Reunions
#31 of Hockey Hunk Season 4
S04E19
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Hello, dearies!
I'm so very glad to be back here, according to the proper schedule, and feeling so much better! Yay! Such a nice wintery weather outside my window, too...but back in Kirk City, boy, aren't those guys and girls in that office sweating up! I wonder if that makes for drama, too...hahah...well, you know where to find out...just read on!
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Have a nice read!
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Hmmm...Delaware...Delaware...Gibbon's order from May for 60 units of ink cartridges...hmm...what was the code again for Delaware...damn...
"VICTOR!"
Hmmm. I suppose It'd definitely be easier to work if my door wasn't opening every two minutes or so, with one or another well-wisher poking in to say hello, but who was I to complain? My smile grew quite broad at the sight of the fox standing on the doorway.
"Max!" I flicked my good ear in greeting.
"Hey-o!"
The fox already had a coffee mug in his paw as he stood there on the doorway, watching me with his bright, clever eyes and smiling. The scent of the beverage in his mug really smelled nice, even after the half a pot I had consumed under the careful eye of Cobb who wanted to make sure that little Victor ate enough breakfast to survive a hard day at work. I was surprised he hadn't ended up standing on the doorway waving a handkerchief after me.
"Wassup?" I grinned, looking at him over the top rim of my "Victor at work" glasses.
"Business, business," the fox's bushy tail swished about him as he leaned on the doorway and peered into the office, casually as always, seemingly half-entering, half-leaving, unable to decide or commit...maybe he was on the lookout for Mr. Gabriel or Bambang, on the prowl for slackers.
"What else?" I chuffed. "How's China?"
"Still producing cheap goods which we buy by the shipping container and sell onwards at a ridiculous price, of course!" the fox winked.
"Onto anything good?"
"Hmmmmm..." he gave a nonchalant shrug. "Might be, might be. Might make Toby a really happy man in a couple of weeks if it goes through."
"Hahahah," I chuckled.
"So it wasn't all boasting on Facebook last night, huh?" Max grinned. "Not sure if you're exactly rearing up but..."
"More like growing a bigger rear, but I gotta work on that," I snorted. "Gotta start gym again properly. I'm gonna go all flabby soon."
"Has your brother been force-feeding you again huh?" Max grinned, well aware of Cobb's dining habits.
I thrummed my fingertips on the plastic protective mat on top of the desk surface and chuckled.
"Well it's kinda impossible to hold onto any kind of a diet when someone keeps eating all the time...and cooking all the time...guess I just don't have the self-control."
"You don't look bad," Max grinned.
I scratched my muzzle.
"Well I can't say I reached my '20 pounds by June' goal," I mused.
"Heheh," the fox smirked. "You can always change that goal to '20 pounds by Christmas' if you insist."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Max," I replied with a smile.
The fox winked.
"Sure do," he said. "Just give me the word and we can hit the gym together as usual."
"Deffo," I grinned.
"Good to have you back here, too. Busy yet?"
I gave my computer screen a glance before my eyes returned to the curious, busy-tailed fox.
"Well, Toby and Juliet and Loomis kept the gears running so I don't have a thousand messages in my inbox, but there are a few non-urgent bits they have willingly left for me to handle. Don't think I'm gonna be just sitting around doing nothing."
"That's the spirit!"
The fox was just about to start saying something else when a grey head appeared in the doorway by Max's shoulder, and a pair of green eyes and flicky ears were trained in my direction.
"Ohhhhh Victor!"
"Sandra, hi!" I lifted a paw in a big hello.
Max snuffled a little at the surprise proximity, dipped his head in greeting, rumbled a "Hi" and slipped to the side and then disappeared from the view, eyes twinkling, as he left me solely for the wolf girl grinning broadly.
"Hi!"
She had no qualms about bustling into the room and throwing her arms around me, and I gave her a one-armed hug in reply, and she nuzzled the top of my head and smiled before she planted her round little butt onto the edge of my table and sat there, her curvaceous legs folded most luxuriously as she took her perched position there. The classic office chick pose, I suspected. She was wearing a smart sweater and some snug jeans.
"How're you doing?" I asked, looking her in the eyes, and only in the eyes.
"Oh, fantastic!" the wolf girl flicked her ears happily. "Eight days to go before my vacation!"
"Ohhh, you're already going?" I said curiously.
"Yeeeeeah, because Henry's gonna cover for me and I'm gonna cover for him, so we're gonna take ours back to back," the wolf explained quickly.
"Lucky you," I said. "Any exciting plans?"
The wolf craned her neck back briefly, stretching a little, I guess, before she tipped her head and looked down to me again.
"Well, maybe a weekend in New York, to refresh the memories, but besides that, I think I'm going to be really boring and just enjoy my off-time."
"Heheh," I said. "Ken already popped by before you and Max and he was thinking of Toronto."
"Ohhh it's been ages since I went to the Great Lakes," her tail waved against the side of my desk.
"What stops you now?" I smirked.
"Well nothing, I guess," Sandra's eyelids fluttered, "but it's a lot of planning..."
"You could always get one of those lightning deals," I suggested. "Save yourself a few bucks."
"Awww, aren't you supposed to not to think about money when you're relaxing?" Sandra giggled.
"We can't all afford it," I chuckled. "I sure can't."
Her ears flopped.
"Neither can I," Sandra pouted.
"Well let's at least hope that this weather stays as it is, huh?" I smiled. "The sun is free."
"I better go shopping for a new bikini then," her legs flew in the air as she hopped back to the floor, giving me a full eye of her big, carefully brushed tail.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" I dead-panned.
