Struggling to let go of a failed relationship.
Based on a post by dark overlord 6, in 4 parts. Listen to the ► Podcast at Connected.
The rest of the day, he spent thankfully inside; taking in and fulfilling requests for everything from paperweights to desk calendars. It was a surprisingly exhausting first day, and he fell asleep in the car on the way home. His dad shook him awake when they arrived, and he walked into the house in a daze, barely mustering the energy to eat dinner before he headed to his bedroom and collapsed on top of the covers. He was half dozing, even though it was scarcely 8:00 pm, when his phone rang.
"Yeah;" he grumbled into the receiver.
"David? You sound terrible, are you sick?"
David sat up in bed, wiping at his eyes, heart racing at the sound of Heather's voice on the other side of the call, " No; Just tired. My dad got me a summer job at High Rock."
"I heard. Chris told me. I guess that must be hard work."
"You got that right," he replied, trying to put some life in his voice. He wondered if she was calling to tell him the thing with Alex had been a colossal mistake, and beg him to take her back. Of course, he would be kind about it after a suitable period of groveling, but it turned out that wasn't why she had called.
"David; I wanted to apologize for how things went down at the graduation party. I meant to tell you beforehand, but it was harder than I thought."
"I can't imagine why? We were only together three years," replied David, not able to keep the anger out of his tone.
"Don't be this way, David. I was hoping we could still be friends."
"Friends." David echoed her words in deadpan resolve.
David had let the word roll around in his mouth, finding it tasted particularly bitter.
"Yeah; I'm working at Farley's Ice Cream in the mall, this summer. If you want to come by some time, I might be able to sneak you a free chocolate chip cone." she added, mentioning his favorite ice cream flavor.
"You trying to bribe me into being your buddy?"
Heather grew quiet on the other end, before saying; "I can see you're not ready to be mature about this, so I'll let you go. I hope you can forgive me someday. I do want to be friends."
"Doe's Alex want to be my friend too?" David inquired in mock sincerity.
"He's not as bad as you make him out. Maybe we could all hang out at Wave World sometime? Alex could get us in, free."
"Alex is working at Wave World?" asked David, knowing employees could get two friends in free, on off days.
"Yeah; He's the head lifeguard at the wave pool."
David felt a pang of jealous anger well up inside him. He had been the head lifeguard at the wave pool the last two summers. Alex had not only taken his girl but his cushy summer job, as well.
"Son of a bitch! I can tell you it will be a cold day in Hell before I take charity from Alex fucking Romero!"
"I'm going to let you go, David. Maybe we can talk later;"
Heather broke the connection before he could say anything else, and as soon as her voice vanished, he felt instantly guilty for his outburst.
David dropped the phone onto the bed.
"Just perfect;" he thought, wondering how this summer could get any worse.
First Lesson.
The following morning was even harder than the previous, and David wondered how anyone got used to waking up this early. He barely managed to make it into the car on time, and his dad gave him a dirty look as they pulled away. A lecture might have followed, something about accepting responsibility, but David was asleep before they hit the first stop sign at the end of the street. His dad roused him from his slumber when they got to the plant gate and dropped him off a short time later.
Thankfully, Thomas had a pot of coffee going, and David managed to pull himself together enough to begin his day. The morning was filled with supply requests as well as the thrill of getting to inventory the facilities closet; where he got to take an accounting of every mop, broom, and box of toilet paper.
"Double check those boxes," threw in Roxy, "the vendor loves to short us a couple of rolls, and we don't need people wiping their asses on the furniture." Roxy had a strategic mastery of crude corollaries to counteract the visual reality that her smoking-hot body was too appealing for the male population to resist flirting with. She ‘cracked the whip’ verbally, to keep the men focused on the tasks, not the tits.
"Right, Boss," said David, thinking this day couldn't end soon enough.
Though he had discovered the first day, his cellphone service was mostly non-existent, he had determined he could sometimes get a signal if he went up to the second-floor break room and stood right next to the window. When he had an opportunity later that morning, he went straight there and tried to dial Heather hoping to apologize for the way their last conversation had turned out.
"Heather? Can you hear me!" he called into the phone.
The connection was terrible and kept cutting in and out.
"David; David, is that you? I can barely hear you," came her distant voice.
"I just called to say I'm sorry."
"What? You're breaking up really; bad."
"Heather? I said, I'm sorry! Heather; Jesus," moaned David shaking his phone in frustration.
