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David was living his best life.
A near financial catastrophe involving his father’s business manager and tax evasion had almost left his family penniless. Thankfully, a harrowing and terrifying three weeks of searching for Eli had culminated in a tarmac arrest. The incident had shook his family to the core, but the Roses had persevered. His family had regrouped, reevaluated their lives, and came out stronger together on the other side. They had formed real bonds with each other that they had never had in their old life of excess. His sister, Alexis, prone to galavanting all over the world, now lived in the same downtown high-rise as he did. Not on the same floor though. The three weeks of sharing a motel room demanded that they have at least a little distance between them. His parents had downsized to a lone mansion located not too far from them in Buckhead. They spoke almost daily and dined together at least once a week.
He was working at one of the fastest growing Lifestyle Magazines in the country, Composure. They had already surpassed The Goop Newsletter, but it was doubtful that they would ever catch up with Mama Oprah, but he could dream right?
His boss Wendy adored him. His column How to… with David Rose was starting to gain a lot of traction. He hoped with this success that he could convince Wendy to let him write about more important topics, things that actually interested him. Global Warming, the Longterm Effects of Covid, the upcoming Election, he wanted to write about things that mattered. Georgia was finally blue and he hoped it would stay that way.
His cubicle was flanked by his two best friends, Stevie and Ken. They had settled his nerves on his first day, one with her biting wit and the other with his million dollar smile. Considering she claimed to not understand real human emotion, Stevie wrote the surprisingly insightful Advice column. Ken wrote the Health and Fitness column and he definitely practiced what he preached. They were polar opposites that would never make sense on paper, but they leveled each other out perfectly. Once he was added to the mix, the trio became inseparable. He quickly learned that quality was vastly superior to quantity. He had really won on the friendship front. He never looked back once he blocked all the free-loaders from his past.
To top it off, it was October in the South and his Atlanta Braves were headed to the World Series. Due to a harmless little flirtation on his part, the free-lance sports writer Heather had gifted him two tickets to Game 1.
Stevie was waiting for him, with his very specific coffee order, in the lobby of their office building. She knew he always needed the extra boost first thing on “Thursdays with Wendy.” It was the only way he was going to make it through the ridiculously named staff meeting. Why not just have them the day before, it still would make him cringe, but at least it would be alliterative. Ken was probably already in the office, he liked to maintain his hottie-boom-bottie™ by taking the stairs. He was also probably a lunatic, considering Composure was located on the top floor of the historic Cox Building right in the heart of Downtown Atlanta.
However, when they exited the elevator like normal people, Ken was not there. His cubicle was dark and his messenger bag was not propped against the wall. He grew concerned when he did not answer his phone. He and Stevie exchanged a knowing glance, then sprung into action. Stevie grabbed a few samples from Twyla. She could always be counted on to have something new and amazing on hand to review for her Beauty column. David stealthily removed a really nice polo shirt off one of the fashion racks, it would look great with Ken’s complexion. They met back in the middle to hash out their plan. Stevie would stall Wendy and David would go get Ken.
He knocked softly on his apartment door. He could hear Ken’s resigned sigh as he fumbled with the locks. Oh, this was worse than he imagined. His eyes were red and puffy, he’d clearly been up all night crying. The new guy he was seeing, Mike, must have dumped him. David could never understand how Ken didn’t have a million guys lined up for him. He was sweet, kind, funny, smart, and successful. It really put into perspective why he himself was perpetually alone, if a great guy like Ken couldn’t sustain a relationship, what hope did he have?
They made it back to the office in record time, arriving just as everyone was slipping off their shoes, ew, and getting comfortable on one of the many sofas in the common area. Wendy was seated in an oversized chair like a queen on her throne. The meeting started with a round robin of what everyone was working on for the upcoming issue. As always, she shot down his request to write about current events, something along the lines of “once he made How to… a Must Read he could write about whatever he wanted.” That was fine. For now. He had plenty of ideas for his current column that Wendy, and their readers, would salivate over.
Ugh, Brad went next, he was such a suck-up. He had Wendy, poor thing, eating out of the palm of his hand. His columns were boring and uninspired, but they were always approved. It finally fell to Ken, and Wendy wasted no time pointing out how sad and tired he looked. That gave him no choice but to tell the whole room about his breakup. Wendy, with her lack of couth and love of drama, suggested he write about it for the next issue. When he adamantly declined, she offered the story up to floor. Brad, the little weasel, had his hand raised in the air like a kindergartner begging to be picked first. The despair in Ken’s eyes was too much to bear. No one here would treat this topic with the sensitivity Ken deserved. That really only left him with one option.
“I’ll do it.”