Tantalus Ch. 01

Eric sat in his car staring at the wheel. His thoughts raced around him as he tried to brace himself for the confrontation he was about to walk into. He could do this, he thought, biting his lip. He had to.

He opened the car door and stepped out into the dark parking lot. Locking his car behind him he began walking towards the building. Loose asphalt crunched with every forced step. He was beginning to sweat now, his hands were beginning to shake. When he got to the door he took one last longing look back towards his car. He indulged in a fantasy were he simply left all this trouble behind him, went back home, and never had to deal with what was to come. The fantasy was fleeting. He had gotten himself in too deep to be allowed to walk away. He didn't know what he was going to say when he got in there but whatever it was he would have to say it. Eric sighed, then pried open the door.

"Welcome to T.G.I. Friday's. We're a little busy right now so there might be a little bit of a wait," the hostess said. Compared to the silence he had been sitting in for the last fifteen minutes the restaurant was deafening. Cutlery clashed on plates, patrons at the bar shouted at their sports teams to put up more points or their bartender to put out more drinks, families laughed as they shared their stories, and Eric found it all a little more than he could handle.

"No, its fine," he told her. "I'm actually meeting someone here." She might have said something along with the nod she gave him but Eric didn't hear it. He scanned the building and didn't see his man, so he walked back further. The booth he was looking for was tucked back in a corner of the restaurant. Of course.

Eric sat down and looked at the man across the table from him. Arthur, at 6'4", was taller than Eric. He kept his black hair buzzed to around half an inch in length. That incredibly dark hair made his blue eyes seem piercing and Eric guessed that Arthur knew it well. While Arthur was in very good shape the most intimidating thing about him by far were those eyes. When Arthur leveled his gaze at you it felt like you were being singled out and taken in. It was like having a spotlight on you.

Arthur was giving Eric that look right now. "You're late," he said. "I'd say I was surprised but honestly I suppose it makes sense. Another ten minutes though and we would have had a problem."

"I'm sorry, you know how northbound traffic gets on Sunday nights." Eric hadn't been stuck in traffic of course. He had been sitting in his car. Arthur probably knew this but it was important for Eric to keep up appearances. On that note he made a conscious effort to steady himself.

Arthur waved the waitress over to their booth. "Could I trouble you for another?" he asked, handing her his drink. She nodded then asked if Eric wanted anything. Eric was about to tell her he was fine when Arthur said "He'll have another of mine. Thank you dear." When the waiter had gone Arthur turned to Eric and said "Don't worry, its on me. Its the least I can do." Eric didn't offer his thanks.

The two sat in silence until the waitress returned with their drinks. Arthur began nursing his but when he noticed that Eric wasn't drinking, he asked "I bought you a drink and you don't even touch it? That's just rude Eric."

"I don't really feel like drinking." Eric said, staring hard at Arthur.

Arthur ignored the look and replied "I would have figured differently. That's why I bought it after all. I thought it would make it easier for you to tell me you don't have my money."

They'd finally gotten down to business. Eric ran his hand across his face then looked back to Arthur. "You're not wrong. I don't have your money. Not all of it at least. I didn't come empty handed though. I have a small payment now. I thought that maybe we could set up a payment plan of sorts. If we could keep the payments at this," Eric slid an envelope across the table, "with payments coming once a month, I could get you paid back by the end of the year."

Arthur peeked inside the envelope, then put it in his pocket. "No. I'm not a fucking bank, Eric. You're not paying back a loan. There are no payment plans. You owe me ten grand. I'll be nice and count what you just handed over towards the principle, since it was technically on time, but from now on you have one month to get me my money. Each week you don't I'm charging five percent interest. If by the end of the month you haven't handed over the cash then I'm going to start seizing assets."

"Ok, maybe the payment plan was on too long of a time frame for you. I could maybe double it,"

"No. What did I just say Eric. I'm not a fucking bank." Arthur was staring straight at Eric and that gaze made it quite clear that this was not a negotiation. Eric was lost. He had known his original offer was never going to fly but had thought that maybe he could get an extension of some kind. Arthur clearly was not in the bargaining mood.

