With roughly 12 hours to go until Theo’s flight to Europe, his 3rd such trip in the last two weeks. It would have been great for Theo to just stay in Europe, make a vacation out of it. He does have a home on Lake Como, Italy after all but alas, running your own company makes it hard to really ever get away completely. Amidst Theo’s travels he has decided to spend a few days in New York City, checking up on his east coast Head Quarters as well as check up on the progress of Jimmy’s Executive Training.

Set up in a conference room on the 47th floor, Theo has spent the last few hours reviewing some Financial Statements with the divisions CFO a young up and comer who was recently hired on after proving himself to be a financial wizard in the stock market game and Jimmy Durance as part of the latter’s executive training. What Theo doesn’t know but is about to find out is that the up and comer, Chris Stein, is a huge wrestling fan, attending every wrestling event held in New York since he was a child.


“So Jimmy, what do these reports tell you? Financially how did we do last quarter and into the beginning of the new year?”

“Quarter 4 was the slowest quarter in the 2012-2013 fiscal year; however that does seem to jive with historical reports as Quarter 4 is routinely among the lowest we see on a year by year breakdown. As for how we have rebounded so far this year? A bit too early to tell but we are trending in the right direction.”

“Look at you Jimmy. You almost sound like you know what you are talking about.”

Looking over at Chris to gauge his reaction to what is going on, “Can you believe it, a month ago this guy was fetching me café lattes and now he’s reading financial reports. Is he a quick study or what?”

“He seems to be, sir.”

“Tell me Chris, how has the transition gone for you, Wall Street to the Private Sector is a bit of a culture shock I would think.”

“It’s been different sir, but I’ve enjoyed it so far.”

“And how is the staff here treating you?”

“Good sir.”

“Chris, do you mind if I make an observation?”

“Of course sir.”


Theo takes a second to collect his thoughts, generally he would just say whatever was on his mind but Chris is a one of a kind financial mind, he was also someone that Erica plucked out of the rough and so losing him would cause him some headaches, both personally and professionally. Neither of which he had time for at the moment.


“Chris, you are one of the brightest minds in the company, bar none the best financial guy we have, including the CFO in Phoenix, you make a little over $500,000 a year take home, and that doesn’t even include performance bonuses, and yet you dress, and act like you are a 23 year old college graduate who lives in his parents basement. Please don’t tell me you live in your parent’s basement.”

Jumping to Chris’s defense, Jimmy chimes in “He doesn’t sir, he’s just modest.”


Theo spins around in his chair to look at Jimmy, and then back at Chris, and then back to Jimmy trying to figure out exactly what is going on at the moment. Internally there is a whole litany of possibilities, as to why Jimmy would interject himself into a discussion that really did not need his involvement but the one possibility Theo settled on is both the most amusing as well as the most obvious.

“Already Jimmy? With Frodo’s semen still inside of you, you’ve already moved on to the next man. Have you no shame Jimmy Durance?”


Silence…


“Chris, you will come to learn, if Jimmy hasn’t already filled you in that one of my absolute favorite things to do in life besides making money and having sex with attractive women is making Jimmy sweat. Not only is it incredibly easy to do but it’s very fulfilling. In fact, I would venture to guess that that is the first time the words Jimmy and fulfilling have been used in the same sentence. Or am I wrong Chris?”


And…more silence…


“So Chris, since you don’t live with your parents where about do you live?”

“I’m renting an apartment at the moment, here in Manhattan.”

“Sounds exciting. Is it one of those 500 square foot apartments that you pay a month’s salary for?”

“No it’s slightly nicer than that.”

“Lucky you. Jimmy is set up real nice in a million dollar home down in Washington Square courtesy of yours truly, so if your little shoe box get’s too cramped feel free to move in with Jimmy. You have my permission, and Jimmy’s I’m sure. Right Jimmy?”


Awkward silence...


“Perhaps we should talk about lunch?”

“There you go Jimmy. Executive Training 101, changing the topic when you don’t feel like answering something. Very good. So what are we doing for lunch?”

“Well Jimmy told me you like Sushi, there is an excellent place around the corner called Miso. I thought we could go there?”

“Exquisite. Let’s go. I’m hungry.”


The three men simultaneously get up from the table, Theo put’s his suit jacket on, the other two, already wearing theirs, make their way to the door, Jimmy making sure to keep it open for the CEO. The restaurant is about a 5 minute walk, not including the 5 minutes it will take to get out of the building.


“So tell me Chris, what do you do for fun when you aren’t working here 80 hours a week? Maybe you enjoy some crotchet perhaps? Or perhaps you are in a book club with your other girlfriends?”

“Neither actually. I love reading but I just don’t have the time for it. Truthfully, and this isn’t just me being a kiss ass, but the little free time I have I spend watching wrestling.”

“Interesting. I am going to assume that you value your job and are going to tell me that you are a big XWF fan and that you have never heard of the WWE or that other red headed step child TNA Impact.”

“You would be correct. I don’t bother with either of those garbage promotions. I will admit to being a WCW fan when I was a kid but then I grew up and learned the error of my ways.”

