Chapter 42

42 42. Punishment

Samuel looked at Paula hopefully. He was wondering what Paula asked him to do.

“Then ...,” Paula’s eyes roamed. She then clapped her hands, calling the old janitor who was in the middle of work.

The man stopped cleaning the empty table and came closer to his employer. “What can I do for you, ma’am?” he asked, politely smiling at Paula.

“Fred, thank you for your hard work. Starting tomorrow, you can have three days off!”

“What?” The old janitor was shocked. He wanted to decline Paula’s order since he was afraid of the salary cut.

“Don’t worry! There is no salary cut. I will pay a full salary as usual,” said Paula in amusement.

“But... why? I didn’t do anything great that deserved a reward, ma’am!” Fred, the kind old man, wanted to know the actual reason behind the reward.

Paula chuckled. Her stern face turned to light. “Because, we have a volunteer here,” Paula said as she glanced at Samuel. “Just pretend you won the lottery!”

Samuel was shocked when he realized what Paula asked him to do. “W-what? I-I am? A janitor?”

.....

“Yes! You said that you will do anything in return,” Paula replied, giggling in amusement. Samuel’s shocking expression made her day.

“Impossible!” Samuel shook in disbelief.

“It’s up to you, Sam! You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

Of course, poor Samuel didn’t like it but he had no choice. It was better than losing Paula forever.

“Okay, whatever, I will do it!” Samuel said half-heartedly.

“Okay. Fred, could you lend him your uniform?” Paula glanced at Samuel, smirking.

Fred nodded in enthusiasm. He quickly ran to his locker to take his clean uniform and bring it to Samuel. “Thank you, young man! This is my spare uniform.”

Samuel accepted the folded janitor uniform. He hoped that nobody would recognize him in that white and blue clothing.

***

The sound of metal clashing from several heavy fitness equipments made the situation in the fitness center not too quiet even though only a few people were exercising that night. William finished his weightlifting when his body was getting tired.

“It’s been a long time since my last training, it’s hard, Bas,” William said breathlessly. He happily took the drinking water that Sebastian, his personal trainer, offered him.

Sweat dripped down William’s body. His shirt looked wet with sweat. He wiped his face with a small towel hanging around his neck. Immediately, the towel got wet and had to be replaced right away.

“Just take it slow. Remember, don’t skip our next schedule if you want to get rid of this excessive belly fat sooner,” Sebastian said, laughing out loud. He looked at William’s troubled face curiously. “Why are you suddenly so excited about training? To the point of forcing me to come here today. Is your girl complaining about your appearance?”

William didn’t answer. He just glanced at Sebastian doubtfully. Indeed, who wanted to tell his bad sex experience to someone else?

Sebastian laughed, exposing his neat white teeth. “The important thing is, don’t push yourself too hard. You don’t look too bad.”

William snorted in annoyance. “Is it a bad thing? Trying to impress my woman.”

“It is not like that!” Sebastian raised his hand. “I just want you to exercise without being burdened. The exercise should be motivated by keeping your health in check so that you can do it regularly ... happily.”

William nodded. He took a sip of water from the bottle and said again, “I’m confused. She usually never makes a fuss about our sex life. However, she suddenly said that I was such a loser in bed.”

Sebastian chuckled amusedly. He waved his muscular arm and said, “Then just leave her. A woman like that won’t last long with you. No matter how skilled you are, there will always be someone better.”

William didn’t answer. He just listened intently.

“You have sex with your girl to convey your feelings, don’t you? It’s not just to satisfy your needs. If you’re just after bed satisfaction, you can do it with anyone. Not necessarily with your official partner.”

William was pensive. Indeed, his relationship with Paula so far had only been limited to fulfilling each other’s sexual needs.

“True love isn’t just about the bed, Will! Choose a woman who accepts you as you are,” Sebastian said as he give a clean dry towel to William.

Doubt ran through William’s heart again. During this time, Paula did not discuss his shortcomings in bed. Why did Paula suddenly complain? She was not her usual self.

Meanwhile, at the office, Danica still did her tasks. She still had a lot of work to do. She had to classify some old files and put them together with similar files to make them easy to find.

However, while working, her mind drifted to other things. She was very curious about what happened to William at the hotel. Why would Paula do such a thing, when she was already planning a divorce?

Then, she remembered the untouched breakfast. It was really strange because Danica thought Paula was planning to eat breakfast with William. But if the food was left untouched something must have happened that morning. Could someone come to see Paula that morning?

“Ah, never mind! None of my business!” Danica scratched her hair. She then continued her work of sorting out the documents.

When she opened an old document from a month ago, she found yellow and pink sticky notes that Paula had made for her. Paula’s writing was indeed very distinctive and neat, in the form of cursive letters where each letter was always consistent in both shape and size, just like printed letters. It was then, her mind drifted to Paula’s notes she had picked up from the hotel. As she recalled, the shape of the letters was completely different.

Quickly, Danica took the tattered paper out of her pocket and compared it to the sticky notes Paula had left behind. She didn’t need to carefully check it. With just one glance, it was clear that it wasn’t Paula’s writing.

“Gosh, this is crazy. I have to tell William right away!”