"Arthur, I can't get you the money in that time frame. You know that. Taking the hard line stance isn't good for either of us. If you just give me some leeway you'll make your money back and that's the point, isn't it?"

"You seem to be deliberately hard of hearing so I'll say it again. I'm not a bank." Arthur's composure had gone from civil to threatening; his eyes had widened in anger, his mouth grown taught, his hand clenched on his glass. "I didn't make you a loan. I'm not looking for a return on an investment Eric. You bought a service and are refusing payment. Those are two very different types of transactions. If you didn't have the money, you shouldn't have made the bet. I'm not going to save you if you weren't even willing to save yourself."

Eric started drinking. "Arthur," he said weakly. "I'm just a teacher. I don't have that money. I have a wife and a daughter I need to support and I'm the only income. Please, just work with me here. I'm trying to find a way to get you your money."

"You're a teacher? Then you should know that your 'the dog ate my homework' is my 'please I have a family'. I hear it all the time, it changes nothing, and honestly its almost always a lie."

Eric fumbled in his pocket and took out the picture he had brought with him. "This isn't one of those times." He sat the picture down on the table for Arthur to see. "That's my wife Sharon and my daughter Carolyn. Carolyn is taking real estate classes and Sharon was a stay at home mom until Carolyn moved out. I just can't fork over ten thousand dollars right now."

Arthur reached for the picture and stared at it silently for a moment. Eric realized he was holding his breath but let it out with relief when he saw Arthur start to relax. Arthur handed him back the picture after a few more seconds. "Look, Eric," his tone was now remorseful rather than aggressive. "I just can't work with the schedule you want me to. Truth be told, I was giving you a lot of room to begin with when I said you had until the end of the month. That money needs to be somewhere else by the end of the week. I was essentially fronting you the ten grand for three weeks. Your payment plan just isn't going to happen."

To Eric's credit he stayed well composed. Inside though he was reeling. If he had to get that ten grand now his wife would notice. It would destroy their budget. If he had to stop paying for his daughter's expenses...this could destroy his family.

"But..." What? Had Arthur just said 'but'? That was what Eric needed. His whole body tensed up. "I might have a solution for us. I was going to pay someone with that money. If you do the job for me I'll wipe your debt. I'll even give you an extra five grand for it."

This wasn't what Eric had wanted but did he have another choice? He was basically being offered fifteen thousand dollars for a job. Suddenly instead of worrying about devastating his family budget Eric was thinking about supplementing it. There was risk though. What would he be getting himself into?

"I need to know what you want me to do before I say yes. It's not worth it if it only gets me further in debt to you."

Arthur laughed at that. "You're right to be concerned. Even I have to admit that. You don't need to worry though. This is a walk away job, literally. I can't tell you anything specific unless you commit because once I do I can't risk you not going through with it. I will tell you that its completely non-violent though, if that was a concern for you."

Eric was worried but really what choice did he have? If he said no, if he lost his his family over this, he would never be able to live with himself.

"Ok," Eric said, "I'm in."

* * * *

Was that him? That had to be him. Dark red jacket, Packer's cap, white shoes...there certainly wasn't anyone else wearing all three. Eric steadied himself, then walked over and sat down on the bench next to the man. The two of them sat there on their phones for a few minutes.

After what seemed an interminably long time to Eric the other man collected his stuff, stood up, and began to walk away. Eric looked over at where the other man had been just a moment ago and sure enough there were two credit cards left behind. Eric palmed them and slipped them into his jacket pocket before going back to aimlessly staring at his phone. He waited another five or so minutes before he stood up, grabbed the carry on he had packed, and left the bench behind.

Eric followed the signs for baggage claim and made his way out of the airport. When he walked by the guards at the security checkpoint his heart skipped a beat but they gave him no trouble. Why should they?

After Eric was outside he made his way over to the parking structure where he had left his car. He had parked on the basement level where it was empty. His footsteps echoed around him, muffled by the dark concrete. Arthur was leaning against his car, waiting for him.

"How you doing Eric."

"Could be worse." Eric reached into his jacket and handed Arthur the two cards he had picked up.

