Office Hours, Friday, 10/02

[tyler_gone]

Before Tyler could do anything else today, he had to check in with someone.

"No," was how Marla answered, on about the eighth ring.

"... huh?"

"Caller ID," she explained, rat-a-tat-tat. "Whatever you called to ask me, Tyler, I'm pretty sure the answer is no."

Tyler let out a sigh. "So you aren't coming to the island this weekend."

"Nope. Got the invitation, again. Figured the free meal wasn't worth the gas money." A wry beat later, she added, "How are your friends?"

"Tony's fine. I guess Pepper and Rhodes are fine too, I just haven't --" He cut himself off. "Do you care?"

"Not especially."

"So ... always a pleasure, Marla."

"Wish I could say the same to you." And then they hung up.

That bit of business taken care of, he checked his mail. he had to read the letter three times to make sure it said what he thought it said.

He remembered that conversation, vaguely, if he thought hard. It was actually pretty standard advice for him; he'd stolen it from some old punk song.

And, somehow, it had changed the world. He had changed the world for the better, for once.

That ... had to make a guy feel good.

He left his office door open as he waited for any visitors.

Comments

[tyler_gone]

"I couldn't get my head around it, either," Tyler said, rubbing his forehead and pondering sending the both of them to see Sweets. "Look, you want my advice? Go to Fight Club. Spar the big guys, Deadpool and Cable and Minsc. Fight more than once a week. I don't think you have to let somebody come at you with a knife."

"Also," he added, putting on his Responsible Adult Hat even more firmly, "how were you going to know if what she was doing was too much? I'm sure somebody would heal you if you got hurt, but things go too far fast enough, you could end up dead before anybody could blink."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Jennifer said, very serious. "I think you're very right. Even if Deadpool scares me."

She nodded. "I'm going to tell Ino I don't think it's a good idea, any more."

[tyler_gone]

"Try Anakin Skywalker," Tyler suggested. "He's very good. And he's less likely to tell you about your possible future sex life."

"And for what it's worth, I wasn't trying to talk you out of it."

Not entirely, anyhow.

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"No, I get that," Jennifer said. "But I think... It was something I wasn't thinking about, properly."

[tyler_gone]

"Then I helped you work it through," Tyler said. "Glad I did something useful today."

[not-jaded-yet.livejournal.com]

"Thanks, Mr. Durden," Jennifer said. "Thank you so much."