September, 2004
This was the perfect time of my life. I had finally met the guy whom I thought was the love of my life and work was going well. Having a place to go each morning and a steady income is security; having someone to hold you each night, that´s luck. This is why other people´s problems were not my concern, especially when talking about Josh Parker. Our relationship was strictly business, and a malicious part of me rejoiced that his relationship with Charlotte was going downhill. Lately they seemed sort of distant and Josh never talked about our affair again. He had forgotten about me, and I about him. End of story.
Yet it´s true that for a while, Josh had been more sedate. He wasn´t staying until all hours and he seemed to be less worried about being the best idea-man in New York, there seemed to be other priorities. Also, he was in Samantha´s office constantly. I would observe them from my workstation, sensing something going on between them, though I never actually saw anything. Their conversation seemed to be normal, rising in tone sometimes, but, in the competitive environment of an agency such as this, there is always competition and tension. Each and every one of the projects we worked on had to be perfect. Samantha applied pressure to Josh, and Josh was a genius.
However, there was a before and after at DIC. It happened in September of 20014. Suddenly, Samantha stopped coming in to the DIC office. No explanations were offered and Josh took over her post – and office - as director, juggling his previous and new positions as best he could.
Josh was quieter than usual, he seemed sad and somehow listless, nothing to do with the fiery passionate man I knew.
No one seemed to know what happened to Samantha. The fact that she was a high executive at DIC and came from one of the well-to-do families of New York, helped to keep the saucy news from cropping up.
Samantha returned in January of 2005. She had gained weight and seemed older and haggard. She wasn´t the trim attractive executive director I had known. You could almost say she had aged twenty years, and nobody knew why.