Chapter Text
Timothee was spiralling down a dark, extensive tunnel. Subsequent to what seemed like an eternity, he crashed down hitting a rough flooring of a dark, smelly dungeon on all his fours. He pressed his arms on the rough scratchy surface to steady himself. Timmy was astounded to come face to face with Mr. Hammer, his malicious, annoying boss, bending over him, a flash of blinding light streaked through leaving him aghast, as he was flaunting a set of horns poking on either side of his head like a devil, a long tail, a metal spear in hand , "Where have you been, Chalamet? Get me my latte before 9 or I'm going to fire you!!" He was hissing, red fire emitting from his otherwise glassy blue eyes. A second later, Timmy finds himself staring at Hammer's retreating figure, as he walks away, witnesses the scene of him getting hit by a bus on a spur of moment. Timmy hoots with happiness to see his boss lying dead on the pavement in a pool of blood.
Timmy wakes up with a start, sweating profusely, as his alarm kept buzzing in his ears. "What a dreadful dream but with a blissful end!" He mutters to himself. He turns off the alarm, but was aghast to see he had overslept till 8:40. "Shit...shit.. shit...shit.." He kept ranting as he sprang out of his bed, hurrying in for a shower. He was running late by almost half an hour, dressed in a white shirt, charcoal twill slim fit suit, with a striped blue tie, dashing through the morning traffic in his Honda civic, pulling over the cafe for his usual coffee takeaway. He cursed himself more, while he pushed the cafe door wide open to find the shop crowded with a long queue of people already awaiting across the counter.
Afore he could do anything, "Timmy, Timmy here.... " He heard the girl clad in a green apron behind the counter call for him in her sweet flirtatious voice. "I have your regular ready!"
"Oooh Amy, I was so late and dead worried, You saved my life.Thanks a ton,..." He rambled smiling with fondness and gratefulness overflowing in his voice, as he walked past skipping the queue ignoring the several disgruntled stares of the awaiting customers. He paid for his coffees and and grabbed his two hot steamy cups, "I owe you, darling!" he called as he departed out with a flying kiss to her, earning a delightful, shy smile from the girl in return.
Twenty minutes later, he was busting into the crowded elevator, greeting his colleagues.
"Morning Arthur, Morning Jason. I'm running late. Sixth floor please" He got out ,to find the firm still in its lazy haze as the devil was out of the scene until now luckily.
Timmy slipped his bag, a coffee cup in his cubical, and moved to his boss's office room, but in the hullabaloo, he banged with a colleague of his. "Oh shittt" He shrieked gaping at the hot coffee mess that had spilled all upon him and on the floor.
"Jesus, Nick. Can't you watch out!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Sorry Tim, was in a hurry, man!" Nick apologized pocketing his phone in his hand, before it got drenched in the wet coffee mess.
"Dude, my shirt is ruined." Timmy grunted pulling some paper towels from his desk, and kept wiping the hot fluid dripping all across his attire.
"Mr.Hammer will be arriving any moment now. I dont have time , shit shit shit shitttt what a terrible note to start the day with," He ranted, walking away, depositing the cup with half scattered latte on his table again, turning back towards his friend in his adjacent cabin...
"Brian, give me your shirt!" He demanded in his best authoritative tone.
"Timmy, you must be kidding!" Brian said uncertainly with a chuckle.
"Dude, I'm serious. Give it to me right now. The devil will be here any minute, his coffee spilled and now I have an important meeting I need to accompany Mr. Hammer. I'll trade you two tickets for the Knicks game this Saturday. you've got two seconds to decide, one two..." Brain opened his mouth to protest, "Now hand me your shirt, Brian!" he ordered, leaving no choice but to be complied.
"Fine, Timmy! You can't have your way always like this!. Those game tickets better be on the front" Brian muttered looking annoyed to be intimidated and bribed like this.
"Thanks Brian. Will see to that!" Timmy said relieved, unbuttoning his shirt, and snatching the one that was handed in return to him unwillingly.
