Life On Netori Island - Chapter 9

Al walked his bike into the garage to find Patrick and Lillian hunched over a laptop. Both were pointing at the screen and shrugging.  After he parked his single speed near his bench he went over to them.

“What’s going on?”

Pat responded, “We’re analyzing the data for the repaired drone stations.  We see charging levels going up even faster than before, but temperature readings are twenty degrees lower.  What did you do?”

Al popped his can of spray paint on the counter and said, “I just used a little common sense.  Power electronics really don’t like being in direct sunlight.  The towers are above the canopy and are getting cooked.  It might not be a problem in winter, but you’d definitely have shorter charger lifetimes if you don’t cover the charge boxes with reflective paint.”

Lillian jumped up, hugged him, and planted a kiss on his cheek. She said, “good job Al!”

Patrick twisted his face and looked away.  “I would have figured it out if I wasn’t under such pressure from the workload.”

“No, I get it Patrick,” Al replied. “I said it before, this place needs a few more techs to run well.”

Lillian kept her arms around Al’s waist. “Could have fooled me.  After the chargers are finished, it seems like you two can work on repairing and triaging our backlog of repairs.  I do have one question,  we saw the last station go online, but you stayed up there for a little while. What happened?”

“Oh, that,”  Al said while grimacing. “Sage North was having a lovers spat with some guy and I talked them down.  It turned out alright in the end.  She actually invited me to dinner at the mansion tonight.”

Lillian stepped back and grabbed his hand.  “You’re coming with me,” she said.  The manager walked Al back to the breakroom and closed the door.  She pushed him up against the door so Patrick couldn’t look in through the break room’s window.

“First thing’s first,” she said. “I’ve just finished a request to have you work your full hours at the maintenance garage.  No more sweating in the sun.  How does that sound?”

He pressed himself back against the door but smiled widely.  He responded, “that sounds awesome!  I hope I don’t make anyone jealous.”

“After you repaired those farming robots, to the farm workers, you can do no wrong.”  She continued, “Secondly, I am going to have you and Patrick report directly to me.  He can work the boring stuff, but you’re too precious to work on software updates.  Putting him in charge of this place was the wrong decision, but he was all we had at the time.”  She put her hands on his sides and smiled. “Now I have you.”  She was blushing.

“Lillian, thank you for the compliments,” he replied, smiling. He put his hands on her hips.  “Believe me, I read you loud and clear.  For the work, I’d be glad to take orders from you.  As for you and me, I’m trying to keep things as simple as possible for me and Jo.  Don’t take this as a rejection of you.  You’re smoking hot, but I have to try my best to keep my marriage as uncomplicated as possible.”  He pushed her away a few inches.

The woman sighed and said, “I figured you’d say something like that.  I always push too hard and too fast.  If I had given you a week or two, you might have said something different. And no, I don’t take your rejection as an insult.  The first few weeks here are the hardest.  It’s just that you’re so frickin cute, I can’t help myself.”  She backed away.  “But I have to warn you.”

“Hmm?  What’s that?” he asked.

“It’s about Sage.  Rumor has it that she can be clingy,” Lillian whispered. “Dating the boss's daughter will blow up in your face.  The trouble you’ll get yourself into isn’t worth the points.”

“Don’t worry, Lillian,” Al retorted. “I have no intention of pursuing her.  I didn’t even know she existed before today.  She invited me up to the mansion to have dinner and talk about what happened.  Turning her down outright would get me in way more trouble than accepting.  I’m even bringing Jo, so Sage will have to think twice before trying to flirt with me.”

She looked into his eyes and took his hands. “You know I’m only looking out for you, right?”

“Yes, I do,”  he said smiling. “Thank you.”

“OK then.”  She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek.  Al felt like the hug and the peck lasted a little longer than a friendly gesture.

…

When Al came to the back door of his cabin after finishing up at the garage, he heard his wife and someone else laughing inside.  He opened the door to find the handyman and Jo sitting in the main room.  Playing cards were splayed on the table and the handyman was kissing Jo’s wrist.  She was wearing her bikini, but the man was not wearing a shirt and sporting a massive boner through his shorts. Before she looked up, Jo had a smile on her face.  When they saw him open the door, Jo yanked her hand away. The handyman had an irritated look on his face.

“Al!”  she cried out.  “You’re home early!”

“I have a bike now, remember?”  He pulled her up and away from the handyman and put himself between the two. “What the fuck is going on?”

“We were just playing a card game, bro,”  Bret replied.  “You don’t need to get so but hurt about it.”

Al grabbed Bret by his hair and dragged him to the front door.  Bret was caught off guard so wasn’t prepared to defend himself. “What the fuck asshole, get your hands off me!”

Al opened the door and threw Bret out.  The handyman sprawled onto the lawn.  “Take your shit and leave.  If I ever see you near my wife again, I’ll put my foot so far up your ass the only thing you’ll be able to think about is my foot.”

“Whatever man,” the handyman started to grab his tools. “You can’t watch her all the time.  You’re never going to cut it out with your uptight attitude.  See you later Jo!  I look forward to playing with you again.”

Al slammed the door, walked to Jo, and yelled, “I work hard all day and this is what I come back to?  You getting cute with some loser scum?”

“Bret is a nice guy Al!”  Jo said, crossing her arms. “We were playing a card game and he got a little touchy.  He wasn’t going to try anything.”

“Bullshit!”

“We’re never going to get out of the bottom ranks unless you start fucking me nonstop when you get home.  You work a solid nine hours a day.  Do you think you can maintain that?”

“How did you get those points today, Jo?”  he said, pointing a finger in her face.

“How did you know about that?”

“My collar buzzed and said we had ten new points.”

Jo’s face turned pale and her hands started to shake. “Mr. North was just nice enough to give us another bonus.”  She turned defiant. “You’d think you’d be happy!”

“I’m just peachy, Jo,”  he said. “If I knew you’d be fucking the boss on the regular, I never would have signed those papers.”

Jo slapped him.  Silence filled the room for too long a time.

“If I didn’t know any better Al, I would think you’d want me up on that table doing free use duty.”

“You wouldn’t go home with me?” he whispered, sounding like he had just been slapped a second time.

“You’re damn right.  I’m not going back to that polluted city and losing my chance at motherhood,” she said.  Her breasts heaved and her eyes shimmered in anger.

Al, balled his hands into fists. “I was going to tell you that I was invited up to the North family mansion for dinner.  I had managed to get you an invite as well.  I take it you’ll be politely declining the invitation?”

“Quite right,” she yelled. “Get the fuck out of here.  I don’t want to see your face.”

“Your wish is my command.”  Al walked out the back door, got on his bike, and blasted off down the road.  

Jo ran to the bed and cried into her pillow.