Booking Glory-Chapter 83: A New Beginning

"What happened?" Rob asked in genuine curiosity.

"Well," Brent hesitated a bit.

He scowled once more and took in a large gulp of his beer and threw the empty can away. He unceremoniously opened another can and took in another large sip before looking at Rob.

Rob could see the vulnerability in Brent’s eyes at that moment. He felt that one wrong word from him would truly break Brent beyond repair at that moment. So, he stifled the questions that were eager to come out of his mouth and waited for Brent to speak.

"You were right," Brent smiled mockingly. "You were right about my so-called friends. They didn’t hang around here because we had some shared common goal. They only hung around to use the resources I had."

Rob didn’t comment on it. He felt that commenting now would be a bad form.

"After I decided that I wanted to finish something and shove it in your face," Brent spoke after a brief bout of silence. "I came here eagerly and told my decision to them. I told them that we will all pool in our talents and create at least one finished product by the end of this month."

"Well, they didn’t like that," Brent chuckled mockingly. "They didn’t want to stop what they are fiddling around with and build something with me. They vehemently opposed and said that if that was the way things are going to be, they wouldn’t come back here."

"I was shocked. I thought they would be on board with my idea and would truly want to create something collectively. But, I was wrong. Oh, so wrong," Brent laughed mirthlessly. "They just didn’t want to do it. Even when I told what you told me about them and said this was a way for us to make you take back your words, they didn’t relent."

"We started arguing and I flipped out. I gave them an ultimatum. They could only use the things in here in their free time if they pitched in with the project. Apparently, they didn’t like it. They started calling me names and deriding me. Our argument escalated and I told them to leave if they aren’t willing to pitch in. That’s it, they left."

Brent finished with a sad smile on his face.

"But, Byron and Peter stayed," Rob tried to make Brent see the positive side.

"Yes, they did. I am grateful to them for it. They were never the most vocal of the bunch. They always blended in with the background. I have never talked to them much, prior to that. Hell, I didn’t even think of them as my friends at that point. I just thought they were some acquaintances of my friends and didn’t care much if they used my stuff."

"But, they were the only ones who stayed back. All the others left without even looking back. All the people whom I thought were my friends and fellow dreamers left without looking back as if what I suggested was unthinkable. The only ones that stayed back were the ones whom I didn’t even know much about."

Brent said shaking his head and smiling sadly.

"Well, you at least know who your real friends are now," Rob tried to console Brent.

"Nah, Byron and Peter are friends, I am just an acquaintance to them. Don’t you see me working all alone in the night," Brent chuckled. "But, I am glad they decided to stay. I don’t know how I would have reacted if they too left with the others."

Rob didn’t know how to reply to that. So, he opted to remain silent and sip his beer.

"You know, the most hurtful part is not even that. I heard from Byron and Peter that my so-called friends think I was probably off-the-rocker and are waiting for me to come to my senses. They are waiting for me to apologize to them and beg for them to return," Brent snorted sipping his beer.

"What part of me looks that foolish to them? Was it me wanting to finish some product? Was it me wanting to actually have a goal and work towards it? Was it me having had fucking enough of their freeloading? Tell me, which part of me looks off the rocker?" Brent suddenly raged.

"Brent, calm down. They are not worth your anger," Rob tried to pacify him.

"Those little shits think that I am such a pussy that I will voluntarily allow them to come and freeload on me again. They fucking want me to go and beg them. Fuckers..." Brent ranted for a bit.

Rob patiently waited out his ranting and tried to calm him down. In the end, it worked after Brent ran out of steam. By then, he had vented out all his anger and frustration to Rob. He breathed heavily for some time. Occasionally cussed under his breath, and drank heavily for a while, before finally calming down a little.

"Is that the reason you are like this?" Rob asked after Brent calmed down a bit. "I see no reason for you let yourself go because of them, Brent."

"No," Brent shook his head. "I do not even think about those fuckers anymore. Didn’t you listen to me? I wanted to create something and shove it in your face."

Rob chuckled upon hearing Brent’s response. That was so childishly petty that it fit Brent perfectly well. Rob was happy that Brent was being productive just out of sheer spite.