“So who do you” While making the quotation marks gesture with his pointer and middle fingers..”root “ for in the XWF? Let me guess, Titan? Or Lazarus? Or that new fellow Enigma? You look like the kind of guy that would hide his face in shame with a mask, are you that kind of fellow Chris?”

“No I am not. I am actually a big fan of Paul Heyman and anyone he associates himself with. He knows how to spot talent.”

“Again I am going to assume here that you are just dicking around and didn’t mean that literally. Knows how to spot talent? Maybe at one point he did, but recently? LJ Havok, Titan? Brock Lesnar? Fucking Titan? Seriously? The guy who probably bought his mask at Spirit Halloween, that guy?”

"But sir didn't we just..."


"Shut the fuck up Jimmy. Do you always have to talk?"

“What do you have against those guys?”

“You mean besides the fact that they are all garbage? Gee, I don’t know, they are all garbage. How’s that?”

“Titan had some things to say about you this week, I saw some of his promos, they were interesting.”

“Were they? I have to be honest with you, I’ve been busy trying to get Peter Gilmour not to bitch out again to really pay attention to Titan, or Lazarus, or Mandi or whoever the hell that other guy is in my upcoming match. So tell me super fan, what did “We are Titan” have to say about me?”

“A lot actually, apparently you sit on a throne of dollar bills made from your father’s money.”

“He actually said that? A throne of dollar bills from my father’s money?”

“No, I had to jazz it up a bit. You know, it’s ironic, he said you were boring, or, nondescript and yet he really is no better, outside of talking as if he were two people. Oh and he called you a playboy.”

“Well he’s 50% which is about par for the course with him. You would think at least one of the voices in he speaks with would have advised him to do his research before talking about me. While yes, it’s true, my father started this company I made more in a year than he did in 3 decades prior. So yeah, yet another bullshit theory debunked. Anything else?”

“Not really, just that you were the headline of the event, oh and apparently it would be a good idea for you to seek out Jesus.”

“I was in a church last week, that’s about as much Jesus seeking as I need to do for the year. Besides, I wouldn’t want to step into a church and suddenly have some lady speaking for me. One would think that when you speak in terms of “we” that the last thing you would need is for someone else to speak for you. But what do I know? I’m just some rich playboy who lives off his daddies money.”

“Wait I thought you said you didn’t have a chance to catch up on his promos? “

“Did I say that? Silly me, perhaps I did.”

“Well then why did you make me waste my time rehashing everything for you?”

“But look how well you did. Besides it took you about 2 minutes to sum up a week’s worth of promos. I’d say that was some pretty excellent work on your part. How about that other guy Lazarus? The other masked miscreant, what did he have to say? Anything noteworthy?”

“Noteworthy? No. But he did have plenty to say.”

“He does like to talk. Not as much as Peter Gilmour mind you, but he does seem to enjoy hearing the sound of his voice, especially when talks about how he is going to do his bidding for that bearded lady Eli James. So lay it on me Heyman’s biggest fan, what did Lazarus have to say about ole’ Theo?”

“He felt the need to give people a history lesson on the object of chess and how all the King does is backpedal while others do his bidding. He called you a figure head of The Company?”

“Anything else?”

“He essentially called you a bitch who doesn’t want to defend your crown.”


Jimmy stops dead in his tracks and takes a step back, staring at Theo and then at Chris in an attempt to get a read on what Theo, a guy notorious for having a bit of a short tempter might do at being called a bitch by one of his employees. The possibilities are endless. Theo could fly off the handle, fire Chris on the spot, he could, punch him in the face and run the risk of a lawsuit, or…


“He said that did he? Well isn’t that cute. He fancies himself the next Bobby Fischer does he? Wants to lecture me on the game of chess does he? You know Charlie, it’s interesting, guys throw insults my way routinely, and none of them bother me, some of them are true, most of them are nonsense, but do you know what really gets me? It’s the lack of anything that resembles originality. You saw it with Titan’s half cocked insults and now you see it with Lazarus and his lame attempts at school yard banter. A figurehead for The Company? That’s the best he has? Well newsflash, he’s right. I said from day 1 I wasn’t the leader of that group, it has no leader, I may have been the guy picked to be the de facto mouth piece due to my arrangements with the Administrative Network prior to The Company’s inception but at no point did I ever claim to be the leader. I’m just a guy with a microphone, a crown and 10 billion dollars that happens to be pretty good at this wrestling thing. So when Lazarus or Titan or whoever the fuck else wants to come up with something original I’ll be waiting with bated breath. As for not defending the crown, I've defended it, I've also been apart of other matches, non title, tag team and what have you. I don't feel the need to defend the title every single time I lace up my boots. If they feel differently, well they can win the Crown one day and then handle it differently. It's easy to claim you would do things differently until it's actually your turn to do it.”


As the trio of Theo, Jimmy and Chris enter “Miso Sushi” on 10th street a young woman of Asian descent eagerly greets them at the door, grabs three menus off their hostess stand and escorts them to their table.