Edward
The car was moving unbearably slowly.
Where the hell had all these traffic jams come from?
Though there was little point in asking.
The city had been a complete mess for months. Why should I be surprised that traffic had suddenly appeared in places where there had never been any before?
Back in winter, I had already found it strange that the local authorities seemed to have given up on clearing the snow. Even the city centre, including its business district, looked absolutely dreadful. And that was even though every building in that area brought in enormous amounts of money for the city.
One might have blamed it on winter. The services couldn't keep up, the weather was awful, and everything was buried under snow.
But it wasn't winter anymore.
The sun was out. The weather was warm. Birds were singing somewhere outside.
Nevertheless, as I sat in traffic, I was still looking at the same mess.
Scraps of paper drifted along the pavement. Broken bottles lay scattered here and there. Dirt had gathered near the kerbs. Bits of rubbish sat in corners. Some of them had clearly been lying there for quite some time. No one seemed particularly interested in removing any of it.
I noticed all of it.
Or, to be more precise, my eyes did. My mind remained elsewhere.
It was still there.
Still in that bar.
Still standing in that room with Michael, James, Kazuo, and him.
I could still see Kazuo's face.
Michael had been standing right in front of him, repeatedly jabbing a finger into his chest with that infuriatingly smug grin of his. The bastard had sounded completely certain of himself.
Perhaps he had gone too far.
Kazuo had been furious.
What if that was enough to make them refuse?
Damn it.
I hadn't wanted our conversation to end on that note.
I turned my head towards Michael, who was sitting beside me.
In contrast, Michael looked completely carefree, doing something on his phone and grinning at the screen like an idiot.
I let out a loud sigh.
Michael didn't react at all.
Instead, I found myself feeling like the parent of a teenager, stubbornly glued to his phone, whose attention was practically impossible to get.
I had no idea what was on his screen, but the bastard appeared determined to ignore me.
"Have you fallen in love or something?"
No answer.
He continued typing.
"I'm talking to you."
The irritation in my voice finally broke through.
Michael looked up from his screen and turned towards me. "Hm? Did you say something?"
"Less than an hour ago, you nearly ruined our meeting by pissing off Kazuo. We've got a mountain of things to deal with, more than enough reasons to be worried, and you're just sitting there flirting with someone on your phone?" I grumbled.
Well... Now I really sounded like a parent, annoyed that his child wasn't doing something useful.
"Hang on, that's not fair," Michael protested. "First of all, I'm not flirting. I'm dealing with an incredibly important matter."
He twirled a finger in the air before pointing it at me.
"And you're sitting there looking utterly miserable, trying to blame me for ruining the meeting because Kazuo got pissed? Seriously?" He shook his head. "Fine. Since you're so wound up about this, let's talk. You've got my full attention. It's all yours."
I wanted to throttle the bastard.
"I think you went too far with Kazuo. There was no need to provoke him. You could've said the same thing differently."
Michael glanced down at his phone and locked it. The moment the screen went dark, he folded his arms across his chest, turning towards me.
"You spent that entire meeting going round in circles," Michael said with a shrug. "Back and forth, back and forth. What was the point?" He was entirely unbothered. "They aren't children, Edward. I just pointed out the facts. Yes, I'll admit the truth can be unpleasant sometimes."
He paused for a moment.
"Alright, perhaps I got a bit too close to his personal space. I'll give you that. But that's all." A grin spread across his face. "Besides, now they've got time to think about it." His smile only widened. "Though, honestly, I don't think they'll need very long. I'm absolutely convinced they'll agree."
"I didn't want them to agree because they had no choice. I wanted them to agree because they thought it was a good deal. Because they believed we'd be good partners." I looked out of the window. "Not because we backed them into a corner."
"Then you'd be waiting a million years for an answer." Michael dismissed the objection with a wave of his hand. "I'd bet money on it. Tomorrow." He paused. "All right. The day after tomorrow at the latest." His confidence remained completely unshaken. "Kazuo will be ringing your phone off the hook to accept your offer."
I pressed my fingers against my temples.
The headache I'd managed to forget about earlier had returned, gathering strength with every passing minute.
"Is that all?" Michael asked. "Can I go back to my..." He made quotation marks in the air with his fingers. "My flirting?"
I gave him a look.
"Or is there actually something else bothering you?"
Unfortunately, he was right.
There was.
In fact, it was probably the main reason I was in such a foul mood.