"I'm sorry! I still love you, and I'm sorry!" he said louder, leaning closer to the window.
There was nothing but static now, and a second later the call dropped entirely. David was looking down at his phone, angry and sad when a shadow fell over him.
"You were supposed to be back from break five-minutes ago," said Roxy standing with her arms crossed.
"What? Oh; Sorry."
"You say that a lot. It makes me wonder if you really mean it," observed Roxy.
David's eyebrows knit together in confusion, not sure if Roxy meant ‘in this particular instance,’ or had she been listening to his conversation.
"Look, I just needed to make a call," he added.
"I heard. You want to suck up to some piece of ass; do it on your own time, not the companies."
"Heather is not a piece of ass," retorted David.
"Oh; Heather; So the piece of ass has a name? How wonderful; I'm sure you two can kiss and make up when you're not working."
"I doubt it. She left me for a guy I hate."
"Really? I would love to hear all about it, but if I wanted a teen soap opera, I would have stayed home and watched Nickelodeon, with my kid."
"Wow; you could have a little compassion;" mumbled David under his breath as he tried to brush past his boss.
"Compassion? See how much of that you have when your husband comes home drunk for the umpteenth time, after losing his job; again! You know what; just get back to work!" yelled Roxy.
David froze in place suddenly feeling ashamed at his outburst.
"Roxy; I didn't know about; I mean I know that must be;"
"Save it. Just get downstairs! We got a field inventory to do in the lay down yard."
Roxy turned on her heel and marched out, leaving David red-faced behind.
David had no idea what a "lay down" yard was. But he quickly got acquainted with the concept when he found himself facing row upon row of steel desks, stack three high on pallets, and covered with tarps. The massive collection seemed to stretch on for hundreds of yards and would have been impressive if he hadn't been sweating bullets in the burning desert heat.
"What is it we're doing out here again?" panted David.
"We have to check the serial numbers on all this crap before it gets removed from company inventory. This is all old shit that will be donated to charity."
"Isn't that nice," said David wearily.
He stood behind Roxy along with Thomas, and a pair of blue-hatted laborers who were there to help.
"Go around and untie the tarps on each pallet and check the serial numbers on the desks against what's on your clipboard," instructed Roxy.
Not wanting to give her an excuse to get angry with him again, David wiped a good bit of sweat from his brow and moved off to the closest pile. He spent the next hour working his way along in the sweltering heat, thinking no amount of money was worth this misery. The second pallet he came to was a real struggle to uncover with the ropes that held the tarp in place dried from the sun, making undoing the knots a pain. When he flipped back the tarp to expose the first desk, a shadow darted from underneath, and David found himself face to face with the biggest spider he had ever seen.
The hairy tarantula reared on its back legs waving its front ones in defiance, and David did what came naturally to a young man with an unnatural fear of spiders.
The scream that followed brought everyone else running, and they discovered David crouched on top of the desk looking down at the pissed off arachnid.
"You're kidding me, right?" asked Roxy looking at her trembling employee.
"It came out of nowhere;" said David, his wide eyes not leaving the giant creature.
"You realize you outweigh that tarantula by more than a hundred and eighty pounds?" observed Roxy.
"It doesn't look intimidated to me," whispered David.
"She was probably nesting under there. If a giant were crouching on top of my babies, I'd be pissed too."
"What do I do?" he said his tone laced with fear.
Roxy's expression softened as she realized he was genuinely petrified, and she took a step toward him, drawing his gaze. Her daughter was afraid of spiders, and she was all too familiar with the look of terror on David's face.
"David; It's okay. I want you to get up and jump to me. It's going to be fine; "
He nodded and slowly stood on the desk, his body shaking. It took him three tries, but at last, his feet left the desktop and he leapt over the spider to land on his feet, within in Roxy's arms. She held him, and for a brief instant, he felt her soft hands on his arms.
"You okay, Tiger?" she said, looking worriedly into his eyes.
"I'm; I'm fine; " he managed to croak out.
"Watch out, David! She's coming after you!" called Thomas, making David jump backward and stumble. The group of men burst out laughing, drawing an angry frown from Roxy.
"Knock it off, idiots! Get back to the inventory!"
She guided David to the next row. "I'll take this pallet. You move onto to the next one okay?"
"Thanks," he said, blushing in embarrassment, "I'm sorry. I have a thing about spiders."
"It's alright, David. Everyone is afraid of something," said Roxy patting him on the shoulder.
He shook himself and walked off, taking one last look at the tarantula, which had calmed down now that he was moving away.