"I told you it would be a walk in the park," Arthur said. "Easiest money of your life I'd wager."

That had been bothering Eric actually. All he had had to do was pick up a few cards from a drop in the airport. Was that really worth fifteen thousand dollars? What had he actually just done? "I've worked harder for money, we'll see if that means it was easier."

That got a laugh out of Arthur as he handed Eric back one of the cards. "It's a pre-paid. Your payment is loaded onto it and ready to use." Eric took the card from Arthur with a curt nod.

Arthur stood up off of the car and began to walk away but turned around to say "Eric...I did this because I could tell how much your family meant to you. Remember that."

Eric's face drew into shame, and while it hurt him to say it, he replied "Thank you. It's not going to come to this again. I'm done making bets I can't see through."

If Eric hadn't known better he would have thought the look Arthur shot him was one of pity. Without saying anything further Arthur left Eric alone in the garage.

Eric managed to get into his car before he broke down. It was over. All the tension he had had bottled up inside him came streaming out and he just at there shaking, his head in his hands. It was over. Somehow he had made it out. Now he could put all this behind him. This chapter of his life was closed.

* * * *

Arthur leaned back in his usual booth at the dive bar where he had set up shop. A little bit of himself hated that he conformed to cliches (a bookie in a bar?) but he had to admit, it drew in customers. He had given Eric about two weeks before reaching out. He wasn't sure what exactly was going to happen here, but he couldn't imagine he didn't have the upper hand. He had had his eye out for an opportunity like this for some time and he wasn't going to let this one slip away because he wasn't prepared.

Arthur had time to order another drink at the bar and do decent damage to it before Eric walked in. Eric looked painfully uncomfortable in the bar despite having been there a thousand times before. He knew every corner of that dimly lit room. That smell of alcohol, cigarettes, and mold was something he had long ago grown accustomed to. More over, Eric was quite familiar in particular with that booth in the back corner, with its faded, red leather seats and its dark wood table stained from countless spilled drinks. For all that though, Eric looked like a churchgoer who'd wandered into a den of sin. His eyes were large and his body tensed.

Arthur waved Eric over knowing full well that he would know exactly where to go. With some hesitation Eric moved to the back of the bar and sat down across from Arthur. "Why am I here," Eric asked.

"Well that's good," Arthur said back. "Whenever you don't cut to the chase it's because you have something to hide. I could always tell which of your bets you couldn't cover by how long it took you to place them. I take it things are going well for you then, congratulations."

"That's not an answer," Eric said back. "I got your message and I showed up, I'd rather not be dicked around."

"There's no reason to be rude. We've been on a first name basis for almost a year and a half now, maybe I just missed your company."

"Half a month ago I thought I'd never be back here and now here I am. I've been going to meetings and I'm pretty sure seeing your bookie is against the rules. Please, just get to whatever it is so I can leave."

Arthur nodded his head in acknowledgment. "I'm sorry, I hadn't considered that you might be in some kind of recovery. I'm not trying to get you to place another bet. Honestly, I wouldn't accept it if you tried and I'd be very upset with any of my colleagues who did."

"That's...considerate of you." Eric said back, his voice a mixture of confusion and simple thanks.

"Unfortunately, Eric, I haven't brought you here for good news. Actually, you're not going to be leaving here in a good mood at all, I don't expect." That had noticeably worried Eric.

"What the hell is going on Arthur."

"Well, here's the thing, as you might have expected I'm not just involved in gambling. I have my hands in a couple other pockets as well. This is about the job you did for me."

"I fucking knew it," Eric said through clenched teeth. "I knew that was going to come back to bite me in the ass."

"Don't be too angry at yourself for doing it. It's not like you had too many options in front of you."

"What about being angry at you Arthur? You're the one who's about to do whatever it is you're about to do to me. And you're going to do it with that fake 'I'm your friend' bullshit you always use. Can I be angry about that?" Eric's fists clenched up on the table, his rage was beginning to grow.

Arthur's demeanor snapped into cold professionalism as he softly told Eric, "You're going to want to calm down. You've never caused me trouble Eric but you've been around when someone has. Only a fool doesn't learn from others mistakes."

