Reading Cinemas is a beast of a theatre hunkered inside a slipshod shopping mall in the churning belly of Wellington central. Subtlety is not in its character. Liam and Jamie ride the escalator up to the mezzanine. They gesture to the ticketmaster, and are waved past. No movie awaits them. Both are attending a company meeting. "A key lecture on the restructuring of the TEC," the email read. "Mandatory for all employees," a later email declared. "Not something you should be late for," their manager dutifully reminded them. "Shit's going down," a colleague noted. The TEC executives reserved a theatre here for the space and the screen--this was going to be one hell of a powerpoint presentation.
The meeting was scheduled to begin at 3:00pm sharp. Jamie and Liam waltzed in at five past. As they approached the entrance, a voice announced over the PA, "the last two are coming in."
There they stood. Two-hundred eyes focused directly on them--one-hundred of which, twenty minutes later, would no longer be employed. The two of them stood frozen in so many gazes. Liam raised the large drinking straw to his lips and took a long slurp.
"Bubbleshakes were a bad idea," Jamie said.
2 comments:
You forgot the essential : what flavour were the bubbleshakes? Was it a tapioca moment or rather a "zhen zhou nai cha" moment. Really, it does change everything.
JF has a point. Mine was blueberry, Liam's was almond.
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