Chapter Two- A day in the Life

6:45, I'm off to a late start like usual, but I always get to work on time. After I take a shower, and get dressed into the suit I always wear, I step onto my deck expecting the cab to already be waiting for me. Of course, the cab is there like usual. Its shiny yellow paint seems so dreary these days.
"The usual?" the raspy voice repeats from every other day.
"Yep." My simple reply is the only thing cheery about this cab. As I stare out the window and see all of the buildings pass by, I think about all of the things that lie in the heart of New York city. All of the other possibilities.
Its always been strange- having body guards lurk around me. Every morning, they follow the taxi to make sure nothing goes wrong. It even makes me, a grown man, quiver to think about why I would need body guards.
"I'll be waiting out here for you," the raspy voice says in a disconnected, unconcerned tone. I nod my head. Before I can even get to the door, one of the body guards opens the door for me. Again, I simply nod. I put 75 cents into the machine, and then grab today's news. I fold it and put it under my arm mechanically, and then head into the coffee shop. As the bell rings, Clarissa, a woman with short, brown hair, and the age of 39, smiles.
"Hey Jo-Jo!" She shouts excitedly.
"It's Joseph, Clarissa, not Joe, not Jo-Jo, but Joseph." She smirks off my grim reply and acts as if I have said nothing,
"Let me guess- coffee with hazelnut creamer? Oh, and a small kiss on the cheek?" She smiles widely, and I know for sure, that she really hopes that one day I'll say yes. I was never quite sure what she saw in me. The money?
"Yes Clarissa. That's the coffee I want." I felt sad about the way I treated her. Like she was no more to my life than the worker she was. She never stopped smiling, so, I never knew how she really felt. This time she spoke with less enthusiasm,
"That will be 2.71 with tax." I handed over the cash, and waited for my coffee. Once it came, Clarissa made an awkward smirk and then finished our little bit of chit chat,
"I'll talk to you tomorrow." She always made it sound like we actually talked. I left with my coffee in hand, and my newspaper under my arm, and listened as the bell on the door rang once again.
I got back into the cab, and began reading the headline,
"Woman Found Guilty of Murdering Husband". I shook my head and took a sip of my coffee. It took about 15 minutes to get there, and once again I got there early, three minutes early. 7:12, my new record.
Immediately people swarm over to me shouting about statistics, ideas, the gross this week so far, and meetings. I kept staring straight at the elevator, for my only destination was to make it to my office to do my daily things.
5 minutes later I got up to my office. The only person I allowed in my office in the morning was Mike. His usual fake perkiness was now disgruntled, and some what terrified. I personally didn't mind. It was always nice for a change, but, part of the reason why I was so successful, was because of my personality- at least when I had gotten the job.
"What's going on in your life, Mike?" His jaw jutted out, and he huffed and nodded, as if I was his son, and he was very disappointed with me. My head tilted like a confused puppy.
"Remember yesterday? When you dismissed what I had told you?" Since he was so agitated with me, I would put up a fight.
"Yes Michael. I do, Michael." His eyes scrunched up. He didn't like being called Michael.
"What is it, Michael?" He evilly smiled.
"When the rioters heard we were letting them off so easily, they told everyone else- all of the other rioters who didn't believe we would actually give up. Now they are threatening to pull the mat out from under us." His smirk prevailed as my eyes widened.
"Then tell them we were lying- that all we were doing was postponing the building. That we still are going to build." He really smiled this time. Why? He was on the board that voted for these eight buildings, other than that, my idea was very un-thought out. Lately I hadn't been thinking, just reacting.
The rest of the day rushed by, with people asking me questions, all at the comfort of my office. Everything was going fine, until my cell phone rang.
"This is Clarissa!" I was absolutely stunned, she had never talked to me outside of the shop.
"I was wondering if you wanted to get together some time..." In this moment, I did something so very cruel and unprofessional, that even I cringed:
I closed my cell phone with out a reply.