11-01-2013, 09:34 AM
As is typically the case the sun is blasting through wall of windows in Theo Pryce’s office. It’s a typical Friday at Pryce Industries, which is to say that there is a skeleton crew and of those there, not a whole lot of work is getting done.
Casually seated at his desk is Theo Pryce, CEO of Pryce Industries and across from him is Theo’s Godfather and Pryce Industries CFO Jim Davis.
“So tell me Theo, where is Ms.Rayner? I’ve been unable to reach her for the last two days. I need her signature on some expense requests.”
“First of all Jim, you could have asked me, and I would have signed the forms. Secondly, I don’t exactly know where she is. I have my suspicions but we haven’t really talked in a few days.”
“I take it your big revelation didn’t go over well with her?”
“Honestly Jim, I have no idea. I told her what I knew, gave her the documents to coincide with the information. She sat there, cried for a bit as women tend to do and then she got up and said she was going home. I offered to have someone drive her but she said that she was fine. The next morning I got an email from her saying that she would be out of the office for a few days due to some personal business she had to attend to.”
“And you didn’t bother calling her to check up?”
“I’m not her father Jim.”
“No you aren’t, but the man she came to love and admire, the man that treated her like the father she always wished she had turned out to be just that and she never even knew it. Ponder for a second how fragile this whole situation is and how emotionally charged it is, especially for her.”
“Why especially for her? This is all news to me. Here I thought I was an only child my whole life, turns out I had a sister, well, half sister to be exact and for the last few years I’ve worked with her and never even knew we were related. Honestly, I’ve said somethings to her that now knowing what I know, I sort of regret them. But like I said, I had a suspicion as to where she might be.”
“Oh and where is that?”
“Back home, in New Jersey, visiting with her mother.”
Jim cocks his head and glares at Theo with a look of both confusion and curiosity. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
“She’s a woman, where do all women go when they are all worked up? To their mother. That and I looked up her car’s GPS signal and it pinged at the airport. At which point I then checked all the flights from Phoenix to the New York/New Jersey area to see if an Erica Rayner was a passenger on any of the flights and sure enough she was, which was kind of ridiculous since she could have just used one of the company jets.”
“Wait, you have a GPS tracker on her car? Why?”
“Because it’s a company car Jim. They all have GPS trackers.”
“I have a company car. So you can track my car whenever you want?”
“Yes I can but I don’t really need a tracker to tell me that you drive your car to the office everyday at 7am and then at 5pm you leave here and drive home, where the car sits in the driveway until you repeat the cycle the next day. I told you before Jim, you need to get out more.”
“Ok, so she went home to talk to her mother, speaking of, have you thought of doing the same? When was the last time you spoke to her anyway?”
“My father’s funeral.”
“That was over a year ago. You haven’t spoken to her in over a year? That’s terrible.”
“It’s a two way street Jim. I sent her flowers and a card for her birthday. At least I think I did. I told Jimmy to handle it, I assume he came through. Not like she would call me to thank me even if he did. Besides, what the hell am I going to say to her? “Oh Hi Mom, yeah quick question for you, did you know Dad had a child with another woman? While you two were married? Oh you didn’t. Well he did. Talk to you later. Or, Hi Mom, yeah quick question for you, did you know that Dad had a child with another woman? While you two were married? Oh you did? Well why the fuck didn’t you ever tell me?””
Jim just stares at Theo, not really sure how to respond, while he understands Theo’s point he still disagrees with his overall handling of the matter.
“Best case she had no idea and now I’ve ruined whatever vision she had of my father, worst case, she knew about it and her and my father agreed to keep the truth hidden from me. At which point I could never look her in the eye again. Either way the entire situation is fucked.”
“And now you know why I told you to leave this all alone. But you had to be stubborn and dig it all up anyway.”
Angry Theo gets up from behind his desk and walks over to his Godfather but rather than sitting down next to him he decides it best to stand overtop of the man as if too look down upon him.
“So you knew about all of this, and you never said anything?”
“No, but I had my suspicions but unlike you, when your father asked me to leave it alone I did exactly that. I left it alone. And now, I’m thankful that I did.”
“You don’t get it Jim, you don’t have a family. I never had the perfect upbringing. It wasn’t bad mind you but it was devoid of any actual sense of love and nurturing. Now I come to find that I have a sister and I feel like for the first time ever, I have a chance to change some things. But you don’t get that.”
Angry and upset at the harsh reality of Theo’s words Jim stands up, stares directly into Theo’s eyes and fires back with his own.
“You are such a self centered asshole sometimes. ”
Theo steps back for a second, clearly surprised at Jim’s words. In all the years they’ve known each other Jim has never spoken to Theo in such a way. It doesn’t anger Theo but rather catches him completely off guard.