The rest of the day went by without incident, and David was grateful when the final whistle blew, and he could go home and get the sweat cleaned off of himself. Much like the previous night, he fell asleep almost before his head hit the pillow, only to be pulled from his bed seemingly no time later by his dad who signaled to him that another morning was already upon him.
Roxy took pity on him after the incident from the previous day, and left him to cover the supply window while she and Thomas went to finish the inventory in the lay down yard. It was a slow day, with just a handful of people coming by; and it seemed like forever before lunch arrived. David retrieved his lunch pail from the employee's locker room and walked over to the cafeteria to find a cool place to eat. As soon as he opened the lid, a big, shadowy looking thing dropped from the top. David leapt backward so quickly he caught his legs under the table, and he fell sprawling half under it as everyone around him broke into laughter.
"What's a matter? Did the big bad spider try to get you?" laughed one of the same men who had been on the inventory crew the day before, as he lifted the rubber spider from the table.
"Very funny;" groused David as he got back to his feet.
The laughter continued as the massed group watched David jump back when the laborer waved the fake spider in his face. Ashamed of his fear, David grabbed his lunch pail and ran out of the building, where he stood almost hyperventilating on the walkway outside.
He was bent over, trying to catch his breath when a truck pulled up right in front of him.
"You okay?" called Roxy from the cab.
David straightened and walked over. "I'm fine."
"Thomas tipped me off that the guys were going to pull a prank, so I thought I should drive over and check on you."
"It's Okay" David said in his pathetic effort at denial of reality.
"You don't look okay. You look white as a sheet."
"Seriously, I'm fine. Thanks for checking, but I'm just going to go eat in my office where it's safer."
"Get in. I have a better idea."
David got his lunch pail before piling into the passenger side of the truck.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Relax. I promise there won't be any spiders," she said.
Roxy drove them halfway around the plant and out the rear gate which was usually used for freight deliveries. She followed a dirt road that ran off into the desert before turning off at a fork onto an even rougher surface that curved up into the low slung mountains that surrounded the plant. They climbed a short distance before turning again into a canyon that ended at a yawning black cave entrance.
"What the heck is this?" asked David stepping out.
"Old gold mine; There are a bunch of them in these mountains. Back at the turn of the century, men poured out here by the hundreds, hoping to make their fortunes; but most didn't find squat."
David started toward the entrance, but Roxy waved him off.
"I wouldn't if I were you. These mines aren't safe. The timbers are rotted, and they're the perfect haven for rattlesnakes."
"Why are we here, then?"
"Follow me." Roxy ordered.
David grabbed his lunch and hiked after Roxy as she took a trail that ran passed the mine and up through a notch in the rocks. On the other side, David was surprised to find a bubbling spring that had formed a pool at the base of a large rocky outcropping. A few scrub trees had sprung up around it, and Roxy went over to sit on a low flat rock in the shade of a tree, kicking off her work boots and shoving her feet into the cold water.
"I happened across this place a few years back, looking for some peace away from all the leering eyes. I used to take lunch up here when I’d had my fill of men trying to hit on me my while I downed my ham and cheese," she said.
"It's beautiful," said David, taking a seat next to her and emulating her by removing his boots and soaking his feet. "Would you like some of my sandwich?" he offered.
"Thanks," she said as he handed her half his roast beef on rye.
"So; This, Heather? I take it you two were together a long time?" asked Roxy.
"I thought you didn't want to hear a teen soap opera?"
"Sorry about that, Kid. I can be a little harsh sometimes."
"No; I should be the one apologizing. You were right to call it that; We weren't married, and it was the first relationship for both of us. I guess it would have been a little silly for me to think I was going to meet the right girl, the first time out of the gate."
Roxy kicked at the water, making ripples that spread outward.
"It's not silly. Sometimes adults call that first relationship 'puppy love,' but at the end of the day, it's still love, and it still hurts when it ends."
"Yeah;" admitted David. “I’d never been through a break-up. I think I’ll have more compassion for others, now.”
"I didn't mean to bring you down more. This is my lame attempt at cheering you up," said Roxy seeing the pain on his face.
"It's fine. I appreciate the thought. Can I ask? When did you and your husband meet?"
"Oh; are we playing true confessions now? I ask you about your girlfriend so now you get to pry into my life?" said Roxy with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry, I wasn't trying to pry. You’re my first opportunity at exercising my new-found compassion for the pain of losing someone.”
