One Of Those Days

Chapter 1

Cael Kesler blinked an innumerable number of times before the concept that was so blatantly staring him in the face became apparent. It shouldn’t have taken that long to realize what the time was except for three very important facts. The first of which was the fact that he had just woken up. Nobody is at their sharpest when they first come out of a nice restful sleep. The second all important contributing factor leading to Cael’s inability to understand a clock was that his head felt like there was a raging freight train running through. The last and perhaps most important reason for his confusion was that it read 11:45 am. That was quite simply impossible. After the fifth or sixty blink, he simply dismissed it as being wrong and rolled over slightly.

The events of the previous night began to worm their way back into his formerly inebriated head and he groaned slightly. He’d gone to the bar sometime after work. He’d needed to unwind a little after a stressful day. He remembered meeting a girl. What did she say her name was? Amy. She was definitely a hot little thing. He’d tried to insist that he was in a very serious relationship with a girl he cared about very much. Cael shot up to a sitting position and then promptly slammed back into his bed, sweat running down his forehead.

“Oh shit…” Kelly was going to have his head. He didn’t clearly remember the events as he had a little more to drink they he’d planned on, but he was certain that he did a number of things he shouldn’t have. She was absolutely going to murder him…

A second problem suddenly arose in his mind. Why did he fall back down when he had tried to sit up? Slowly he glanced up to the headboard where his arm rested. Sure enough a silver pair of handcuffs were wrapped around one wrist and linked to the brass framework that made up the head of his bed. His jaw just hung slightly and he blinked.

“What the hell is going on…?” He murmured to the empty room. “I know I didn’t have that much to drink… did I?”

For a minute he just stared at the bonds that held him in bed and tried to figure out how he was going to get out of this situation. Something else finally drew his attention however and he shouted into the void, “Oh fuck me!”

The clock did say 11:45 am. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem after a night at the bar. Everyone needs to sleep in after going out like that. The issue was that it was Tuesday morning and he should have been at work almost four hours ago. That could present a real problem, especially tied to the bed.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from his adjoined bathroom, “If you don’t quit talking to yourself out there, I’m gonna call the loony bin.” It was a female voice. Cael blinked.

The girl from the bar emerged from the bathroom only a minute later, straightening out her black dress and running her fingers through her back length, red hair. Cael’s jaw just hung slightly as he stared at her. She was stunning. Probably only a few years younger then he was and most likely just old enough to have gotten into the bar where he met her. Cael just stared at her as she wandered over to a chair in the corner where his clothes were draped. He stammered for a second and then blinked.

”I gotta get to work!” he exclaimed after another moment of silence. “Can you get these things off me?” He pointed emphatically at the handcuffs and waited.

Amy just chuckled slightly and picked up his pants, reaching into the back pocket and rummaging around, “Not likely tiger… so you can call the cops on me? Hell no.” Her hands found his wallet and pulled it out.

“Call the…” it became apparent what she was referring to when she opened up the wallet and began to scrounge around inside it.

She scoffed slightly and pulled out a twenty, “That’s it?! I thought you said you were some kind of Junior Sales?”

Cael blinked slightly at her. She was robbing him? It took him a minute to wrap him mind around that concept before he could finally speak again. There seemed to be a lot of moments like that this morning, “I am! Well… a Junior Sales Assistant.”

“And all you have is twenty bucks?”

“Credit card debt…” he stammered, suddenly wondering why he was telling all this to a girl who was robbing him.

“So these are worthless then, huh?” she ask fingering the three or four credit cards in she had pulled from his wallet. He just shrugged slightly and frowned, watching her toss them onto clean floor casually. “See ya later, tiger,” she rolled her eyes and headed for the door.

“Hey!” he shouted after her and watched as she turned back to face him. She turned but said nothing; instead she just leaned against the door with a slight smirk on her face and waited. For several minutes Cael just stared at her, he seemed to be doing a lot of staring in confusion so far today. He wasn’t quite sure what to say to her. Finally a single finger made its way into the air and he blurted the first thing that came to his mind, “Did we…?” But he couldn’t finish the statement.

Amy just smirked at him and laughed crossing her arms over her chest, “Fuck? No tiger. You didn’t get the pleasure of this ride. Hell, I practically had to carry you to the car after the quantity of roofies I put in you. Later tiger…” without giving him a chance for another comment she was gone.

