Alex worked in a large office building, which received and distributed large paper documents from other businesses. He had only been there for one year and had moved up considerably, much faster than others that had been there for years. Mostly because he worked hard, he was always taught, if you're going to do something then do it right the first time; he could still his father drilling that in his head over and over again. Today was no different he had a huge document sitting in front of him, it had come in pages and pages of drivel, it was too wordy and full of punctual mistakes; the client wanted it typed out and condensed from its sixty five pages of legal mumbo jumbo into a nice small presentation. Alex had some serious work to do. His boss came in the room, Dave was a balding fifty something pudgy guy, Alex always wanted to stifle a laugh anytime he saw him, and he looked like the Michelin tire guy. "Alex I will not send anymore work your way, until you are finished with that one." he said. He then turned pulled the door closed
Alex laughed "Thanks" he said back. Alex was one of seven editors that had their own office. He liked the quiet, he was able to drown everything out, it was much better than being in a cubicle like some of the other editors. He turned back to his work, pulling his earphones over his ears and drowning himself in loud rock music, his eyes went from the paper to the computer in front of him, and his fingers began to dash across the keyboard in a mad frenzy.
He jumped out of his editing world upon hearing, "Alex!" Simon stood in front of him. Simon was one of the pushers, a person that took the work to the distribution center. "Man sometimes you drown yourself in your work way too much" Simon said with a smile.
"Yeah something like that. What's up?" Alex asked.
"It's lunch" Simon said as he shook his head opening the door. Alex looked at the clock on the wall he had started at 9am it was already 1pm, he hadn't even noticed the time going by; he looked over at the pile and realized he was almost through it.
He stood up, "Guess I got in a zone." he smiled.
The office cafeteria was down stairs it was large and filled with people going back and forth. Alex sat with his friends. They were discussing a fellow co worker was throwing, he was thrown into the conversation as he sat down. "So Alex did you get invited?"
Alex sat down "To what," he replied...
The smiled at him, "Alicia's party, her husband got some big promotion and they are throwing a huge party." One of his friends said. "I am surprised you have not heard" the friend shook his head.
Alex shrugged, "Guess my invite got lost in the mail." he laughed.
Simon shook his head, "I would go but I have to work." Simon was a cop, he only worked at the distribution center part time. Rumor was that he used to be a detective, but got demoted for shooting a minor. He never talked about it so the real story was never told, but he still kept his job as a cop, so it couldn't have been that bad.
"Look, you should ask" one of the friends said directly at Alex.
"Yeah the whole lone ranger act is getting old." another said.
"What because I like to stay home on my weekend's that doesn't make me a lone ranger" Alex shrugged. He was fairly happy in the way he spent his days off.
"When was the last time you got some?" Simon asked.
Alex nearly choked on his tacos. "What?" he asked.
"Yeah when was the last time you dipped the strudel?" another laughed.
"What are we in high school? Dipped the strudel?" Alex shook his head.
"Avoiding the subject" they all said and pointed at him.
"No!" he said quickly. It was a rule among them if you were caught avoiding the subject you were to treat at the next bar visit, which was very, very costly; there were only a few subjects that could not be brought up like Simon's past, Alex's previous marriage, and a few other things; but other than that everything else was fair game.
"So spill it or break out the wallet" Simon said tapping the table.
"Fine," Alex said cleaning his mouth with a napkin. "Seven months," he said waiting for the backlash.
"Seven months?" they all said together. They were very surprised but most of all it was very funny.
"Wait, wait, wait," Simon said as he seemed to count in his head. "Tasha!" he said quickly. Alex nodded.
"You haven't got any since Tasha?" one of them asked.
"What? I don't go about slinging it around to anybody and everybody like you guys" Alex retaliated.
"Boy you got to get out more!" Simon said.
"I will ask for your invitation" another of his friends said. Nodding his head at the others who were in agreement.
"No! Don't you dare!" Alex said pointing at him. A small buzzer went off indicating the end of lunch. Alex was grateful the subject was over and hopefully it would be forgotten.
Alex and Simon walked back to his office. As they entered Simon closed the door. "Sorry about busting ya out on the Tasha thing, a cops' mind just keeps working you know?" he apologized.
"No harm no foul bro," Alex said shaking his hand. Simon was a tall guy his hair was short and brown, he kept himself in very good shape, he was married to a lovely woman named Rebecca, and had two sons; both of which called Alex, Uncle Alex.
"But I meant it." Simon said "Get out more." he opened the door.
"I'll come over this weekend" Alex said sitting down at his desk.
"No as in get out, out" Simon gave him a look that meant he was very serious.
"I'll try," Alex said surrendering. It was better to agree than to continue this pointless conversation. But Simon was a good friend so he would try someday.