hundred miles of roadway lay between Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, but Josiah shifted the gears and enjoyed the smooth ride as his high performance sports car jetted down I-85 South. It was Saturday, just after twelve noon, and the traffic had been very cooperative so far. He was more than halfway there, kept alert by the music that blasted through his car speakers, the bottle of Coca-Cola that stood in his beverage holder, and the seven hours of sound sleep he’d been graced with last night. It was the first night of uninterrupted slumber that Josiah had gotten in quite awhile.
By the time he finished teaching the software workshop to the executives at Moniker, he had already resigned to the fact that the trip to Atlanta was inevitable. Bishop Lumpkin had been prayingthat he go, Craig and Danielle had been encouraging him to go, and God had been ordering him to go. But everyone who knew Josiah Tucker knew that he did nothing without proper planning.
There were loose ends at work that needed to be tied. With his new promotion, came new responsibilities, and although he had earned the extended leave time, Josiah couldn’t just walk away without first making sure the work in his in-box was done. In an economy like this one, wherein job seekers were plentiful and employment opportunities were scarce, that was just too big of a risk to take, no matter how much of an asset he was to MacGyver.
His request for time off came with no explanation, and it had taken everyone by surprise. Within two hours of the submission of his formal written request, word began sweeping through the office that industry competition was courting Josiah for positions in their corporations. Josiah had no doubt of who had started the rumor.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lillian had claimed when he stood at her desk and confronted her about the gossip. She’d tried to look innocent, but her corrective lenses seemed to magnify the guilt in her eyes.
And Mickey apparently thought there was some truth to the rumor because he looked increasingly nervous as Josiah’s leave time neared. Off and on throughout the past two weeks, he’d asked Josiah a million and one questions.
“Is everything okay? Is there anything that you want to talk to me about, Josiah? Your office … is it to your complete liking? Are you satisfied with the benefits package that came with your promotion? Josiah, you’d tell me if there was a problem, wouldn’t you?” Mickey was sweating bullets, and he was bordering on looking terrified when Josiah walked out of the office yesterday evening without working his normal overtime.
“He’s scared because he knows if you leave here, his two-yearmarriage to Mrs. Money Grubber will be over in a flash,” Lillian whispered while they walked together to the parking lot. “Everybody knows that Barbie doll married him for his money. Even he knows it. I mean, look at her and look at him. If Mr. Colt wasn’t the head man at MacGyver, she would have never given him a second look. I hear she’s got another man—her personal trainer, no lesson the side. I guess she took a lesson from that basketball star’s wife. Her personal trainer is doing more than just keeping her physically fit, if you know what I mean. You best believe that the only reason why Mr. Colt trumps this other man is because his paycheck has more zeroes on it.”
One of these days, Josiah reasoned within himself, he would do the Christian thing and stop Lillian’s gossiping rants. But today wasn’t the day. His eyes urged her to continue, and she did.
“The way I understand it, there is a clause in the will regarding who heads this Fortune 500 company. Mr. MacGyver was old, but he wasn’t nobody’s fool. He wasn’t about to just up and leave the business he spent his life building in the hands of just anybody and let them run it into the ground. If the business starts losing money, or if its integrity is put in question,
By the time he finished teaching the software workshop to the executives at Moniker, he had already resigned to the fact that the trip to Atlanta was inevitable. Bishop Lumpkin had been prayingthat he go, Craig and Danielle had been encouraging him to go, and God had been ordering him to go. But everyone who knew Josiah Tucker knew that he did nothing without proper planning.
There were loose ends at work that needed to be tied. With his new promotion, came new responsibilities, and although he had earned the extended leave time, Josiah couldn’t just walk away without first making sure the work in his in-box was done. In an economy like this one, wherein job seekers were plentiful and employment opportunities were scarce, that was just too big of a risk to take, no matter how much of an asset he was to MacGyver.
His request for time off came with no explanation, and it had taken everyone by surprise. Within two hours of the submission of his formal written request, word began sweeping through the office that industry competition was courting Josiah for positions in their corporations. Josiah had no doubt of who had started the rumor.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lillian had claimed when he stood at her desk and confronted her about the gossip. She’d tried to look innocent, but her corrective lenses seemed to magnify the guilt in her eyes.
And Mickey apparently thought there was some truth to the rumor because he looked increasingly nervous as Josiah’s leave time neared. Off and on throughout the past two weeks, he’d asked Josiah a million and one questions.
“Is everything okay? Is there anything that you want to talk to me about, Josiah? Your office … is it to your complete liking? Are you satisfied with the benefits package that came with your promotion? Josiah, you’d tell me if there was a problem, wouldn’t you?” Mickey was sweating bullets, and he was bordering on looking terrified when Josiah walked out of the office yesterday evening without working his normal overtime.
“He’s scared because he knows if you leave here, his two-yearmarriage to Mrs. Money Grubber will be over in a flash,” Lillian whispered while they walked together to the parking lot. “Everybody knows that Barbie doll married him for his money. Even he knows it. I mean, look at her and look at him. If Mr. Colt wasn’t the head man at MacGyver, she would have never given him a second look. I hear she’s got another man—her personal trainer, no lesson the side. I guess she took a lesson from that basketball star’s wife. Her personal trainer is doing more than just keeping her physically fit, if you know what I mean. You best believe that the only reason why Mr. Colt trumps this other man is because his paycheck has more zeroes on it.”
One of these days, Josiah reasoned within himself, he would do the Christian thing and stop Lillian’s gossiping rants. But today wasn’t the day. His eyes urged her to continue, and she did.
“The way I understand it, there is a clause in the will regarding who heads this Fortune 500 company. Mr. MacGyver was old, but he wasn’t nobody’s fool. He wasn’t about to just up and leave the business he spent his life building in the hands of just anybody and let them run it into the ground. If the business starts losing money, or if its integrity is put in question,
Similar Books
