The Christmas Proposal [Five Hargreeves]

Chapter 3 - say what?

"Good morning, Mr.Hargreeves." He walked right past the secretary desk of the higher floor not even sparing a glance to the woman that had greeted him, he only had eyes for his job and this 10 minutes detour was already annoying him enough.

He opened the door without even excusing himself, he greeted the people in the place by their first names with a strangely nice tone of voice. "Jack, Edwin."

"Five, congratulations on the Oprah thing. That's terrific news." Complimented Jack from the sit of his desk, his partner on his feet just a few matters behind, leaning on a furniture.

"Thank you, This isn't about my second raise, is it?" He joked making the two laugh shortly before getting serious again.

"Five, do you remember when we agreed that you wouldn't go to the Frankfurt Book Fair because you weren't allowed out of the country while your visa application was being processed?"

"Yes. I do." He smiled proudly for what he was ready to say.

"And... You went to Frankfurt."

"Yes, I did. We were going to lose DeLillo to Viking. So... really didn't have a choice, did I?"

Jack sighed holding up a paper to read what was on it. Glasses setting on his nose "It seems that the United State Government doesn't care much who publishes Don DeLillo."

"We, uh, just spoke to your immigration attorney." Added Edwin while his partner

"Great. So, we're all good? Everything good?"

"Five, your visa application has been denied. And your are being deported." Finished Jack looking at him with his glasses lowered towards the tip of his nose. Five eyes grew wide and scoffed.

"Deported?"

"And apparently there was also some paperwork that you didn't fill out in time."

"That's bullshit, you know I sent it on time... I've studied at Harvard here, I'm basically from the U.S... There's gotta be something else we can do." He looked to the side, out of the window to grasp as much air he could, he knew he was in the wrong, he just didn't expect that much backlash.

"We can re-apply, but unfortunately you have to leave the country for at least a year." Five looked dumbfounded at Erwin's information but tried to not make it look like it got to him, he scratched the back of his head trying to make the options work for himself.

"Ok... well, that's not ideal but I can manage everything from London. With videoconferencing and internet." He said trying to find another way to handle work from far away, one of his hands holding a fist in the pocked of his pants, the other swinging around unconsciously giving enfasy to his words.

Erwin interrupted him respectfully. "Unfortunately, Five, if you are deported, you can't work for an American company." Jack followed. "Until this is resolved I'm going to turn operations over to Bob Spaulding."

"Bob Spaulding? The guy I just fired?" His voice was enough to let the two know that he was not ok with this decision, why the fuck was this happening? He was the best editor in the building, he worked his ass of from scratches, transferring to the U.S for school, finding a place to live and a job were to start his life.

"We need an editor in chief. He's the only person in the building who has enough experience." Jack voice was warm and calm, not accusatory.

"You can not be serious. I beg of you." Five was done with this, his voice was hopeless in a aggressive way, like this was the stupidest situation to get stuck in just for being so dedicated to his job.

"Five. We are desperate to have you stay. If there was any way, any way at all that we could make this work, we'd be doing it." And Jack wasn't lying, there was no one better than Five for this job, he was on the clock with everything, achieving almost impossible tasks. It was a hard choice with not really a lot of legal options.