Chapter 4
After a few more moments, the hug started to feel a bit inappropriate; Natalie pulled back to look me in the eyes, and I let my hands slip from her waist. We were in the privacy of my cubicle, but there was no door, and anyone could walk by and see something that looked inappropriate for the workplace.
"Why did she do it?" She asked.
"She said there was someone else."
"That fool."
I smiled at that, "Thanks. I'd like to think so too, but you never know… she might have found someone much more high-value than me."
"Not possible," Natalie said, taking a couple of steps back and leaning against the wall, "You were way out of her league to begin with."
"You're just saying that because I got broken up with," I retorted.
"That's not true! You could have done way better than her. You always do that, Marcus. You think too little of yourself and you end up dating needy women with no ambition and they just suck you dry. Aim higher next time."
There was a moment of silence as we just looked at each other. I gave her a half smile and she returned it.
"Maybe I will," I finally said, hoping there was some implication in my words. My nerves were a little raw and asking her out right now would be horrible timing, but maybe…
She stared at me for a long moment before her half-smile grew a bit more and she nodded, "Good. But you've lost dating privileges. I have to approve whoever you date next."
I hesitated there. Had she missed the meaning behind what I'd said? It'd been pretty subtle. "I guarantee you, you'll approve of the next one I date."
"Good," she said with a slight air of superiority, and then she shifted the tone.
"You said you guys broke up this morning?"
"Yeah," I responded.
"But she's been here all week."
"Yeah. Exactly."
"God," Natalie huffed, "What a cunt!"
"Everyone thinks I dodged a bullet," I said.
"Everyone is right." Natalie shot back. "I suspect everyone thinks you can do better."
"Thanks. Well anyway, I decided to not spend a full vacation day in abject despair and instead at least salvage it by coming into work, which is why I'm here, to answer your question. And it was a good call. Especially getting to see you."
She gave a miniscule curtsey, "Glad to be of service. It's what I'm here for."
"It's not financial analytics for rich people?" I raised an eyebrow.
"No. I'm the floor's source of morale. We need one to offset Bobbi and Gina. Analytics is just tangential stuff that happens to get done as a byproduct. Probably more collateral damage than anything."
That earned her a snort, but she wasn't wrong. Natalie wasn't just a ray of sunshine for me in this place… she was the whole goddamn sun.
"Okay, I need to get back to work," she said as she reached out to squeeze my arm. "Let me know if you need anything. Even if it's just to talk."
"I will. Thanks Nat," I said as she turned and left. I watched her leave too.
Bobbi might have been a work of perfection, but Natalie was a goddess in her own right, and as my friend walked away, I had to admit that Bobbi's ass couldn't compare to Natalie's. I poked my head out of my cubicle to watch her walk down the hallway. Gerald's head poked out of his cubicle next door and blocked my view.
"Hey Gerald," I said. He snapped his head around to look at me. "I see you looking." The older, conservative man blushed and grinned before he disappeared back into his cubicle like a prairie dog slipping back into its hole.
The next hour proved difficult for me to get back into work mode. My head was full of the conversation I had with Natalie, thinking of what could be a possibility in the next few months. I had to keep telling myself that Jessica had literally broken up with me that morning, so I needed to calm the hell down and do some navel gazing, but that was hard to do when I could still smell her perfume lingering in my cubicle.
So I was annoyed when the phone rang just as I was starting to quash those thoughts and get back into a work groove, ruining any momentum that I had. I picked up the receiver, "Marduke. This is Marcus Upton speaking."
"Mr. Upton? This is Karl Yunger. I'm a lawyer for your grandfather's estate. Is this a good time?"
"Yeah… I'm available. I'm confused though… my grandfather died 5 years ago. Was there something missing?"
"No Mr. Upton," Karl said, "I'm not referring to that grandfather. I'm referring to Colin Gerrard Senior - your father's father. Are you familiar with him?"
Had I not switched from standing to sitting 20 minutes ago, I would have fallen on my ass. I never met my birth father, or any of his family. My mother never talked to me about them, and had shut down the conversation anytime there was an attempt to pry information from her. I hadn't even known my father's family name.
"I uh…" My mind was racing as I tried to make sense of this crazy thing coming out of left field, right on the heels of being dumped by my girlfriend this morning. "Are you sure you have the right guy?"
"Marcus William Upton. You're twenty-eight years old. You work as a financial analyst for a firm called Marduke LLC. Your mother is Shawna Louise Smith Upton married to Henry David Upton, who adopted you and gave you his name? You have a step sister and two half-brothers. Is that accurate?"
"Yeah," I said. "That's me."
"Your grandfather passed away recently, and you are the sole recipient of his estate. We would like to meet with you and discuss the details. When would be a good time?"
"I'm… at work right now," I said, but curiosity was quickly eroding any desire I had to finish my work day. I'd technically had the day off, so I was pretty sure no one would mind if I bounced early today. I pulled up an online map of New York, "What firm do you work for?"
"I'm one of the partners for Yunger, Price, and VanCamp."
The location appeared to be about forty minutes by taxi. "Would this afternoon be okay? Say four?"
"That would be fine, Mr. Upton. A car will be outside of Marduke at 3:15 to pick you up, if you'd like."
That took me by surprise. "Seriously?"
"Of course. You don't have to take it if you'd prefer to drive yourself."
I hesitated. What the hell was going on? Was this some sort of prank?
"Is this some sort of prank?"
Yunger laughed on the other side of the line, "I assure you this isn't any sort of prank or anything nefarious. I would recommend discretion until we've had a chance to talk to you though."
I sighed. This sounded weird, but there was no way in hell I was going to last the rest of the day not knowing what this was all about. "Okay. I'll take the car."
"Excellent. See you at four o'clock this afternoon, Mr. Upton. I look forward to meeting you."
"Yeah," I said and hung up the phone.
"Hey Gerald," I said as I popped my head in his cubicle. "If Gina pops by, could you tell her I opted for the rest of my day off?"