Jayde woke up abruptly to the sound of Dexter knocking on the door. He jumped out of bed and the second he stood on his feet, he went down like a sinking ship.
"Dad, are you okay," said Dexter as he opened the door slowly and found his dad on the floor struggling to stand up. "Damn this low BP, feels like someone switched off my legs," said Jayde as he stood up and sat on the bed.
"Okay dad... then I'll be going," said Dexter.
"Oh, where to," asked Jayde. "School, dad...it's 9:30 am. You came home late so I figured I should wake you up before going to school or you will sleep in and get late,".
"Yeah, last night I went out for a few drinks with….,"
"Dad, I'll be late for school. I need to go now," said Dexter as he slowly moved out of the room.
"Oh yeah, bye Dex you must be late, thanks for waking me up" said Jayde hurriedly waving goodbye towards his bedroom door where Dexter was standing. "Bye Dad."
"Dex do you want some lunch money?" asked Jayde. "Nope," said Dexter as he went downstairs.
"Be safe on your way," said Jayde. "Sure," said Dexter almost too loudly from downstairs and then left for school.
Jayde stretched his hands and looked at the clock which was on the bedside cabinet. "9:39 am huh," he uttered and looked at a photo frame that was behind the clock and picked it up. "If only you were here," said Jayde as he gently touched the photograph. It was a photograph he clicked on Dexter's first birthday. Dex jumping in front of the camera with Sarah behind him clapping, wearing a funny power rangers birthday hat.
Jayde first smiled and then sighed deeply and went straight to take a shower as he had to leave for work asap.
Weston walked into Jayde's office "Here monsieur, your CAFFÈ LATTE," said Weston in the cringiest french accent.
"Where's Sally," asked Jayde after taking a sip. "Oh, don't worry about it. I took the coffee from her so I can personally deliver it to you," said Weston. He seemed quite happy.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, you seem excited today, caught up on all of your work," said Jayde taking away half of Weston's smile.
"Of course not," he sighed, "I came here to congratulate you. I heard that you are becoming a part of the Board of Directors. You are a big man now," said Weston as he wiped a virtual tear off his face.
"Oh really tell me about it," said Jayde with as little enthusiasm as possible while looking at his monitor trying to look occupied.
"You left early yesterday, all good?" asked Weston with a little concern in his voice. "Yeah, I was just a little tired so went home, felt a little under the weather you know".
"Bullshit, I came out to look for you and saw you driving the car the other way". "So do I need to email you the route that I am taking home," said Jayde in a sarcastic way. Weston looked at the ceiling and sighed "You went to the mall, didn't you". Jayde looked at Weston, pushed his chair backwards with both of his hands and corrected his posture "What do you want," asked Jayde in an almost threatening manner.
"Don't you dare use that angry voice on me bitch. I've known you for far too long. You can't keep this up any longer. This is self-torture". "What is self-torture, loving someone even when they are not around..." Jayde shouted as he rose from his chair and turned towards the oversized window behind him. This always has been a sensitive topic for Jayde and Weston knows it but he still brings it up cause he wanna help Jayde. "You dense ass never listens to me, fuck this guy I have had enough", Weston thought to himself.
After a few minutes of awkward silence, Weston left Jayde's office saying "If Sarah saw you like this, she would be so damn disappointed". "She is not alive anymore" Jayde screamed as he dashed his office door. Weston shouted as he looked back halfway through the hall "Are you?".
Jayde and Weston didn't talk for a while. They had known each other for over 20 years. They climbed their way up the corporate ladder with Jayde always taking the lead and Weston following his friend not too far behind. They were not brothers by blood but they still shared the same bond.
Jayde heard some bustle outside and then the sound of the front door opening "Dex, is that you?". "Yes dad," said Dexter as he walked into the living room where Jayde was going through his emails. "Hello, Mr. Will. How have you been?" said Matt as he put a big cardboard box full of old school games. "I am good. How are you...oh you look taller and even more handsome since I last saw you," Jayde said with a big smile while he examined the boy from head to toe.