"Don't worry about it." Roxy said in a conciliatory tone.
They sat in silence; the sounds of their chewing the only noise, other than the wind through the distant canyon.
"I was nineteen," she said suddenly, not looking at David but staring off into the water.
"His name was Todd. We met at a bowling alley on a rainy Friday night. He walked me to my car because he had an umbrella, and I didn't. I thought it was pretty thoughtful of him, at the time. We dated for two years and got married at the county courthouse. A year later, I got pregnant with our daughter, Emily.
Things were okay at first, but Todd always liked to party, maybe a bit too much. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. His dad was an alcoholic, and so was his grandfather. So it ran in the family. When Todd wasn't drunk, he was a decent husband and a good father. But as the years went by those times became fewer. So one day, I had my fill, and I kicked his ass out. There; Now you know more about me than just about anybody at the plant; and I have no idea why I just told you all that."
"My mom says I have one of those trustworthy faces," said David; and for some reason Roxy found this uproariously funny; her laughter breaking the silence.
David finally joined her, and they both enjoyed a good laugh before he finished his half of the sandwich and offered her some chocolate chip cookies.
"Heather and I met at Wave World, the summer before our sophomore year of high school. She was with a group of six other girls, and I made a fool of myself trying to get her attention."
"Every man has made a fool of himself at least once, for that reason," said Roxy.
"I suppose. Anyway, our first date was at the ice cream parlor at Fair Oaks Mall, and we hit it right off. I guess maybe I did think at times she could be the one, even if we were just kids."
"The only thing I can say to that is, to make damn sure of your choice. You don't want to get stuck with a lemon, not when it's forever. Hell, I can't even get my ex to pay his child support on-time. And he is always letting Emily down, not being there for her birthdays; or paying for her damn swim lessons, like he promised."
"I could teach her to swim?" blurted David without thinking.
"What?" Roxy reacted, not expecting him to redirect the conversation.
"Oh; I'm good in the pool. I was on my high school swim team and made all-state last year. I can swim like a fish."
"I don't know; I can't afford to pay you anything." Roxy dismissed the idea.
"That's alright. You did me a good turn today, and I don't mind. In ten minutes you just did more for my stress than a professional therapist could. And how much do they cost?"
Roxy looked away. It was clear she wasn't comfortable taking what she saw as charity, but she finally nodded when he assigned a relative value to her therapy efforts.
"Emily would like to learn, and I can't teach her. I suck in the water."
"Then it's settled." David smiled.
"Okay, Sport. I'll text you my address, and you can come by this weekend. Okay?"
"Deal!" said David grinning.
"Come on we need to get back to work, and don't leave any of your garbage behind. This is my place and I intend for it to stay nice!"
The Deep End.
The week ended finally, and it was with a sense of relief that David got to sleep past sunrise. He rose late, feeling refreshed for the first time in days. And true to their agreement, he received a text later that morning from Roxy, giving him her address and a time to show up.
Her apartment wasn't hard to find, though it was definitely in a poorer part of town than where he and his parents lived. Still, for all that, the complex was well-maintained and seemed to have a good mix of older couples and young families. David identified her apartment number but went on by since she had told him they would meet at the complex pool. He spotted Roxy immediately, sitting poolside in shorts and a tank top showing off more of that fair-skinned beauty he thought he was never going to get used too. She was there with a young girl, maybe seven years old with hair just like her mother’s but much straighter, falling like a waterfall down her small back.
"4:00pm, Right on time. At least you're punctual for something," commented Roxy as he came through the pool gate, carrying a backpack over a shoulder.
"I was only late to work that once, and it's not my fault my dad was the one driving."
"Excuses, excuses," said Roxy with a shake of her head.
"Who is this, Mommy?" asked the young girl across from her.
"This is the guy I was telling you about who is going to teach you to swim. His name is David. Say 'Hi,' to David, Emily,"
"Hi, David!" she said in a high-pitched voice.
"Hello, Emily. It's very nice to meet you."
He shook her small hand, noting that she also had her mother’s piercing green eyes.
"Do I have to go in the deep end?" asked Emily, looking apprehensively toward the far side of the pool.
"Not to start, and not for a while yet. I'm going to show you the basics, and the first thing is to teach you how to float."
"Like a balloon?" she asked.
"Something like that; Come with me."