“Jim, that’s not…”
“For once you are going to stand there and shut your mouth. You'r right, I don’t have a family of my own. It’s the single biggest regret of my life. And now that my dear wife is gone I truly have no one in this world. You still have your mother, and now you have a sister and instead of trying to bring you all together you seem ok with keeping everything compartmentalized like it’s some game to you. These are people’s lives Theo. It’s about time you woke up and realized that.”
For the first time in his life Theo actually feels remorse and regret over how he spoke to someone. Unsure of how to actually vocalize those feelings he instead stands there, frozen.
“I’m going to go back to my office now because I have some work to do. But please, think about what I said. You have a real opportunity here. Make something good out of it.”
Jim get’s up, pats Theo on the shoulder and departs the office, leaving Theo there to ponder the conversation that just took place. Before Theo could get to deep into thought his phone buzzes for a second and the annoying shrill of his secretary’s voice comes out of the speaker.
“Mr. Pryce you have a phone call.”
“Who is it?”
“Giovanni Ferrari.”
“Fucking Christ, this fucking day. It’s Friday. Fridays are supposed to be good days. What does that twisted cunt want?”
“He didn’t say sir. Should I tell him you are unavailable?”
“No, I'll take it. ”
A second later the phone begins to ring, Theo walks back around his desk, takes a seat in his chair, takes a second to collect himself and then hits the speaker button on his phone.
“What do you want Ferrari?”
“No Hello, or Good Morning? Just down to brass tax?”
“Cut the bullshit, why are you calling me?”
“I just wanted to remind you that now that you are eliminated from the Lethal Lottery you are no longer apart of the Warfare Roster.”
“You say that like it’s a punishment. Enjoy managing second rate talent you wanna be GM.”
“Oh Theo, I’m not a wanna be anything. I am the GM of Warfare or have you forgotten?”
“Forgotten? You mean like forgetting the people that hired you? Forgetting the people who helped you work your way up to the job you have now? Forgotten…like that? Your time will come you little pissant. Enjoy it now.”
“Enjoy being unemployed.”
“Oh Giovanni. Oh you poor misguided fool. I take it you missed last night’s show. You see I was out of work for about 15 seconds, or as long as it takes you to get your rocks off, if and when you have the money to afford a girl. I told you before that I always have a plan.”
“Let me guess that hack Paul Heyman hired you to work on the B Card?”
“Something like that. Now, are we done?”
“I suppose we are.”
Theo taps the speaker button on his phone effectively ending the call. Theo turns around in his chair to stare outside the window and think about the conversation he just had with Jim.
Fade to black.
Casually seated at his desk is Theo Pryce, CEO of Pryce Industries and across from him is Theo’s Godfather and Pryce Industries CFO Jim Davis.
“So tell me Theo, where is Ms.Rayner? I’ve been unable to reach her for the last two days. I need her signature on some expense requests.”
“First of all Jim, you could have asked me, and I would have signed the forms. Secondly, I don’t exactly know where she is. I have my suspicions but we haven’t really talked in a few days.”
“I take it your big revelation didn’t go over well with her?”
“Honestly Jim, I have no idea. I told her what I knew, gave her the documents to coincide with the information. She sat there, cried for a bit as women tend to do and then she got up and said she was going home. I offered to have someone drive her but she said that she was fine. The next morning I got an email from her saying that she would be out of the office for a few days due to some personal business she had to attend to.”
“And you didn’t bother calling her to check up?”
“I’m not her father Jim.”
“No you aren’t, but the man she came to love and admire, the man that treated her like the father she always wished she had turned out to be just that and she never even knew it. Ponder for a second how fragile this whole situation is and how emotionally charged it is, especially for her.”
“Why especially for her? This is all news to me. Here I thought I was an only child my whole life, turns out I had a sister, well, half sister to be exact and for the last few years I’ve worked with her and never even knew we were related. Honestly, I’ve said somethings to her that now knowing what I know, I sort of regret them. But like I said, I had a suspicion as to where she might be.”
“Oh and where is that?”
“Back home, in New Jersey, visiting with her mother.”
Jim cocks his head and glares at Theo with a look of both confusion and curiosity. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
“She’s a woman, where do all women go when they are all worked up? To their mother. That and I looked up her car’s GPS signal and it pinged at the airport. At which point I then checked all the flights from Phoenix to the New York/New Jersey area to see if an Erica Rayner was a passenger on any of the flights and sure enough she was, which was kind of ridiculous since she could have just used one of the company jets.”
“Wait, you have a GPS tracker on her car? Why?”
“Because it’s a company car Jim. They all have GPS trackers.”
“I have a company car. So you can track my car whenever you want?”
“Yes I can but I don’t really need a tracker to tell me that you drive your car to the office everyday at 7am and then at 5pm you leave here and drive home, where the car sits in the driveway until you repeat the cycle the next day. I told you before Jim, you need to get out more.”
