《The Dangers of a Double Life》Chapter 2 – Arthur: 2 Months ago
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I sat behind the computer, looking through the camera feed of one of the systems that we just installed for one of our clients. Since everything worked as intended, I logged out and turned off my laptop. I started packing all my belongings to my satchel.
“So, how was your day?” Asked me Brian.
“Normal, you know. The usual ‘I want to strangle them, but I can’t.’” I answered while continuing packing my laptop and all my belongings to my backpack, “How did the thing with Clara resolve?”
“No idea, I delegated her to a newbie, poor soul,” Brian did not look in any way ashamed of what he had done, he is always first to abuse his authority to get better clients while giving you the bad ones. Not like you can argue with the second in charge. On the bright side he tends to reimburse people when he does which in his mind makes it completely morally acceptable. Newbie definitely would not agree, nor I when I was at his position.
“That is brutal. No idea why she still employs us if she is never pleased by us. I Have no idea why the boss still takes her orders. Sadist.”
“Hey, I am not a sadist, but money is money,” said Pat from behind me. Damn ninja, no one ever knows how he appears and disappears. “If I were to ignore orders from every unreasonable client, we would have no orders to begin with. How is your eye?”
“Fine, strays easily but no problem otherwise.” I put my bag over my shoulder and readied for my boss to stop talking so I could go home. Every minute is a minute wasted, unpaid and I have better things to do than waste my time.
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“Safe journey and greetings to Anna”. He said as he went back to his office.
I quickly went to my car, nothing special, standard, and as cheap as I could get a four-seater cabriolet. Now it's only a 20 minutes long drive home and I can finally rest for today. If someone were to ask me if I like my job, I would say yes. If the same someone were to ask me if I hate my job, I would also say yes. A love and hate relationship. It is boring most of the time, it was fun at the beginning, but after doing the same task repeatedly it just ceased to be enjoyable. Occasionally more interesting jobs appear but with ratio 7:1 that is not a lot. Thankfully it pays well, so well that I can look behind the negatives and work there. Truthfully, I chose that job mostly because of three reasons 1. to make me appear boring and uninteresting, 2. so no one looks at me second time and does not end up seeing something they should not and 3. It pays well, so no one asks how I paid for all the expensive things. It works so well that not even my wife suspects anything. Four years of marriage and she not once was close to the real me.
I parked a car in a garage and got out of it. My wife should already be home an hour ago as she finishes her job earlier than I. She works as graphic designer, though experienced in web development she decided to not work too much in that field as she finds it rather dull and prefers the more creative aspect of graphic design. She earns as much money as I do, so none of us lacks what we need or desire. “I am home,” I said loudly. And I spotted her in the kitchen with food from our favourite restaurant ready. While we both cook when we can, it is a bit too time consuming most of the time. I went and hugged my wife.
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“How was your day?” she asked as she poured wine for me.
“The usual, how was your?” he said as he bit into a piece of steak. “You are not pouring yourself some wine?”
“I’ll pass for today; I don’t feel like it.”
“Brian invited us for dinner with his wife this Saturday, how do you feel about that?” I asked as I noticed my smartwatch displaying a new message. ‘Hotel Castletown, tomorrow 17:50. Room 41’. I tapped on the watch to hide the message.
“We should go, some socialising will do you good,” she smiled.
“Pat ordered me to finish work on a project for one of my clients, he lives a bit far so tomorrow I will be staying a bit longer than usual, do not wait for me for dinner.”
“Sure, I will have some food ready in a slow cooker for you. Just let me know once you are driving back.”
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