Why couldn`t he just forget? And start anew. He hated to live like this. Anxious and untrusting.

He wanted to be optimistic of his future again.

He wanted to be able to think of his future without being held by his past.

He wanted to talk to people without having to think about their intentions every second.

He wanted to be free again.

He wanted to be happy again.

He didn`t want to hurt anymore.

***

He arrived early to work the next day and greeted Abby on his way up. The CEO was in today and Adlai would meet him for the first time soon. Dolly seemed to like the man and she had told Adlai only good things about him so far. He hoped they would get along well, he, after all, had to work with him closely.

Once he was at Dolly`s desk and Dolly wasn`t there, he was a little lost. What should he do? But before he could do something stupid the door to the office was opened by Dolly. She seemed surprised to see him. "Adlai, you`re already here?" That was not really a question he had to answer but he nodded anyways.

"Then you can come in rightaway. We would have done this later today anyway."

He nodded again, suddenly getting really nervous. Dolly moved aside and let him in.

The room was smaller than he had thought, he realized, as he looked around. One wall was mostely one big window but the room was dimmed by blinds. They didn`t make the room darker, really, they just stopped the natural light from outside from blinding the people inside. The wall on the right was one big bookshelf. To the left was another door and two cabinets.

And right in front of Adlai was a desk with three chairs in one of which his boss sat. He froze as the man stood up to move around the desk to stand before Adlai and reach out his hand. 

"I`m Mark Zeman. Pleasure to meet you."

Mr. Zeman was around 6`1 with short blond hair, a bit shorter than even Adlai`s own, tanned skin and light green eyes. He was built lean and athletic. 

Adlai took his hand. "Adlai Dean. The pleasure is all mine. I hope we can work together successfully."

Mark smiled down at him.