The Contract Chapter 3 By The Mangler
The three masters re-entered the office to find Loser standing off to the side of Mr. Preston's desk not meeting any of their eyes as they entered the room. He had a red blush over most of his body.
Sam was the last to enter the office, other than Todd, and as soon as he entered, he yelled "Present" at Loser.
Loser just looked up at him like a deer in the headlights.
"I fucking said, present, asswipe," Sam repeated as he stepped over and slapped Loser.
"I don't want to do...." Loser began before Sam interrupted him.
"And I don't fucking care what you want. At the moment, the contract is in effect and he will do as you are told. PRESENT."
Loser looked toward Mr. Preston, who gave a slight nod, and then lowered himself to the floor, spread his knees, and locked his hands behind his head. Sam took his seat.
"Now what is this I hear about Loser pussying out?"
"Loser has indicated that he would like to exercise the buy-out clause of his contract which he is entitled to do. As you will remember, the contract obligates him to pay each of you 2 million dollars to terminate the contract. But, ..."
"Doesn't he also have to fulfill the terms of the contract for the rest of the month?" Marc asked.
"Technically, I have looked at the contract and yes, he does. However, in this state, there is a 3-day recission period for any contract that involves financial obligations over 10,000 dollars."
"What does that mean?" Brad inquired.
"If he exercises that option, it means that the contract is void from the time of signing and that there is actually no contract."
"Is that the option the fucking worthless pussy is taking??"
All eyes then turned toward Loser. His honor was at war with his ego. He knew that if he did not rescind the contract, it would remain in force for one month and the masters would not make that month easy and that he would be incurring substantial financial obligations. On the other hand, if he did rescind the contract he would be seen as a quitter --something that he abhorred in others.
"No, I am not going to rescind the contract. I am simply exercising the buyout clause. I will honor the contract for the first month," he murmured. His sense of honor had won out.
"I'm sorry," Emerson said, "but I didn't understand that. You need to speak up." The truth is that he had heard it.
"I am NOT going to rescind the contract. I am simply exercising the buyout clause. I will honor the contract for the first month," he said in a much louder voice. His voice had a slight hitch in it and he actually turned redder in the face.
The three masters simply snickered.
"Well, I will make arrangements for the payment of the 2 million dollars to each of you. This should only take a few days till the money is in your hand. In the meantime, the terms of the contract will continue to be in force."
"Well, at least it was a profitable day. I mean we will get a new place to live, new furnishings, and a new car," Brad said. "Not too bad for only a couple of hours of work."
"True," Marc responded. "But I am disappointed in Loser over there. I thought he was made of stronger stuff, but I guess not."
Loser looked down at the floor as the blush spread up his face.
"Uhhh, Emerson," Sam said. "I have a question."
"Sure Sam, what is it."
"Is this considered `discretionary' spending?"
"No, he is required to pay you the 2 million dollars," was Emerson's reply.
"No, I get that. But is he `required' to rescind the contract?" As he asked this, he smirked in Loser's direction and Loser jerked his eyes up and looked like a deer in the headlights.
Marc and Brad both let out loud laughs.
"Well, obviously, he is not `required' to rescind the contract but once he does the spending is mandatory."
Sam looked over at Loser, smirked, then turned back to Emerson. "But you can't make a discretionary action a mandatory action just because you invoke the discretionary action. That means that we three must agree to the spending."
"That means I never have the right to rescind the contract without your approval and the contract doesn't require that," Loser screamed.
"No one gave you permission to talk," Mark began.
"Now, now, he has the right to be involved in this particular discussion," Emerson admonished.
"I'm not saying that he doesn't, he just needs to have permission to do so. Maybe Master Sam wasn't through talking. Sounds like another demerit to me."
Sam replied, "It should be but I think we'll let it pass this time. However, the next time it will be double demerit, Loser."
"Also, that clause about buying out the contract only appears in the `renewal' section of the contract, so it only applies during that time," Sam continued.
Loser opened his mouth to say something but closed it and looked at Emerson.
Seeing the look on Loser's face, Sam laughed and said "Speak" as if he was talking to his dog.
"It was the intention that I will be able to buy out of the contract at any time, otherwise I wouldn't have agreed to it," he said in a very authoritative voice.
Sam started to reply but Emerson held up his hand.
