Life never unfolds the way we want, the way we expect. No matter how careful we plan, no matter how logical our decisions are, life has a way of grabbing a man by the gonads and squeezing.
Mathew was comfortable in his solitude; he never expected it to be so nice. His wife had gotten bored years before the divorce was final, the kids were off to college and he expected to be miserable. But leaving work at five, an hour at the gym, dinner was anything he felt like eating and then no one to fight over the remote ... he enjoyed this unencumbered existence.
Matt was an Electrical Engineer, managing a department of engineers and techs, in love with the details, lost in the minutia and only concerned with getting it right. He didn't enjoy managing, just demanded his people get it right, nothing more, nothing less. He assigned work based upon skill level and he had years before developed performance monitoring software that told him who the slackers were. Performance reviews were just that, look at the print outs and see if they improved or declined. There were no secrets, everyone could click the icon on their desktops and see how everyone compared at any time.
The only one not logged onto the performance monitor was Veronica. Her duties were administrative, answering the phone, billings, and maintaining the files. She was quiet, fast, efficient, and rarely made a mistake. She didn't look plain ... business like would be a good description ... she had a nice figure, but it would be hard to say it was anything but professional. She wore a starched white blouse and knee length dark skirt everyday. Her light brown or dirty blond hair was pulled tight back in a pony tail, glasses, light makeup ... perfect for the position.
The engineers and techs were mostly married, just three were not, one was a closet gay that everyone knew about and didn't care and the other two were so nerdy with short pants and pocket protectors, personal hygiene problems ... well, there was no fraternizing going on in the office with Veronica. Occasionally a married guy would stop to flirt, but Matt's scowl would put an end to that. Generally, 99% of the time they stayed in the back and the two of them stayed up front.
The office was arranged front and back like that. Matt's office was up front at the window, double glass french doors between his and Veronica's desk right inside the entrance door. All the engineers and techs were in the back; they parked back there and rarely came into the reception area. There were only four parking spaces up front, one for Matt another for his administrator, a client space and handicapped ... always empty. In the twenty years Matt had been there, he had never seen anyone park there. The bathrooms and lunchrooms were in the middle. Veronica had control of the buzzer to open the door beside her desk, preventing people coming in the front from access to the workstations in the rear, mandated by the defense department contracts. The rear access was also controlled by Veronica; she had a video camera.
All this tight security mandated that Veronica arrive first and leave last, the extra hours of overtime each day were sorely appreciated. Legally, the HR people were strictly limited by the questions they were allowed to ask during the interview. Since Veronica had no access to security data, her HS transcripts were verified and references checked, she passed the psyche profile test and she was hired. Matt couldn't have been happier with her performance, never having to worry about anything she was assigned.
Finding Veronica was a godsend for Matt, he normally had a constant search to replace his administrator, always problems showing up on time or making mistakes ... but not for the last five years. Matt knew nothing about her personally, he never bothered to ask. He only knew she was always on time and always did her job, the rest was superfluous. He gave her the high-middle pay raise every year, tried, but wasn't allowed to go higher. She was doing alright, now at over seventeen an hour, a girl with no college ... that was pretty good. He didn't even know how old she was.
Matt was making more than three times what Veronica was, and that was before all his bonuses, but then he had a BSEE, an MSEE, and twenty-three years experience. His life was controlled, happy in a solitary way, holidays with his kids, baseball in the summer, football in the fall and basketball after that. He had fifty channels of sports at home, HD on most of them, life was good. And the home was organized, clean and perfect; he had a service. He played golf on weekends with other managers from the company, a standing foursome, so a day to maintain his big house and then back to work on Monday, a neat and tidy life ... happy. He spent years of hard work getting to this plane of existence and he would do anything to keep it that way.
Veronica had just the opposite ... chaos ... the office was the only thing stable to her reality. She had a child who was an out of control monster, running the household at the age of seven. And the biological father was a no-show since she announced she was pregnant, hiding from her child support needs. Since then it was an endless string of seemingly nice-guy hunks turning into jerks for boy friends. The last one stole all her savings, ruined her credit, and still has her car. She turned him into the police, but they didn't really look ... and the insurance company was fighting her about the car, saying she gave the boyfriend the vehicle; he didn't steal it since he was listed on her policy as one of the drivers.
She lived in a crappy apartment and was fighting tooth and nail to hold onto it, the credit card companies and collection agencies were ringing her phone off the hook, filling her mail with yellow and red envelopes. She knew if she lost that apartment, she would not get another ... homeless and out on the street with no family to fall back onto for support.
Matt was just finishing up a meeting with a client, one of the big aerospace companies.
Dan Waters was a big man, friendly, he had a twenty year career in the Air Force before this job. He had a perfect smile, dirty grin and sexual joke about everything. He had been trying to get Matt to go clubbing with him for years with no success.
Matt was always friendly with the clients, the part of his job he liked the least, but they paid the bills.
"Come on Matt, you have to come, just once ... and if you don't have fun then I promise I'll never ask again."
"Dan, you know it's the Lakers playing tonight, I never miss the opportunity to watch the Spurs beat the Lakers."
"Matt, that is no excuse, Kobe is not playing tonight, it doesn't matter who wins ... come on, I promise never to ask again ... I know you're not married, you have to miss some of that action."
Matt couldn't think how to reply. He really didn't miss the action. He resigned himself to not be a sexual person when the wife turned crabby, always complaining and torturing his ego those last five years ... he just kept all that out of sight and out of mind. But he couldn't admit that to Dan, not to one of the 'guys', someone that got around to all the executives, not to a client. And Dan knew his sports too well, he couldn't think of an excuse.
"Matt, we'll take my car, you can meet me at Hooters for dinner, seven o'clock; we'll catch a few minutes of your game and go from there."
"Hooters, the place with all the babes?"
"Yeah, its really tame, the girls all wear bras and panty hose ... or we can go to Benny's Crab shack, the babes are all over you there, no bras?"
"Okay, Hooters ... seven," and he was already regretting that choice.
Dan left and Matt was still bothered. He could still go to the gym, go home and change in time ... but Dan was a scary guy, bigger than life, no telling what he would drag him into. Matt saw Veronica beside his desk filing some invoices, "Hooters ... Veronica ... oh, sorry, that isn't how I meant it ... the restaurant, Hooters, Dan has been twisting my arm for years, I finally agreed to eat dinner there with him ... ever been there?"
"Yes sir, family place really, nothing risqué ... all just innuendo and the name, can't put that on an expense report."
"Really? No nudity?"
"None, the girls wear push-up bras, a little cleavage, but otherwise well covered."
"Thank you Veronica, it makes me feel better ... I don't know why I finally caved in. I don't do stuff ... I could never hang out with Dan, guys like that."
"Yes sir, I know."
"So I'm not going to get in any trouble if the executives find out?"
"You'll see lots of kids there; they wouldn't let kids in there if anything wasn't appropriate."
"So when were you there?"
"Three, maybe four years ago ... brought my daughter, wasn't a problem ... it turned out my boyfriend at the time was chasing one of the waitresses."