The wolf gave me a glimpse over her shoulder and grinned.
"A girl's gotta shop when a girl's gotta shop," she smirked. "Good to have you back, Victor. It's been too long."
"It's good to be back," I smiled, adjusting my glasses. "Good to see you guys again."
"Now if only the work was fun too, huh?" she chuckled from the door.
"Yeah," I smiled innocently.
"See ya, Victor!"
"See you, Sandra!"
Well, well...fifteen minutes officially at work, and I had already gotten five well-wishes and had managed to read a whopping two emails in-between these courtesy visits. I wondered if this was going to be the trend for today. Not that I minded too much...at least I was forced to take it easy like this. I lifted my glasses, rubbed my eyes and my forehead and put the glasses back on as I tried to concentrate on the computer screen and the long list of unread messages. I yawned. It'd been a while since I was up this early...another bad habit brought by my forced do-nothing time...
Click...that one I didn't need to read...and that one was spam...the filter should've taken that out...oh well...what next...a message from Toby...probably forwarding something to me that had gone to him when my mail was redirected to his inbox...hmmm.....and this chair still wasn't quite like it used to be...I lifted my ass and pumped the handle a couple of times to check what that did for it...but now my toes almost left the floor...still bad...
"Damn..."
And I really needed a leak, too. It seemed to me that Cobb's coffee had made its way through my kidneys and wanted to get out. I suppose I was allowed to desert my post for that natural purpose. I abandoned my cranky chair and walked over to the corridor that swept left towards the "social room" which also contained access to my intended destination of relief. Perhaps locating the coffeemaker and the toilets within 10 feet of each other was a strategic choice, I snuffled to myself as I walked past a movable screen that shielded the corridor from any noises coming from the coffee room. Unsurprisingly, the machine was being used even now.
"Morning!" I called.
The paint horse's great head turned about quickly, exposing my presence to him. Henry's heavy-lidded eyes opened wide at the sight of me, and I gave him the smile he deserved.
"Hehhey!"
I stomped over to give my hockey teammate a brush of the ol' knuckles against his shoulder, and he returned the gesture on my arm with a similar little jab. The stallion nickered.
"Been at work for fifteen minutes and you already need coffee huh?" the stallion questioned me as he pointed at the half-full pot in the maker.
"Just the opposite," I chortled and tilted my head in the direction of the clearly marked bathrooms beyond the modest couch group that split the room into the toilet side and the sitting side. How nice.
"Been loading it up all morning huh?" the stallion neighed.
"More like holding it all up," I mused. "I had to leave pretty early, too. No car, eh? Took the bus."
"Damn, yeah..." Henry shook his head, "how's that turning out? Gonna get anything out of that?"
"Still talking with the insurance company," I replied, "that DUI who crashed on us is gonna have to pay out something but if there's no money, there's nothing for me either. But I guess I'll be getting something for the car, though. I had full cover on it, but..."
"But you never know with the insurance companies, huh?" the stallion stated.
"Hear, hear," I said. "But it's been going smoothly so far. They don't think I did anything wrong. It was obviously that other guy's fault."
"Do you have to go to the court?"
"I suppose I have to give some sort of a statement under oath, but I'm not sure if I have to appear in person," I said. "It's not moving on very quickly, obviously. The system's packed."
"Sure," the stallion flapped his ears about, "make the taxpayers wait for their constitutional rights."
"Nothing I could do to hurry things onwards, I think," I said. "Maybe money would help, but I don't want to spend anything more because of some bastard whose fault all this was in the first place. I'm not exactly swimming in it, anyway."
"I'd say," the stallion rumbled. "What a shitty mess."
"But I'm back now and that's what matters," I said, patting my non-bruised side, "slowly getting fit and back in the action."
"Sure!" Henry grinned. "Gonna get back to hockey soon?"
I chuckled, shaking my head a little.
"Everyone's asking me that, too," I replied.
"Well Max said you were hopeful..." the stallion definitely looked like that.
"Well as soon as I get the all-clear from my doctor, I'm gonna get back on ice" I promised, "but no contact sports for a few more weeks, I've been told. I broke my ribs, so..."
"Ouch", the stallion nickered. "Must hurt like hell."
"It did, yeah," I said, my ribs throbbing in sympathy at the memory.
The stallion made a face, and my bladder reminded me of its current state with some throbbing of its own, and I knew it was my time to go.
"I think I'll just..." I nodded towards the door marked "MEN".
"Oh, sure," Henry grinned. "Good to see you back! Will see you at the meeting at nine yeah?"
"Bambang already briefed me on it," I said.
"See you there!"
"See you."
I went to the bathroom and spent my sweet time relieving myself, washing my paws and whistling a little while looking at myself in the mirror. I looked alright now, I thought, as I reached for a tissue. Almost normal. Almost like nothing never happened.
And so much happened...
Henry was gone by the time I left the toilet, and I made a quick, and unseen dash through the short stretch of corridor that took me back into my office. There were still a few minutes to go before the meeting was to officially begin, so I decided to check a couple more emails from the top of the pile. Better now than never...
"Hmmm...spam...wrong department...New Jersey...Higginson...what's that old goat up to...hmm..."
Hmmm...a Gmail address...wonder if that was spam...it wasn't advertising penis enlargement on the subject line...
Victor,
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I know it has been a long time...
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Well...hmmmmmmmmm...
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Thank you for reading my story! I hope you enjoyed the read, and hopefully you'll feel like leaving me a comment or two, now that you're done! See you on Monday!