One

Perry knew the two envelopes were still there. Perched one the edge of his glass topped desk, just waiting to opened and dealt with. The time had come to end it. End all the weeks of negotiation. His future and the future of those closest to him were dependent on his signing on the spaces marked in those envelopes. But he still could not bring himself to open them.

He looked out the floor to ceiling window which acted as one entire wall of his top floor office and saw the city before him. Perry used to tell himself this was his city. He had been born in the hospital a mile from his current office. He had attended the elementary and middle schools not two blocks from where he stood, and he could see the roof of his high school as his eyes gazed out into the cold November night.

The first signs of winter shown back. Nothing dangerous, just a light dusting of pure white snow that so many people in the area seemed to enjoy, but Perry detested. Every year for as long as he could remember, he would curse himself for not heading south or west at the first sign of snow. Yet here he stood. It wasn't like he didn't have the money to move. He could live anywhere in the world he wanted too. He could own a house on each continent if he chose. But he could never bring himself to leave this small quiet town of 15,000 nestled in the mountains of West Virginia about an hour from Washington D.C.

Even when his college friends scattered about the country and the world with high power and prestige jobs, Perry was resolute in his belief that he could be successful right where life had started for him. And he was right. Just last year, Perry was named one of the 40 most influential people in the country under 40 years old. He smiled a little at this thought as he watched the pure white snow hit the window.
He never considered himself influential in any way. He simply saw a gap in the market and sought to fill that gap. That simple and basic idea was not about to make him millionaire several times over. His, and the lives of everyone who worked for him, were about to change with just a few signatures. Perry looked back over his shoulder at the desk once more.

The desk had once been a cluttered mess of paperwork. It once housed some of the biggest, most obscene contracts you could imagine. Numbers that made Perry's head spin now. It was the same desk which had seen him through four years at the college right down the street. It was the same desk on which he christened the new office with her. Now, it was the desk on which sat two of the heaviest documents in his life.

The plain tan envelopes looked thin. In reality, each contained only 10 sheets of paper each. It was a rule Perry had maintained since the first day of opening the company. Nothing was ever to be sent to him or a client over 10 pages. Simple and streamlined was the motto Perry had always preached to his staff.

“Still unopened I see." Will, Perry's best friend, confidant, and all around right hand man laughs, leaning against the door frame of the office.

“Just glanced them over.” Perry replies as he walks around the desk and sits. He loves this chair. He has slept in it, brokered million dollar deals in it, and even done things that defy the physical laws of gravity in it.

“I marked where your signature is needed.” Will says, now stepping into the office. Perry does not believe in doors. Not one office in the entire building has a door on it. There are two large conference rooms on the floor below them which offer the only privacy in the seven story structure.

Will walks to the large black leather couch which covers one entire wall opposite the desk and flops down. Like Perry, he is wearing the company uniform: jeans and a t shirt. Since it is winter, it's a long sleeve tee. From day one, a no suit and no tie policy was instituted. Even shoes which were not sandals or tennis shoes were frowned upon, but nothing was in writing.

“Any plans for tonight?” Perry asks, ignoring the signatures comment.

“Nice try. You know you have to get those off your desk.”

“I am just not in the mood to read it right now.” Perry's voice shows slight signs of irritation, but Will knows it is not at him, but rather at the situation.

“They are both a done deal. Just sign and date. I will even take them to FedEx for you. Four signatures and it's all over.”

Perry knows Will is just like himself. Getting to the point and getting things out of the way. The envelops have been sitting on the desk for two days. An almost unheard of amount of time for anything to sit around the office.

“How did I get to this point?” Perry asks, not really to Will, just a passing thought through his mind verbalized.

“Don't do this to yourself. In the entire time I have known you, which has been almost 20 years, never once have you doubted a decision you made. You are not that guy. Just sign the damn papers, and move on. There is really nothing more you can do. The deal is done.”

“That still does not answer the question. How did we get to this point. Remember the old office, just you and me, working 18 hour days. Bouncing through every dive on the coast looking for clients. How did we go from that to working 18 hour days behind a desk and a laptop? We swore we would never become those guys. Yeah, we don't wear the suits, but we are still those guys. We became paper pushers, nothing more.”

“Stop it.” Will says with a smile, while continuing to lay on the couch. “You turned that small one room office into this. A multi-million dollar company with 27 employees and over 1000 clients.”

“But that was never what I wanted.” Perry laments as he stands and walks around the desk, looking at the pictures on the wall. Every office in the industry had one: the ego wall. The wall that was used to show potential clients what they could become. Picture after picture of Perry and Will with the big names in the industry. Every picture is scanned closely by Perry. The smiles in the pictures grow wider with each passing year. It is not hard to see why. The further up the ladder of success the company climbed, the more A list the pictures became. His gaze stops, and Will knows exactly what picture it is on as he rises from the couch and walks to the wall with Perry.

“Not signing does not mean she is going to come back. It's over man, you need to face it.”

“You're right Will, it is over” Perry responds as he pulls the first pack of papers out, flipping to the pages Will has marked for signing. Grabbing the lone pen on his desk, Perry starts to sign.

“This was the first thing she ever gave me.” Not looking up from the papers, Perry scrawls his name across the blank line.

“Graduation present, right?” Will smiles, having heard the story before.

“Right.” comes the quick reply, smiling a little as Perry opens the second pack of papers and signs. “There you go.” a week smile appears on both their faces as they look at down at the papers on the desk.

“Welcome to your new life.” Will whispers as Perry just reads the large bold type on each stack: Buy/Sell Agreement For RTM Management on the top of one and Summary Judgment For Divorce across the other.

