The Anniversary

It was a couple of minutes before 7pm when Paul cleared his desk and finally hurried out off the office.

It was his wedding anniversary and he had planned to dine with Vize, his wife of 2 years, at a classy restaurant down town.

He had reserved a special corner at a classy restaurant, with special music, her favourite dishes, champagne, and a chauffeured ride to pick her up from her office. He had sent chocolates and 2 dozen cards, each to represent a month of their marriage, to her office. Needless to say, she was very excited. If only she knew what was waiting at the house,

In two words, “insane”.

Oh that’s one word, ha.

He felt good all day. He felt even better when he received the Cartier wristwatch she had sent to him. Ok, it wasn’t just a wristwatch, it was a machine. He secretly believed he could stop time with that watch… he would have to read the manual.

His ‘good feeling’ was cut short abruptly by his boss. At thirty-one years of age, she was one of the young geniuses who had skyrocketed up the office hierarchy. He had to give it her, she was indeed a genius. She was also cholerically choleric and a world class tyrant! By cholerically choleric, Paul meant that she made other choleric look like toddlers looking for attention and everyone had learnt to fall in place. She wasn’t ALL bad though. She did show her sweet and jovial side once in a while during which she was actually a lot of fun to be around.

However Debby didn’t look sweet and jovial today. She walked over to his desk by 5:15pm, as he was packing up to leave, and stood there, arms crossed and just stared at him. He slowly lifted up his eyes to meet hers, making a conscious effort to avoid her curves and large busts, a good part of which were conspicuously exposed, thanks to the corporately low cut shirt she wore. Corporately low was a phrase she had come up with when she had once been challenged by a director about her dressing. It was a big issue, but three days later, she brilliantly sealed a deal that brought in millions to the office. After that, the bosses let her be and learnt to live with it… though Paul had a nagging feeling that some of them enjoyed the view.

Damn, she’s so hot! Arghhh! I love my wife… I love my wife… I love my

When his eyes finally met hers, she asked for a report he had prepared for her.

“I sent that to you a few hours ago Debby” Did she not get his mail?

“Oh yes I saw it and I have made a few comments.”

“Okay…..”

“What’s okay? Update the report and send back to me.” She turned and headed back to her office before adding “tonight”

“Tonight? Erm, please will tomorrow morning be too late? I have errrr, an appointment I need to make”

“Yes it will be too late and no I won’t reconsider, so I need it in my inbox within the hour.” And with that, she walked back to her office without a backward glance.

He swore under his breath and checked the time. 5:17pm. He quickly started up his computer, tapping his fingers while he waited. When the system came up, he opened up his email, skipped through several mails that had come in after he had shut down and found Debby’s.

“So what do we have here?” he muttered to himself.

When he opened the attachment, he swore out loud.

Ignoring a few glances that came his way, he looked through what she had sent.

This was bad. She had all but asked him to start it all over from scratch. He turned his head towards her office, his eyebrow twitching… a sign that he was trying to keep his temper in check.

I can do this

He took a deep breath and got to work. Slamming his fingers into the keys of the keyboard.

A few meters away, Debby smiled to herself and hummed as she typed on her keyboard.
——————————————————————————————————————

50 intense minutes later, Paul clicked the send button, shut down his computer and semi-jogged to Debby’s office. He knocked softly and popped in his head.

“I’m done Debby, you can check your…”

Why was she packing up to leave?

“Thank you Paul. Will look at it in the morning” She waved him off.

His grip on the door knob tightened. Was she kidding?

“I thought you said you needed it tonight? I assumed it was really urgent”

She stopped what she was doing for a few seconds and stood to face him.

“And now I’ve changed my mind? Do you have a problem with that?”

His eyebrow started twitching just as his phone rang. Vize was calling.

de Mark