Scheduled StoriesNext:None scheduled at this moment.Next Empty Day:Tue, Dec 31st
Soon enough, I was overworked. I didn’t mind so much at first because I could now easily extend my hours but it became clear I needed help, especially if I wanted to one day rekindle with my wife.
The first time I hired employees, I took experienced designers with conventional portfolio and it ended up killing my company. So, I started scouting design colleges for an employee I could meld to my style.
That’s when I found Jill. Sure, you know where this is going, but I didn’t. When I saw her, she was wearing gothic clothes and white make-up. No one wanted to hire her, especially since her portfolio was so dark and moody.
But I could see something in it. A kind of efficiency and purity which I was looking for. When I offered her a job, she seemed lukewarm to the idea but soon enough, she was working by my side.
I can’t say it was easy at first. She was stubborn and recluse. If I gave her a task to do and halfway through, she realized that she was stuck, instead of seeking help, she would stare at her screen hoping for an illumination.
But slowly, I was breaking her out of her cocoon and turning her into a really productive employee. After a few months, with her help, I was once again generating a profit so I gave her a well deserved raise.
It also allowed me more time to try and get closer to Suzy since I no longer had overtime to do. I tried to talk to her, but so far she kept to herself.
I managed to rent a nice 3 bedroom apartment so that my kids could spend the week-end at their father’s place and let Suzy relax home alone. Furniture was scarce, but at least, I wasn’t living in my office anymore and I hoped that my ex-wife saw the efforts I was making.
I kept the cooking surface at work and slowly, Jill and I became friends. We would alternatively cook lunch and on Fridays, we would order in pizza or chicken.
I was fifteen years older, but somehow we connected. Perhaps she reminded me of how I was when I was fresh professionally out of college. Perhaps she saw in me the designer she wanted to be like in a few years. Perhaps it was just the business chemistry which helped us form a bond.
In any case, I was no longer lonely. Jill spent more and more time in the office just talking to me, as if she was avoiding something at home. At first, I didn’t notice it, but she had stopped talking about her boyfriend for a few weeks.
It’s only a few weeks later, on a Monday morning when I noticed she was crying silently at her desk that I realized something was amiss. I comforted her and after a few minutes she explained that her boyfriend had gone thru yet another overdose over the week-end and that she had decided to dump him for good.
No only was she upset at the breakup, but she ended up homeless like I had been only a few months earlier. Out of compassion, I offered for her to sleep in my daughter’s room while my kids are a their mother’s house, allowing her a place to sleep most of the time.
She initially refused, but before the day was over, she realized that most of her friends were actually her ex-boyfriend’s friends and she reluctantly accepted my offer.
The first few nights were rather intense as I could hear her crying from across the apartment, but time went by and before the week was over we were spending nice time together playing board games or watching TV.
Friday evening, I made a mental comment how this felt as if I once again had a woman in my life even if it was a purely platonic relation. At that moment that our eyes crossed and that for the first time I realized how truly beautiful Jill was.
Sure, she used to wear all black clothes and heavy make-up but tonight she was just wearing a heavy flannel pink pyjama with her black hair still running free and slightly wet from her earlier shower.
At first, I felt ashamed at looking at her like that and I was sure I was leaking out some of my own loneliness but instead of averting her gaze, I was locked into her eyes.
Strangely enough, she seemed just as paralyzed as an eternity elapsed around us. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but a few minutes later, we were naked in my bed and we were slowly discovering our respective bodies.
We didn’t actually have sex that night but only because we didn’t have adequate protection. We still fooled around in silence enough to each come several times, including several consecutive orgasms I was able to give her through oral stimulation.
We only talked the next morning about the previous night. We were both afraid it would affect our working relationship, but neither regretted what had happened. Right after breakfast, I ran to the pharmacy to purchase a few boxes of condoms and we spent the rest of the afternoon using them.
It was rather aggressive. We both had lost our partners and we fucked as if it was our last chance to do so. I don’t know if we already loved each other or if it was still purely physical but by the time the week-end gave way to return to work our relationship had already evolved.
Our business relationship also improved, with Jill taking a little more risks in her work. She slowly became more assertive, more present.