On Thursday night of the second week of training, five of us were sitting in one of the guy's room studying together. The group consisted of Ken, me, and three other guys that had either a wife, kids, or both. We were taking a break for a couple of minutes just chatting.
"I can't wait to go home this weekend and see the wife and kids," said Henry.
"I can't wait to go home and get laid!" blurted Alex. "This is the longest I've gone since we were married."
That made us all laugh.
Then, Gino said seriously, "It's really nice of this company to fly all of us home halfway through the 4 weeks of training. It shows they care about their employees.
We all agreed.
Gino added, "I can't believe you two aren't going home. Aren't you going to be bored staying the weekend by yourselves?"
Ken and I just looked at each other and smiled. Apparently, our discretion had worked.
"Bored?" Ken exclaimed. "Two single guys in a great city like Dallas? Plus, we don't have a wife or kids waiting at home for us."
"And," I added, "I live in Chicago, and it's January! Have you ever been in Chicago in January? You wouldn't leave Dallas for that!"
"And since we saved the company some money by not having to get us plane tickets, they have given us some nice vouchers to use this weekend around town. Again, a very generous company to work for," Ken concluded.
After a little while, we finished up our work and headed back to our rooms. As we were opening our hotel room door across from one another, Ken said, "See you in the morning. One more day of training for the week, and then we can begin our crazy weekend of fun."
"Yep, see you in the morning. I can't wait to cut loose and sleep in until my hangover goes away," I responded.
"Exactly!" Ken said.
And with that, we went into our own rooms and hit the hay, exhausted from the long day.
The next day of classes seemed to fly by. Everyone was in a great mood because of the break the company was giving us and flying everyone home for the weekend. All of our co-trainees were gone before we knew what hit us. Ken and I headed to the gym and had our usual workout. It seemed to really wake us up from our long day and pump us up for the night ahead. We headed to our rooms to take showers and agreed to meet in the hotel bar to get the weekend going.
I arrived to the bar first and ordered myself a drink. Ken came in about 10 minutes later. My back was to the door so I didn't see him come in.
Suddenly, in my ear I heard him whisper, "Wow, your one hot little fucker...mind if I sit down by you?"
Laughing, I quietly replied, "You can take your chances, but I can't promise you anything."
Ken slapped me on the back and sat down next to me at the bar. He ordered drinks for the both of us, and we started talking about our week, the company, and the people we were training with. So far, the whole thing had been a great experience. We sat there for an hour or so when we realized we were getting a little buzzed and needed to get something to eat.
"You want to use our hotel restaurant voucher from the company for tonight's dinner?" asked Ken.
"Sounds good to me," I answered. "I'm starving and getting a little buzzed so this would be close and faster."
We headed into the restaurant and got a table. We had some more cocktails and ordered some food. We told the waitress to take her time since we were in no hurry. We continued to talk the whole time about everything. I've never talked so easily to another guy. We told each other about our past, our viewpoints on issues, and our dreams. We just totally enjoyed each other's company.