Forbidden Office Affair

I sat curled up on the couch, my five-year-old son, Max, snuggled up beside me. I was staring blankly at the TV; my mind had drifted far off. Max's gentle tug on my sweater-covered hand brought me back to reality.

"Mommy, are you okay?" he asked, his big brown eyes full of concern.

I forced a smile. "Yeah, baby, I'm fine. Just a little tired; I had a lot of work to do at the office today."

Max looked uncertain but didn't press the issue. He went back to watching his favorite cartoon, his blonde hair bobbing up and down with excitement.

My gaze drifted around the small apartment, taking in the too-familiar sight. The faded couch from my ex-boyfriend's house, the hand-me-down coffee table, and the bookshelf filled with worn paperbacks and Max's school books. It wasn't much, but it was home.

My friend, Rachel, who was sitting in the armchair across from us, spoke up after some time. "Lena, maybe you should take some days off from work. You've been working so hard lately, and extra hours for that matter."

I gave her a disapproving stare before sighing, running a hand through my long, dark hair. Although Max had taken his father's salty blonde hair, his hazel-colored eyes were undeniably inherited from me.

"I know, Rach. But you know that your girl has to do what she has to do. Stacking up a bunch of manuscripts that no one is interested in reading can't put food on the table or pay his bills, you know how expensive that is," I said, whispering at the end.

"Come on Lena, don't be so hard on yourself, things will fall into place. I have a good feeling about this new year." I looked down at my son who had dozed off on my lap. "We said that last year," I muttered, struggling to hold back tears that were threatening to fall.

Rachel got up and walked over to me, giving me a gentle hug. "You're an amazing mom and an even better writer. Something will come through soon. I just know it."

I appreciated the encouragement, but it did little to douse the doubts and near-resignation I was feeling. Max was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis about two years ago, and the random hospital visits were taking a toll on us financially.

"Thank you," I mouthed to her, running my fingers through Max's curly hair.

Just then, Max jumped off the couch and ran to the kitchen. I could have sworn this boy was sleeping a few moments ago. "Mommy, Mommy! I almost forgot, I made a picture for you! You're going to love it, I pwomise," he said, gesturing for me to join him in the kitchen.

My heart swelled with love as I followed Max into the kitchen. On the fridge was a colorful drawing of our little family - there was Max, Mummy, Aunt Rachel, and even our old cat, Mr. Whiskers. The crayon marks were bold and vibrant; he must have been really excited when drawing this.

Rachel chuckled. "Looks like someone's got some artistic talent! It runs in the family apparently," she said, giving me a wink.

I smiled, feeling a sense of pride and gratitude for my little family. "This looks amazing, Max. We should get this framed in the living room so that everyone can see it."

"Or better still, an art gallery," he said in awe. I ruffled his hair, nodding in agreement. "Muuummmm, you're going to ruin my hair," he whined with a cute pout.

I could hear Rachel's voice complimenting his drawing while I slowly drifted away again. If not for anything, for Max. I had to keep going, for Max's sake.

Max climbed onto the chair behind and pointed to the drawing. "See, Mommy? We're happy!" He wrapped his arms around my neck in a bear hug. "Yes, we are, baby."

I turned around abruptly and attacked his face with kisses, making him giggle loudly, the shrill sounds filling the kitchen. Rachel blew a kiss to me before signaling that she was leaving. I mouthed a quick thank you to her in between kisses.

"Mommy, I want cereal," he said when I finally brought him down from the chair. "Cereal? It's late already baby, I can't have it giving you a stomach upset tonight. How about you take that in the morning?"

He nodded, running towards the stairs. "Race you to my room," he yelled to me. "No running on the stairs, Maxwell," I said in a dry tone, making him halt to a stop before dramatically taking one step at a time.

I rolled my eyes at him and took one last look at the depiction of our family. I am going to give my baby boy the world, but for now, our small apartment and my meager salary would have to suffice.

Picking up one of the bedtime storybooks, I placed it underneath my arm and used the other hand to clear up the living room. When I was done, I picked up my laptop from the center table and climbed up the stairs.

I heard Max's light snores before I even got to the door of his room. Pushing the door slightly, I saw that he had changed into his pajamas and was snuggled up with his stuffed donkey.

Having a son like Max really made this parenting thing a lot easier. He was so smart and responsible for his age. My colleagues at work called him my small husband.

I tiptoed to his side and planted a kiss on his forehead before going to my room and opening my laptop.

I stared at the screen for over twenty minutes, debating whether I should proceed with it or not. "See, Mommy? We're happy!" Max's voice filled my head.

