Its lunch time... and I am sitting alone at my desk having a lonely meal of cold leftovers. I am doing my daily puzzle, but still my mind is wandering, thinking of how it could have let this happen to me.
Its been many months now... (and that is no exaggeration) This doesn't make any sense as I have been married to Bob for almost 20 years we have three wonderful children, a beautiful home, yet somehow the passion in our lives has been whittled away. Bob says he misses our time together, but lately the few times we have been alone in the house, he just sits on the couch flipping between the sports networks. He hasn't tried in months. I feel so incredibly empty, my body screams for human touch, as if like I am slowly dying from the inside.
My thoughts are interrupted as he walks by my desk and asks for advice some analysis he has been working on. He is in his mid-twenties, very tall, dark, exotic. His deep brown eyes glisten as he speaks. His smile makes me shiver, and as he speaks I feel like I am melting into my chair.
When he first came on board, I was excited to finally have someone who had a willingness to learn. I was happy to let his predecessor moved to a new department. He was such a miserable old fool that use every excuse not to work to his capacity. But I that the new guy knew he was going to go places in this company, and sure enough in time he was promoted but he still occasionally comes by to talk and sometimes ask for advice.
He smiled, thanked me, then he headed back to his desk. The shivers start again...
Back to my puzzle, I have to sit back to remember where exactly I left if off. The phone rings, his name appears on the call display. He speaks softly as he asks me for one more thing. Honestly I don't think I am listening, he voice is so much sexier on the phone, I just sit there in a daze, and somehow he confirms my answer, and hangs up. It takes me almost a minute to put the phone down onto the receiver.
Lunch is over. Somehow I manage to get through the rest of my day then head home. I get inside my house, make a quick dinner, the kids scramble into the car and I drive them to their sports practice. I manage to squeeze in a quick kick-boxing class which helps relieve my aches, pick up the kids and head home. Bob is lying on the couch, some sporting event is on. I clean up the dishes empty out the lunch pails and start preparing tomorrow's lunches. The kiss the kids as they head off to their rooms, I come back into the living-room, the sporting event is still on, Bob is no where to be seen. I change the channel thinking I can watch a cooking program until he comes back into the room. I wait, he doesn't return. I shut off the tv and head to the bedroom. Bob is asleep. I change, crawl under the sheets, set the alarm clock, turn off the light, and then I just lay there staring at the ceiling until I fall asleep.
It's been a busy day, reporting deadlines have all been met and before I knew it, it was lunch time. I head to the servery, pull my lunch out of the refridgerator, pick up the latest puzzle from the printer and head to my desk.
"I was going to ask you if you had any plans for lunch. But I see you brought yours again."
I looked up, there were those eyes and that smile. The shivers are back.
"Leftovers from last night." Then I thought to myself that I should get away from my desk. "They will keep another day in the fridge, what did you have in mind?"
"Some of us are heading to China Gardens. Why don't you come with us and get away from your desk?"
There were five of us going, so we all piled into Doug's car. Since I was smallest of the bunch, I climbed into the middle seat. He sat to my right. He was chatting about the game last night with the other guys, and I sort of tuned it out. I looked down at his long legs, his hand was on his lap. He accidentally bumped his leg up against mine.
"Sorry about that" as he smiled.
We sat across from each other at the restaurant. The men were still babbling about the game so I just focused on my beef satay. Every so often I would look up and catch him quickly looking away. Then out of the blue, Doug changed the topic...
"I need you two to attend the new system seminar being held at head office in two weeks. So when we get back from lunch, head over to Travel and book your trips."
Good, I could use the opportunity to get away from Bob and the kids, even if it is to sit in meetings. Then I look up at his eyes...
"Sounds like this could be interesting..."
The seminar started promptly at 9:00am, we are sitting in this stale air, dimmed, windowless computer room. All to be seen is the back of people's heads staring onto the computer screens. The day was extremely long and intense. 5:30 the lights get turned back on. My eyes take a few moments to adjust. He's up ahead speaking to Karen from the Western office. They started to walking off while discussing the seminar, and I was thinking that two of them are both young and single and I hoped that he may luck out and get more from this trip then he expected.
As I start heading over to the hotel by myself, I noticed a liquor store. I decided to pop in and grab a bottle of merlot. The company doesn't pay for booze on these trips and I hate paying hotel prices for a glass of wine.
I met up with him in the lobby.
"Where'd you take off to?"
I told him about my trip to the liquor store. He invited me to join me and another couple to the hotel bar. Karen is sitting at a corner booth with some other gentleman. He leads me into my seat. I am introduced to Jeff. He is apparently is new guy at Karen office.
"What's your poison?" Jeff asks.
Jeff gets me a ½ liter of red then orders a round of tequilas with the waitress. I am starting to notice that Jeff and Karen look like they have something going between them. She's being really cutesy, putting her hand on his shoulder, giggling at his jokes. We lick our salt covered hands, take the shot, then the lemon. Before I know it another round of tequila has made its way to the table.
