Friday, October 13, 1981
Steven Hyde walked into his office building after a long meeting with a real estate agent for a possible store to be immediately greeted by an intern.
"Good afternoon Mr. Hyde," the college student greeted. "I mailed those papers to your father's office in Wisconsin. He should be getting them tomorrow or Friday."
"Thanks."
"Also, the manager of the store on Twelfth Street called to say that they wanted to know if they could bring in more of those," he began before Hyde cut him off.
"No. I already know what he wants to bring in and they're shit. Grooves is not going to be associated with that crap. Make sure he knows that."
"Yes sir."
Hyde walked past him and towards his office. He walked over to his secretary, June, was on the phone, taking notes as she talked to someone. She looked up and held up a finger, signaling that she needed to talk to him.
Hyde crossed his arms across his chest and waited for the older woman to hang up the phone. Finally she hung up.
"Mr. Hyde, your father called. He wanted to know when he can expect those papers."
"Tomorrow. Friday at the latest," he responded.
"Okay. I'll call him back for you and let him know."
"Thanks."
With that Hyde walked into his office. He dropped behind his desk. There were mounds of paper on the oak desk. He began to go through it, approving certain actions, rejecting others. He wrote up a few flowcharts that his father had asked him for by the end of the month.
"Hey Mr. Hyde," a voice said from his doorway.
He glanced up. Standing there was Lisa, a secretary for one of the other executives. She was twenty and okay looking but she wasn't anything special. She never seemed to pick up on the fact that he wasn't interested in her.
"Hey."
"A few of us are going to that bar down the street when we get off. Do you want to come with?"
"Um I think I'm going to be staying late. I have a few things I need to get done before I head out."
"Oh, that's cool. Well if you change your mind…"
Hyde nodded. He had no intention of showing up. Sure going out for a few beers sounded like a great idea but going out with a couple of his employees, Lisa especially, didn't sound like fun.
She looked at him one more time before walking away.
Hyde spent the rest of his night clearing out as much of the paperwork as possible. He was about 3/4s way through the stack when he retired. It was after nine at night and he thought he was going to go crazy if he looked at any more papers.
Hyde checked his pockets for his keys and assured that he had them before leaving. He walked outside. It was nice out, cool and breezy. He walked the two blocks back to his apartment.
"Hello Mr. Hyde," the night doorman greeted.
"Hey Will. How are you?"
"I'm doing well. How are you?"
"Good."
Hyde walked into the building and took the elevator up to his eleventh floor apartment. He stepped inside, shed his suit jacket, hanging it up on the hook by the front door.
He walked to the kitchen. He grabbed a beer out of the fridge and popped the cap off. He pressed the button to play the messages on his answering machine. He listened to a couple of girls that he knew leave messages asking him to call them back. Yeah, that probably wasn't happening. He wasn't one for dating. Hell Chrissy was the closest thing to a relationship he had ever had and that hadn't been more than 'staging protests' for a couple of weeks.
He had left everything he had known behind for that girl, thinking for some reason that he had a serious future with her. He didn't. Looking back he probably always knew that but he was looking for a reason to get out of town. He didn't really have anything there anyway. Sure he had Forman and Donna and Kelso and even Mr. and Mrs. Forman but they had been busy with their own lives. When it came down to it he didn't regret leaving.
It had worked out for the best. Now he had a two bedroom apartment in downtown Manhattan and he was running the East Coast division of Grooves, his biological father's company. If he had stayed behind in Wisconsin he'd probably still be working at The Hub or something equally as lame.
Hyde flipped through the channels before settling on MTV. Sure so far the 80's looked like a music nightmare in Hyde's opinion but it was his job to stay on top of what was going on in the music industry.
As he watched the different songs and artists for two hours he decided that the music was worse than he had thought. He wanted to gouge out his eardrums just so he didn't have to hear this crap anymore. Too bad he'd actually have to pay these people for their crappy music.
Frustrated he flipped the TV off and went to his room to change. He needed to go out tonight. He'd have to go to that bar a couple blocks away. It was Friday which meant it was going to be busy there but the bouncers knew who he was. He'd get in without any sort of wait.