Fuck it.

I clicked on enter and watched the sent notification pop up and disappear.

"Are you fucking daft or something?" His heavy voice boomed off the walls of his office. I winced as he threw the stack of papers in my face, and I watched them fly in different directions.

"Did you not proofread this before printing them? What in the world are those typographical errors for?" He asked loudly, turning a few heads from the main office.

I stayed quiet. Truth was, I hadn't. I spent my Saturday in the hospital with Max because he had a crisis. Sunday afternoon when we got back, I was too scared to leave his side, and when I eventually did, proofreading was the last thing on my mind.

My head hung low as I couldn't meet his eyes. "I'm sorry, sir."

He sneered at me. "Shove your fucking apology up your ass."

For an employer, he used cuss words way too frequently for my liking, but I'd rather chew my foot than say that. "Pick those up and shred them now. Make sure you proofread every single page and correct those errors before printing a new one. I want it on my table in the next thirty minutes," he banged his hand on the table, making me jump.

"I said now," he shouted when he saw that I had not moved from the spot. I scrambled to action, ignoring the pitiful looks my colleagues were giving me.

When I started working with DigiPress three years ago, Richard, my employer, had made advances towards me, and I politely turned him down. He was not hostile about it until he heard that I and one of my colleagues went out on a date. A friendly date for that matter.

He flared up, and suddenly came up with a rule that you cannot have personal relationships with your colleagues or your job would be at stake, blah, blah, blah. Since then, he had been an actual pain in my ass.

It took a whole six months of sending appeal mails to HR before my salary was finally increased. Meanwhile, they had increased that of everyone at my level except me. My name had somehow been erased from the list of names to receive an increment.

Only a few people at the office knew the reason he was so hostile towards me, others guessed what it could be while the rest could not care less about why I was being treated that way.

"Hey girl, you okay?" My work bestie, Leslie, asked when I walked by her desk. I gave her a slight nod with a small smile while I went back to my desk to review the work.

Leslie was an absolute sweetheart. Back when I had just started working here and Max was just a little over two years old, she would cover for me at work in a heartbeat when I couldn't meet up with an assignment.

I shoved my glasses up my nose as I went through the pages. Ten pages in and I had seen only three errors, and they were all on the first page. Did Richard seriously ask me to shred all the pages when there was nothing to be corrected in the majority of them?! He really was unbelievable.

Exasperated, I pressed two fingers to my temple. I would not have been able to use them anyway, the floor in his office was slightly wet from cleaning and the white paper must have gotten stains on them.

A steaming cup of coffee was suddenly stretched out in front of me. I followed the line of sight from the hand holding it to the face of the person. A soft smile broke out on my lips when I saw the familiar face. "Thanks, Josh," I mumbled out, taking the paper cup from him.

He gave me a thumbs up before turning on his heel to leave.

I quickly rounded up with the editing and dropped it on Richard's desk with a straight face. He could bully me all he wanted, I'm not going to let that affect my work here... while I'm here.

My asshole boss can go to hell for all I care.

It was almost the time when Max's school closes so I quickly hurried with the rest of my assignment for the day and left the building.

Day one of five, then I get another weekend to myself. I turned down the extra time work for the rest of the month, I really could not afford to put myself through that anymore.

"Mommy," I heard his voice shout, the moment I walked into the small classroom where the kids who hadn't been picked up yet stayed to wait. "Hi baby! I'm so sorry mommy's late, I got held up at work," I said, giving him a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

Max giggled, wiping his hand on his cheek. "That's okay, Janet was teaching me how to make a kite!" He said, clapping excitedly.

"Was she now? You're going to have to teach mommy when we get home," he nodded gleefully while I turned to Janet who was arranging some books in the bookshelf. Janet was the 16-year-old girl who was volunteering at the school for after hours. She has been so much help with Max whenever I run late.

"Why don't we say thank you and goodbye to Janet," I urged him. He ran to her and gave her leg a hug, yelling out his appreciation and goodbye. "Thank you so much," I mouthed to her with a grateful smile. She shook her head at me lightly before waving me goodbye.

"Lasagna for dinner?" I asked Max after helping take a shower and change into comfortable clothes.

"Lasagna for dinner!" He echoed back in response. I sighed in relief. Max had his lasagna days and luckily, today was one of them.

He raced to the kitchen and propped himself on one of the stools, swinging his legs in fake innocence. "No running down the stairs Max," I warned. "You said no running up the stairs," he corrected with a cunning smile.

I shook my head at him in disbelief before heating the leftover lasagna in the microwave.

