Chapter 28: Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Since Eve and Will took care of themselves on Monday morning before work, Monday evening was sex-free. Tuesday was a late work night for Eve and the doctor told her not to come in until noon. With the free time in the morning, she finished a small load of laundry that she did not get to over the weekend, as well as went for a run.

“A run?” asked Will when Eve changed into shorts and a sports bra.

“Yeah, will probably be a brisk walk, but I’m feeling really tight and cramped, so thought a run would help get me loosened up.”

Will agreed and left her to stretch and get exercise. He went to his office for his next meeting.

As lunch approached Will was responding to the last of his unread email in his inbox when his messenger beeped. It was Marci.

“Have a minute to chat?”

Will’s first thought was to beg off talking to Marci, but instead replied, “Sure, have about ten minutes.”

A few seconds later his messenger chimed indicating an inbound video call. He answered.

“Hey Marci, what’s up?”

She offered no preamble.

“Have you heard about another round of lay-offs?”

Will was stunned and he could not hide his reaction.

“No! What is the rumor?”

Marci said, “Just that. A rumor. It’s so far-fetched it doesn’t seem like it could be true, but that’s also what has me worried.”

Will did not say anything and let Marci fill the silence.

“I heard that Silvany’s org is bleeding money. He argued his group should not have any layoffs a few weeks ago because they were all-hands-on-deck getting the new AI initiative released by the end of the year. Supposedly, he convinced enough people to skip giving anyone in his org a pink slip in the last layoff. Now it sounds like his team won’t make their mid-year deadline, let alone the end-of-year goal, and even if they do, they will only deliver a fraction of what they originally promised. Silvany’s solution, again rumored, is to have another corporate wide layoff and funnel the savings to his team in order to grow it and make his deadline goals.”

Will said, “That’s ridiculous and completely illogical. If his team dropped the ball, then they should be the one to pay.”

“Agreed, but you’ve been here long enough to know that decisions are not always made on logic.”

There was a long pause.

“On a more entertaining note, still in for doing a daily whack for the month?”

Before Will could answer, Eve came in to ask him about lunch. She was freshly showered after her run and wore a towel around her body and another wrapped around her wet hair.