Friday November 30, 2009
3:15 am

The original office was a small two story building squeezed between an appliance store and a pizzeria. Perry stood in front of that building as the snow blew all around him. It was just two blocks from the current home of RTM Management, but in reality, it was a million miles away. Perry looked at the now run down building and felt sad. He was sad because he longed for the days of working in that office. He wanted to rewind 17 years off his life and be hustling for clients again. Now, he was turning away hundreds of clients a week. Back then, he would work for a month just to get a client to talk to him.

“What the hell happened?” he asked to himself out loud. He knew the answer. What happened was the same thing that always happened to companies like his. Expansion and growth led to more and more demand, which led to a bigger building. He looked down the street and saw the current building which occupied RTM.

It was the tallest building in the small town. RTM had been leasing the top 4 floors of the 7 story structure for 2 years now. The renovation had taken a year. Now, there was a company gym and conference rooms on one floor, 20 offices on the next floor, and his office and large apartment on the top floor. He had a view of the entire town from both windows of his spacious office, plus the windows from his apartment. But he did not care. He would have much rather had a view of the street he was standing on from his old office.

He knew why the new offices had been necessary. He and Will had taken RTM from a two man operation to a national force in a short amount of time. They had forced the need for more employees and more employees meant a bigger workspace. But that did not mean he had to like it.

“I figured I would find you here.” Perry heard the familiar voice and turned, smiling.

“Hello Elisabeth.”

“Can you believe it is still empty?” Elisabeth Householder smiled back.

Standing slightly under 6 feet tall with shoulder length red hair and jade eyes, she was a head turner in any town. But in the small West Virginia town, she was a traffic stopper. Elisabeth had been there with Perry and Will at the very beginning. She acted as the non-paid secretary for RTM in the early days, then moved up to running the office as expansion occurred. She was a hometown girl through and through, still attending the Friday night football games in the fall and drama club's seasonal productions.

She remained single and dated infrequently. More than anything, she was the only person other than Will who Perry told everything too.

“I'm not surprised it's still empty. This town is, or should I say, has dried up long ago. Each year the population shrinks a little more.” Perry responds. Even knowing her for 30 years, growing up together and watching her grow more and more into the women she became can not stop Perry from still being in total awe of Elisabeth. They dated briefly when they were in high school, but both realized they were way to close as friends for it to go anywhere.

“I can't believe you still wear that thing.” she laughs as she motions to the worn American flag leather jacket which had been a staple of Perry's wardrobe since college.

“Will never get rid of it” he playfully laughs back. “What are you doing out this time of night?”

“I am guessing the same thing you are....reminiscing.”

“So you come here to give me a hard time?” Perry asks.

“Nah, figured you have had enough people doing that to you lately, but I do have to ask, are the papers signed?”

“This afternoon. Will dropped them off at FedEx. Come Monday morning, we are all unemployed.” Perry laughs.

“I don't think any of us will be asking for assistance anytime soon” Elisabeth winks with a grin.

“I still can't believe the past few weeks.”Perry says as he turns back to the building, a soft sigh
escaping his lips.

“You had no choice Perry. This is the best thing for everyone.”

“Still does not make it any easier. RTM is the only thing I have ever known. My entire life had been consumed by it” he pauses and turns back to face her “What do I do now?” His voice is shaky, almost on the verge of a breakdown.

“Now, you take some time to decompress. Get away from here for a while. When was the last time you went on vacation?”

“I could ask the same of you.” Perry smiles back.

“Have you talked to her recently?” Elisabeth asks cautiously.

“Nah, she does not answer the phone for me anymore. Everything is through the lawyers now. It's done, she will get her check, which is all she ever wanted, and then it will all be over.” Perry's voice had not emotion. No bitterness, no sadness, just a void.

“I really am sorry Perry. You deserved better.”

Perry just looks back at the building before them, his eyes taking in the memories. His old theater teacher had owned the building and rented the top floor out to he and Will when they were sophomores in college. It had been a small apartment, but much better than the on campus housing so many of their friends had been stuck with. Upon graduation, they negotiated a lease for the entire building, and set up RTM on the lower floor while still residing on the upper level. After 5 years of this arrangement, they bought the building from their old teacher, who had since retired to Florida.

RTM was still the owner of the building, and Perry made sure it was maintained perfectly even though it housed no tenants. The downtown area was a ghost town. Once RTM pulled out of their current offices, that building too would most likely sit empty.

“So you decided what you are going to do next?” Perry smiles over to Elisabeth.

“New York.” she replied, a little hesitation in her voice.

“Doesn't surprise me, you always did enjoy the winters here.”

“It's not for the weather. I am still young enough to enjoy the city.” she grinned. Perry knew it was a jab at him. Since the deal was first being crafted, he was being urged by all involved to accept a position in the new company.

“When do you leave?” he asked, not wanting to go down that path with her again.

“Start January 1, so I have a month left here. Am going to go up next week to get settled into the apartment, then will be back here for Christmas.” The lack of any emotion in Perry's voice was starting to unnerve Elisabeth as they talked. “Are you going to be alright?” she asked in a caring tone.

“I don't know.” Perry said, almost to himself. She had never seen him like this. Perry was always the self assured, confident one in their little trio.

“Why don't you come up with me next week? I could use the help, we can take in a couple shows, and hit our favorite places to eat. It's been about a year since you have been there, right?”

“Yeah, our last scouting trip there was September last year.” Perry said, his voice still in a far off place. Before she could respond, a ringing burst through the air. Both of their cell phones were going off in unison. Looking down, Perry and Elisabeth saw the message then looked up at each and and began to sprint back to the RTM building.