Author's Note: Hi, just had a cute story premise about romance in a relationship and wrote something about it. Hope you guys enjoy it!
"Bye babe, I'm off to work!"
James called as he hauled his computer bag and slung it over his shoulder. His wife Emma leaned against the kitchen doorframe sipped her coffee, watching with interest as he left the house. They were newlyweds but their respective corporate desk jobs allowed them so little time to spend in each other's company, save for the few weekends that both of them got off work. This was especially so for Emma who was working on a huge project for her company; her team was launching a new product and they were, like many corporate workers, overworked. James, on the other hand, worked at a small consulting firm that didn't make a lot of money but they pooled together their resources and got by. While both their jobs started at nine in the morning, James's office was a 30-minute drive away while Emma worked just around the street, affording her more time for herself on her mornings and less time traveling for work.
Being a newlywed couple, their sex life was kind of vanilla but not vanilla in a negative sense; their sex was passionate, loving, romantic but nothing too exotic or kinky. James had been encouraging his conservative, Christian-raised wife to try some dirty talking but it was coming along slowly. But most importantly, they enjoyed each other's company and the focus was always on the cuddling afterward rather than the hurried thrusting and humping that was merely physical.
Emma finished up her coffee and got ready for the short five minutes' walk to her office. She gathered her belongings and left the house, making good time.
As she approached her office, Emma lightly tapped her identification tag onto the scanner and the doors automatically unlocked as she pulled herself into the office. She glanced around the meeting room, seeing the familiar faces; Robert, Jones, Aditya and William were her team members working on their latest project, the latter of the list being her direct superior.
"Emma, good to see you,"
William announced with a grin plastered on his face after noticing Emma. He moved in for a hug but his actions only saw Emma give him a tight-lipped smile and a curt nod. William had an infatuation on Emma ever since he had laid eyes on her when she had joined a year ago. He had been pining for her attention for almost forever and almost everyone in the office knew of his unwanted attention and advances towards Emma. But looking at Emma, it was easy to see how he had become so head over heels for her. Emma was about 1.7m or 5"7 tall. Her slender figure contrasted with her larger-than-proportionate breasts which were C-cups; not massively huge but big enough to draw the attention of the guys in the office. She always wore modest clothing like jeans and baggy tee shirts but jeans did little to disguise and cover up the voluptuous ass that she possessed. Most of her colleagues were modest enough to avert their eyes as she walked past but the more shameless of the lot, such as William, feasted their eyes whenever the opportunity presented itself. Her brunette-coloured hair was moderately long, curling slightly below her shoulders, bouncing and swaying with her steps. She seldom tied up her hair into a ponytail, mostly to appear more professional when presenting to clients, and today was no exception; she had decided to let it hang loose around her. She hated the attention. She had tried wearing baggier clothing and other means to divert the attention away from herself but in the end, she was still one of the few female employees in an industry rather male-dominated which directed quite a bit of unwanted male attention towards her.
She ignored William's advance, choosing instead to join the more gentlemanly few of her team. They then began a heated discussion on the technical aspects of their product that they would be presenting to their client later in the week. Most of the meetings and interactions went by without a hitch, save for the attention that William showered her with. From morning to late afternoon, he complimented her on her dressing excessively and her work, even though Emma herself felt that it was nothing special. From the looks of it, the other team members were also getting frustrated, not at her, thank goodness, but at William.
The days went by in a flash. One day before the client presentation, a major milestone in their product development timeline, it was all hands-on deck. Even though all the team members were physically at home, all of them were working on their respective sections. As the night progressed, William needed to pass the specs sheet to Emma to format the data. Emma was rushing the deadline and was pushed into a hard position of sending William her address so that he could individually deliver the documents. She hated letting the creep know where she lived but some major aspects of the project's success depended on it. She reluctantly DMed her address to William so that he could deliver the document. If anything, at least her husband was home to make things clear.
Around 20 minutes later, William arrived at the apartment complex and tried to find the unit. He had heard that Emma was recently married and was curious to see what Emma's husband looked like.
"No matter how good-looking he was, he must still be leagues away from Emma,"
he thought to himself. Feeling as though he was back in high-school and confessing to his crush, he mustered up his courage and knocked on the door. He heard rustling of papers before the door opened to reveal a severely sleep-deprived Emma. She took the folder of documents from his hand, said an inaudible word of thanks before slowly closing the door. Just as the door was closing, William glimpsed into the apartment. A tall skinny man dressed in a baggy tee shirt walked to the living room table where two laptops were set up in the middle of stacks upon stacks of papers.
William was confused. The individual he presumed to be Emma's husband wasn't particularly good-looking. He looked kind of scrawny and generally not handsome, totally not befitting Emma. He pursed his lips in as his discontent and jealousy grew. Why was it that that man got to be her husband but he, kind and handsome as he was, was not able to get the girl? He pondered this as he got into his car and drove back home.
The next day, the presentation went smoothly and the clients were impressed with the team's progress on the product. They decided to take an early day off to celebrate their success before the grind came again soon. They chose a local eatery near their office to celebrate. Since the company was paying for the food, they ordered freely from a menu and requested for free-flow drinks which later became apparent that it was not a wise choice. While most of the team members were polite and held their liquor, William wasn't quite as able as the rest. While his day-to-day speech was normally rather insensitive, getting intoxicated only opened up a floodgate of comments that were abrasive and crude. They avoided talking about work as they went through their meal. Eventually, the talk of the table settled on Emma's marriage. She had just gotten married just 2 months ago and most of the team members were curious about the couple.
"Emmaaaa, why did you marrryyyy that skinny kid?"
William slurred as he continued drinking, much to the annoyance of many of the other team members.
"Errr, I really love James and we decided that we want to be together,"
replied Emma through gritted teeth, half annoyed and half embarrassed. This was too much, going way beyond the usual harassment. Nobody talked shit about her husband.
"What can that puny beansproutttt giveee you that I cannnn't??"
he continued, his speech more to reassure himself than an actual question.
Emma had had enough.
"I'm sorry guys, I'll see you tomorrow,"
