Mike Dunn was used to being single - he'd just passed the 10th anniversary of when his wife left him after about 6 months of cheating on him. The only positive thing she did in that time was to ask their son who he wanted to live with after the separation. Mike thanked his lucky stars every single day that Jake had chosen him.
They moved to Pine Grove for a fresh start in the summer vacation before Jake started high school. Mike took a new job as an office manager for a local construction company, where he'd now happily worked for a few years. Life was steady, but it was good.
Now that Jake was 21 and starting to think about moving out and into his own place, Mike wondered if he could slowly begin dipping his toe back into the Dating waters. Lord knows Jake had been pushing him to do so for a while.
But he was 54, gray and pudgier than he was back in his prime. And the dating world had changed considerably in the intervening years since he first met his ex-wife. But, he had a steady job and a decent income and a full head of hair, despite losing all its color. Maybe he'd still do okay, even with all the apps and dating profiles and everything else.
Mike shook himself out of his self-reflective daze and looked around the small break room. His afternoon coffee was always the highlight of his day, and he mercifully had the break room to himself this time. He'd just about finished the last mouthful when Annie came in.
She was the main reason Mike had been considering getting back into the dating world. Blond, effortlessly charming and friendly, with a beautiful, contagious smile, Annie was the whole package. Only 3 years younger than him, she was age appropriate as well. He greeted her with a shy "Hey, Annie."
"Afternoon, Mike," she smiled warmly at him. "Say, I hope now's not a bad time...?"
"Nope, break's just finished. What's up?"
"Oh, phew. I've already asked everyone, and they said to check with you first. I was just wondering - on my lunch break, they were handing these, uh, automatic air fresheners out at the mall? I got one, and I was wondering if you'd be okay with putting it in the office somewhere?" She fiddled with the ring on her right hand.
"Not at all." He was taken back by her disappointed expression. "Oh! No, sorry! I meant, I wouldn't have a problem with it. Not that you can't do it." He hated the hot feeling as embarrassment flushed his cheeks red.
Annie laughed hard. "Thanks, Mike! I'll try to get it set up now." He followed her out of the break room and returned to his office.
A few minutes later, Annie opened the door to his office and walked right up to his desk. A faint lavender scent wafted in behind her. "Well, I got it working. The air freshener, I mean." She grinned at him and shut the door behind her, lowering her voice. "But I think there's something wrong with it. Judy and Dave just started making out. Go see."
Mike cocked an eyebrow and stood up to peer out his window. "Well, they're doing more than that now." He pointed to the pair, who were now pantsless and about to start fucking at Judy's cubicle. "Jesus Fucking Christ." He went to open the door, but Annie was holding it shut.
"Why stop them?" She grinned.
"They're both married. To other people. And this is a workplace. We could get sued into oblivion." He once more tried and failed to open the door. "Annie, move!"
"Oh come on, Mike. You aren't even a little...inspired? Excited?" She breathed heavily. Aroused. "I've seen the way you look at me. You want me like I want you. Like Dave wants Judy!" She laughed.
He couldn't argue with her; he'd always been a terrible liar, anyway. But this whole thing was a lawsuit waiting to happen. He grabbed Annie's arm and pulled her away from the door and marched out into the office. "Hey! HEY!" he called to them before his jaw dropped in shock.
It wasn't just Judy and Dave. The entirety of his staff were in various states of making out or fucking. Couples, trios, more. Men and women. Women and women. Men and men. It was like a scene from some bad porno. "Fuck this," he muttered and left. 4pm was almost the same as 5:30pm anyway.
The whole car ride home, his mind was flooded with the images of his whole staff disrobing and devolving into some kind of orgy. "What the fuck? What the fuck?" he whispered over and over in a panic. Had Annie's air freshener really caused that? No, there had to be some other rational explanation. But is there ever a rational explanation for irrational behavior?
He pulled into the garage and sighed. At least he was home now. He'd deal with whatever just happened at the office when he got back in tomorrow. Hell, maybe there was something in his coffee, and the whole thing never happened anyway. He walked inside, where he could relax.
It was a little after 6pm when Jake Dunn locked up the store and walked to his car. It had been a quiet day at Pine Grove Tech, and he spent the day eagerly counting down the hours until his date with the hot girl from the cafe. After weeks, he finally got up the courage to ask her out, and even more amazingly, she said yes. And speak of the devil, she was calling him now.
