The weekend passed by quicker than Joe would've liked. In the morning, he locked eyes with the girl named Cici from across the street as he was watering the plants. She nodded at him before driving away. After a day of walking around the house, doing nothing but idle chores that were left behind, Joe was antsy to get out — a sentiment he quickly regretted mentioning to Aisha the next morning. After just taking a relaxing morning bath, he was reluctantly dragged to the church she frequented. Joe would have loved to be proven wrong. However, as usual, expectations were immediately shot down and there began a hellish two hours of wandering around the luxurious building, forced to meet evangelicals who were way too judgemental for his taste. Luckily, just before the pastor started his sermon about promiscuous homosexuals and women alike, Joe's phone rang and he barely escaped with his sanity. He had never been more thankful for Mike's crap. Of course, he received a call from a slightly angry wife a few minutes later. Though, halfway through the sermon he thought he had escaped, Joe realized he may have found the reason for his wife's recent extremism.
The rest of the day he opted to visit the local gym to work his nerves out. He hadn't been there before as it was new, so he hired a guy he knew and was surprisingly working at the gym to show him around — an excessively cheery guy named Joshua. The cute guy used to skate around the neighborhood until he went through puberty and discovered girls. He was a little rough around the edges, but did a decent enough job. Having wandered around the place, the equipment didn't seem all that different from the gym he frequented. Joe felt it wasn't worth it to make the switch, considering the higher price. When he was just about to leave after thanking Joshua, however, the married man heard someone exclaim from his back.
"You go to this gym?"
He turned around to see a familiar fave, heart jumping from his chest.
"Oh, hey, Cici. No, I... I go somewhere else. This, uh, this place is pretty new." Joe gulped. How could he not?
Sweat accumulating through her cropped shirt, Cici stood confidently in high-waist nylon shorts that practically hugged her... behind. Despite the age difference, he found himself sneaking a second glance. Joe couldn't help it. While he didn't look the part, he was pretty much a normal guy through and through.
Still, it wouldn't be appropriate, so Joe bit down on the urge to look for a third time.
"Oh, that's a shame. I was just thinking of going here every day."
"You... go to the gym a lot?" he asked, which in retrospect, seemed like a stupid question. In every angle, the woman
looked
like she took care of herself.
"Not as much as I'd like, honestly. I did yoga back in Seattle, but I'm hoping to start hitting the gym instead, you know, for now. I don't even know where to start. Should I lift weights?"
"I can help you with that," mumbled Joshua in a quiet whisper only Joe could hear. He rolled his eyes at the obviously horny 20-year-old, who at least had the decency to look embarrassed.
"Depends on what you want to work on, but I suggest a comfortable weight first if you haven't done it before. Play around a little."
She gave him a salute. "I'll keep that in mind, sir! It's a shame you don't go here 'cause I can definitely use the help to exercise some hard-to-reach places."
"Yeah. Well, I'm not that good anyway. You're better off spending your money on an actual trainer."
"Then how come I haven't seen a trainer who looks as good as you? I mean, you have a daughter that's about to go to college. How young were you when you had Trish?"
"Thanks, I guess. But I'm older than you think. Take your age and maybe triple that."
"Well, I don't think I'm
that
young, but thank you!"
Joe awkwardly smiled and checked the time on his watch. "Would you look at the time! I think I should go. I've got some, uh, stuff to do."
"Oh, of course! God, sorry. I was just about to head out myself. See you around, Joe."
Waving his hand for a few good seconds, the husband finally breathed a sigh of relief when the girl left. It seemed the celebration was premature, however, because another headache replaced her quite immediately with no problems.
"Holy fucking crap! Is that like a side-piece of yours? Dude, where's your fucking church?"
He rolled his eyes at the overactive young man. "Calm down, Josh. She's a neighbor," he explained.
"Well, this really really
really
hot neighbor totally wants to bang you, man. You're interested, right?
"Okay, that's definitely not true; she was just being polite. And you seem to be forgetting that I'm happily married." Joe lifted up his right hand for him to see.
Joshua looked horrified at the reminder. "Oh, my God!"
"Calm down, it's marriage. Not — well, actually, I couldn't imagine anything worse than getting tied down when I was your age so I get that."
The young man nodded to affirm and seriously stated, "I'd choose death, honestly."
"Now that's just a little extreme."
Joshua waved his hand and dismissed him, "Yeah, yeah, hold up. Let me wrap my brain around what this fucking means."
"Didn't think you had one," Joe whispered, which the young man glared at him for.
"So you just, what, refuse girls who look like
that
and want to screw you?"
"Again, she doesn't want to... screw me. Cici is just like that."
