As we filed out to a vacant area beside our building, I could see smoke coming out of the floor just above ours. Fuck, I had meetings this afternoon and by the looks of this we won’t be going back into our offices anytime soon.
Ben was standing beside me, we were both looking up at the eight story building that was home to our advertising business that we were both partners of. My name is Gary Bowers, and my business partner is Ben Watts. We both started this company when we left a larger firm we both worked at. While we were not rolling in the bigger contracts, we were doing okay, especially as how we were both only thirty years old.
“You didn’t grab your laptop?”
I looked down at Ben’s arm, he was holding his.
“No, I though it might have been another drill.” I responded.
“What’s the bet the rest of the day is a write-off. They probably won’t allow us back in anytime soon.”
“If it keeps burning, we may have nothing to come back to.” I stated, looking around.
“Where the hell is the fire department? The alarm went off ten minutes ago now.”
Just then you could hear the wail of the sirens from a few blocks away.
Ben was right, the rest of the day was done. The fire department would not let us back into the building due to structure concerns once they had extinguished the fire. One of the firemen did collect the laptops for myself and our other four staff members we employed, so at least we could work over the next few days while we waited for clearance back into our office.
I went home that night annoyed about the meeting cancellations, the next few days I would be busy playing catch-up. My wife Janet arrived home shortly after me and was surprised to hear of the fire in our building downtown.
“Was everyone alright from the floor above you?”
“Yeah, no injuries, everyone was fine apparently.”
“What are you going to do for the next few days? Are you going to work from home?”
“No, I don’t think so. Too many of my meetings require face-to-face with the clients, I would be forever travelling back and forward into the city. We might get some temporary accommodation for a few days, surely the insurance claim can cover that.”
“Do you want me to make a few calls to see what is available? I know a few other realtors in the city that may be able to help.”
“Not right now, Ben was already chasing that up this afternoon. I’ll wait and see what he comes back with first, but thanks anyway.”
My wife works as a realtor for a real estate business near our home in the suburbs, she does quite well and usually gets a steady flow of sales. We have been married for four very happy years now, first meeting after college in a bar downtown with friends. Like most twenty something realtors in the suburbs, my wife was attractive and always dressed well. She has long light brown hair which she would always have up in a neat bun for work. She has beautiful hazel eyes, and sports a fit slim body which I love, especially her legs. She likes to always wear high heels to emphasize the shape of her legs.
As we ate dinner, Ben texted me that he had secured accommodation for me, then sent me the address. Well, at least that was out of the way. Now I could enjoy the evening with my wife, watch a show and then take her into the bedroom for a bit of debauchery.
As I approached the address in my satnav, I was a little confused. This was clearly a large hotel that was a number of blocks away from where our office was. I pulled in, then let the valet park the car while I went into reception with my briefcase and laptop. I gave them my name, they provided the swipe card and room number, 1201 on the twelfth floor.
As I exited the lifts, I found room 1201 on the end of the hallway facing eastward. All the other rooms along the hallway faced north. I opened the door to find a very nice suite, with a self-contained kitchen area and bar fridge, a large round dining table, a couch and chairs, and two TV’s, one near the window across from the bed, the other on the wall facing the couch and dining table.
I setup my laptop on the dining table, turned on the TV to one of the news channels, and then made myself a coffee. My phone rang, it was Ben no doubt checking on the accommodations.
“Hey Ben.”
“Are you in the office yet?”
“You mean the hotel?”
“Yeah, look I spoke to our building manager who advised last night that it would be best to grab a hotel room as it would be easier to claim later. By the way he called me this morning with some bad news.”
“I’m assuming it’s about when we get back into office?”
“Yep, apparently the structural engineer has advised there needs some major work, that the heat from the fire may have damaged the weight bearing something or other. I don’t know what he was on about, but the upshot is we are looking at least five to six weeks out of the office.”
“Ah fuck. When are you getting here?”
