Eric looked over the amount of paperwork that he still had to do and silently contemplated the possibility of throwing himself out the window of his office.

Not seriously, though. Just in a casual, momentary daydream sort of way. He loved his job; or, rather, he loved being good at it. It was just that he’d made the mistake of letting everyone realize that he was a workaholic, and now his colleagues were always dumping their crap on him, knowing that he’d take care of it.

Like this trailer park thing. Really? The company was still pushing for that?

Sure, he got the appeal in a sort of detached way. The trailer park itself was kind of trashy, at least from the photos that Eric had seen. He’d have to go out there in person to make certain, of course.

But it looked like your typical rundown place, as far as he could tell. Trailers had been parked there for decades; there were weeds, and piles of dirt, and tacky lawn decorations that had bleached and rusted in the sun.

Not exactly a prime piece of real estate. Not so long as those trailers were there, anyway.

But the land itself was gorgeous. It was right up against the edge of the woods, and once some genuinely nice houses were built, Eric could tell that people would be clamoring to live there. So yes, he could see — sort of — why the bosses were still hammering away at this.

But the residents were clearly being stubborn about it. Eric had done his research — he always did — and they weren’t the first developers to try and buy the property off those who lived in the trailer park. There was some kind of majority vote thing going on that had kept them from selling all this time — he’d have to look more into that.

Each and every time, developers had been rebuffed and given up. Not this time. Eric’s bosses were determined to acquire this land and get the job done.

There was a knock at his door. “Come in,” Eric said automatically.

It was his boss, Jonas. “I see you got the files,” he noted, stepping into the office and closing the door behind him.

Eric nodded. “Yeah, just going over them now.”

Jonas walked over, bracing his hands on the back of the chair. He always had this hunted look in his eyes, probably from the higher-ups constantly banging his door down with more demands. Sometimes Eric wondered if it was really worth it to be angling for Jonas’s position when Jonas eventually got promoted or moved to another department.

“This is really important,” Jonas reminded him, as if Eric wasn’t already aware. “If you can succeed where others have failed…”

“They’re just a bunch of stubborn hicks,” Eric protested.

“You’d think,” Jonas replied bitterly. “And that’s what they are, but damn if they aren’t the most obstinate people I’ve ever met. It’s not like this is their ancestral home or some shit, it’s a goddamn trailer park, and we’re offering them so much more than they deserve to get for the property. But there you have it.”

“I can take care of it,” Eric replied. He didn’t know how yet; he’d only just gotten the paperwork. He’d do some more research and figure it all out.

But he had confidence in himself. He hadn’t failed his company yet, and he didn’t plan on starting, not if he was going to become one of the top men in the company and get the promotion he’d been angling for.

“I know you will.” Jonas gave him a smile, some of the tension bleeding out of his shoulders.

Eric had often thought that Jonas could be handsome if he didn’t look like he was dying of stress all the time. Eric worried at times that that was what he would end up looking like. He’d never been vain, exactly, but he liked how he looked, and he knew appearances mattered.

He took care to dress well for the office and present himself as professional, and liked to think that he looked nice. But he could so easily see the stress hanging off of Jonas, the lines around the eyes and mouth, the heavy look to the skin, the stiffness with which he held himself, like he had to keep himself tightly wound or he’d fall apart.

Sometimes, Eric worried he’d look in the mirror and see that his dark brown hair had turned gray overnight, that his blue-green eyes had a permanent squint to them, that his body shape had gone from merely lean to skinny and bony from not getting a chance to eat and sleep properly.

Then he remembered his father, and how much he had wanted this promotion for Eric, and the success Eric could achieve, and he reminded himself that it would all be worth it. He wouldn’t let the potential stress get to him.

“Don’t worry,” Jonas added, indicating the papers. “I’ve told the higher-ups about your track record. They’ll be watching you closely on this one.”

Eric felt a flutter of nervousness in his stomach. “Oh?”

“Yeah, they’re excited to see how you do with this.” Jonas smiled. “Don’t worry. I know you’ve been fighting for this for a while.”

Was Jonas saying what Eric thought he was? Could that promotion actually be within his grasp?

Something of what he was thinking must’ve shown on his face, because Jonas shook his head. “Now, you didn’t hear anything from me, okay? But Peduski and the rest, they’re keeping an eye on you for good reasons. If you can do this well, I think they’ll reward you.”

“You can’t confirm anything,” Eric stated. He figured that was the case, but just wanted to be certain.

Jonas shook his head. “No, I can’t. Nothing’s certain, of course; you know that. But I’ve heard nothing but good news so far, so I think we can be reasonably hopeful.”

Eric nodded, trying to keep his smile hopeful but not too manic with possibility. He could practically taste the promotion. Of course, Jonas would have been angling for it, since he wanted to get promoted as well.

He’d been hoping for years to be transferred to the head of the marketing department, and if Eric was going to get promoted to Jonas’s position, that meant it was because Jonas was moving on up as well. So there was a definite selfish angle to Jonas’s backing him.

But Eric didn’t care. So long as he got his own promotion out of it, Jonas could be doing it because he wanted to secretly plant another pawn in his take-over-the-world scheme.

“Just keep up the good work,” Jonas said. “And take care of those goddamn idiots in the boondocks.”

“Yes, sir,” Eric replied, watching his boss go.

He looked at the clock. Hell yes — just in time for his lunch break. He couldn’t wait to tell Adam about this — the guy who was one of the name partners in the law firm downstairs. They’d run into each other on the elevator a few times, and had struck up a friendship. It was nice to have someone to talk to who wasn’t also a coworker, and he suspected that Adam felt the same way, so they often got lunch together.

Adam had been encouraging him that the promotion was on his way, but he’d also been cautioning Eric about taking on too much work. “Life is more than just your job; no matter how much you love it, you need balance,” he’d say. “Do you ever go out?”

“You don’t ever go out.”

“Yeah, but I’m about to get married. I don’t need to go out. I go and see a movie with Luke or something.”

And make out in the back row, most likely. Adam was so stupidly in love with his fiancé that it would have annoyed Eric, if it hadn’t also been the thing that seemed to soften Adam up. The guy was ruthless when it came to everything else; it was kind of terrifying.

This promotion, if he got it — and he would get it, he had to keep telling himself that, had to believe it — would give him even less free time than before. But who needed to go out to clubs? Who needed a significant other?

His dad had managed just fine with his marriage, and he’d made it clear to Eric what the most important thing in life was: your success in your chosen field. He was going to make his dad proud — if Dad could see him from wherever he was now.

Eric liked to think so. He wasn’t super religious, but his parents had been, and that still stuck with him in adulthood; or, at least, the idea that there was a way for the spirit to continue on. He wanted his father to be watching him with pride, to know that Eric had listened to all that Dad had said, and had followed the example laid out for him.

All he had to do was find a way to get these people to give up their ridiculous trailer park.

How hard could it be?