The Merger – 11

 

"How the hell did I manage to collect so much junk," Josh muttered as he began filling a third trash bag. Admittedly, one of the bags held shredded files relating to clients he'd had several years ago whose information was outdated—and would be even if they came back to him with new business. The rest of it was stuff he'd stashed on the bookshelves—mainly old safety and security magazines he'd subscribed to before deciding he could access them online where he'd have the capacity to search for exactly what he wanted to know. There were a few catalogues, too. He kept the most recent ones and dumped the rest.

Finally satisfied that what was left was what he wanted to take with him, he began putting together, then packing, the boxes he'd bought on the way over after breakfast.

*****

Mike, in the meantime, was emptying Josh's new office of everything except the shelves. He stopped long enough to remove the hard drives from the computers then dropped them off at an electronic store that would either dispose of or revamp them. On his way back, he passed a big-box store and decided to pick up the cabinet for the lavatory that he'd mentioned to Josh.

By the end of the afternoon, the office suite was ready for Josh to move in, other than the fact that the office supplies were sitting on the floor beside Rosie's desk, waiting for Josh's bookshelf.

With that finished, he called Josh. "How's the packing going?" he asked when Josh answered.

"Almost done. Then I'm going home and collapsing."

"You and me both. How are you planning on getting everything over here?"

"There's this thing called renting a truck. I'll arrange to do it in the morning before we meet at the lawyer's office."

"Sounds good to me. If you want, I'll help with the move."

Josh chuckled. "I want."

"Figured as much. I'll see you in the morning."

*****

Then it was done.

Mike was surprised how everything seemed to fall into place. He'd called his lawyer first thing Monday morning to read him the notes Josh had made about the details he and Mike had discussed. Therefore, when they got to the lawyer's office, the man already had a rough draft drawn up. The three of them went over it in detail then the lawyer told them they could return that afternoon to sign it and have it notarized.

As soon as they'd left the lawyer's office, they picked up the truck that Josh had rented, leaving Josh's car in the rental company's lot so he could drive the truck. From there, they went to his old office.

"Not as much as I expected," Mike commented, looking at the array of boxes in the middle of the floor.

"That's because I got rid of enough stuff to fill three large trash bags," Josh told him, grimacing.

Mike laughed. "That bad, huh?"

"That bad."