All Good Things End

Chapter 2 "Meetings"

Chapter 2

Meetings

We have a saying in the office “Some people want it to happen, some people wish it would happen, and some people make it happen.” Although I’m 100% sure they stole that from Micheal Jordan, nobody refutes that claim with the bosses. A typical week at work is something like meetings followed by meetings about the meeting ending with a team huddle that affirms that we actually understand what happened in the first meeting. It’s exhausting, to say the least; no room for opinions, no room for creativity, and no f*****g way I see myself stuck here for the remainder of my professional career.

My heart was always in music. I actually grew up singing gospel in my grandmother’s church right off of the corner of Turk and Divisadero here in San Francisco, or “The City” as every local born and raised affectionately calls it. I remember as a kid rushing home and watching music videos on TV and aspiring to be just like the singer Sammie growing up. I idolized him-to me there was nothing sweeter than being a pre-teen megastar singing Swiss’s

Off a pretty young lady while sporting the oversized clothes we so proudly made popular in the 90’s.

Fast forward to today and I’ve effectively spent the last decade moving up in a career that I genuinely despise. Some folks really gravitate towards the rush of selling a product or service to someone who most likely doesn’t need any of it for a chance at scoring a huge commission or promotion, but that’s never been me. Because the reason why I was fired from T-Mobile was because I refused to push products on families I knew couldn’t afford them, and that usually put me square in the sights of management every time. Sadly, I’d been too focused on love to finish college and eventually marketing became a way of life.

As I slowly began to daydream while facing my face into my computer at work, I heard a familiar voice snap me back into reality.

“Nick the stick!” Craig murmured jokingly. “Wake the f**k up!”

I quickly snapped into auto pilot before realizing that Craig was simply f*****g with me before I answered back. “What’s up bruh?”

“s**t, you tell me! How was the date last night”, he said, with a sly smirk on his face. I can tell that he probably already knew how things went down, assuming that Monica told Marie how the date went.

“Nick the f*****g stick! I know if I can hit it once, I can hit it twice!” Craig sang while clearly mimicking one of my favorite songs “Magic Stick” by 50 cent and Lil Kim.

“Bruh shut up! We’re at work” I replied.

“Pshh and? We both know neither one of us gives a f**k about this job” he said, slightly under his breath, but clear enough for those around us to hear. Unfortunately, although he was right again, I was not in the position financially to lose this job anytime soon.

“It was fine. Monica is cute, we had a nice dinner,, good conversation but she’s still hung up on her, Ex”, I said sternly.

“Man f**k that dude! How was the ass?” He shot back. “ Marie already told me y’all fucked.” I suppose I’m not surprised. In 2023, is anything even sacred anymore? The answer is probably not.

“It was cool, we had some fun afterwards, nothing too crazy” I said, trying to play things down.

He continued to grill me right up until lunch. Luckily, it was also his turn to pay today, so the subject quickly switched from my love life to how broke he’s been lately. We settled in a small Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks away where it’s usually pretty empty and sat down to eat.

“What’s been up with you lately?” Craig asked while stirring his Pho.

“You’ve been out of it for weeks now. At work you’re a zombie, but that makes sense because that place f*****g sucks. Last week, however, I called you hella many times trying to invite you over to watch the Warriors game and nothing!”

I hadn’t realized I’d been so visibly out of it. A lot has been on my mind lately and while I haven’t been my usual chipper self, I thought I was doing a pretty good job at hiding it.

“You know, same shit.” I somberly replied.

“Same s**t my ass” Craig said. “Don’t think I have noticed the date.”

Fuck, he’s right. It’s almost March 10th. A day that I’ve been praying for will remove itself from my memory every year for the last 4 years. Up until this point, I just assumed that I could unconsciously will it out of my brain if I simply stopped agonizing over it, but sadly that hasn’t been the case. Instead, my entire energy has shifted to the point where I find little enjoyment in the things that would typically make me happy. The dark side of love, a term I’ve unofficially coined.

An emotion powerful enough to spark some of the greatest love songs in history and serve as the catalyst to some of the most gut wrenching lyrics about lost love to ever be written. My favorite song in the whole world is *Love* by Keyshia Cole. I remember being 17 at the time and singing that song everyday while I drove my silver 1999 Honda Civic to high school. Back then, relationships were so fickle that you could hardly keep up with who was a couple today and enemies the next. At the time, love in your teens feels as if the person you’re with is the only love you’ll ever know, and for some, that’s the case. I truly never thought about its potential hold on me growing up. I always had crushes, but being the “Chubby Black Nerd” never really made me a prize pick among the ladies. It wasn’t until 17, heading into senior year, that things began to blossom. That’s when I met her, Julianna Garcia, or at most would simply call her, Julie.

As cliché as it sounds, I swear it felt like love at first sight the minute I laid eyes on her. She was the most popular girl in school and, unfortunately for me, most of my high school life I was pretty much invisible. As my fortunes began to change, I soon found myself on the radar of some of the women in my grade, but ultimately, I only had relationships that went nowhere.

Just as I was beginning to go down full memory lane while staring off into the broth of my now cold Pho, I felt an aggressive nudge.

“Bruh, I know you’re not going to sit here and waste my hard-earned money on some food you’re not even about to eat!” Craig snapped.

“s**t! My fault!” I replied while quickly trying to inhale my lunch before our break was over.

We finished up lunch and began our walk back to work before we were stopped at the crosswalk. Craig was going on and on about how he'd never pay for lunch again before a car sped through the red light just as we were about to cross.

“What the f**k! You f*****g Asshole”, we both yelled out in unison. A stark reminder that the city has no patience for those who are moving in slow motion.

