It Wasn't the Money

Nick at Mike’s retirement party: “Mike, old friend, congrats on your forty years. I always hoped you’d come to work for me.”

“Nick, I enjoyed my summer clerkship for you but things just didn’t work out.”

(Mike remembers Nick grabbing back his paycheck, mistakenly drafted for fifty dollars too much.)

“Nick—we treated Mike too well. Right from the start,” joked boss Dick.

(Dick remembers Mike’s first payday, Mike’s declaring—“Dick, you overpaid, gave me more than agreed. It amounts to an extra thousand per year.” Dick had thought briefly, smiled: —“Mike, keep it. You will be worth every penny.”)