"I expected you at least one hour before. Where were you? Who were you with?" a buxom brunette shouted as Fred got off the elevator. The brunette looked menacing with her thick-rimmed spectacles and her permanent frown. She was fuming as she waited for a reply. However just as Fred opened his mouth to speak, she silenced him, "You know something, please don't answer the last question. I do not wish to corrupt the innocence in my tummy." she concluded.
Fred chuckled. Jenna had barely started to show by Fred knew that she would be a good mother. Jenna had been practically mothering him for almost a decade. Her husband Steve and she had been trying for a baby for a long time and they finally succeeded. He turned to his office and found a stack of files on his table. They were the credentials for Jenna's possible replacement. The position would not be temporary though. Jenna didn't know that yet. Fred reckoned that once there was a baby involved Jenna could use a helping hand. He flipped through the files and knew that all of these women had one ultimate target in mind. They would all be disappointed though. Fred did not have relations with his employees. That was a rule he lived by. He smiled to himself before he heard the knock on the door.
"Come in," Fred drolled.
The door did not open for him to finish as a brunette woman in her late twenties strolled in with a beaming smile. "You still smell of sex," she informed him.
"I have needs that need to be taken care of," Fred explained without telling him that she was the reason for his insatiable needs.
"How old are you again?" Stella asked batting her eyelashes in mock innocence.
"I am fourteen years your senior, Stella. Treat me with respect," Fred warned but the smile gave way to the underlying humour.
"I would rather treat you with a cuddle, my teddy bear," and that was her name for him as she pounced on him making herself comfortable on his lap. Fred, however, was far from comfortable but he wouldn't let it on. He enjoyed the closeness as much as she did. Despite what it looked they were meeting after only two days and yet it felt like an eternity to both of them.
"So among the six applicants all are female, two are married and two are engaged. However, the single ones are the most qualified. What do we do?" Stella asked at the end of the four-hour interview session.
"You know my no-employee policy right? I do not date employees and I do not sleep with them. If I did Jenna wouldn't have stuck along as much as she did." Fred concluded.
"I like the brunette girl. She seemed very motivated." Stella provided.
"I don't know. Her background seems sketchy. Are you sure about her?" Fred asked.
"I am not the one hiring sweetie, you are. It is ultimately your decision," Stella said.
"I like Reagan Adams. She is smart, brisque and seems to be efficient." Fred suggested.
"She is the one with the black hair and green eyes. right?"
Fred answered with a meaningful nod.
"She seems too perfect. I have a problem with perfect." Stella mused.
"Are you feeling competition?" Fred jibed her.
Stella scowled back. "You know what, hire her. She seems efficient. She has the most relevant degrees and references. Just hire her and then we can meet for dinner tonight. You are cooking." Stella retorted.
Fred often regretted cooking for her in the first place. Now it was his turn to cook every other weekday. Either that or they would be sharing takeouts. Stella had a thing for Italian cuisine and the fact that Fred was Italian was very convenient for her. On weekends Stella visited her parents and Fred visited the bars and nightclubs. It was quite an arrangement.
They were both similar in many respects. Both placed career before relationships. In fact, Fred could not recall Stella having mentioned any man in her life in the past five years that they were together. She spent all her evenings either with him or with her family which gave Fred the complacency of believing that there was no other man in her life. It was a good feeling. Fred enjoyed the exclusivity though they never put any name to it. He looked at her often times with a longing he hoped that she is never able to read. He had a good poker face. Yet he couldn't help his feelings which he let out sometimes when he picked up a brunette or to one his weekend adventures and pounded into them, imagining them to be the brunette he would rather have them be.
It was evening and both were huddled in front of the television in Fred's four-bedroom bungalow. The moon was high in the sky and both were a little drunk from the bottle of wine that they finished with the lasagna that Fred had made from scratch.
"Stella, someday you would learn to cook. I can't cook for you all my life," Fred teased. He knew that he would be happy to cook for her all his life but he couldn't do that.
"Why not? Are you getting married or something and your wife can't bear to share her prize?" Stella teased back. Stella knew that Fred was never going to marry. She knew his reasons and she couldn't argue with them. They were sound reasons. She wished she could come up with something against them but she couldn't. He was on the hit list of many people and the last thing he needed was a weakness called a family. She scarcely realized that she was it to him, his family.
"I am not. But you will be, someday. What are you now, Stella? Twenty-eight? Isn't it time that you started dating?" Fred asked, turning serious.
"I have weird taste in men," she confided, without letting him know that he was her taste.
"God has made someone for everyone, honeybun," Fred said, using his nickname for her.
"What about you? Who do you think is there for you?" Stella asked in return.
"The woman that can deal with my insatiable appetite and my high testosterone, hard to find," Fred gave a lopsided smile, changing the atmosphere. Stella knew what he was doing. Fred may have had a great poker face but she was great at reading people.
"I am tired, Fred, I had a long day. I am going to sleep in your room tonight if you do not mind."
Stella had been a permanent guest in Fred's house for the last four years. Once Fred had caught her previous landlord eyeing her lustfully and deemed it unsafe to live in that building. He had her move to one of the unused bedrooms in his bungalow but she hardly slept there. Two nights into the arrangement Stella was sleeping on Fred's bed, cuddling with him. Fred was by now used to the perpetual hard-on he had to manoeuvre all night. The morning ritual was ingrained into his psyche once he was in the confines of his bathroom. Fred tried to be as quiet as possible but Stella had heard his grunts through the bathroom walls. She enjoyed the effect she had on him.
She hated to be apart on weekends. However ever since her father married her boss's sister for money Stella's uncle had been her only family and he needed her on Sundays. He was a Baptist priest and she was the worship leader at his church. She had duties to her God that sometimes separated her from the man she loved, the man that couldn't be hers, because for him any kind of commitment was dangerous.
However, that day was a Monday and Stella could comfortably cuddle with her 'Teddy Bear' who would sleep much later to dream of her.