David stripped off his shirt, exposing his very developed swimmer’s chest, and removed his shorts to reveal the tight swimsuit he had on underneath. He wasn't sure, but he thought he caught Roxy staring at him for a moment checking him out, but when he looked up she appeared engrossed in a book she had brought with her, and he quickly dismissed the idea. Emily followed him over to the wide steps leading down to the shallow end, and he led her down into the water, both of them shivering a little as they got used to the cooler temperature.
The truth was that David had never tried to teach anyone before, let alone a child. But Emily proved to be a quick learner, with the same kind of razor-sharp focus that her mother possessed. He had also been worried about dealing with a kid, since he had minimal experience with children. But Emily put him at ease with her surprisingly mature manner for one so young. Emily saw David as a trusted teacher, and complied with his gentle instruction.
"Mom says you're the funny one," she said at one point as she floated on her back.
"Is that right?" said David keeping his arms just under her, in case she sank.
"Yeah. She says Thomas is the quiet one, and you're the one who tries to be funny but has a smart ass."
David chuckled and looked over at Roxy, who was still fully engaged in her book.
"What else does your mom say about me?"
"She says you swim like a fish."
"I do; like a shark!" said David reaching up to tickle the back of Emily’s knees as she broke out in a fit of giggles.
"I see you two are getting along." Roxy was suddenly standing at the edge of the pool, looking down at the two of them.
"Emily is a quick study. Did you see how well she floats?" David hoped Roxy hadn’t heard his discussion with Emily.
"I sure did. If you don't mind, I need to go inside and get ready for a date. Can you keep Emily here with you?"
"Yeah, sure," replied David.
As Roxy left the pool area, David continued the lesson, teaching his young charge to doggy-paddle across the shallow end.
"So your mom has a date tonight," he said casually, wondering what type of men Roxy would let into her world; given the level of contempt she seemed to have for the guys at the plant.
"Yeah, he has a big nose, but mom says he's got potential," was all Emily would say about the man in question.
David chuckled again; especially at Emily's use of a word with more than two syllables.
A short time later Roxy returned, and he had to fight down an urge to whistle as she breezed through the gate in a short cotton dress that revealed her gorgeous muscular legs, and dropped low enough to give David his first real view of the creamy white flesh of her huge breasts.
She stopped at the edge, looking down, "I guess you guys can take your time. My babysitter just canceled on me so I won't be going out tonight after all."
"Ah! No, Mrs. Foster?" said Emily with some disappointment.
"Sorry, Sweetie. Mrs. Foster caught a cold."
David rubbed his jaw in thought, wondering why he suddenly felt so selfless, but deciding to go with it.
"You know; if you want, I could babysit Emily tonight while you go on your date?"
Roxy pursed her lips together, turning her head to one side; not sure how to take this new offer of help.
"I don't know; How does Emily feel about that?"
"David is fun," was all she said, splashing the water.
"With qualifications like that, how can I say no," said Roxy with a shrug.
David helped Emily out of the pool and went to dry himself while she did the same. Roxy stepped closer, giving him a nose full of her alluring perfume.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Emily has been pretty well-behaved so far, but she can be a handful when she's tired."
"It's no problem. I have a way with kids," he lied, knowing he had never babysat before in his life.
"Well; thanks I guess. Don't think I'm going to go easier on you at work just because you're doing me a favor though, and I will be paying you for this one."
"Sure; that's fair," he said with a shrug.
The three of them returned to Roxy's apartment, which turned out to be just as well organized and immaculate as her office. David stepped into the restroom to get his regular clothes back on returning to find Emily sitting at a small table in the kitchen, eating a bowl of steaming chicken soup.
"Her bedtime is 8:00pm on the dot, and no sugar before you put her down," instructed Roxy.
"Ah man; I wanted to bake cookies; Mrs. Foster bakes cookies," lamented Emily.
"Mrs. Foster's got an ass like a Mac Truck," whispered Roxy under her breath, making David smile.
"You can do without the cookies tonight. We don't want to make things too hard on David."
"Actually if you have all the ingredients I know how to make a mean chocolate chip cookie."
"Well, aren't you the Renaissance man," said Roxy with a smirk, "you can do cookies then, but nothing after seven."
Emily clapped her hands in triumph as David followed Roxy to the door.
"Call me if she gives you any trouble, and don't let her sucker you with that cute smile. I've seen her wrap Mrs. Foster right around her finger."
"We'll be fine. Go have a good time doing; whatever it is you do," said David making Roxy flash a rare smile.
After she departed, David helped Emily clean herself from dinner, and then the two of them spent the next hour mixing up a batch of cookies that turned out pretty well.