A few minutes later, Timmy's iPhone tinged with a group what's app message for his colleagues "Devil 👿 is here"
Timmy forwarded it, "Its here, amigos!"
as he noticed the devilish man dreaded by one and all, dressed in a burgundy two piece business leisure suit, fast approaching the vicinity with heavy steps, missing all his employees on the way since they all kept scuttling out of sight, not to engage with the terror early in the morning.
"Good morning Boss" Timmy greeted with a tight smile as Mr. Hammer strode into his office room,
"Morning Timothee. Recite my schedule once" he said grabbing the coffee from his table.
"You have a meeting with the springbok's, staff meeting at Twelve and..."
"Did you call her,. um... the one with the ugly hands, um..." he kept dragging unsure of the name.
"Jane...Yeah I did. Confirmed about the manuscript, and let her know that if she didn't get her work by Tuesday, we'd have to postpone her publishing date. "And Mr.Charles called he wanted to meet you, he arranged for a meeting with you today at 2 .. "
"Cancel it for today, push the meeting tomorrow. I'll deal with it later. Get hold of our PR and have them start drafting for a press release. Frank is doing Oprah!" He finished with a swag leaving Timmy note it down them all in a rustle.
"Wow nicely done." Timmy said disinterestedly.
"If I want your praise, I'll ask for it!" Mr.Hammer said in a matter of fact tone, pulling the coffee to his lips but halted, "Ummm, Timothee, who's Amy? why does she want me to call her??" He asked twisting his neck to read the message scribbled on the cup.
Mr. Armie Hammer was 36 year old man, CEO of the big enterprise called Bourne and Hunt publishing house. Its a common knowledge that he was married a decade ago, but his wife left him within a year of marriage. As rumours has it, his secret got ousted in the media that he was gay, right after his divorce. His indifference for women in general was something nobody can miss, Timmy in fact always wondered how his wife survived one whole year with him.
"Huh, that was supposed to be my cup. And the message was for me!" Timmy muttered.
"And why am I drinking your coffee?" Hammer asked in a curious tone.
"Because your coffee spilled."
"Oh, so you happen to drink the same unsweetened cinnamon soy latte, what a sweet co incidence!" He said with a casual grimace.
"Uh indeed sir. I wouldn't buy the same as you, just in case I can replace it if yours got spilled, that would be strange, doesn't it?!" He uttered walking towards to attend the ringing phone. "Good morning, Mr.Hammer's office. what can I do for you?"
"Hey Bob!" He said, Mr.Hammer who was turned towards his monitor gave a hand gesture, Timmy got the hint, "Yes we are heading right away!" He played along.
"Why are we headed to his office?" he asked after disconnecting the call, looking unsure, but Mr.Hammer merely grimaced, dismissing Timmy with a wave. Timmy hurried right out, happy to breath a second free from his tyrannical boss, pinging his colleagues with another group what's app message to notify about the Devil's departure, alerting his colleagues to fall back in their seats once again.
"Mr.Hammer, did you read the manuscript I gave?" He posed his boss, as they were walking together, headed outside.
"Ahh, Timothee, I read a few pages , sorry to say its not that good. I have to....!" He continued waving his hand.
"Can I say something?" Timmy interrupted.
"Nope!"
"Boss, I've written hundreds of manuscripts, but this is only one I have asked you to consider. I've been working on this for so long, and this is my best work. Give it a chance, This is the kind of novel you publish here..!" He pleaded.
"Well I'm not sure about that, Timothee,.!"
"Did you even read it, sir? no offense, just saying , thanks to your busy schedule."
"Believe it or not, Timothee, I did!" He gestured with an impolite nod . "And anyways, it is strange that we drink the same coffee. But I'd have appreciated more if you hadn't spilled it in the first place!" He taunted with an evil head tilt.
"Of course sir. My mistake" Timothee croaked biting his tongue, rambling alongside with him into the meeting hall.
"Morning Bob!" Mr.Hammer greeted
"Wow, the fearless leader and his devoted leash. come in!" Bob called.
