"Salaam, Raphael, how's life?" Ghada Al-Khusaibi said softly, as she walked up to the service desk, where Raphael stood, a forlorn look on his dark, handsome face. Standing six feet two inches tall, burly and broad-shouldered, Raphael Duchene was unique sexy in a way only Afro-Caribbean men could be. Hell, the brother made even the drab Walmart uniform look good, and that was saying something. Cute butt too, Ghada thought naughtily.
For some reason, Raphael Duchene reminded Ghada of the handsome Afro-Arabian men she'd seen while visiting Mauritania with her family a long time ago, during her youth. Raphael wasn't Afro-Mauritanian, of course, or Muslim. The handsome brother was born on the island of Haiti and raised in the City of Ottawa, Ontario. Too bad he's not of the faith, Ghada thought, shaking her head.
"What's up, Ghada? I just ran into the world's worst customer" Raphael replied, and Ghada frowned, detecting a note of sadness in the young man's voice. When she queried him about it, Raphael gave her the rundown. Apparently, while working at the customer service desk, Raphael had to deal with an irate customer who berated him and called him the N-word and then fled, laughing all the way.
"Racist idiots make my skin crawl, don't let fools like him get to you," Ghada replied, and she gently laid her hand on Raphael's. Raphael looked at Ghada, who looked at him, nodded and smiled. Ghada was about to say something more but, seeing that Connor, the store's chubby, openly gay and subtly racist chubby white male assistant manager was around, she grabbed a cart full of overstock and walked away.
Raphael smiled to himself as Ghada turned and winked at him before disappearing out of view. The lovely, forty-something Omani Arab woman was something else. Five-foot-eight, chubby, with dark bronze skin, long black hair usually tucked away under her Hijab and lively brown eyes, Ghada was the only one of his co-workers whom Raphael kind of liked. The lady had spirit, that's for damn sure.
"Raphael, I'm going to need you to focus on work and not chit chat," Connor said, smiling that smug smile of his, a look of malice in his dark eyes. Raphael looked at the tall, chubby, pale-skinned and dark-haired bozo, and bit down a scathing reply. Raphael wanted to tell Connor to go stuff himself, but he needed the job. For Raphael was in his final year in the criminology program at the University of Ottawa, and he had bills to pay.
"Duly noted," Raphael replied at last, and Connor walked away, smiling like Satan's only son. Raphael shook his head as he watched the creep walk away, presumably to bother someone else. A high school dropout who'd been working at Walmart for the past ten years or more, Connor was that prototypical loser in a dead-end job who liked to abuse his power and treat people like shit. The day the store finally fires Connor I'll be happy, Raphael thought angrily.
When Raphael's break came, the young man stepped outside, where the approaching Ontario winter caused him to zip up his long dark overcoat. Raphael didn't smoke, but he liked to chill at the smoker's spot, near the bike rack outside Walmart. After all, where could he go on a fifteen-minute break? Raphael didn't feel like going to the store's in-house McDonald's restaurant, or the Wendy's located across the parking lot. Yup, smoke spot it is.
"Hello again," came a familiar feminine voice, and Raphael turned to see Ghada, cigarette in hand, a big smile on her lovely face. Raphael leaned against the wall, looking at his cellphone, and Ghada sidled up to him, intent on surprising him, but decided against it. Raphael was having a bad enough day at it is. Ghada didn't want to add to the already fragile young man's list of burdens...
"Hey, Ghada, here for some fresh air?" Raphael asked, and Ghada looked at him, smiled and nodded. She didn't light up her cigarette, since she knew that Raphael didn't smoke and didn't much care for smokers. Besides, Ghada had not come outside to smoke. Nope, there was a fine specimen of man standing right in front of her, and Ghada wanted a piece of him. Licking her lips, Ghada playfully poked Raphael in the ribs...
"Nah, I came out to cheer you up, handsome," Ghada said, and she noticed the way Raphael's eyes followed her tongue as it moved from her upper lip to her lower lip. Good sign, Ghada thought, and smiled. Raphael shrugged, and told her that Connor and his bullshit weren't getting to him. Ghada could see right through Raphael's admirable false bravado, and it was so damn cute. Younger men are the best, Ghada thought.