“I’m not, I’m working from home, so is everyone else. You’re the only one that needs to be in the city to meet with the clients, so I just booked the one room.”
“Okay, but if it’s going to be weeks, it might be best if you come in at least once a week for a coffee, so we can discuss contracts.”
“Yeah, of course. Look, I will be hounding the team on meeting targets, so you don’t need to worry about that side as usual, okay?
“Sounds good to me, alright I have a 9:30 I need to prep for, I’ll talk to you later.”
In our advertising team, I am the pitch guy, the one that comes up with the ideas and sells them to our clients. Ben is the one that then turns my ideas into actual advertisements, with our four staff members basically working for him to deliver the product. Our partnership works well, we both need each other and are good at what we do.
When I got back to the hotel room late morning, I decided I needed some inspiration for one of the pitches I just made, the client wanted something a little different to what was offered. I stood at the window which takes up the entire front of the hotel suite, looking out to enjoy the view. Well, it wasn’t much of a view, right in front of me was another hotel, or was it normal residential accommodation, it was hard to tell but it was not an office building. Like how my room was on the end of the hotel, the rooms across from me were on the end of their building, with the majority of rooms facing north like my hotel probably. I could see down to the street front on the right, with a garden area in front of the building next door to the left.
I watched the people walk past the building down at the road, I glanced to the left and could see some people sitting in the gardens eating lunch. Okay, not so terrible. I looked up to the rooms across from me, nearly all had their curtains drawn, obviously the close vicinity to the rooms in my hotel would mean that there would be little privacy when opened. As I was only here for work, I left my curtains open to let in the light.
I went downstairs and found a café close by and bought some lunch. I also spotted a convenience store and picked up some milk, bread and a few other things so I didn’t need to eat out all the time. Next door to the convenience store was a camera store, with some very top end gear judging by the prices on display. I did have a look around, I had been meaning to buy a decent new video camera for a while now, but in the meantime my phone had sufficed.
I went back to my suite, pulled up a chair near the window with mt sketch pad and pencil, and began trying to come up with a new idea for the last client. As I sat there staring out in a bit of a daze, the curtains were drawn from the window directly across from me, maybe a floor lower. It was some guy who looked like he spent too much time in the gym, not a complete body builder but more than the average Joe. He was walking around his room in his boxers, showing off has muscled and tattooed chest and arms. His head was clean-shaven, and he looked probably my age of around thirty. I wondered what he must do for a living to be getting up at lunchtime.
Just then I noticed the bed sheets move and a female leg sticking out from underneath. Well, maybe he wasn’t just waking up after all, maybe he just had an afternoon delight. Their bed like mine was close to their large windows, with what looked like a couch and kitchen area behind the bed, again much like mine. I felt like a peeping tom, sitting at my window probably just twenty to thirty yards from where she lay in the bed. So I moved to my couch instead, I didn’t need to be spending my time watching other people as I had work to do. Shortly after I did find myself looking over to the window again, to their room. I saw the tattooed muscle guy walk back in from their bathroom, he was nude except for a towel that he was using to wipe his bald head. I chuckled, the guy’s cock look liked the rest of him, big, thick and bald, it was just missing the tattoos.
I saw the bed sheets move again and a naked woman rose from the bed, gave tattoo guy a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek before she disappeared into their bathroom. She was attractive, nice firm breasts, nice legs, long dark hair. I took a deep breath then forced myself back to my sketch pad.
At 3pm I had another meeting to attend and headed home directly from that. Day one in my new office had been interesting, not everyday you see naked people walking around. I thought it be best not to tell my wife, that she might think me a peeping tom which was not something I wanted her to think of me.
———————-
The next two days I was busy in the city with meetings, only having time to organize myself at the hotel before leaving for most the day.
After the weekend, I again returned to my new office on Monday morning, today was a little different to last week as I had blocked out the day for my creative juices to flow. It was just past 10am when I noticed the curtains open across the way in tattoo guy’s room. He was dressed smartly and left the room, well no naked ladies today.