Aprtment9 - Yves' Meeting

Yves woke up early. He showered and spent about an hour making sure he looked the way he wanted. He wrestled with his difficult hair, trying to pull it back. After he was satisfied, he looked himself over in the full length mirror. He wore a long sleeved dress shirt in dark red, tucked in and straight legged black pants. He paired them with his shiny black shoes.

"Someone in there better take me seriously…" He grumbled as he grabbed his laptop bag and headed out the door. He made his way out of the building, being careful not to walk too fast or his hair would come undone. Maybe I should let it grow out a bit more…

He arrived at the office building in no time, and waited for his boss to come and talk to him. I can't let anything else bother me today. I have to focus.  He took a deep breath to calm himself. A moment later, his boss came over to talk to him.

"Now, this is a very important meeting, you understand? If you say or do anything to screw this up, your ass will be fired, got it?" His boss took an annoyed tone with him.

"Understood." Yves said, forcing a smile.

"Good. Now I'm going to introduce you to the head of the team you'll be working with today." He called someone over. "This is Herve Moreau." He motioned to the man he called over.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. My name's Yves." He tried his hardest to sound like he believed what he was saying and smiled. He held out his hand to shake.

"Nice to meet you." Herve said with an almost curious tone as he cautiously shook Yves' hand. "Do you not have a last name, M. Yves?"

"I'm sorry. It's Yves Moreau."

"Vous êtes Français." He stated.

"Oui." Yves answered. "Shall we get started?"

"Yes, let's." They headed off to the meeting room.

After almost two hours, the meeting was concluded.

"Thank you very much. I hope you will consider the options I have given you." Yves forced his smile even though he was angry enough to smash the glass top table in front of him. When everyone had left, he gave a relaxed sigh as he started to gather his things. Just as I expected. I hope he really doesn't fire me for someone else's ignorance… He walked out of the meeting room to find Herve waiting for him. "Can I help you with something?" He was done being friendly.

"Is this your idea of a joke?" He growled at him.

"Can we, perhaps, talk somewhere else?" Yves noticed all the people around; he didn't want to cause a scene. Seems he's not as stupid as I thought.

"Fine."

Yves led them to a quiet corner of the park and sat on the bench. "Well?" He was done pretending, his tone was serious and slightly angry.

"What kind of joke is this? You are worthless." He spat at Yves.

"What, everything I do is some sort of joke to you? This is my goddamned job." He nearly shouted. "I may not be the perfect son you wanted, but I will not let you refer to me as a failure!" He stood up to look his father in the eyes.

Herve balled his hand into a fist, and punched Yves in the face knocking him down. "How dare you speak to me that way."

"I'm not a child. I can say whatever I want." Yves stood up, resisting the urge to hit him back. He grabbed his bag an left, heading for the apartment building.