The sun shone on the roof of Barnes and Nobles as a tall, Pakistani man with a killer chin-strap hurried into the store. His hair was ragged and dark circles surrounded his eyes, complemented by a tired and strained smile. Checking his wristwatch, he sighed nervously. It was nine thirty-three. He was half an hour late—again. Perhaps the sixth time this month he had arrived late due to oversleeping. He cursed his body for not waking up when his alarm blared at seven thirty.
Hurrying in and praying that his manager wouldn't notice his absence, he shimmied over to his fellow employees, waving.
"G'mornin, peepz! Could you guys do me a favour and hide me from the shift manager? If she finds out I'm late against she's going to be pissed," he implored, eyes pleading. One co-worker glanced to the others and laughed, boisterous. His other co-workers attempted to hold in their giggles.
"Were you up late chatting to your boyfriend again?"
The tall, Pakistani man blushed deeply, before nodding slightly.
"They seem so cute together," his female companions murmured to each other. "I want a boyfriend like that."
Hearing all of the gossip from his associates caused him to shift uncomfortably; he wished for it to end. His love life was supposed to be private, not laughed and joked about. He'd happened to mention it only once to a co-worker under the pretence of secrecy, but evidently she's betrayed the fam and told everyone else. Now his relationship was the work meme.
The giggling and gossiping stopped, as he'd wished, but certainly for a worse outcome. Hard, heavy footsteps made their way over to the chatty group. The harsh puffs of breaths coming from the approaching beast grew more loud and obnoxious as they learned, and came to a monstrous climax as the feet stopped behind our poor Pakistani protagonist.
"Etaleho," the being hissed, snake-like in their speech. It was deathly silent as the angry manager fell from her climax, her face red and hot.
"Um...hello Rebecca," spoke our protagonist, guilty and shameful as he faced the both aroused and angry woman. "I just got here. I'm sorry for being late, I'll make sure it doesn't happen ag-"
"Kaze Etaleho, shut up. You are late by thirty nine minutes—this is the seventh time you've been late this month! If I wanted to, I could fire you on the spot!" lectured Rebecca, pointing her suspiciously wet fingers at Kaze's face.
"Actually, it was thirty three minutes and today is the sixth time, not the seventh."
Kaze felt the need to say that and prove she was wrong, but he regretted it immediately after. She begun to smile devilishly, looking at his face and sweeping her eyes over his delectable chin strap.
"Okay, fine. You want to play that way? You work at the return desk from now on. You'll do it alone too, so you better do a damn good job. If you get any complaints, I may just have to punish you."
With that, Rebecca swept one last gaze over his body, noting sadly that his penis was not erect from her seductive speech. That gay virus has claimed another, she thought, before striding back into her office and leaving the group in an awkward silence.
"Jesus Christ," someone said, "She's such a slut. I bet she has no lover, she's so desperate."
That caused a few light giggles, radiating around the group like a wave, before someone was brave enough to make a joke about Kaze and his boyfriend which everyone burst out once more.