, “Hello, I’m Richard Manning but you can call me Richie.”
“Aww, he’s so cute,” a girl fawned. Those words set off a chain reaction with the rest of the employees, laughter and jokes abounded.
“Corveli,” a silence immediately fell as the baritone dropped like a gas bomb on their cheer. “What do you mean ‘new hire’?”
Richie stiffened. The stop light was coming towards him. He couldn’t help but notice that as the man came closer, everyone else went further away. It was only moments before the man with the height of a NBA all-star was glowering over him. Even without his height, the man would have an intimidating air, his eyes narrowed darkly and his deep voice was so calm that it was almost violent.
Richie stood, frozen in hardly hidden trepidation.
“Rich,” Terence said, snapping Richie out of his reverie, “This is your department manager, Tyler Delroe. Tyler, don’t scare this one away. He’s a good kid.”
Tyler glared at Terence levelly, “I didn’t hear anything about hiring a kid.”
“Well you’re hearing it now,” Terence smirked, “And he’s already on the payroll so you may as well put him to work.”
Tyler crossed his arms over his chest, “What type of work is he capable of, picking up my dry cleaning or watching my kids?”
Richie frowned, “Excuse me, Mr. Delroe, but I am perfectly capable of doing actual office work. I worked in a company before coming here.”
Tyler’s attention shifted to the indignant new hire. He said dryly, “Let me guess, the company went bankrupt?”
“No,” Richie fumed, “I quit.”
“Oh,” Tyler smirked. It was a dark, mocking smirk, “Was it too hard for you?”
Richie’s scowl grew deeper, “I quit for personal reasons and my quitting by no means reflects the quality of my work. It was the place I wanted to get away from, not the job.”
“So you ran away from your problems,” Tyler summarized.
“No,” Richie gasped, “I just…” he shook his head angrily. Why did he have to explain himself to this man of all people? “It’s none of your business why I left, just know that it has nothing to do with my work ethic. I am a dedicated worker as you will soon see, Mr. Delroe.”
The smirk fell from Tyler’s lips, “We will see. I hope you live up to your words, Mr. Manning.”
“I will,” Richie assured him confidently, “Just try me.”
Their glaring competition was interrupted by a rude chortle. They both turned their glares on Terence.
“Sorry,” Terence smirked with amusement, “I just think you two will get along splendidly. I have to go, I’ll check back up on you two to see how this new dream team is working out. Bye.” Terence left out before either of them could comment.
With the distraction gone, the two returned to stubbornly glaring at one another. Richie’s neck was already hurting from looking up at Tyler but his tenacity kept him firmly in place.
“Um, excuse me,” Richie turned to the woman behind him gratefully, “Why don’t I show you around? Is that okay, Mr. Delroe?”
Tyler grunted and stalked off.
Richie watched the hulking man leave and muttered, more to himself than to her, “Is he always that annoying?”
She giggled, “No, usually he’s just rude.”
Richie chuckled, “Oh, I’m glad.” He held out a hand towards the young woman while inspecting her curiously. She was older than him, seemingly as old as Tyler, with dark brown hair falling in curly locks around her shoulders. Her hand was soft as it touched his and her hazel eyes were full of warmth. “I’m Richie, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Nancy Gullivan, it’s nice to meet you too, Richie. If you’d just follow me, there’s so much for you to see.”
Richie nodded and followed her eagerly. His eyes sucked up everything she had to show him from the break room to Tyler’s office. His attention became shackled on the nice size office. It was neat with a bohemian themed furniture and, from what he could see, there was a single personal item in the room and that was a picture frame laying on the desk.
Richie asked without taking his eyes off the frame, “What do you think that’s a picture of?”
“Probably his wife and kids,” Nancy replied, “Mr. Delroe is married.”
Richie snorted, “Not happily, I bet.”
Suddenly a voice behind him asked, “How much money are you putting down on that bet?” Richie jumped and spun around.
“Mr. Delroe,” Richie nearly choked, “What are you doing here?”
Tyler ignored the question and went into his office, straight to his desk, and made a call.
“Let’s get out of here,” suggested Nancy.
Richie nodded and followed her away from the office though his eyes lingered on the picture frame. Something about that frame drew him. Maybe it was the fact that such an angry man had a wife and kids waiting for him at home. Or it may have been because Richie knew that he’d never have that. Richie forced himself to turn away.
His whole day basically consisted of a tour and instructions for how to behave in the work place. Then, just to make the day more complete, Tyler never let up on the snarky comments everytime they crossed paths. Richie was never someone to be easily angered and he always naively looked for the best in people but, he just couldn’t see a single good thing about Tyler. He was even starting to wonder how a guy that rude, insensitive and judgmental got married. His wife must be a door mat as well as his kids, Richie shook his head sadly at the thought. His kids must be frightened into submission everytime he came home. Richie could just imagine their timid voices the moment the giant man walks into the room.
“What’re you thinking about?” Nancy joined Richie on the elevator.
“Nothing much,” Richie answered, “Just wondering how a guy like Mr. Delroe got married. He’s seriously the worst.”
