First Choice ✓

Chapter 14. S

Sara

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It's Wednesday afternoon and I'm helping Izzy with her new office. I came back late last night and I get today and tomorrow off.

She wants to expand her online store and have a little boutique to showcase her clothing and jewelry pieces. In the back of the store, there are offices for her assistant and manager and a private office for herself. There are also lockers and a break room.

Her two employees used to work from home but as her business is growing bigger, she wants a permanent and more professional place so it's easier for them to get together. Now she is looking to hire someone to man the store when she's not around.

"I'm so glad a lot of sun shines through." She says excitedly. The entire front wall of the store is made of glass windows, now still covered in a wallpaper saying what store is coming soon. "I'll have mannequins there." She points to the front wall. "And I think this entire wall too." She gestures to the wall behind me.

"So it's more of a showroom, right?"

"Yeah. I think I want it to have a pop-up shop type of vibe, but also like a gallery, if that makes sense?"

I nod, "Yeah, I think it does." I walk a couple of steps further in the store. There's a staircase at the end of the back wall. It leads to more space upstairs.

"What are you gonna do with all the space above?" I gesture to the ceiling.

"For now, just a storage room. Maybe in the future I'll expand the store." She shrugs and leans on the cashier's counter and flips through papers. "So how was your trip to New Orleans?"

I lean my elbows opposite to hers on the desk and smile. "Great, actually. I did some sightseeing in the evening. And I ate a lot of food." I pat my stomach a couple of times for emphasis.

"I bet you would've liked it more if someone went with you?"

I sense there is a double meaning behind her question but I say, "Next time, we'll make it a girls trip."

"Heck, yeah!" She reads through some more papers before she lifts her head up. "What did you say about your gym membership again?"

I roll my eyes. "Apparently there was some software malfunction or something, and they cancelled my membership. They would've fixed it but they said they have ICT problems."

"Ugh, that sucks."

I'm nowhere near fit like Izzy, but I try to stay active and work out at least one time a week. This girl in front of me has abs for crying out loud!

My main source of 'burning calories' in college was having sex. And seeing as I haven't had sex in more than a year—excluding that one time with Antonio—I haven't been as physically active as I would like.

"There's a gym across from here, actually. Maybe you can join there?" She motions with her hand behind my back, then she waves and smiles big. "Oh, hey there."

Turning around, I see a tall figure, dressed in a blue two-piece suit.

Holy shit!

Whoever invented suits, kudos to you.

As Antonio gets closer, I have no idea if he's looking at me or not. I'm too busy checking him out. That blue color with the crisp white button-down shirt looks amazing on him. His biceps are accentuated, his narrow hips and thick thighs are just—sigh!

I avert my eyes from his Adonis-like body and give him a small smile, then turn sideways, hiding my face from him.

"Hey." He gives her a kiss on the cheek and leans on the wall behind the counter we're leaning on. "Why would anyone pay money for a gym membership when I have a perfectly fine gym in my building?"