The Love Of Money - Episode 3
25-07-25 (19:10)
Friday, 2:02 pm
"What're you doing here?"
Having heard that question for the fourth time today, I
rolled my eyes as I laid down my bag and set my
water bottle down on the countertop. I turned to see
my cubicle partner Gerald, returning from getting a
fresh cup of coffee, judging by the topped-off mug in
his hand. He was a good guy, albeit a little too nosey
into my personal life for my taste. I put up with it
though, because it sure as hell beat some of the
possible alter-natives. He knew all about my situation
with Jessica, so I decided to rip the bandaid off.
"Jessica killed our relationship this morning, and it didn't
end well." I leaned against the wall of my cubicle,
"Apparently she found someone she liked more in
Kansas over the last month and apparently she thought
I'd like it better if she let me buy her a ticket so she
could look me in the eyes when she broke the news to
me."
Gerald's eyebrows raised and he let out a whistle,
"That's a lot... and she waited till the last day to tell
you?"
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, pulled it out, and
immediately silenced it, "Yeah... she waited the full
week to tell me." I waved my phone in the air, "That
was her calling, by the way. Seventh time she's tried to
call my phone in the last half-hour. She probably ran
into some trouble getting to the airport or passing
through TSA or something. Fucking useless..."
"Well, her using you like that... it shows a serious lack
of character on her part. Consider yourself lucky, pal.
You could have been in a marriage with that young
lady." He blew on his coffee and took a sip and nodded,
"It's probably for the best."
"What's probably for the best?"
The feminine voice behind me immediately caused the
contents in my stomach to turn, and I gave Gerald a
silent snarl of contempt before tuming around to face
the voice's owner. Standing before me was one of the
most gorgeous women I'd ever seen in-person- Bobbi
Nanford. She was slim with golden-brown hair that fell
in waves around elfin features. She had a fair
complexion and a long. graceful neck, and beautiful
light-grey eyes that seemed to pierce into my soul
when she looked at me. Her nose and lips were walfish
and delicate. She could have easily been an influencer
or model making a lot more than she did here if it
weren't for the fact that she was so goddamn lazy. An
alter-native could have been finding some rich asshole
to date, but the only real flaw to Bobbi was her
personality. She didn't just suck. She was a complete
psycho bitch.
"Nothing Bobbi," I said, immediately disappearing in my
cubicle to hopefully communicate that I didn't want to
talk.
Not taking the bait, she followed me.
"What are you even doing here? Aren't you supposed
to be at home with your long-distance fuck-girl?"
Fifth time that question was asked.
I wanted to whirl around and lash out at her. I wanted
to tell her that I didn't have to tell her a goddamn thing
and that she should mind her own business. Honestly, I
wanted to do more than that. I wanted to shove her
head-first into a trash can and lock that trash can in a
closet. The problem was that I'd had two infractions in
the last six months and a third would probably lead to
serious repercussions. Both infractions had come from
complaints made by Bobbi. The first had been due to
sexual misconduct in the workplace. It was a bullshit
claim, and everyone knew it. For starters, I was too
mild-mannered and introverted to be that brash.
Second, I was too level-headed to make unwanted
advances in the workplace and jeopardize a good
career. Third, I wouldn't have tried to force myself on
someone like that because I consider myself a
relatively good person. And fourth, Bobbi was a raving,
foaming-at-the-mouth bitch, and despite the fact that
she was stunning, I wouldn't have touched her for a
million dollars.
Okay, that was a lie. I'd sleep with one of the hottest
girls in the office for a million dollars, but then I
wouldn't really have had to worry about my job then,
would I?
The other infraction occurred when she somehow
managed to
convince upper management that I'd been mishandling
financial information. While I hadn't been directly
accused of anything, my supervisor made it crystal clear
that I was on thin ice. The point was, Bobbi had it out
for me, and no one with any actual power had my
back.
So instead of physically abusing her, I simply allowed
myself to imagine several ways of ending her life and
made due. It was hardly satisfying, but beggars couldn't
be choosers. Trying my best to keep things civil, I
moved my desk into a standing position and removed a
couple of snacks from my bag as I set up for my half-
day.
"We broke up this week," I said without looking at her.
I turned on my computer, still trying to convey the
message that I wasn't interested in talking to her.
She laughed at me, "Damn, Upton. You had to find
some internet rando desperate enough that she flew
out regularly to fuck you, and you still couldn't keep
her? Why can't you just date someone who lives in
your city like a normal guy? Got tired of the rejection?"
I'd mastered the art of not talking to this woman, and
now I was having to use every trick in my belt to keep
looking forward and not say anything. Why did she
hate me so much?
"Have you given up yet, incel?" she prodded. "Or do you
think you still have options? Maybe you need to look
further away? Some poor woman in a third world
country might see you as her ticket out of her shithole.