"Well, both of you have made a sound argument for your position. That means this should be handled as the contract stipulates for disagreements -- submitting it to arbitration."
Loser groaned as he knew that Van Saint was very unlikely to take his side.
Brad interrupted Emerson. "It may be a little premature for that Emerson. After all, we may agree to the spending and so the point would be moot. Is there somewhere the three of us can talk? Privately," he continued while looking at Loser.
"Todd, why don't you take them to the small conference room, if it is available."
"It is. If you gentlemen would like to follow me this way," Todd said and he began to usher them out the door.
"Stay in presentation while we're gone," Sam told Loser as they walked out the door. And no talking while we are not here."
"You can't tell him that Sam," Emerson said. As Sam looked back to say something, Emerson continued, "Loser has the right to talk with his attorney when you are not around. This would be the best time."
"Fine," Sam scowled not happy.
As the door closed Loser looked at Emerson with glistening eyes. "I'm screwed, aren't I? Parker will never side with me. And I don't think I can do this."
"Remember, you have the right of review, so if the arbitrator's decision is so out of line it can be overturned. And even though you said you weren't going to rescind, you still have 72 hours. The laws doesn't allow that to be waived. Only your honor does that."
Loser seriously debated saying fuck it to his honor, but his sense of ego would not allow that. He breathed a small sigh of relief as he thought that least there was the option of having the arbitrator's decision reviewed.
"And, yes, I think that you can do this. You're stronger than you think. Besides, if you decide to ignore the contract and the Masters sued, you would probably be found liable for the financial aspects of the contract, but not the other. Of course, you would then be labeled a quitter."
Loser took another deep breath. The one thing he never wanted to be known as was a quitter. It went against every fiber of his being. But he wasn't sure that he could do this, but he would just have to wait and see.
"Now excuse me while I make a phone call here."
As Marc and Brad entered the conference room, Todd stopped Sam and whispered in his ear, "Don't let the little pussy off the hook. He has always gotten everything he wanted in life and it's about time that he learns real life isn't like that for us `normal' people."
Sam smiled and nodded as he entered the conference room where the other two Masters had settled into their seats and sat down.
Brad began. "Look, if we agree to the spending of the money, we each get 2 million dollars plus the other things, like a condo, a great car, and we have one month with Loser."
"Yeah, but then we miss out on 11 months of showing Loser what it means to have no control over his life and that was the impetus for this entire situation. Plus, I must admit, it was a hell of a lot of fun, exercising control like that," Sam replied.
"Well, I never thought he would go through with it," Marc said. "But since he signed the contract and I saw Sam putting him in his place, I must admit I became very excited at the prospect. And, if we enforce the contract until the end of the year and decide to opt-out, then we each get 500,000 dollars. Or we renew the contract and force Loser to buy us out if he really doesn't want to continue."
"Shit," Brad said and both he and Sam laughed. "I forgot about the automatic renewal clause for Loser. So, if we refuse, and the arbitrators agree with us, we potentially get the entire year and 2,000,000 dollars."
Marc continued, "So we agree that we will not approve the spending of the money and proceed to arbitration?"
Both of the other Masters nodded yes and Brad asked, "Who should we get for our arbitrator?"
As the three masters entered Emerson's office they heard, "Great, I'll see you here at 10:00 am tomorrow and Los...Ethan will be here as well," Emerson concluded his phone call as the three masters resumed their seats.
"What's this about Loser being here tomorrow," Marc demanded. "And remember, his name is Loser, not Ethan."
"I was just setting up an appointment with Parker Van Saint to come in so that we could review the contract and explain that Loser wants him to be his choice on the arbitration panel and what that would entail. Since he didn't know about the name change, I had to use Ethan. We will clear that up tomorrow. I would have to do the same thing with whomever you guys chose as your representative."
As he finished saying this, he noted that Brad was texting on his phone. Before anyone said anything else, a ding was heard on Brad's phone indicating he had received a message.
"Jerry says he could be here tomorrow at 10 if we want to appoint him as our representative," Brad said.
Sam and Marc nodded confirming the decision they had made in the conference room. They all knew something that Loser didn't. Jerry had an abiding hatred of rich people so his vote would assuredly be on their side. When Brad had been explaining what was happening, Jerry was beside himself with joy -- even more so than Brad.