"What do you like to do for entertainment around here?" asked David as they each chewed on one.
Emily popped up from the floor and ran over to a cardboard box that sat next to the TV. returning with a DVD case that had seen better days. David took it from her his eyes going wide as a flood of nostalgia poured into his brain.
"Captain Marauder! I watched this when I was a kid!" he exclaimed with delight.
"Captain Marauder! Hero of the space ways!" yelled Emily striking a pose with her hands on her hips.
David popped the old DVD in the player, and hearing the intro music transported him back to his childhood, watching Captain Marauder fight to save the Universe from evil. They watched several episodes of the old space saga until it got close to Emily's bedtime and they were forced to call a halt to the fun. He got her to brush her teeth and slipped her into bed.
"Will you read me a story? Mom always reads me to sleep," she said quietly.
"What kind of a story would you like?" he asked, glancing around the room looking for a bookshelf.
"What stories did you like when you were a kid?" she asked curiously.
"My dad used to tell me stories sometimes before bed," replied David remembering how his father used to spin tales of dragons and knights seeking adventure for him.
"Can you tell me one?"
He cleared his throat, trying to recall precisely how one of them went and ended up telling her a story about a great green and gold dragon named Charcoal that protected the land from an evil snow witch. Emily listened with rapt attention.
"I wish I could ride a dragon-like that;" she said sleepily as he turned off her light.
"It would be awesome, wouldn't it? Why don't you try to get some sleep now and maybe you'll have a dream about a dragon."
"I hope so. Goodnight, David."
"Goodnight, Emily. Sweet dreams," he said just as his parents had said to him for so many nights when he had been no bigger than her.
David returned to the kitchen, feeling proud of himself for pulling off his first attempt at babysitting with such ease. He started cleaning up the kitchen washing the bowls and utensils they had used to make the cookies and ended up nicking his finger on a kitchen knife. It bled quite a bit, and he tried to staunch the flow while hunting around the kitchen for a Band-Aid. Failing in that, he moved on to the bathroom poking around in Roxy's medicine cabinet without success. Three drawers ran down one side beneath the sink, so he tried there next finding a box in the back of the second one down. Hoping it was a first aid kit he opened the nondescript container only to be confronted by a very large dildo. It was at least ten inches of silicone rubber topped with a thick fake cock head.
"Jesus, Roxy, if that's your expectation no wonder you find so many guys wanting," he said, closing the box and carefully putting it back.
He eventually found what he was looking for in the bottom-most drawer and with his finger repaired; he returned to the living room to watch TV. and await Roxy's return.
It was a little after midnight when a key hit the front door, and David sat up from the couch, putting the remote aside.
"Why do men suck?" were the first words out of her mouth.
"I'm going to guess that the date didn't go well," observed David.
"It started okay; but as usual, at some point he decided that pawing my boobs would be more fun than watching the movie," said Roxy, flopping down on the couch next to him.
"I'm sorry it wasn't everything you were hoping for. I guess he didn't have all that much potential after all?"
"I can see you've been talking to Emily. How did that go by the way? She drive you crazy?"
"Not at all. She was a perfect little sweetie all night, and went right to bed when I asked."
"Amazing. Mrs. Foster always has trouble when it comes to lights out. You'll have to tell me your secret."
"Tricks of the trade. I can't give away all my mysteries right off. How will I keep you in suspense?" he said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Are you trying to be funny?" Roxy sensed his wit, which she enjoyed sparring with.
"Maybe; Is it working?" David smoothly retorted.
This time her usual stone face cracked slightly, and she looked away with a faint smile playing on her lips, "Maybe."
There was an awkward moment of silence before David slapped his leg and stood up.
"I should get going."
Roxy walked him to the door, fishing some money out of her purse.
"You don't have to pay me."
"We had an agreement," she said in a no-nonsense tone shoving the cash into his hand.
He shook his head, pocketing the money, and turned to go down the walk, to his parked car.
"David?" Her voice was now softer.
He stopped, looking back over his shoulder.
"Thanks for taking care of my little girl. I'm glad you were here." It was the most vulnerable and sincere thing he’d ever heard from his boss.
The light from the lamppost outside illuminated Roxy's face as she stood in the doorway, making her look even more beautiful than usual. David swallowed hard before he could reply.
"My pleasure; I'll see you at work," he managed at last.
"Yeah; See you," she said, closing the door.
To be continued in part 3. Based on a post by dark overlord 6, in 4 parts. For Literotica.