<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">Already have lunch plans.</span><br/><br/>There was only one course of action available to them now. Todd couldn't stay on, he'd pushed the wrong buttons and needed to be expunged immediately to contain the mess. "You're fired." Marcus restrained his internal sadness at seeing him go, but there was no other way.<br/><br/>"What?!"<br/><br/>"You heard me." Marcus said with a large degree of confidence, "<em>I'm firing you.</em>"<br/><br/>"Because I had the balls to--"<br/><br/>"<em>No,</em>because you accused me of having an inappropriate relationship with the woman who's doing your job better than you ever could, out of something that I can only imagine is jealousy." Although they certainly were having an affair, his words would strike a chord anyway. It was true and Todd didn't know any better. "There's nothing inappropriate going on between me and Corinne. And it's very sexist of you to think that the reason we regularly bypass you in the chain of command is that we have a sexual relationship."<br/><br/>"And what you said about my wife is<em>highly</em>inappropriate. You probably thought you were justified in spouting off like that, but you couldn't be more wrong about your charges. I'm deeply disappointed in you. I don't really have any choice but to fire you -- at least Corinne will be ready to take your position. I talk to her so much because I've been grooming her for this awhile, but I was going to give you a chance to resign before campaign season starts..."<br/><br/>His eyes shot back down to his cellphone and he began to text. It was a much needed diversion from Todd's betrayed glance.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: courier;">I'll have my assistant email you the location. We're having dinner with an unknown third party. I can give you much in the way of details.</span>