"I am going upstairs to turn on the tv and set up the game," said Dexter as he left the room to Matt and his dad. "I'll catch you in a sec," said Matt as Dexter walked upstairs. "What game are you guys playing?" Jayde asked. "Oh just World of Warcraft," said Matt with a smile. Matt was the kind of guy who always had a smile on. "What! still playing that game?"Jayde asked.
"It never gets old....Yeah I finally did it. Played and completed most of the games in your collection," said Matt in an absolute sense of achievement. "Well, I can see you brought my holy collection back,"Jayde said as he looked at the box and hugged Matt, patting his back with much joy "proud of you son". "Thanks Mr. Will….It took me a little over six months to complete all of them and you know what was the most annoying and frustrating thing," "What," Jayde asked.
"Your scores were always higher than mine. Sometimes even twice as much as mine, like how...." said Matt nodding his head. "Well Matt, I had my time, and now it's yours," said Jayde as he put his hand on Matt's shoulder. "Well yeah, no doubt about that. You remember the PC that you recommended," Matt asked.
"Yeah, what about it? Did you break it?" asked Jayde, "No no nothing like that. Actually I am thinking of getting a new GPU, because the CPU is still fairly powerful". "Oh that's great. Games these days are more graphic intensive, aren't they… which are you planning to buy Matt," Jayde asked.
"Well new GPUs are coming next month. My eyes are on the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 780 Ti, but it's really expensive. Even though I think I will be able to buy it in a sale or somethi.....," Dex shouted from upstairs "Matt you are coming or not". "I think I should go now Sir, again, it was nice to meet you, and thanks for lending me your games," said Matt.
"Yeah yeah go ahead and don't mention stuff like that. You are like my son," said Jayde shaking Matt's hand and as Matt started walking upstairs, Jayde stopped him "Listen Matt, I think I know someone who works at Nvidia, I can ask him to send a pre-production piece of the card you want".
Matt came back running "Really you can do that?" asked Matt with shining eyes.
"Why not, he is a good friend of mine and you don't even need to pay, so save that money for future upgrades".
"Sir you are an angel, you know that," said Matt as he shook Jayde's hand at a blazing fast speed. "Yeah sure. Now go or Dex will be angry with you," said Jayde as he patted this extra enthusiastic kid. After Matt ran upstairs to his friend who had been waiting at the loading screen for 10 mins, Jayde went back to the couch checking his emails.
Matt opened and closed Dexter's door so fast that he almost busted that door. "Your dad just said he will get me a GTX 780 Ti for free, can you believe that?". "Well, he sure has some great connections," said Dexter as he waved at Matt to sit down. "I have been saving my money like crazy and now I will get a card for absolutely free. Oh man your dad is so cool," said Matt as he daydreamed the amount of FPS he would get after the upgrade.
"You wanna play or not," asked Dexter loudly as he got a bit annoyed because of waiting. "No need to shout man, let's play."
While Dexter and Matt were playing the games upstairs, Jayde picked up his phone to call Dexter and asked if they needed something like snacks or drinks. As soon as Jayde picked up his phone, he got a call from
Weston.
"What do you need now Weston?" said Jayde in a sorrowful way. "Why are you sounding this low. It's Saturday…" Jayde interrupted Weston "Exactly, it's Saturday so if you ask me for any help with something, I am gonna kill you".
"It's not like that but I do need your help" as Weston was speaking Jayde shouted "BYE" and ended the call just to receive another call from Weston.
"Listen to me you asshole and don't hang up on me. Come to the Bar we regularly go to in 30 minutes and be presentable," said Weston hurriedly so Jayde would listen to the full thing before hanging up for the second time.
"Wait what," Jayde asked in confusion.
"If you don't show up, we are not friends anymore. See you in 30 minutes. Bye," Weston said and hung up immediately.
"What the…, what kind of batshit is this," said Jayde out loud. He tried calling Weston like ten times but he didn't pick up.
"God damn Weston".