For a moment he just lay in bed and stared at the blank white walls. His room was rather boring. He hadn’t lied to Amy at all, not really. He just had exaggerated. He was climbing the corporate ladder slowly and surely. But he had massive financial troubles when he was younger. He just couldn’t manage money worth a damn. That left him in the state he was in now: making decent pay, but unable to really buy anything. He had a simple king sized bed, with simple white sheets and a white blanket. The floor of the bedroom in his apartment was a plain white tile and the walls were equally unimpressively white. There was little else in the room besides a dresser and a night stand. The only thing that really stood up was the black stereo set on the black stand in the corner. That had taken quite a while to save up for, and he had made sure to get it in black so it would stand out against his terrible room.

The phone had been moved to the floor just out of reach. It was only a few feet away, but it might have been across the Sahara. Equally contrasting as the stereo, his salvation called to him in the form of a black cordless phone, sitting happily across the room in its stand, the charge light blinking at him tauntingly.

Cael ran his hand through his black hair for a minute before fumbling for the nightstand with his free hand. His fingers closed around his cigarettes and lighter before placing a single of the Lucky Strike filtered cigarettes between his lips. A moment later he was taking his first morning drag with a strange look on his face.

“Well… fuck.”

* * *

10 minutes to wriggle his hand free, and a great deal of pain. 2 minutes in and out of the shower. 5 minutes to dress. 3 minutes to disentangle himself from Mrs. Blanchard, the nice lady that lived down the hall. 2 minutes to the curb. 15 minutes staring in shock with a cigarette hanging loosely in his mouth.

He’d made it out the front door. Normally prestine black suit was rumpled and the matching tie was crooked, a pair of black sunglasses shaded his eyes from the… cloudy day. Whatever, they were stylish and prescription to boot.

Because he had always managed to acquire the same perfect parking space only a few spaces down the road from his buildings front door. He didn’t know how he managed it, being that he lived just outside the city, but he always chalked it up to his routine just meshing with the routine around him. It was a blessing he’d never over looked. Every day he could come outside, walk just a few spaces and find his car.

His car… He’d owned it since he was a kid, not that he was too much older then that now. It was pristine. He’d saved since he’d gotten his license until he turned 18 and bought his first and only car. It was a cherry red 1968 Mustang convertible with a black top. 289 hi performance, it wasn’t the fastest thing, but it was a blast to drive. Four-speed car. He’d had a CD player installed in the dash and a changer placed in the drunk. It was what he always wanted. Some people laughed at him when he’d decided to bring the car to New York, but he loved it and couldn’t bear leaving it behind. It had been a hassle at times, but nothing he couldn’t put up with.

His briefcase hit the sidewalk with a distinct thump. Where his car was normally parked there was an ominous empty space. It was almost worse that nobody had taken that space yet. It meant that Amy hadn’t parked the car else where. The space was empty. The car had just left. She had taken it. For a moment he just stood, looking blankly at the empty parking space.

Finally the shock of the moment passed and he glanced at his watch. 12:27 pm. Without a second thought he turned in the direct he normally drove off in and started running at full speed down the side walk, weaving between the sparse crowds. Inside his apartment his phone was ringing.

* * *

“Excuse me…?” Cael leaned forward and folded his hands across his lap.

“I said, ‘You’re fired’. Do you understand now?”

Cael stammered slightly and held up a finger in the universal gesture to hold on a minute, “Well… I understand the words, but you see I can explain…”

“I don’t want an explanation. You’re 5 hours late. Do you understand that?” His boss, actually it was his bosses boss, stated casually from his high backed leather chair. It was a seat of power and the man loved to exercise that. His desk was massive mahogany and it separated him from those sitting across from it as if he was some sort of emperor. Everything in the office was that dark wood color and the green that are so often associated with the ‘old boys’ club.

“I was robbed this morning… and my car! My car was stolen!”

His boss leaned back and sighed emphatically. He didn’t want to deal with this. Why did they always have to put up such a pathetic hassle? Couldn’t they just get over the fact that they were fired? “You’re the worst Junior Sales Assistant I’ve ever seen. Look at yourself.”