Nancy chuckled, “Don’t take his comments to heart, he’s been harder on everyone lately. I guess his home life isn’t all rainbows and unicorns right now.”
“Neither is mine,” Richie argued, “Doesn’t mean I have the right to wail on whoever I see fit. It’s unfair.”
“Aww, Richie, you’re pouting,” Nancy squeezed his cheek, “Just think of it as initiation. For now, he’s testing but once you pass his test, he’ll leave alone.”
“I doubt it,” Richie murmured, “I think he just doesn’t like me.”
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
Nancy just laughed and pulled him by the wrist off the elevator. “I feel like we’re back in elementary school and you’re trying to fit in with the new class but the class leader is being mean to you.”
Richie frowned, “So basically, you think I’m being childish.”
“I think you’re both being childish. We’re working adults, why not try being, I don’t know, mature?”
“It’s not my fault,” Richie complained, “He started it.”
Nancy just laughed, “Oh boy, here we go. Do I need to put you on a time out?”
“No,” Richie answered sullenly. They walked out into the parking lot and parted ways. Richie climbed into his car and released a breath that he didn’t know he was holding.
“Okay, Rich,” he started his car, “First day could have been better but tomorrow is a new day. Maybe he’ll be less of a douche tomorrow.”
The nagging voice at the back of his head muttered, “I doubt it.”
Tyler pulled into his driveway and got out the his truck. It was already eight by the time he made it home. Each one of his steps carried him five feet closer to his front door. Upon entering, he heard his kids before he saw them. They were arguing. Again. Over something stupid of course. Tyler sighed and walked into the living room. Legos were everywhere and Barbies were scattered almost strategically. His kids were standing on the couch, screaming at each other. Or rather, his two daughters were yelling at his son. Rachel, his ten year old was behind his eight year old, Venus, as always. She seemed to find supporting her younger sister’s yelling to be more productive than yelling herself. Of course, seven year old Troy wasn’t planning to back down anytime soon. The boy had a mouth on him. What was even worse was that it was a clever mouth. Troy was a miniature Tyler with his golden brown hair and honey eyes but his eyes were always bright with excitement and intrigue. Venus had the same golden brown hair but she took her mother’s hazel eyes and wide mouth. Rachel looked the least like either of them, her dark brown hair was wavy and her eyes were a dark, chocolate brown.
Tyler walked into the room and sighed, “What’s going on here?”
The three of them started talking at once but went silent at a his tired glare.
“Rachel,” he decided, “You tell me.”
“Okay,” Rachel smiled smugly, “Troy was playing with our dolls and he wouldn’t give them back.”
“I refute that statement,” Troy screamed, “They’re action figures.”
Venus screamed back, “On what planet, Troy?”
“This one, I can prove it,” Troy hopped off the couch and tip toed carefully around the mess. As he passed each Barbie, he introduced it, “That’s Hulk Hogan, John McCain, Wolverine, Deadpool, Kanye West, and that, my dear, is MC Hammer.”
Tyler could hear the girls’ shout before they even said it. “Dad!!!”
Tyler massaged his neck, “Listen, I don’t even know where to go with that logic. Troy, give the girls back their, uh, action figures. If you really want them then we’ll buy you your own.”
“I don’t want Barbies,” Troy grimaced, “They’re lame.”
Rachel rolled her eyes as if she expected that response, “Then why were you playing with our Barbies?”
Troy said innocently, “‘Cause you said I’m not allowed to.”
Tyler couldn’t utter a single word because one: he’d be damned if he ever understood that kid and two: he needed food and sleep before his brain returned to functioning properly. He just shook his head, “Troy, clean up your mess and stop playing with your sisters’ toys. I’m going to bed.”
“Wait, dad,” Rachel hopped off the couch and made her way over carefully, “What about dinner?”
Tyler groaned, “Go ask your mother.”
“Mom said to ask you.”
Tyler sighed and went into his pocket. He pulled out a twenty dollar bill and stuffed it into his daughter’s hand. “I’m going to order a pizza, tell the delivery guy to keep the change. Got it?”
Rachel’s tiny hand closed around the bill and she nodded, “Yep.”
“Good girl, good night,” Tyler kissed her forehead and waited for Venus to come over and kissed her forehead also. He waited for Troy but the boy stood stubbornly where he was at. “Troy, come over here.”
Troy stated proudly, “Dad, I’m a man.”
Tyler chuckled, “Are you now?”
“Yes I am.”
“Too much of a man to give your old man a hug?”
“Um,” Troy thought about it, “I guess not.” He ran over and threw himself into Tyler’s arms, giggling happily when Tyler lifted him up. He pecked his son’s forehead quickly before dropping him back down. “Night, buddy. Don’t you guys stay up too late.”
“We won’t,” Rachel assured him while Troy and Venus were suspiciously quiet. Tyler just chuckled and went up to bed. After noting that his wife was still in her study, he undressed, ordered a pizza and slid under the covers. It didn’t take long for him to fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
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