When he was younger, high school and college, Bob had a way with the women. His reputation was that he was well endowed and he knew how to use it. Along the way he learned from his many a varied partners, happy to play the field and enjoy the attentions of the variety of frequent partners. All that changed when he met Sally. He met her, at of all things, an Easter church service, one of the few church services he still attended each year. She was by his own account drop dead gorgeous. They dated for almost a year before he popped the question. She was his perfect partner, quiet, sweet, loving, outdoorsy. They loved the same activities and they shared in everything they did.
Sally also brought Bob back to the church, rarely missing a Sunday service. The two married and were blessed in many ways, including with two wonderful children. For twenty eight years they enjoyed their careers and lives together. As a professional photographer she had an eye for art, and flow and beauty, which she brought to his designs as an architect, and eventually to his own architectural firm. Yes, they both thanked God on a regular basis for all their blessings. They were conservative in their wants, but wanted for little, and instilled those same values in their two now grown children.
Life was perfect...until two days before his fiftieth birthday, the day that Sally was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She could fight the cancer, hold it at bay a few more months, or she could enjoy her last few short weeks with the love of her life, taking only those medications needed to hold the worst of the symptoms at bay. She chose the latter.
Three weeks after his uncelebrated fiftieth birthday Sally passed from this world to the one she knew would be better. Her final words to her love was for him to not morn her, but to continue to live life as they had shared it, full of fun and joy. Find someone to share life with and remember that someday they would be together again in heaven. Bob promised, but it was a promise he knew he could never keep. He hid from her that he blamed God for taking her from him.
Bob stopped going to church, and withdrew in many ways into himself, losing his outgoing, vibrant personality. His wife's best friend Jeanie, and Bob's personal secretary watched him shrink from the world for two years, trying to cajole, entice, tease and even shame him into carrying through on his wife's last request. But no matter how she tried, he refused to even go out on a single date. But she was determined to keep her promise to her best friend and find a way to bring him back from the dark abys he seemed to sink into.
"Bob. Here are those papers on the Johnson project. All they need is your signature and they can launch." She said as she walked into his fortieth floor corner office that over looked the city below.
"Thanks Jeanie." He answered quietly, taking the papers from her and setting the folder on the top of the other papers spread on his desk. He opened the folder and signed next to each yellow arrow tag and handed the folder back to her.
"Is that the Elk project?"
"Yeah."
"Still can't seem to find the right look?"
"No. When I got stuck this way I'd always ask Sally." He said with a halfhearted shrug. "I just can't seem to make it flow."
"Well. I know someone that the artsy type. Why don't you take her out to dinner and show her some sketches. I know she'd love to give you some ideas."
"Really? I thought we went through this already. I don't feel like dating."
"So don't make it a date. Make it a business meeting."
"It's still a date." Bob mumbled.
"It doesn't have to be, but sooner or later you're going to have to start looking at the other half of the population. Half of us in the world are women, and I know you never looked at women when you were married, but if you don't start looking the rest of your life is going to pass you by. Is that how you want Sally to see you? As a quitter?"
"I'm not a quitter." He said with a scowl. "And you know it."
"I know you won't even go out on a single date. I've offered up a variety of very nice women who would love to go out with you for a drink, no strings attached."
"I'm not interested." Bob answered with the wave of her hand.
"Oh Lord. I give up. It's in your hands now!" She said, shaking her head and looking up as she turned and walked out of his office.
"That won't help." He muttered to her retreating back. "He doesn't really care about any of us."
"Yes he does!" She called back over her shoulder before disappearing out of ear shot.
"No he doesn't." Bob answered her even though he knew she couldn't hear. He shook his head and folded the sketches and stuffed them in to his brief case along with his laptop. He looked at the clock on the wall and then out the window at the hot summer afternoon and the pulled his suit coat on. It was still early, only four in the afternoon as he grabbed his briefcase and headed out the door. "I'm going down to the park on the way home. Maybe something'll come to me down there." He said as he walked past Jeanie's desk.
"The way you're feeling you're likely to have a bluebird poop on you!" She said jokingly as he headed toward the office suite door. "Good luck just the same."
"Thanks. See you in the morning." He said as he walked out the door and turned down the hall toward the elevators.
