Confounded: Part I - 7. Chapter 7

It wasn't until 10am until I found out that Taylan had called in sick. The whole weekend, the scenes from Friday night had been playing through my head, even in my dreams, and I could only come to one conclusion: I was heavily in love. Heck, I hadn't even brushed my teeth after that insanely good kiss.

It was a great feeling to be in love again.

And I had it all planned out in my head; Taylan would break, giving me those names, and then we'd have the green light; I could romance the pants off of him. Would he like to go out to dinner? Or maybe just sit on the couch, just him and me, with good conversation and excellent wine? Just not such a heavy one as we'd had last Friday; I'd want to have something to play with afterwards, right? And I really wanted to redo that kiss, and do it properly.

Yeah, in my head it all went speedily and well.

But then I heard that he hadn't come in, instead calling in sick, and I knew exactly why he'd done that. The coward!

I used an excuse to get into Human Resources and asked for several documents that would ensure the employee there to leave the room for a moment, enabling me to read Taylan's file. They didn't need to know I
was checking up on him; office gossip is the worst.

So after the employee had left, I went over to the cabinet containing all personnel folders, lifted Taylan's and memorized his home phone number and address. Then I returned the file and went back to my office, closing the door to ensure no one would disturb me. Then I picked up the phone and dialed his number.

[Hello?]

"It's me," I answered. It went quiet on the other end. "So you're sick?"

"Headache, stomach; I guess I ate something bad over the weekend."
He was lying through his teeth, I could tell!

"Strange: I don't have any of such symptoms."
Silence again. See?

"I assume this is about last Friday?"
It remained quiet.

"You left your bag at my house, I brought it with me."

"Umm, yeah, sorry about that. Just put it on my desk."

"Yeah, right; not gonna happen. Come and get it."
I grinned.

"Mitchell; I don't think that's such a good idea."

"What you think doesn't really interest me. This ‘I'm sick' crap is rubbish. So you either come in today or..."

"Or?" It sounded challenging.
Fine. He wanted a challenge? He'd get it.

"Or I'm coming to get you."

"I'll be there in an hour," he replied quickly.

"Good. I'll see you soon."
And then I hung up.

**********

It was more than an hour before he knocked on my door. I had just received a call from an important customer, and really hadn't expected him to turn up; I had already planned to go to his house and give him a piece of my mind about his behavior, when he softly knocked.

"Enter," I said, putting my hand on the phone.

When he appeared in the doorway, I sent him a smile and motioned him in; my heart immediately did a runner as soon as I saw him.

His bag lay on the chair closest to the door, and he sent me a grin back, a rather smug one at that, and he grabbed it. Then he produced a letter from his inside pocket and put it in front of me, on my desk.

I frowned, looked up and excused myself for a moment, then put my hand over the receiver, and nodded at the letter.

"What's this?"

"My letter of resignation," he explained, turning to leave. "Signed and as of right now. You're not getting those names."
I stared after him, open mouthed and dumbfounded; this was not supposed to go like this!

"I'll call you right back," I spoke to the customer waiting on the other end. But he would not be dismissed so easily. I put my hand over the phone once again, and cursed extraordinarily harsh, something I rarely do and not out loud, at that.

"Taylan, wait!" I yelled, but he was already gone.

Sighing deeply, I collected my thoughts and then removed my hand from the speaker; Taylan would just have to wait.