This is the third chapter in the Office Jade series. It'd probably be a good idea to read the first two chapters to be completely up to date. Also, I went in a slightly different direction this chapter with trying to bring the characters thoughts into play a little more as well as the detail of the moments or the action. I hope you like it. While it is a little slow to get into any action I hope everything works well.
All characters are over 18 and everyone is clean.
As always constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged so I can provide better reading. Peace.
*****
"You just can't keep your dick still, can you?"
Bernard froze. He knew the voice and was momentarily rooted still by it. He turned around the room and noticed her sitting at one of the desks of the deepest part of the office, feet up and on the top of the desk and her gleaming brunette locks seaming to shine from the office light.
"Hi, Dahlia and, no, it seems there are a few people who want to keep the thing moving for some reason," Bernard replied quietly.
"Well, damn it all, when is it my turn?" Dahlia's tone was sharp, not necessarily angry but filled with a certain amount of exasperation coupled with drive.
A small smile of his own exasperated thoughts flitted onto Bern's face and he shook his head in rhythm with the shrug of his shoulders. His face showed the "caught with the hand in the cookie jar" innocence and he had no immediate response.
Walking over to the desk Bernard took one of the other seats and brought it right next to his boss and sat. He leaned over to her in a friendly manner and said simply, "Maybe we can make a date?"
"What," Dahlia questioned with a little humor in her voice. "Everyone else seems to be able to just show up but I have to make a date?," she complained, placing a hand on her massive chest in mock irritation.
Bernard looked directly at her face, trying to hide nothing, and replied, "You did show up once but didn't take it anywhere else, so..." He thought of just the other morning when he sat at his own desk and his boss, Dahlia Bettison, gave him a blowjob. It was very nice but she could have had sex with him right then. Why didn't she?
Dahlia's face went thoughtful for a few moments. When her thoughts were complete she looked back to Bernard and said, "You're right, Bern. I could have done something. I can't say why I didn't -- maybe because I'm the boss? I don't know." Her face turned pensive again and processed what the next couple of days was going to be like with the show tomorrow and the rest of the weekend.
Finally, she said, with only a little nervousness in her voice, "Fine. Let's make a date. You and me, dinner and whatever else I want, Monday night. Sound good."
Without even pausing for a dramatic breath Bern replied, "Absolutely."
"Good. Now get outta here, go home, see something else besides this place and we'll see you early tomorrow morning," Dahlia said softly but with some command.
Bernard gave no response as he rose from the chair, leaned down to Dahlia and gave her a light kiss on the lips, which she returned, and left the office.
**********
Bernard made the phone call, though very late, to his closest friends whom he'd been avoiding for no other reason than shame. Luckily they were all together as it was bowling night so he only had to tell the story once. He took his licks and beat downs but he also received honest condolences on the situation.
These guys were awesome. They were all going to be his groomsmen and there were plans in the distant future that he would be theirs. This little cadre of ne'er-do-wells were close but they all also knew when to step away to let one of their brothers figure something out. They were there if needed, though, and Bernard was grateful to all of them.
Bern told them he call them all next week so they could get back to their regular schedules of fun, frivolity and nonsense and then bade them goodnight.
Sitting in his new apartment Bernard Lampson felt a stir of melancholy. Who wouldn't after being cheated on? This, though, was something almost latent: that derision and anger that made its way to the surface after much toil and then settling down with a new rhythm of life. Bern's rhythm wasn't even close to being made but he was getting more interested in the stolid process of his old life. Locking down his emotions again was creeping up on him like when he was young and life was extremely difficult. His former fiancΓ©e, Diane, had helped to break down a wall and let him feel and emote more openly. When he had walked in on her and saw what was happening his more positive emotions locked down and the control surrounded by a corona of fury waiting to be unleashed presented itself to the fore. He didn't really want to go back to that closed way of life but it was comfortable without anyone to help him stay open.
Bernard knew he was going to drive himself crazy thinking like this and he needed to get his mind elsewhere for now. Thinking back to dinner, of which he had only one slice of pizza, he realized he was hungry so up he got himself and headed to that late night food truck about a block away. Not wanting to make things complicated he grabbed his keys and wallet and walked out the door and down the street. He let his thoughts flow to the possibilities of the outcome of the date with Dahlia on Monday as he made the walk which only took a few minutes.
As Bern approached the truck he saw there were a few people around the skirt of the truck but no one was ordering so he headed right to the window. The proprietor of the food truck was a handsome Latino with some tattoos along his neck but they took nothing away from the smile on his face. "What can I get you, bro?"
A quick look at the menu and Bernard ordered a Late Night Burger Bomb and Fries -- whatever that was; it sounded good. "It'll be a minute," said the young man as he turned and immediately started doing whatever it was they did up there.
Stepping away from the truck to just hang out and let the night air wash over him Bernard sought any kind of peace. And then it was shattered by a voice he never wanted to hear again.
"Bernie," asked the smooth voice of Diane Tenner.
"Oh shit," Bernard said out loud but not very loud. He turned his body to the left and the location of the voice and saw Diane standing there with a couple of her friends. He knew who the other women were but their names escaped him for the moment.
Diane quickly approached him, leaving the other two femmes behind. "What are you doing here? It's nice to see you...can we talk, please?...there's so much I want to say...I'd like to know what happened to Robert...can we talk, please?..."
Not trying to be mean but needing to be away from here as fast as possible Bernard said nothing and turned back to the truck and asked how long it would be. The guy could see there was something going on between his customers and he saw that this dude was having the worse of it so he gave Bernard two fingers meaning two minutes. Damn, thought Bernard, I have to deal with this for two more minutes.
When Bern turned back Diane hadn't stopped talking. This was one of the few things that Bernard hadn't cared for about Diane -- when the rant showed up there wasn't any stopping it. Questions asked? Write them down so you can go back to them because there'll be about fifty of them in the rant. Bernard, though, wasn't going to have any of it.
"Diane," Bern yelled. The volume of his voice and the derision heard within it stopped Diane from talking right away with a look of surprise and fear. With a lower volume Bernard said, "You and I have nothing to talk about ever again!" Bernard could see tears begin to well in her eyes but his emotional connection was cut, he found, and he couldn't care less, just then, if she cried or died. "I'm sorry I interrupted your new spot but let me get my food and go, okay? Can you do that, please?"
With the tears now falling freely from her eyes Diane haltingly asked, "What...what can I do to get you...to make you...to have you stay for a few minutes so we can talk?"
A brain without conscious thought might sometimes be called dead, damaged, airy -- please let my brain shut down right now, Bernard thought. Instead, his brain, having begun the drop back to some of the more impassive state of thinking -- or was this a new state of being? He was never rude to people and was not one to insult or threaten, dare or contradict without specific thought. This time, his brain took all he'd been feeling and had been through the last couple of weeks and tried to run for the gun.
'Nothing,' was what he wanted to say. Instead, filling with fury and bleeding hatred and derision for this woman, Bernard said, "You and your friends can take all of your clothes off, right here, right now and then those two can start sucking my dick while you sit there and watch. When I blow my load in their eyes then you can start talking."