"So, how’s it going?" Rob asked.

"Not well," Brent scowled in reply. "I underestimated the difficulty in completing something a lot. I have barely made any progress after working on it for two weeks."

"You must know that we had a lot of unfinished products lying around. There were a lot of ideas we were fiddling with. But, not a single one of them looks doable at this point. Either we needed to upgrade our equipment or we needed to invent a whole new technology and stuff like that. Some of the concepts don’t even look to be realistically possible at this moment," Brent shook his head in frustration.

"We, I mean, me, Byron, and Peter, discussed amongst ourselves and selected the one project that had a high likelihood of real success. We have been working on it for weeks now and we haven’t gotten any progress till now. It was a slap in the face for all three of us," Brent said grimacing a little.

"Oh," Rob said in surprise.

"Yeah, it turns out, creating a new product is not something easy like we all imagined it to be. If we fix one thing, something else creates a new issue. We have been wrangling with it for a long time now. Frankly, I don’t see any hope in finishing this project anytime soon," Brent said forlornly.

"But, you at least have a goal now right?" Rob said consolingly.

"That is the only thing that is keeping me going," Brent said smiling a bit. "That and the prospect of shoving this in your face."

Rob chuckled upon hearing that.

"Hey, I never doubted your dreams. I was merely skeptical of your methods. Don’t need to be so gung-ho on shoving something in my face," Rob said laughing a little.

"No, I am going to finish something and rub it in your face," Brent said adamantly.

"You are an asshole, Brent," Rob chuckled causing Brent to smile a bit for the first time in genuine happiness since he checked in on him.

From there conversation started to flow naturally with both Brent and Rob ribbing each other. Occasionally, Brent would rant at some of the issues he came across while fiddling around with his project, which would fly above Rob’s head causing him to merely nod.

In return, Rob talked about some of the hilarious things that happened backstage in LWC causing Brent to laugh uproariously. In this way, they chatted well into the night, consuming beer and pizza that they had ordered, having a merry old time just chatting with each other.

"By the way, I am sorry that you had cut short your time with your date to check up on me," Brent said when they were done with food and drinks.

The duo was currently laid out on the ground staring at the ceiling. They had a good buzz going on in their heads and felt really relaxed after Brent unloaded all his pent-up frustrations.

"I know I can be difficult sometimes, thanks for checking up on me. I don’t know how long I could have gone on like that," Brent murmured.

"Don’t sweat it," Rob snorted. "That is what friends are for."

"Yeah, I guess," Brent agreed. "So, tell me about this lady."

"Nah, I am going to pass on that."

Rob didn’t want to tell Brent it was Dacey Surestone that he was dating currently. He knew that Brent was a big fan of Dacey. So, it would be a pretty weird conversation to have. He didn’t want to make things difficult between them after having just patched up.

"Come on," Brent wheedled, "I won’t judge."

"What the fuck, man? What is there to judge with me dating a woman?" Rob asked a little surprised by that response.

"Is she a wrestler in LWC?" Brent asked eagerly.

"None of your damn business," Rob snorted.

"I know you are in charge of their booking. Wouldn’t it be weird if you start dating a wrestler whose future you are in charge of?"

"Brent, let’s drop this topic. I don’t want to talk about this. And, just so you know, I can differentiate my personal and professional life clearly. Thank you very much," Rob said a little irritatedly.

"Ah-ha, so it is indeed a wrestler from LWC! Is it someone I know?" Brent asked triumphantly.

Rob didn’t dignify it with a response. He kept mum on the subject. He knew that if he opened his mouth, he would tell something that he didn’t want to reveal yet. So, he felt silence was the best course of action.

Seeing Rob keeping mum about his partner, Brent started listing out all of the female wrestlers he knew from LWC and started mooning after them. Rob almost snapped at him when he mooned over Dacey. He was able to restrain his irritation when he heard Brent proclaim that he had no chance with her.

Rob couldn’t wait for the day when he could rub that statement in Brent’s face when he finally revealed who he was dating. It was going to be fun to see Brent splutter in indignation.