"Great, then the three of us will meet at 10 tomorrow and go over the contract, the obligations, etc. And if those two agree to do it, I'll meet the 3rd arbitrator once he has been selected and review everything with him."
Both Sam and Marc's phones indicated a message coming through. They both read the message, from Brad, and both smiled and typed "agreed" in response.
Loser was looking particularly miserable but felt that at least things couldn't get much worse but he was reminded that he was wrong.
"Okay, I think that is all for us here today. I'll see Loser here tomorrow at 10. And without any of the masters."
"That's fine. We will make sure he is here on time. Well Loser, the good news is that you won't have to parade back to the dorm right now. You will barely have time to walk to the first condo showing. So once Todd leads you out of here, you'd better hustle."
Loser had a single tear escape down his face as he realized that he was going to have to face his real estate agent dressed like this. `Maybe you are a fucking idiot,' he thought to himself.
Sam picked up the end of the leash and handed it to Todd.
"If you can see that Loser gets out of here, we would appreciate it."
"Not a problem, sir," Todd nodded at Sam. At least not for me, he thought.
Shortly after the three Masters left, Todd emerged from the office with a collared, leashed, and obscenely dressed Loser following in his direction. The visitors in the waiting room and the office staff who could see what was going on, all got quiet and watched stunned at the sight before them.
Loser didn't think he could feel any more embarrassed but he was wrong. His entire body turned red and he prayed that he would just drop dead right here.
Rather than hurry Loser to the stairs, Todd stopped at a couple of the desks to pick up papers and engage in business-related talk with those present. He was just delaying Loser's escape into the stairwell.
As Todd opened the stairwell door, he looked at Loser and said "See you tomorrow, Loser. Look at the fucking joke you have become." Loser just walked into the stairwell and started down the stairs but had to stop as Todd had not dropped the leash. Todd just stared at Loser and held the leash until the silence became unbearable for Loser. Todd laughed dropped the leash and turned back into the office.
Todd was beside himself with joy. Finally, he had one rich client he didn't have to kowtow and fawn over. If truth be known, Ethan, er Loser, was the one client that he didn't mind as he had treated him as a human being and was nice to him. But Loser represented the entitled rich preppy boys that came through here. And Todd was not about to give up the chance to take advantage of one of them. Even if he didn't particularly deserve it. But then again, Loser had asked for it.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he stopped before exiting the door. Going through that meant he was going to be out in public. He took a deep breath, summoned his courage, tucked the end of the leash into the shorts, and pushed open the door. He ignored the laughing of the guard as he pushed open the outer door, where he ran into James.
"Doesn't look like you are doing so well, Loser," James said. "Hopefully when I see you tomorrow, you'll be doing better."
"Tomorrow, what do you mean?" Loser asked.
"Oh, didn't you know? My full name is Jerry James Jenson, I'm Brad's brother but I hate the name Jerry."
James laughed as he saw the look of horror cross Loser's face as he realized that he was in this deeper than he thought. Loser's resolve waivered and he decided to head back into the building to tell Emerson that he wanted to rescind the contract.
As he turned to return to the building, he felt a jerk around his neck. He looked to see that James had grabbed the leash and pulled. James then stepped up to Loser's side.
"You really going to pussy out? I knew that you fucking rich bastards had no backbone when push came to shove. At the least sign of difficulty, you turn to daddy or use your money to solve problems. No fucking honor at all." James dropped the leash and returned to his podium and watched as Loser stood there. James could see the conflicting emotions as Loser battled to determine what he was going to do.
James smirked when he saw Loser pick up the leash and start walking away from the building and toward his next appointment.
`How the fuck did you get yourself into this mess,' Ethan asked himself as he walked down the stairs. He still thought of himself as Ethan. In his mind, he hadn't become Loser yet.
"I knew that his ego was his weak point. Fucking rich prick," James murmured to himself before turning to help the client who had just pulled up.
"Was than Ethan Winthrop," the client asked as he gave James his keys.
"Um, no that wasn't Ethan," James replied with a smirk. "That is now Loser," James said to himself.
The client just shook his head and went into the building.
For questions or comments, you can contact me at bgklmanlger@yahoo.com
You wouldn't be reading this without the people and resources that nifty.org provides. If you can spare a bit of money to support it, visit https://www.nifty.org/nifty/support.html