"Hello?"
"Jake? Hey, it's Nicola."
"Hey Nicola. How's it going?"
"Yeah, good, thanks."
"That's g-"
"Listen, I'm sorry, but..." She paused. "Sorry, I'm gonna have to bail tonight. I'm going to be eating out with my sister and instead."
"Oh. Okay, have-" The beeping indicated she'd already hung up. "...fun," he sighed. Shit. He climbed into his car and drove home in depressed silence.
Mike had been home for almost two hours, but he still couldn't stop thinking about what he'd taken to calling "the office orgy." And despite his best efforts, he was now cursing himself for turning down Annie. Thoughts about 'it was the right thing to do' and 'she wasn't herself' did nothing to ease his regret. Fuck! He could've gotten laid for the first time in a goddamn decade. She was fucking begging for it, too.
He felt himself getting hard. Christ, he was horny. He unzipped his fly and pulled out his increasingly thick dick and started jerking himself off, imagining what he would've done to Annie if he hadn't been such an uptight coward.
His fantasies were interrupted by the sound of his son's shitty car lumbering down the driveway. What was Jake doing home? He'd been raving about his date all week. Mike wrestled his hard dick back into his pants. This was all he needed after the day he'd had.
Jake entered the house with a sigh. Mike emerged from his home office to greet his son. "How's it going, bud?"
He shrugged dramatically. "Well, she canceled. Just like that. Less than an hour before we were meant to meet." He was equal parts bitter and hurt.
Mike considered relating his own experience from the afternoon, but thought better of it. Jake would think he was making it up at best. Crazy at worst. "Shit, that sucks. I'm sorry, kiddo."
"Thanks."
Mike felt compelled to hug his son. He stretched his arms out and walked towards Jake. Jake gently pushed his way past his father and went to his room without a word. Mike tried not to let it hurt him, but fuck, it cut him deep. At least it took his mind off the office orgy. And his subsequent horniness.
Jake immediately felt guilty for not accepting his dad's hug, but pity was the last thing he needed. He knew his dad would be hurt, and confused. Jake had been pushing for Mike to open up for months now. They used to do things together all the time - weekend camping trips, watching sports on TV, or just going out for a nice meal every so often. But that all fell by the wayside when Jake entered his moody teen years. Now they were in the rearview mirror, he'd been slowly trying to repair the damage he'd caused to their relationship. Based on how reluctant Mike had been to the whole idea, Jake feared it was already too little, too late.
Mike let his son sulk in his room for a while, then threw a frozen pizza into the oven. He knocked on Jake's bedroom door and called out, "Pizza'll be ready in 20, okay?"
Jake's voice, muffled by the door. "Cool. Thanks, Dad. Be out then." Mike heard a few distant explosions and gunfire from within the room, and left Jake to play his games until dinner.
Jake emerged a couple minutes before the pizza was ready. He'd gotten changed into a loose fitting t-shirt and cargo shorts. He wandered into the kitchen to see his Dad opening two cans of Coke. "Hey, uh, sorry about before," Jake apologised. "I was just..." He shrugged.
"It's all good, son." Mike smiled warmly. "Make it up to me by setting the table, huh?"
"Can do." Jake got to work gathering the plates and the pizza cutter while Mike took a seat and sipped at his Coke.
Something stirred inside Mike as he watched his son. He was so grown up now, and so handsome. Almost 6 feet tall, Jake was 2 inches taller than Mike. He was slim, with a very thick head of brown hair that he took great pride in - inherited from himself, of course. A fantastic smile that drove the girls wild, Mike speculated. Jake didn't talk too much about girls, but Mike inferred enough that he was doing okay in that respect.
Maybe it was pride that Mike was feeling in the pit of his stomach. Pride that he'd managed to raise such a nice, kind, confident kid. It had been hard at times, but he never gave up, and Jake was all the better because of his efforts. Assistant manager of the town's only independent tech repair store at 21 - who wouldn't be proud?
Jake cut up the pizza and brought it to the table. "So, work was alright?" he asked his father.
"Uh, for the most part. It got...hectic at the end." He pictured Dave and Judy fucking at her desk. The dozen or so others about to do the same. What the hell happened? "That, or I wasn't feeling well. Anyway, I came home early and it's all good."