Luckily, for Rob’s patience, Brent decided to drop the topic seeing Rob not responding to his questions at all. While the alcohol made Brent’s tongue loosen up a bit, he still had the capacity to think and he didn’t want to alienate someone who was a true friend to him. It was not as if he had a lot of those running around these days.

"So, how’s your investment with IndiSoft? You gained something from it yet?" Brent asked changing the topic.

"It’s slow going," Rob grunted.

"Hah, I told you it is not going to make much of a difference, didn’t I? Their line of research has no value to the computer community," Brent said feeling a little vindicated.

"I don’t think so. This is their first version. I will only pass judgment after looking at some of their later versions," Rob shook his head. "Until then, I am going to reserve judgment on them."

"You mean to hold their stocks until then, huh? I thought you would cash out as soon as possible," Brent said a little confused.

"It depends," Rob grunted. "If I feel like they are going the wrong way, I will cash out. If not, I will increase my stock. I am looking to invest and hold for the long term. Even if I cash out now, I would have already made some profit."

"Then, why don’t you do that now and invest elsewhere?" Brent asked.

"I feel, no, I know that their idea has potential. I want to see if they will develop in the same direction as I imagine. I think they just need to add a few auxiliary programs to their UI-OS to make it more attractive to consumers," Rob said nonchalantly.

"What do you mean?" Brent asked curiously.

"Well, their idea of making the computer easy to use is all well and good. It increases the market share. But, your common man is not going to use the computer for coding stuff right? So, they don’t see any use to buy it yet. If they can create a few programs for the common man to use in daily life, then it will become a big hit."

"Like what?"

"Hmmm, take me for example, I had to go through a lot of paperwork daily. Not just me, most staff in other companies do that as well. It is very essential for business, you see. If IndiSoft could come up with a program to make it easier for us to work, then I am going to definitely buy their product."

"Can you explain a bit?"

"You see, when I am doing paperwork, my desk is littered with all kinds of documents. Sometimes, it is hard for me to shift through them and find the document I want. Sometimes I misplace some documents. Sometimes, I even lose some of the documents, not intentionally, but it happens."

"Then after I finish my part of the work, I have to bring the whole lot to the next person who was supposed to work on it. There might be some confusion as to who has what document or if the work is finished in a certain department and stuff. It can be really tedious to check on all these things if suspicion arises."

"Now imagine if I can do the same work on a computer and save it. I wouldn’t be able to misplace it easily. My desk won’t be cluttered anymore. It will be easy for me to organize. Then, once I finish, I can send it over to the next department to work directly from this computer to that or by giving it to them physically."

"Do you think I wouldn’t buy a computer with such a program that effectively reduces half my workload? All this can be done if the program they come up with has the ability to allow me to type and save something. Type as in not like code stuff you weirdos do. Just genuine typing stuff like the typewriters are capable of."

"Do you get what I am coming at? Imagine how many workplaces would get a computer at least for their higher level staff so that they can work a little more easily. Like I said, it is all in the way in which IndiSoft is going to develop. If they can make their UI-OS a must-have for the masses, I wouldn’t mind investing in them more."

Rob finished his speech and looked over. He was a little worried that Brent was once more offended by his words as Brent wasn’t commenting anymore. As he looked over, he found that Brent had sat up and was thinking very hard.

Rob looked at him curiously. Brent looked incredibly focused at this moment. His eyes were clear and he looked as if he was completely sober. Rob was a little anxious as he did not know what was running through Brent’s mind. He hoped that none of his words had offended Brent once again.

"Brent, is everything all right?" Rob asked with concern.

However, Brent didn’t reply. He got up and walked towards the desk on which a bunch of papers was stacked upon. He hurriedly grabbed a nearby pen and started drawing something.

Rob got up and walked over to look at what Brent was doing. As Rob watched Brent started sketching out what looked like a design diagram. The more he watched, the more Rob’s eyebrows climbed higher.

Because what Brent was sketching looked eerily similar to a Notepad window.

*****

A/N: Hey folks!

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