Being on the fortieth floor wasn't all bad, but he hated the subway and elevator rides. At least up this high he could take the express which skipped the bottom half of the floors. He pressed the down arrow and waited, a car quickly stopping and the huge silver doors sliding apart. It was late afternoon and he was surprised to see only one person in the car as he stepped in. The L light was already lit so he nodded to the young woman and stood next to her, turning to face the doors as they closed.
Out of the corner of his eye he glanced at her, wearing a maroon sweat suit, a gym bag in one hand and large leather portfolio in the other. He remembered his wife dressing in sweats like that and how it used to turn him on after she'd been working out, sweat trickling down between her big round sexy tits as she walked around wiping her face with a small towel, her top unzipped in cooler weather and completely removed on hotter days. His mind retreated back to the past, imagining him once again sliding her sweaty tank top off and then her sports bra, enjoying the view of her smile as his hands reached for her firm round breasts, rubbing her slick skin with his palms and teasing her nipples with his thumbs. His teasing invariably led to a little additional cardio workout for both of them before she finally retreated to the shower.
He was snapped back to reality by the sudden jerk of the car and the lights going black for a few fractions of a second before a much dimmer emergency light flicked on, bathing them in a dim bluish white light.
"Crap!" He muttered under his breath.
"Well, that's just fine." The young woman mumbled.
"Yeah. I agree there." Bob said, reaching for the panel and pushing the emergency phone button. He pressed the button and instead of the typical beep, followed by someone responding he heard only silence. "Well, isn't that nice. Seems to me someone isn't keeping up with their maintenance or the entire building system is without power."
"So, we're stuck in here?"
"Well, we're well below the thirtieth, so yeah, no way out until they get power back on to get us up to the thirtieth or down to the first."
"Wonderful." The young woman muttered, pulling out her cell phone. She punched in a number and waited. "No service. Even more wonderful!"
"Trying to call your husband?"
"No, my friends. I was supposed to meet them at the gym in about half an hour."
"Oh. Well, at least someone will miss you, just on the off chance that this is a localized failure and not a building wide issue."
"Why? No one going to miss you?"
"Not until tomorrow." He answered.
"Oh? The missus isn't going to miss you coming home tonight?"
"Um. No. No missus." I answered.
"Oh? Okay then. Well, let's hope we aren't stuck in here until then." She said, setting her bag and leather portfolio down against the wall. She sat down with her back to the wall to wait. Bob set his briefcase down and leaned on the wall to wait as well.
Seconds turned into long minutes and Bob pulled his suit coat off, folded it and set it on his briefcase before pulling his tie off and settling on the elevator floor next to the young woman.
"Amanda." She said quietly.
"Huh?"
"Amanda. My name. Yours?"
"Bob." He answered without looking over at her.
"So, Bob. I have to ask. No wife at home, what's with the ring?"
"Huh?"
"The wedding ring? Usually that means a wife at home."
"Oh. Yeah. Well, she passed and I just haven't had the heart to take it off."
"Ahhh. Lost in the past. Shame." She said quietly.
"What does that mean?"
"Seen it before. Guys lose their wives and keep wearing the ring so that they don't have to think about relationships. I guess it works, but seems like a lonely way to live. Just saying." She said as she unzipped her sweat suit top. "Damn. Getting hot in here."
"Yeah. Power outage. The fan stops and the building AC probably quit too. We're in the core, so no real ventilation to keep the shaft cool. Engineer's nightmare. How much power do you transfer to keep non-essential systems running."
"Sounds like you know a thing or two about how buildings are put together."
"Yeah, a thing or two." He answered, looking over toward her. "We were married for twenty eight years."
"Accident?"
"No. Cancer." He answered her quietly, trying not to let his mind wander back to that last day.
"That's rough. Tough watching a loved one waste away like that. In some way's I was lucky that way."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. My husband was killed by a drunk on the way home from work."
"Ah. Sorry."
"Yeah. Me too. July twenty eighth last year."
"Almost a year."
"Yeah. I try not to think about it. I know he's in heaven, so I'm okay with it."
"Confident of that?"
"Oh yeah. I am. You?"
"Yeah. I think God has her with him. Just wish he hadn't decided to take her. It wasn't fair."
"Fair to us doesn't really work with God's plan."
"It should."