At that, Eric forced himself to simmer down some. In his peripheral vision he saw Arthur's muscle sit back down in his chair. "Just hurry up and fuck me over already."

Arthur was apparently relaxed again because he had laughed at that. "You'll get the joke in a minute," he told Eric. "As I was saying, I've called you here about the job you helped me with. I noticed you've taken the money off the card. The thing is, that money is directly involved in illicit activities. By taking the money out of the account, you've become a party to them. For better or worse, you're involved now."

"God damn it Arthur..."

"The fact of the matter is you're the one who is exposed here. You're the one who went to an airport to catch a flight, hung around for a little, and then just left. There's no reason to think that you're currently suspected of anything but there's also no reason to think that a nudge in the right direction couldn't change that. Now..."

"You're blackmailing me," Eric cut in. "I get it. You're blackmailing me. Just get to it. I told you earlier I'm done acting as a fucking cat toy for you to swat around." Eric had thought this might happen. He had been worried about it weeks ago when Arthur had first offered him the chance at 'redemption'. What Arthur had said earlier wasn't wrong though. Eric hadn't left himself much choice at the time, he had had to do it. Earlier today when Eric had gotten the call to meet Arthur he had been terrified of this possibility. Now that he knew for a fact that it was happening the terror had left him. In its place Eric had simply become removed.

Arthur hadn't expected Eric's resolve. "Fine. One of the other businesses I'm involved in is pornography. It's almost impossible to make money in the porn industry for reasons that I'm sure you know of. There is, however, a niche that we believe people would be willing to pay for. That niche is actual footage of porn that has traditionally only been fantasy. One of those subjects is student-teacher."

"Fuck you," Eric shot back.

"Eric,"

"No. Go to hell. I'm not sleeping with one of my students for you. Even putting aside the fact that I might lose my job, I'm a high school teacher."

"Not only do I recommend for your own sake that you pick a student who is of age, but I insist on it. We don't want the heat that comes with underage porn."

"It's not happening."

"You don't have a choice here Eric."

"This blackmail goes both ways. What if I were to go to the cops? I have just as much information to work with here as you do."

"If you think that's true you're an idiot. You don't even have evidence that there was a crime involved. Even if you did, I'm insulated from it. It wouldn't cause a single hiccup in my life. I, however, have enough information on what happened at that airport to make sure you're ass fucked in a prison for at least the next ten years."

Eric was smoldering. He had expected to be used for grunt work, something with exposure that Arthur didn't quite want to put his own guys on or dish out the hazard pay for. The jobs he had imagined himself being forced into were so far removed from his real life that they seemed abstract. This, though, intersected directly with his real life. It felt personal.

None of that even touched on the fact that he was essentially being asked to cheat on his wife. He couldn't do that. Sharon was his world. If it came out he had slept with a student he'd lose his job and his family in a single stroke. What was their left for him after that?

Arthur could tell that Eric was struggling to accept this. "What are you worried about Eric? Losing your job? I could take that away from you anyways. Losing your wife? Again, I could take her away from you already. Isn't that how you got here in the first place? If your wife knew the extent of your gambling problem, assuming she even knows about it in the first place, or if she were to find out the terrible criminal dealings you're now involved in, it would be over anyways."

He was right. All the things he might lose by doing this he would definitely lose if he didn't. His back was to the wall, and if he was honest with himself, he had backed into that corner all on his own. He had no right to rage against it. All he could do was try and play it out.

"What, exactly, do you want from me."

"It's nothing too much. A video, with audio, of you and a student together. If you need we can get you a camera to film it on. If you could make it happen somewhere that looks like its a classroom or your office that would get you a bonus. The only other thing is we need her acknowledging that you're a teacher on film."

"How long do I have."

"Let's say two weeks."

Eric stood up from the booth and asked "Are we done then?" Arthur nodded back and Eric walked out of the bar.

* * * *

The past hour barely even seemed real to Eric but when he opened his front door and stepped into his house things seemed to go a little bit back to normal. The familiarity of his home calmed Eric. There was nowhere else in the world that he could feel as comfortable. Raising a family somewhere will do that.