Damn, I thought. I really liked working with him. That's a real shame. But we all mess up at times, and then we have to live with the consequences, right?

Then, rather guiltily, I started thinking about his job. I started hoping that I would be placed in F.'s position, and that's when my boss told me that he wanted to meet with me on Monday. Could I come around 11AM? Sure. He said many cryptic things like, "We need to talk about F.'s last few weeks here and how they can best be used," and, "We also need to discuss some future plans," stuff like that. I tried my best to sound like all of this was no big deal, but inside I was already counting my chickens. I mean, we're talking about a $40,000 dollar a year job here, people! I make about half that now! Plus a company car! My math skills aren't great, but I could do enough math to know we would be on Easy Street, for sure, if I was offered this job.

Well, I think we can all see where this is going...

So I called F. I expressed my sincere (really!) sadness about his losing his job and how I'd miss him as a coworker. I hinted around about the meeting on Monday, and he gave me the dirt: The meeting is just to plan out arrangements for me to drive F. around in the bossman's car for the final few weeks he's around. Not much more than that. Of course I didn't have the heart to come right out and ask if there was any talk of my getting his job, and F. didn't mention it. F. is the kind of guy who would tell me if I was being considered, so I can only guess that either F. doesn't know, or it's not happening. I have to think it's not happening.

I had to un-do the math. Easy Street is no longer around the corner, as far as I can tell. That just plain sucks.

But then again, who knows? I guess we'll see what Monday brings.