“Ok, so she went home to talk to her mother, speaking of, have you thought of doing the same? When was the last time you spoke to her anyway?”
“My father’s funeral.”
“That was over a year ago. You haven’t spoken to her in over a year? That’s terrible.”
“It’s a two way street Jim. I sent her flowers and a card for her birthday. At least I think I did. I told Jimmy to handle it, I assume he came through. Not like she would call me to thank me even if he did. Besides, what the hell am I going to say to her? “Oh Hi Mom, yeah quick question for you, did you know Dad had a child with another woman? While you two were married? Oh you didn’t. Well he did. Talk to you later. Or, Hi Mom, yeah quick question for you, did you know that Dad had a child with another woman? While you two were married? Oh you did? Well why the fuck didn’t you ever tell me?””
Jim just stares at Theo, not really sure how to respond, while he understands Theo’s point he still disagrees with his overall handling of the matter.
“Best case she had no idea and now I’ve ruined whatever vision she had of my father, worst case, she knew about it and her and my father agreed to keep the truth hidden from me. At which point I could never look her in the eye again. Either way the entire situation is fucked.”
“And now you know why I told you to leave this all alone. But you had to be stubborn and dig it all up anyway.”
Angry Theo gets up from behind his desk and walks over to his Godfather but rather than sitting down next to him he decides it best to stand overtop of the man as if too look down upon him.
“So you knew about all of this, and you never said anything?”
“No, but I had my suspicions but unlike you, when your father asked me to leave it alone I did exactly that. I left it alone. And now, I’m thankful that I did.”
“You don’t get it Jim, you don’t have a family. I never had the perfect upbringing. It wasn’t bad mind you but it was devoid of any actual sense of love and nurturing. Now I come to find that I have a sister and I feel like for the first time ever, I have a chance to change some things. But you don’t get that.”
Angry and upset at the harsh reality of Theo’s words Jim stands up, stares directly into Theo’s eyes and fires back with his own.
“You are such a self centered asshole sometimes. ”
Theo steps back for a second, clearly surprised at Jim’s words. In all the years they’ve known each other Jim has never spoken to Theo in such a way. It doesn’t anger Theo but rather catches him completely off guard.
“Jim, that’s not…”
“For once you are going to stand there and shut your mouth. You'r right, I don’t have a family of my own. It’s the single biggest regret of my life. And now that my dear wife is gone I truly have no one in this world. You still have your mother, and now you have a sister and instead of trying to bring you all together you seem ok with keeping everything compartmentalized like it’s some game to you. These are people’s lives Theo. It’s about time you woke up and realized that.”
For the first time in his life Theo actually feels remorse and regret over how he spoke to someone. Unsure of how to actually vocalize those feelings he instead stands there, frozen.
“I’m going to go back to my office now because I have some work to do. But please, think about what I said. You have a real opportunity here. Make something good out of it.”
Jim get’s up, pats Theo on the shoulder and departs the office, leaving Theo there to ponder the conversation that just took place. Before Theo could get to deep into thought his phone buzzes for a second and the annoying shrill of his secretary’s voice comes out of the speaker.
“Mr. Pryce you have a phone call.”
“Who is it?”
“Giovanni Ferrari.”
“Fucking Christ, this fucking day. It’s Friday. Fridays are supposed to be good days. What does that twisted cunt want?”
“He didn’t say sir. Should I tell him you are unavailable?”
“No, I'll take it. ”
A second later the phone begins to ring, Theo walks back around his desk, takes a seat in his chair, takes a second to collect himself and then hits the speaker button on his phone.
“What do you want Ferrari?”
“No Hello, or Good Morning? Just down to brass tax?”
“Cut the bullshit, why are you calling me?”
“I just wanted to remind you that now that you are eliminated from the Lethal Lottery you are no longer apart of the Warfare Roster.”
“You say that like it’s a punishment. Enjoy managing second rate talent you wanna be GM.”
“Oh Theo, I’m not a wanna be anything. I am the GM of Warfare or have you forgotten?”
“Forgotten? You mean like forgetting the people that hired you? Forgetting the people who helped you work your way up to the job you have now? Forgotten…like that? Your time will come you little pissant. Enjoy it now.”
“Enjoy being unemployed.”
“Oh Giovanni. Oh you poor misguided fool. I take it you missed last night’s show. You see I was out of work for about 15 seconds, or as long as it takes you to get your rocks off, if and when you have the money to afford a girl. I told you before that I always have a plan.”
“Let me guess that hack Paul Heyman hired you to work on the B Card?”
“Something like that. Now, are we done?”
“I suppose we are.”
Theo taps the speaker button on his phone effectively ending the call. Theo turns around in his chair to stare outside the window and think about the conversation he just had with Jim.
Fade to black.