That was a change of pace, Cael was about to refute a statement that his boss didn’t make which left him with that same finger held in the air and his mouth open. A moment later he looked down at himself. His shirt was buttoned wrong and his tie was crooked. There was a stain on the shirt that he couldn’t identify. He looked like a slob. He hadn’t even shaved so the stubble of the morning still covered his face. “Mr. Doobin, I can assure you this does not happen often. If you’ll…”

“Look Mr…” he had to look at the portfolio on the desk to find the name, “Kesler… you’re report here shows that you are a mediocre representative for this company at best. You simply don’t have the attitude to make it in this business. You just can’t sell.”

“This is a one time…”

“Do you even know what it is we really do here?”

“I…” Cael tried really hard to come up with some real conceit answer, but the fact was he didn’t really know.

“And where’s the month’s end report that Mr. Hopkins is expecting today?” Mr. Hopkins was Cael’s actual boss.

He looked to his side where his briefcase should be. He paused for a second and then realized that his briefcase was still sitting on the sidewalk next to where his car should have been. Once again he was left with that dumbfounded look, jaw open and finger in the air. That was happening way too much today.

* * *

Cael found himself standing just out front of his office, one hand in his pocket the other hanging limply at his side. Another half smoked cigarette hanging from his lips and a box of personal belongings sitting by his feet.

“What a day,” he muttered, causing ash to flutter over his suit. “Things can’t possibly get any worse…”

His phone rang from his pocket a minute later and he fumbled around to grab it. The ring was irritating at best, but it was the sanest ring he could possibly find among the stupid jingles that were available on this model. God awful.

“Hello?”

“Cael? It’s Mark,” Mark was his best friend.

“Hey. What’s up Mark?”

“Nothing much Cael. Sorry to bother you at work.”

“Oh…” Cael looked up and down the street for a moment, “Don’t worry about it. I’m not real busy at the moment. What’s going on?”

“Hey. You should talk to Kelly. I spoke with Sandra last night and she says she saw you doing something with some girl. Sounds like total bullshit to me; you know how Sandra hates you. But whatever, I figured I’d give you the heads up before Kelly flipped out on you or something.”

Cael blinked, “Thanks.”

“You okay man?”

“Oh, sure. I’m fine.”

“Cool. You wanna get a drink later or something?”

“Sounds good Mark. I gotta run.”

“Alright man. See ya tonight, bro.”

Cael pulled the phone away from his ear and stared into space for a moment. Sandra. She was Kelly’s best friend. She probably was out last night and saw him. Things just got worse. The phone quickly found his ear again after dialing his house. He waited until the message on his machine finished before punching in the code to check his messages.

The android like voice of his machine finally sounded in his ear and he sighed slightly, “You have… five new messages. First message. Tuesday 10:30 am.”

The voice changed over to that of his boss, “Cael. This is Mr. Hopkins. Don’t bother coming in today. Mr. Doobins has already fired you. Save yourself the embarrassment and just stay home.”

“Thanks for the warning, Skip,” Cael muttered as he waited for the next message.

“Next message. Tuesday 11:02 am.” Once again the voice changed, this time to that of his landlord, “Cael. I’ve been really patient, but your rent is over due again. If you don’t pay me by the end of the day I’m filing for eviction. Sorry…”

“Nice to know you care, Carl,’ Cael continued his commentary as the messages rolled on.

“Next message. Tuesday 12:26 pm.” It was Kelly’s voice this time, “Cael. Sandra saw you with some… girl last night. You know my past relationships. Fuck you, you asshole. I can’t believe you could do this to me. It’s over. I tossed your ring in the river. You can fish it out if you want it.”

Cael jaw just hung in the air after that message. He didn’t know what to say. The messages just kept rolling.

“Next message. Tuesday 12:37 pm.” He didn’t recognize the voice this time, “Mr. Kesler, this is Mrs. Andrea Chase from Hunt’s Diamonds. You are late once again on your payment for the ring you purchased from us. I’m afraid we will have to be collecting that from you. If you could please bring it down to us by Thursday that would really avoid a scene and we would appreciate it. It would be best for you and for us. Thank you.”

“Well…” was all he could say this time.

“Next message. Tuesday 12:45 pm.” This time it was yet another unrecognized voice, “Mr. Kesler. This is Richard Marton from the Sedrick Bank. You’re over draft by three hundred and seventy-five dollars. If you account is not remedied within a week I’m afraid we’re going to have to close it and call a collections agency. Thank you.”

“What next…?” Cael muttered slightly and hung up the phone.