“Nah. Thanks,” replied Jack in a tone he hoped did not reveal his dislike of the person talking to him, and desire not to be near him.
“Fine, later then,” said Paux, in a tone that said that he realized exactly those things.
“Yeah,” said Jack, in a tone that said “I don’t care if you do realize those things, just get away from me.”
As Paux walked away the dank miasma of his body chemistry receded.  Breathing deeply, Jack stared in empty loathing at the missing wall of what he wished was an office, or just any room where he could close the door.  Rubbing his stomach he swiveled in his chair to face his computer monitor.  
Staring at the empty screen, Jack felt a desperate sudden need to recreate the expansive, conceptual contemplation that Paux had ruined.  Of late, the days Jack could manage a space of emotional stability, psychological integrity, and intellectual contemplation were few.  Jack felt his face burning and his eyes swelling as he grieved the interruption.  Anxiously rubbing his hairline, he breathed evenly and smoothly and tried to calm himself.
It was at this moment that Bill popped his head over the cubicle wall.  Wearing a grin that was rictus in the middle, and perversely forced, in an odd way that spoke of pleasance, at the corners, he stared at Jack and said, “You gotta see this.  You won’t believe what they’re doing to this girl.”
“No thanks, I gotta do some work,” answered Jack in strained civility, barely concealing his disgust and annoyance.  He immediately regretted the slip of tone, knowing it was the wrong way to deflect Bill when he was excited.
“Dude, you have to see this,” Bill said in a nervously energized voice alternating between a high squeak and a soft boom, a voice that told Jack he would physically force him to watch the video if necessary, which Jack knew he would do from previous experience.
Jack gave Bill an empty stare for an infinite second, then stood up in acknowledgement of necessary forces.  He knew it would cost him less energy, less emotion, that it would save him from more agitation and lingering annoyance, if he gave in to Bill’s occasional requests for solidarity in exercising a psychotic need to indulge in media of questionable content.  The alternative was to put up with days of pointed glances, cold shoulders, and off hand remarks.  Moreover, Bill was the current favorite of the current Vice President, and displeasing Bill was tantamount to letting your own blood.  Luckily Bill was not such a bad guy.   He manipulated people’s senses of space gently, and it was common knowledge that the Vice President would not be around much longer.  
Jack was certain Bill’s requests were meant to consolidate his political base in the office, bulwarking his employment against the inevitable and forcible “retirement” of Brad, the current VP. 