We safely made it back to the office just in time for, you guessed it, another meeting. This one, however, was a bit different. I was pegged to lead the meeting today on behalf of the marketing team. In all honesty, I forgot all about this meeting until about 60 seconds before it was time to give my presentation. Clearly, Craig knew I had forgotten all about it as well, judging from the huge grin he had glaring from across the room.

“Alright so, how’s everybody doing today? Everyone feeling great?” I announced while clearly startling a few people in the office with my high pitched tone.

A few murmurs could be heard as folks mumbled underneath their breath an obvious sign that nobody wanted to be there right now. I proceeded anyway and began loading up my PowerPoint presentation.

“Ok, so last quarter sales for our partnered brands began to trend upward as we continue to receive positive feedback from our engagement numbers on all social media platforms. t****k is our number one source of revenue,” I said confidently. “ The marketing team as a whole has decided to continue with our push towards social media, and would like to see a show of hands of people who would like to volunteer to help us create more content.”

The room was silent, each passing second felt like decades. Did I f**k up the pitch? Is everyone just out of it because lunch is over? Can they tell that I clearly don’t give a f**k about the information I’m presenting? Perhaps it’s a combination of everything. In the back of the conference room I can clearly see Craig laughing hysterically and sneaking pictures that I surely will be circulated through our group chat for the rest of the week.

I was just about to move on before a hand was slowly raised near the corner of the room.

“I’ll volunteer” said Allison in a quiet tone, only audible through the silence that filled the room the minute I stepped to the podium.

“Thank you so much! We really appreciate it, Allison. Anyone else?” Crickets. I wasn’t surprised that no one wanted to be in any of our corny ass videos that only showed how out of touch our company was with our consumers. I was, however, surprised that the quietest girl in the office agreed to be with them.

The meeting wrapped up 20 minutes later and everyone began to quickly file out of the conference room before I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Allison.

“Hey Nick, is there anything in particular you need from me regarding the videos? I know I may seem a bit camera shy, but I’m actually quite comfortable being in front of the camera.” Allison said with a smile on her face.

“Nothing immediate for now, we’re still trying to come up with some ideas on how to best showcase the company, but if you’re interested, a few of us involved in the project are meeting tomorrow night for a few drinks at the Kezar Pub down on Haight st. around 8pm”. I said nonchalantly.

“That sounds great, count me in!” Allison replied while gingerly leaving the room herself.

Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her out at any of the company functions. Not at any of the BBQ’s, birthdays, or Christmas parties. I just always assumed that she hated everyone here and she wouldn’t have heard an objection from me. Everyone here aside from maybe Craig,Collin, and Jeremy are all pretty fake.

The next day came and went without any news of note. We stopped for coffee in the morning. Craig complained about the latest fight he and Marie had gotten into and we spent much of the work day exchanging memes through our group chat. To be clear, I am the meme king, and don’t let anyone else tell you differently!

It was nearing closing time when Craig said that he wouldn’t be able to join us at the pub later in an effort to try and smooth things away at home. Usually that meant bringing Marie her favorite snacks, and then making up with a f**k in the living room of their apartment. I honestly need to stop going to my friends' houses if they’re going to welcome me to a room soaked in love juices.

I arrived at the bar around fifteen minutes after 8pm. Carol, Justin, Allison, and Andrew were already seated.

“Nick!!!!!” They all yelled at once. “ Sit down, we’ve been waiting for you!” Judging from the two pitchers that sat empty on the table, I could tell not much brainstorming was going to get done tonight. f**k it, I wasn’t in the mood to talk about work after work anyway. We all ordered another pitcher and a round of drinks. The conversation shifted from work to who was f*****g in the office and who wasn’t. Clearly, I’d heard about Collin and Allison so I kept my mouth shut during that segment. The conversation finally ended in dating in general in 2023.

“Everyone, and I mean everyone is only trying to f**k!” Carol lambasted as she downed another glass of Stella Artois.

“Why wouldn’t it be just about s*x? 9 times out of 10 people want the pleasure of a relationship and none of the headaches”, Justin added.

This was the most I heard anyone from my team speak and what felt like months, or rather, this was the first time I actually listened.

“Love still exists somewhere out there, at the end of the day we are all just searching for the same thing. Companionship”, I added, as everyone locked eyes on me in disbelief.

“Do you really think love still exists”, Allison replied quietly, while the group stood in disbelief.

“ I will say this, we all move through life as if we don’t care about anything that hurts us and, unfortunately, love is both happiness and pain. Most of us will either deny its existence for fear of getting hurt or aimlessly find it in the arms of anyone who shows even the smallest interest”, I said profoundly.

“The way I look at it, there are two schools of thought when it comes to dating in 2023. Those of us who feel like it’s only a matter of time before we find that special someone and those of us who have resigned to the fact that we never will. Which ideology we embody will even change depending on what mood we’re in”, I added.

The room was shocked. I couldn’t tell if it was the drinks finally kicking in for all of us or the fact that somewhere in the nonsense I was speaking the truth. As the tension began to settle in, Allison broke the ice.

“Maybe you’re right, maybe we all walk around guarded so that if and when that time comes when someone hurts us, we play it off as if nothing happened” said Allison.

She’s probably right. Maybe the uncertainties surrounding dating.

conditions us to put our guard up anytime someone shows interest. We began to say our goodbyes as each of our Ubers began to pick us up before Allison pulled me to the side.

“Hey Nick, I have a few ideas for the project we’re working on. Would you mind escorting me to my apartment? I have a few ideas jotted down in the notebook I left at home” said Allison.

“Sure, I don’t mind if you don’t mind” I replied.

We both got into the Uber and made our way towards her studio apartment down near the Marina district. This was the most time Allison and I had spent during the two years working together at the firm, and I must say I truly thought nothing of our interactions up until that point. However, what happened next was an entirely new experience in of itself.