Ever think of that?"
"Now that's enough, Bobbi, Gerald said. Him speaking
up at all demonstrated that she'd probably gone too far.
Gerald wasn't exactly the confrontational sort.
Bobbi snorted, "Mind your own fucking business, coffee
stain. It'll never be enough. I know Marcus' type. He
seems all nice and sincere. It's just an act. Don't let him
fool you, grandpa."
"Why would you even say that?" whirled on her, but
still kept my distance. I saw her eyes grow
fractionally... probably from the outrage she felt that I'd
bother to question her. "What have I ever done to give
you that impression?"
"Because you're all shit-bags," Bobbi spat. "The more
nice and chill you are, the more of an asshole you are
underneath it all. You're just an opportunist who
probably used that poor, desperate girl. You probably
broke her heart, and now you don't have to look her
in the face because she lives halfway across the
country. So now you can go about your little life and try
to find some other low self- esteem girl who lives far
away and woo her into sucking your dick for a while till
either you get tired of her or she wises up to the fact
you're a loser."
I could feel the blood pounding in my head and the
nails digging into my palms.
She looked me up and down and contorted her face
into a sneer, "You want to hit me, don't you?"
I did. I really fucking did. But knew better.
"That's what thought," she muttered. We stared each
other in the eyes till moments felt like weeks, and
when it became clear that I wasn't going to give her a
reason to sue me, she turned and headed for the exit.
"I have better things to do than breathe your air. Later,
loser."
She turned the corner and walked away, firmly
shoulder-checking Gerald on the way just enough to
jostle him, but not enough to make him spill any of his
coffee. She was a master at that sort of thing. Gerald
and I watched her walk away, both of us a little
dumbfounded at how hostile she could be.... but more
than that. Despite my feelings toward Bobbi, I was
captivated by the way her little ass looked in her tight,
grey skirt. It didn't matter how horrible of a person she
was, Bobbi Nanford was a work of art.
I glanced over at Gerald and caught him staring at the
exact same thing and gave him a nudge. He tore his
eyes away from the view as if he'd just been caught
cheating on his wife and looked at me with a confusion
in his eyes that I fully understood.
"I know, man. I know," I said before stepping back into
my cubicle and getting to work.
Thirty minutes passed and I was starting to fall into a
rhythm, letting the work drown out the fresh wounds
Jessica had inflicted on me and the proverbial lemon
juice Bobbi had decided to rub in it. I found some sort
of zen in staring at rich people's numbers all day and
manipulating them to make them bigger. Numbers
often made much more sense than people, and they
rarely surprised you.
In fact, I was so engrossed into what I was doing that
it took me a second to realize that someone was
saying my name. I was pulled out of my headspace by
the exact same question I'd been asked multiple times
already, "Marcus? What are you doing here?"
What was this? Number five? Six?
I rolled my eyes and started to turn away from my
computer, "You know, I do work here. I get to..." The
rest of my words died on my lips as I saw who'd asked
the question.
Natalie was standing in the doorway of my cubicle,
leaning against the frame. She wore a thin, white, knit
sweater and a black skirt that ended just above her
knees. The sweater did wonders to show off her
generous chest and the skirt hugged her hips in the
same way. She looked up at me with those big brown
eyes of hers; her eyebrows were subtly knit together in
curiosity, and an amused little smile played about her
full, lush lips.
Over the course of the last year, Natalie had become
one of my best friends. We shared a lot of common
interests, had similar taste in music and movies, and
similar brands of humor while maintaining just enough
of a difference to keep things interesting. I found
myself enjoying life so much more when I was around
her, and she'd made working at Marduke an absolute
pleasure despite the existence of pains in my ass like
Bobbi. Gun to my head, I would have had to admit a
serious crush on this girl. Unfortunately, for the entire
duration of our friendship, one or both of us had been
taken-she'd had a boyfriend of three years until a
month ago. She never really told me why they'd
broken up. And of course... I'd been with Jess.
Her looks helped with my crush. She had caramel skin
and black hair that she wore down just past her
shoulders. Unlike Bobbi, hers didn't quite have that silky
smoothness to it; it was thicker and a bit more wiry, a
result of part of her mixed ancestry. She complained
about it all the time being a nightmare to work with,
but she did a fantastic job. Her hair framed a round,
heart-shaped face with high cheekbones. My favorite
feature was her lips though they were thicker than
Jessica's or Bobbi's... more plump, and more than once
I'd wondered what it would be like to kiss them, or
have them explore some of the other parts of my body.
Seeing this woman in front of me warmed my heart,
and I couldn't help but smile. Her smile grew... God it
was infectious - big, and accompanied with cute
dimples in her cheeks.
"Sorry," I said, unable to finish my retort. "That was the
seventieth time someone's asked me that question
today and it was starting to get old."
Dont forget to leave a Comment