Willfully Blind

CHAPTER 21 Naptime

Dirk walked into his office baring a huge grin with Martina on his heels. He dropped his portfolio onto his desk and turned towards her. Her smile was just as massive.

"You nailed it, Dirk!" she said in a loud whisper, rushing around his desk. She pulled him into her arms, hugging him tightly.

They had just left out of a two-hour long meeting where he pitched a proposal designed to protect the company from hackers. His proposal had been accepted, and everything had gone better than he could have imagined.

"Well, you know how we do," Dirk said, playfully popping his collar. For the past month, he had been consumed by "the project," and it really had been all he worked on. Now there was tons of other work to catch up on. But it was worth it. He was a shoo-in for that promotion now, which came with at least a thirty percent pay increase.

"Wanna do lunch?" Martina asked. Running her bright red nails across his desk, she stole a glance over her shoulder just as she reached the edge. 

Dirk looked up in time to see her expression and recognized it at once. Something about her look...about the way she turned her head...Dirk hadn't noticed it before, but Lisa was right. Martina was sending him "that" vibe. Talking about nailing something... she was the Latina girl Lisa had accused him of flirting with. Martina, short and thick, was wearing a super tight skirt well above her knee. He couldn't help but think about the possibilities...

"I can't. I gotta go pick up Lisa," he lied.

"You sure? My treat." Martina stood with her hands on her hips and an expression that said you don't want to turn down my "treat."

"I'll take a rain check," he said, knowing he probably shouldn't.

"Thanks again for all your hard work, Martina."

"You're welcome, and I'm gonna hold you to that rain check." She turned and sashayed so hard out of his office he was sure she was trying to get him to change his mind.

"Dayum!" he said under his breath after she closed his office door. He would not have mind tasting her treat at all, but hell, like Court said, it was time for him to grow up. He had had his fun and "tasted" more than his share of treats.

On a whim, Dirk took the rest of the day off to decompress and maybe even try to catch up with Lisa. After three weeks, she had yet to move back into their bedroom. And other than brief exchanges about incidentals like instructing him to leave money for groceries, move his clothes from the dryer or an occasional prompting to unload the dishwasher, their interaction was ridiculously limited. And she had been making a conscious effort, or so it seemed, to avoid even making eye contact with him. On one occasion, Dirk purposely left mail unopened from their insurance company to see if it would force her to engage in a conversation with him. After a week, she opened the letter and laid it on the kitchen counter with a sticky note attached letting him know that she had removed her car from their car insurance policy and would be starting her own next month.

Every morning, she was gone when he got up, and when he got home, she was locked in her room. At least she had stopped smoking those damn cigarettes. He would bet money she only started again to spite him, knowing that with his keen sense of smell, it would drive him crazy. Even being around smokers and their smoke-drenched clothes -– something they never seem to notice –- was more than he could bear.

Dirk initially saw much of Lisa's behavior as vindictive. Like she was trying to force recompense when he hadn't even done anything wrong. As far as he was concerned, she was playing petty little mind games, designed to control him and probably just piss him off. The thought of which caused him to adopt a stubborn attitude. He never lost a battle when he was right. It just wasn't gonna happen.