The Resignation

Christian dragged himself out of his bed, his eyes locked on the flashing numbers of his clock which was sitting on the night stand next to his bed; he just reached over and flipped it to face down. Dropping his feet to the floor beside the bed and letting his hands come to rest on knees. Chris’ eyes fell to his pajama top, which he removed from his body sometime during the night, having thrown it down on the floor. Raking his hand across his face from one side down along his chin, feeling what had become more like the onslaught of the beginnings of a beard. Had he been hidden away for that long? He begin to wonder just how many days had gone by since Jennifer left him sitting there behind his desk, watching as the woman he was so madly in love with, just walked out of his office closing the doors behind her.
Christian frantically started to toss his already disastrous bed coverings. Where was it?” His words ended the silence of his bedroom. He began to start yelling at himself. “NO… NO… NO… Where is it?” Flipping pillows and blankets every which way, until he heard the crackling of the paper, as a sigh of sadden relief hit him, with one of his hands clenching the an envelope, the other, he let his fingertips glide over what reality was now telling him would be the last words he would ever read from her to him. Chris just couldn’t stop himself from reading it again, it wasn’t anything that was personal, but for him it was their end, and there wasn’t anything more personal than her resignation. It meant she was gone from his life.
It was only business to them; his mind went instantly back what seemed ages ago, just five plus years, he had spent damn near every waking moment with Ms. Stowfield as part of his life. How could that young scared lady that saved his business all those years ago, do more than save a silly contract, Jennifer had done far more for him in all these years together. Jennifer saved far more, she made him fall in love with her, and that saved his life. But why couldn’t he tell her? Why couldn’t he tell her how much he was in love with her?
That all the businesses in the world matter nothing to him, shy from when he needed to travel for the business Jennifer had become so intertwined in his life, and now she was gone. The silence of his quiet thoughts was broken by the sound of that damn telephone ringing again. He wasn’t going to answer it there was nothing for him out there. Del Franco's was in good hands. And in his state of mind he would be useless to anyone. Shit he was useless to himself.