Page 2 of Axon’s Lust

“So, this restaurant is a nice choice. How did you hear about it?” I asked. Anything to keep from seeing how disgusting he looked as he inhaled his food like a pig. “What made you invite me to dinner here?” I asked again. He was still chewing his food when he answered.

“One of my clients suggested it to me,” he said, a couple bits of chicken flying from his mouth, making me cringe. “He said it was a good place to pick up more clients because you know, people need money to eat here, which means they have money to invest.” He stated simply.

He looked around the room as though he was searching for potential clients, and my shoulders sagged with disappointment. That was not the answer I was expecting. I thought he was going to say something like, ‘because of the fresh flowers and dimly lit candle ambiance’, or ‘it’s a romantic place for couples’… this guy was a terrible date.

“Speaking of which, you don’t mind going half on this one with me, do you?” he asked, eyeing my hardly touched food with distaste. “I knew it would be expensive, but I wasn’t expecting it to be this pricey.” He said. “Plus, you ordered like, the second most expensive dish on the menu, and I ordered the least expensive, and you’re guzzling down that wine like you’ve never had a drink in your life.” He remarked with no shame.

I looked at him completely gobsmacked. Was he serious right now?

“I think it’s fair you pay for your share,” he said, nodding like we had finished our discussion.

He was serious!

My face turned bright red, as I felt my cheeks burning. I didn’t even realize the price of what I had ordered. I only ordered it because I thought it would be delicious, but clearly, Michael took note of the price of everything I picked.

At least he wasn’t making me pay for the whole check this time,I thought.

Realizing that was the most comforting thought about Michael only made me feel worse. I wouldn’t be telling Lisa about this one, as I wasn’t in the mood for another of her ‘I told you so’ statements.

“Sure, I guess,” I muttered grudgingly.

“Great! So, don’t order dessert, okay? I want to get out of here and go back to your place. I have to be up early in the morning for a meeting,” he added as he waved the waiter over.

I looked down at my plate, all of it almost uneaten because I was trying to enjoy the evening, but Michael finished his entire entrée in about 60 seconds flat.

It flared me up inside. I was going to eat at a pace I wanted, and he was going to wait until I was finished, dammit. How dare this uncouth, little… you know what. Screw it.

I began to eat and didn’t bother with anymore conversation. There was simply no point to it. When dinner was finally over, I paid for my meal, and with my acquired liquid courage, I came out full force as I turned around to face him.

“You can go back to your place, Michael, and delete my number. I never want to be stuck with you again, not even for all the orgasms in the world.”

He looked at me like I just dropped a bomb on him, but I held my head high as I turned around and walked away.

Lisa would be so proud.

***

The next day at work was just like any other day. I was sitting at my desk, a cubicle among many cubicles, and surrounded mostly by men. We were in a glass sky rise building on the outskirts of the city. I was looking at data coming into the monitors from our satellite feed, all the while half-listening to the men near me talk about the latest sports happenings, which I cared nothing about. I was fairly alone when it came to womanly companionship in the office, but the upside was I could just ignore the guys and get quite a bit of work done.

As I was looking at my screen, the picture began to act very chaotically with a lot of static. I tilted my head in confusion. I know our building has a pretty good power source, so I’m not sure why it’s doing that.

I shook the monitor a bit and clicked on my keyboard until it stabilized. Hmm, probably just a glitch somewhere…

Suddenly, the screen blinked in and out again, and then I heard a commotion in the office, as everyone else began to experience the same thing on their monitors.

“What is going on? My monitor is screwed up,” Larry, the guy over at the next cubicle said.

“Look at mine. It’s doing the same thing,” I replied, pointing at my computer.

“Perhaps it’s an electrical glitch in the building,” another person said. I shook my head and opened my mouth to reply when someone beat me to it.

“The data here is too important to the government; the backup generators will turn on in any case of a power outage.” David Binks, my manager, said as he walked over to us, looking at everyone’s monitors as he tried to assess the situation.

The picture on the monitor began to bounce up and down more violently, and it became impossible to see the lines of data on the screen. Then everything went black, causing everyone to panic.

“Shit,” David said. He began to shout out orders for a few team members to check the machine rooms while everything else turned into chaos.

I sat at my desk, dumbfounded by the situation as I watched everyone scramble to do something. I wondered if it was just our company having the problem, or if it was the whole building.