Two-Week Notice

[Go to the corner of West and Main - take the number 6 bus to Clark - wait for your contact outside at the coffee shop.]

“How do they keep finding me?” Kayla thinks, looking up and down the busy street for a glimpse of an agent.  It never ceases to amaze her how the Organization can track her down in such unpredictable public place: this time in the Lifestyle section of the newspaper.  Judging from the widespread dispersion of this contact, she figures she must be getting better at avoiding them.

Keeping her head down, she moves toward Main, hoping she isn’t being followed by a counter-agent.

Leaving the Organization behind has been more difficult than Kayla imagined.  Mainly she’s irritated they won’t accept her resignation - she’s given them a dozen written letters already, but they continue to track her down.  Nothing is more important to the Organization than its agents and nothing is more important to the agents than their personal assistant.

Originally it was exciting to coordinate Agent Orion’s missions - bartering Army transport, fabricating credentials, ordering fake mustaches.   Proud of her achievements, Kayla loved working for the Organization and more importantly, she loved Agent Orion (even if she couldn’t tell her mother).  Quantifying risk-factors were her specialty, excelling her boss to the top of his field and catching the eye of the Organization’s top brass.  Regrettably, this made her indispensable and the Organization took over her entire existence, keeping her from her family and friends - hell, she even had to get rid of her cat.

Sitting at the wrought iron table in front of the coffee shop, she wonders who would be collecting her this time.  Taking a sip of her coffee, she picks up her Blackberry, longing for the constant barrage of text messages from Orion, but the screen said ‘no new messages‘.  Until today, she thought They had given up on her, having abstained from contacting her for nearly eight weeks, but this contact made her realize how much she‘s given up.

“Verify,” Says a deep voice behind her and she responded. “May I get you a cherry turnover.”

“Walk with me, Kayla,” the voice says and she turns to face a handsome tan man in white shirt and trench coat.  Xanthophyllic flowers are clutched in his left hand, rustling softly in the wind.

“You never said goodbye,” the man says and Kayla is struck by the hint of sadness in his voice.

Zipping her purse closed, she gets up from the table, takes the offered flowers and strolls up the road next to him.  A few moments pass in silence, then the man stops abruptly and says, “Why did you leave the Organization? Was it because of me?”

Battling a desire to console him or run away she gives the most generic response that comes to mind.  “Can you please state my directive?” she asks, but she knows he’s not going to buy the standard protocol.

“Did you even consider me - us - when you decided to leave?” he asks. 

Entertaining the notion of happily ever after, Kayla throws her arms around Orion’s neck and kisses him feverishly.  Finally she pulls away, taking in the glow of Orion’s expression and says, “Please consider this my two-week notice.” 

***********

In addition to Friday Flash, this story is also my entry in the Alphabet Story writing contest on A Place for Writers.  If you didn't catch it in the prose, each sentence begins with different letter of the alphabet, in sequential order, beginning with "G".   If you'd like to enter a story of your own, the details are on her site.   Deadline to enter is July 30, 2010 @ 11:59pm eastern time.  Good luck!

IF you'd like to read my winning entry from the last contest, you can find it here.