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In hindsight, they should have smelled the fishy stink of Sean’s scheme from a mile away.
“It’s the one million member party, guys, this is big.” Blah, blah, blah…
Chris just rolled his eyes (when Sean wasn’t looking) and agreed to prepare the press release about the party that night.
“Dustin, buddy, can you check on the hardware? You know we need the best man for that job. We can’t afford to have any glitches.”
“Riiiiight.” Dustin freed his shoulder from Sean’s arm and then met Chris’s gaze.
Can you believe this jerk?
I know. As if.
They conveniently took on the tasks handed out to them by the president of Facebook. They just wanted to get out of his suffocating presence. Maybe they would return later, for the party, when Wardo’s there.
Unfortunately (And oh man, this was the understatement of the year!), when they got back to the office, Wardo had already left.
“OMG, CHRIS! DUSTIN!” flailed an intern. “HE SMASHED MARK’S LAPTOP AND ALMOST PUNCHED SEAN!”
Chris was not able to get anything more out of any of the interns -- as they all appeared to be shocked out of their wits -- so he interrogated the lawyer who was scheduled to meet with Eduardo that afternoon.
* * *
“NO.”
“Yes, Dustin.”
“NO.”
“Close your mouth. And the answer is still yes.”
“…”
“Don’t cry,” Chris warned him.
“…”
“Shh…”
“How could Mark…?”
They turned to where Mark was sitting. Sean was hovering around him, again, like he usually does when he wasn’t “running the show.”
“Do you think…?”
“Uh, huh.”
“But could Mark still have -- you know.” Dustin’s voice faltered.
“Then he should look less than aloof right now, I guess. Mark can only do impassive and smug.”
“And, and even if he did,” Dustin clutched Chris’s shirt tightly and opened his eyes wider, “it’s really HIM. Sean. Mark wouldn’t have done that and we would have all avoided all this drama!”
“We have to find Wardo. I mean, I can’t even imagine how he must be feeling right now,” said Chris as he paced the conference room.
“We should, yeah, yeah… but Wardo can wait, Chris.”
“What?”
“We have bigger fish to fry.”
“Dustin..?”
“I don’t know. Mark and Wardo just kept mentioning fish eating other fish.”
Chris stopped his pacing to look at Dustin.
“I was trying to use a metaphor,” Dustin answered defensively.
“Just…” Chris told him to go on with a wave of his hand.
“A fish is always caught by its mouth.”
“Hmph. I give up.”
“Don’t. Don’t give up, Chris. Are we going to let Sean win? I mean, first, Wardo. Who’s next? You? Me? He failed at befriending us because hello, he’s so obnoxious and we’re the fearsome foursome! So maybe instead of joining our band, he wants to break us up. He’s trying to take us out of the picture one by one until he can get Mark for himself.”
“Okay, first, ew. I don’t think Sean has the hots for Mark.”
“Chris, you weren’t here when we shared a two-bedroom apartment. He totally wants to be Mrs. CEO, bitch. I mean, he is Mrs. CEO now. He’s the fucking president and all he had to do was crash into our apartment, bring Mark with him to clubs and oh yeah, orchestrate the downfall of the man Mark was closest to.”
“Shit.”
“You know what this means.” Dustin raised his eyebrows at Chris.
“We have to get rid of him.”
Dustin nodded. “Yoko’s gotta go.”
* * *
“This will be all over the internet in a second, Sean,” Chris overheard Mark say over the phone later that night.
A new message appeared in Chris’s mobile: “The fish took the bait.”
He replied, “Okay, I get it, but enough with the metaphors. Seriously.”
“Fine, fine, I feel fine. Hey, Jude, we should prep for the reunion.”
“Will there ever be a reunion?” Chris asked himself. He could just imagine how epic and bloody the battle between Mark and Eduardo would be.
“Oi, don’t worry about it. We can work it out,” texted Dustin.
Chris smiled. Yes. All they needed was love… and Dustin’s brilliance.
- End -