Club Endless Fantasy (Haremworld)

I’ve never felt that way about anyone before, especially after one solitary, unbelievable, soul-crushing kiss.

“Wow, taking a long lunch on your very first day.” Mark tilted his wrist to look at his watch as I stepped off the elevator.

“Sorry, boss. I was meeting with the guy that owns one of the properties I’m supposed to buy. He had a lot to say.” I tried to cover up my disappearance by blaming it on business, which was truthfully how it started.

“Did you close the deal?” He folded his arms across his chest and looked at me with an inquisitive stare.

“I’m afraid not.” I sighed and shook my head. “I’ll get it, though. I just need a little more time.”

“That’s understandable. Irwin tried to buy that pub a while back and completely struck out.” Mark nodded and chuckled. “Talk to him and see if he still has his notes from the meetings.”

“Okay, sure. Thanks.” I turned and walked towards Irwin’s office.

Irwin seemed to be rather kind and I always liked working for him. He treated me better than the other Purchasing Agents when I was scouting new properties, but he seemed to lack a backbone, especially for someone who had been there longer than most of the others. The newer Purchasing Agents would lay into me if I was five minutes late with a report that I was just putting the finishing touches on, where Irwin didn’t even seem to care if I met my deadline or not. He delivered results though, which was why he was one of the few Senior Purchasing Agents in the office. As long as he was doing that, it really didn’t matter if he engaged in office politics or beat up on the newbies.

“Hey, Irwin?” I lightly tapped on his door. “Did you recover from our collision in the hallway earlier?”

“Hmm? Oh right, yes—I’m fine.” He chuckled and nodded.

“Can I ask you something?” I tilted my head to the side.

“Sure, come on in and take a seat.” He motioned to the chair across from his desk. “Did you come to seek sage advice from the Yoda of Viking Developments, hmm?”

“I think it’s supposed to be something like—come to seek advice from the Yoda of Viking Developments you have—tell you, I will.” I did my best Yoda impersonation.

“Yeah that sounds more like it.” He chuckled again as I took my seat.

Yay for watching Star Wars so many times with my dad growing up.

“

I wanted to ask you about a property on the South Side. Mark said you tried to buy it at some point. It’s a place called Hal’s Pub?” I tilted my head and smiled.

“Ah yeah, that place.” He leaned back in his chair. “If I remember correctly, I think we were trying to buy the whole block. There were a lot of holdouts, so we expanded in the opposite direction.”

“Well, now I’m supposed to buy it.” I sighed and raised my eyebrows. “Any tips?”

“Let me look at my notes.” Irwin leaned forward and tapped the keys on his computer. “Here we go—yeah, the guy that owns it now inherited it from his father. He seemed interested in selling, but he was very indecisive. I had an offer on the table, but when our direction changed, we decided not to pursue the contract any longer.”

“So, there was a chance at least that he would sell it?” I nodded as I thought about what he said.

“Yeah, I think I could have gotten him to go through with the deal if the price was right, but most of the people in the area slammed the door in our face, so we just couldn’t get the right amount of traction to justify the cost.” Irwin nodded, confirming my thoughts.

“Thank you, I appreciate the input.” I leaned forward, and then something caught my attention—or rather, the lack of something. “What happened to all your pictures? You used to have a bunch of them on your desk.”

“Divorce.” Irwin sighed and grimaced. “She took half, I got rid of her pictures.”

“Oh! I’m sorry!” I stood and cringed inside as I apologized.

“Don’t worry about it.” He waved off my embarrassment. “If you want some real advice from me, though? Don’t let this job come between you and what really matters—I learned that lesson far too late.”

I left Irwin’s office feeling less than a foot tall for asking about his missing photographs, despite his nonchalant reply. I could hear the pain in his voice. I shut my door once I was back in my office and started digging through some of my reports. If I couldn’t quickly acquire Hal’s Pub, I could at least get started on the two buildings that surrounded it. I found drafts of the contracts from the original attempt at expanding into that part of the South Side. I was rather elated to find out that they never actually offered anything for the abandoned properties. They focused on the occupied buildings first, which was rather common for Viking Developments. It was a lot easier to buy places that were mostly abandoned, especially when they were already in horrible shape.

I guess I’ll get one of our scouts to try and find the owners. That way I’ll be ready when I convince Joaquin to sell me the pub. I can’t blow my first account—they’re trusting me and I intend to deliver.

I worked until it was almost dark and finally decided to call it a night. The only other Purchasing Agent left in the office was Irwin, and he looked to be hard at work as he stared at his computer. I still felt bad about my intrusion into his personal life. He stood up from his desk and walked out of his office, not even looking in my direction. I watched as he walked to the vending machine and swiped his card like a zombie until he had several bags of chips, a can of soda, and a Moon Pie. He gathered his items in his arms and started walking back to his office. It occurred to me, as I watched him dump the items on his desk, that it was probably his dinner. He really was a slave to his job. I felt drawn to him in a strange way. It wasn’t romantic, even though he was a decent looking guy, but it was almost like the hurt resonated off him so much is burrowed into my heart.

“Hey, Irwin. I’m really sorry about earlier.” I walked up to his door and leaned against the frame.