"Oh Bob, Looking good today. exercising are we?" Hammer mocked, as it was clear to Timmy that Bob looked like an oversized ape.
"Huh, I eat cheese Pizzas and burgers thrice a day, and have gained twenty pounds, haven't entered a gym for over a year, so yeah I do look good, Armie!" Bob mocked back, making it harder for Timmy to maintain a straight face.
"Bob" Armie grimaced with a quiver in the corner of his lips,"I'll have to let you go!"
"Hmm, I'm not sure I heard you right, pardon?" He posed with a skeptical stare at Armie.
"I'm firing you, Bob! You couldn't get Frank to do Oprah, And when I intervened, I was informed that you hadn't even approached him, what a liar.!" He went on
"Excuse me Armie,."
"Bob, Frank can be frightful, but the fact that you didn't even try forced me to do this. You're fired. I'll give you a month to find another job, and your dues will be settled before the end of this month. Timothee, you will take care of that. You can leave now, Bob!" Armie declared in his coolest voice, and was walking out, only to be followed by Bob close behind.
"Armie, you are a monster. No wonder your wife left you, you worthless, poisonous loner, ..!" He thundered, as the entire office stood listening to this holding their breaths, and they all gasped at the mention of Armie's divorce. But Armie looked unperturbed as always.
"You're threatened by me, Armie. You're using this Oprah thing to belittle me, To prove how smarter you are. when the truth is , you're just a nasty bastard!"
"Just because you don't have a life apart from this firm, you think others won't? No one can bust their ass for your firm all the time!" Bob ranted viciously.
"Bob, no one's firing you for having a "private life"!" he said with his hand gesturing air quotes. "I'm firing you because you're a lazy , incompetent, inefficient man who doesn't do his job well. And now Get Out!" He declared in a dangerous tone.
"Timothee, follow me" Timmy obliged as he was told, "First get the man escorted out of this office, second I need you to help review some new manuscripts by the weekend" He was headed to the conference room , Timmy followed close behind.
"This weekend?? " Timmy uttered with uncertainty
"Any problem with that?" Armie enquired with a raised eyebrow.
"Actually I was supposed to visit my family. It's my Gammy's 90th birthday. Its a huge family get together! " Armie shot an airy, disappointed look, and briskly walked away. His attitude screaming clear danger, that Timmy retracted.
"That's alright, I'd happily cancel it. Its nothing important. Please carry on, will join you in a moment, Sir ! " He groaned returning back to his seat.
His friend Nick, who was seated next noticed his disappointed face, "Whats up dude?"
"I was planning to visit my family this weekend after a year. And that's something this devil of a guy couldn't tolerate. God why am I stuck here.. ?" Timmy moaned, fisting his hair in frustration.
"Because you love your job, moreover your dream is to be a writer, to touch thousands of hearts with your writing, Timmy. What better way to have it fulfilled, by working here in one of the best publishers?" Nick reminded him.
"Aargh, I know. Thanks for reminding, man!" Timmy said with a sigh.
An hour later, during the work break,
"Mom, I know. He's making me work this weekend in particular. What can I do? I love my job. Do you think I don't wanna meet you all? I really do. Please understand, mom, I'm very sorry. And say sorry to Gammy. I promise for the spring break. I'll be there for sure, I swear!" Timmy was explaining his family over phone, he looked up to see Armie watching him like a hawk waiting for his call to end.
"No I can't, Mom, I just can't. I'll have to go now, I'm sorry, bye!" He said dropping his mobile in a hurry.
"Yes Mr Hammer,?"
"Your family?"
"Yeppp..!" Timmy replied stressing the P..., He picked the ringing phone next to him as Armie was giving him a scrutinizing look.
"Mr.Hammer's office, yes, ok."
"Your lawyer Morgan is waiting for you,." Timmy informed.
"Errrmmmm, come and get me there in five minutes. We have a busy day ahead!" He said sprinting away, earning another impatient grunt from Timmy.