"Are you actually being for real? 'Exercise some hard-to-reach places' didn't spell it out for you? Dude, she was totally pulling out the moves. No girl gives that much eye-contact if she didn't want it hard. She barely looked in my direction."
"Because she didn't know you, dumbass. If anything, that just proves it more. You're a good looking guy who's more age-appropriate. Why wouldn't she want you and pine for an old man instead? If only you could do something about that attitude..." Joe replied, staring disappointedly at the guy before realizing he called him the son of a friend a
dumbass
, though the kid clearly needed it. He definitely had the talent to get on your nerves and simultaneously feel closer to you, that's for sure.
Joshua shrugged. "Whatever, man. I'm just saying, if that were my girl? I'd understand settling down. Your wife must have looked like a bombshell back then."
"...She still does. And I love her, that's the important bit."
He grimaced. "Eugh, get out of here."
For what it's worth, the rest of the weekend after that seemed a little lackluster. He went home that same evening, cooked dinner for an angry wife, and slept comfortably on the other side of bed with a full one. Naturally, when the day for work arrived, Joe couldn't be happier. The morning of the interview, he wore a semi-professional suit he had gotten back then for his college graduation — his only formal attire as an adult, paired with a cheap blue tie. He never understood people who spent an exorbitant amount of money on designer clothes. To him, they all virtually look the same. Though he had to admit some people wore it well.
Case in point — his boss. As Joe sat beside Jessica, he couldn't help but admire her impeccable fashion. Say what you wanted about the woman, but she made for a reassuring boss and a terrifying enemy. She dressed impressively, the luxurious fabric highlighting her curves — arguably her best feature. Her posture, straight as an arrow, easily placed her among taller men as well, though certainly not as tall as Joe.
With her tailored suit emphasizing her slender yet... comely figure, Jessica's dark curly hair framed a face adorned with sharp features. Sometimes, under all the unnecessary aggression, he forgot how attractive Jessica was. Everyone thought so at first anyway. When you've worked with the woman, however, it was easy to forget.
Cici, on the other hand, possessed a different level of beauty, and it was evident when she arrived in the room. She heeded his advice and dressed simply, opting for a professional feminine vest and a pencil skirt. Her hair was tied to the back of her head with a clip — quite imperfectly as the remaining unruly section elegantly cascaded down her shoulders. She seemed a far cry from the easygoing woman he met three days ago, which could play to her advantage. Jessica liked no-nonsense attitudes.
His nose twitched as Cici sat down in front of them. Her scent, a bergamot orange, immediately filled the part of the room Joe was in.
"Morning!" she greeted in a clear tone, reaching out her hand for a handshake before she sat down. Clearly not used to someone taking charge in front of her intimidating figure, Jessica responded immediately, "Nice to meet you, Cici. You can call me Jessica, and I'm sure you're already acquainted with Joe here."
Cici gave him a determined nod. He gave an encouraging one back.
"Shall we begin?" Jessica asked before moving to the standard questions. Actually, Joe hated job interviews — he hadn't been in one since he began his current job, and he didn't think he would be so soon, especially on the hiring side. In the past month, Jessica had insisted to the board that her two most capable department heads be allowed to take up a team designated solely for expansion. That meant his own subordinates, his own approach, his own consequences. It would open up an insane amount of opportunities for the man who won — especially if the rumors about a subsidiary were to be believed.
This could actually be a turning point in their careers. After extensive review, Joe turned his attention to sales while his work rival, Mike, decided on modern marketing media.
The two men frequently acted like they were close friends for the longest time, but Joe had been in a secret pissing contest with the guy ever since they met. While he didn't start the entire thing, he wasn't proud of the fact that a small part of him was still driven by this stereotypical macho need for male domination. Mike had recently bought a yacht and, since taking his beautiful wife sailing a couple of weeks ago, hasn't shut up about it. Joe had half a mind to buy a bigger yacht, but he wasn't that kind of guy. Private yachts were pretty bad for the environment, and he swore he would be the type of man to care about that stuff. It was one of the things that brought he and Aisha closer back then.
Truth to be told, he had wanted to use his love of math for the betterment of society and run his own company in the past as well; a non-profit organization that made use of innovations to help people. Joe had to abandon that road when Tricia was born. He was a father after all. He couldn't quit and chase after some dream that might potentially starve them. Luckily things had changed for the better when she was growing up; he got a promotion one day and they bought a house and a decent car six months later. In the past, Joe couldn't have imagined he would reach this high up in the corporate world. Ironically, now that he had the capital to actually afford starting anew, that fire inside him seemed to have been put out long ago.
His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp-toned question directed at him. "You want Cici on your team?"