The red notification icon above my Mail app was shining in my face while my heart thumped in my chest.

I couldn't open it this morning, or even this week. If the response is negative, it could totally mess with my productivity for the rest of my week. I ignored my intuition and got Max ready for school, dropped him off then went to the office.

My beat-up Volkswagen almost gave up on the road but the heavens must have been in my favor that day because the car got me to and from work.

The day went by really fast, although my eyes kept glancing at the mail logo on my computer. It took all the willpower I had left to not open the mail.

Max was spending the night at Rachel's place; he and her kids were having a sleepover so I had the house to myself. A few days ago, I started sending out job applications again.

I had not done that in quite some time because I got tired of the reject mails here and there. The money I needed for Max's treatment and management drugs now cost almost my whole salary, which left me having to settle everything else with the little that was left.

There were job openings, of course, but not many that fit my requirements. Yes, I had requirements too. Nearness to Max's school, nearness to our apartment.

But the biggest requirement of all was a fat income with a reasonable amount of workload.

I hadn't told Rachel I was job hunting again; she would have gotten mad at me, saying that my novels are going to be picked up by an editor soon and I should have patience while trusting God.

I was a Christian, not as dedicated as Rachel but I was. Another thing I was, is realistic. I knew that God was not going to pick up my manuscripts and start handing them out to editors or publishers. He's also not going to force them to approve of it.

I clicked on the email. "Congratulations," the first line read.

"Oh my God," I screamed, jumping out of the chair. "Oh my God. Oh my God. Yesssssss."

Scrambling back to my chair, I read the rest of the mail. I was to come by the company in two days for a brief meeting so I could decide if I still wanted the job.

I threw my head back in laughter. Even if they required my blood for donations monthly, I still wouldn't reject the job.

The pay these people were offering was so freaking ridiculous, it's probably the only thing that made me apply in the first place.

I picked up my phone quickly. Rachel's voice came through the speakers after two rings, "hey Le-"

"Rachel I got the freaking job," I all but screamed into the microphone. "Okay, one, you'll destroy my eardrums at that rate. Two, what job are you talking about? Are you working on a new book?" I heard excitement in her voice towards the end.

"Work with me here Rach, work with me," I rolled my eyes at her. "I know I didn't tell you but I started applying to jobs again and a company responded and requested for an online interview which I did. Then this email came in yesterday, I just opened it and I got the freaking job."

"It's not a writing job?" she asked with disappointment obvious in her voice.

"Rachel!"

"I got the job as the Secretary to the Junior CEO of Ross Globals here in Pemberton." I was jumping on my toes all around the house.

Max's voice came through the speaker, "hi mommy!"

"Hey baby, just let me finish talking to Aunt Rachel and we can have a chat okay?" I said in a loud voice.

"Wait! Ross Globals? As in Billion dollars worth company, Ross Globals?" Rachel asked, excitement rising in her voice.

"What's the pay?" She asked in an all too knowing voice.

"More than enough for everything Rach," I breathed out in relief.

I filled her in on the rest of the details, and as soon as we were done talking, I spoke to Max for a bit before hanging up.

My heart was leaping in my chest as I stared at my computer with a smile on my face.

That night, I slept like a baby. It felt like a greater part of my burden had been lifted off my shoulders. The air felt lighter and smiling was easier.

Even at work the next day, not even my egotistic boss could put me in a bad mood. I was grinning from ear to ear all through the day. "If I didn't know you, I'd say you just got engaged," Leslie said to me at the coffee machine.

I giggled. "Care to share what's got you in such a great mood?" she asked as we walked back to the main office. "Let's just say, things are working out for me and Max. I really couldn't be happier."

By 2pm, I was done with my assignment for the day, so I decided to go shopping for a new outfit. I usually wore anything casual or a simple corporate attire to DigiPress, but I felt like I needed to put more effort if I'm working for Ross Globals.

I settled for a black fitting knee-length dress with a high V-neck. The idea was to go for something elegant and decent so it really was the perfect outfit. I picked out a nude-colored pair of heels before heading to the counter.

"That would be 1359 dollars ma'am," the cashier's voice broke out. I barely managed to hide my shock. Over a thousand dollars for one dress and a shoe!!

I opened my mouth to tell her I would like to go for something less expensive but then gave it a second thought. Shrugging, I stretched my shiny blue card in her direction. She eagerly swiped the card before handing it back to me with a smile. "Thank you for shopping at The Ladies Louvre, we hope to see you next time."

Hearing that made me smile. You certainly will.