Chapter 5

Clark had been nervous about returning to the job in his nude state.

The office could be a bit of a macho place sometimes and having the boss walk around naked all the time certainly left him open for teasing with some of his workforce.

But to his sigh of relief, the teasing was minimal, which might have been attributable to the fact that it was extremely evident that he was now hooking up with a cancer-free Rashida.

Many a bet was settled that day.

Aaron personally took home a twenty that day.

Things became slightly more uncomfortable when it came time to deal with customers.

Many eyes widened when a customer walked through the front door to find a naked Rashida waiting by the front desk, and they were even more surprised when it came time to discuss business with her naked boss.

That wasn’t even the worst part. Apparently, nudies prefer to patronize what they perceive to be nudie businesses.

It took three days for them to be permanently perceived as a nudie business. From that moment forward, every new customer who walked through the front door, called on the phone or sent an email was a nudie.

Clark almost began to become depressed by this fact before Rashida pointed out that their requests for quotes from new customers had doubled since last week, which seemed to lighten his mood greatly.

He took out an ad in the local paper advertising them as now ‘Nudie Friendly’ to capitalize on their newfound reputation.

It wasn’t long after that, sensing where the company was going, more and more people began showing up nude to work, each receiving a big celebratory hug from Rashida upon entering the door.

A couple of people began to feel uncomfortable in the increasingly naked environment and turned in their resignations, luckily no one who quit was a long-time employee so their loss was not felt too deeply in a social sense.

By Friday the only person left with any clothes on was the young customer service rep Ali, who very clearly enjoyed the nudity even if she was not brave enough to join in herself.

It didn’t take Rashida longer than the lunch break to inspire courage in her and eventually, her clothes were thrown in the dumpster out back with everyone else’s.

With such a busy week for Clark, Aaron was mostly left to finish the fence-building job alone during the week. The posts were already in the ground so it was just a matter of nailing up the boards in between, a job Aaron could do on his own with minimal complications.

He didn’t see Maddie the whole week, the only evidence he had she existed was the shifting of curtains and shadows from inside the house.

Then came the best part of his day. Chloe got off work about the same time Aaron did, and in a pretty close by part of town, so she would stop by at the end of the day to give him a lift home.

They never made it home within the first fifteen minutes of the trip actually, usually stopping along the way at a hidden beach, a far-off grassy meadow or even in the back seat parked on some obscure dirt row to intimately memorize each other’s bodies.

Aaron was never questioned why he was so late coming home at the end of the day, Rashida and Clark were usually later than him coming home, taking even more time after work to do much the same thing.

On the Saturday after Clark, Rashida and Aaron had come to work naked Clark finally had a free moment to help with the fence job. But at that point, the job was already completed. All that was left was to clean up and return the materials to the office.

“Aaron, son,” Clark marvelled as the two loaded wooden planks onto the back truck, “I’m very impressed with what you’ve done here.”

“It’s just a fence,” Aaron shrugged off, “Not particularly complex. Just did what you taught me.”

“Do you know how hard it is to teach some of these guys how to build something even half as good as this?” Clark said, “I swear it can be like herding cats sometimes.”

They were interrupted by Clark’s phone ringing from the front seat.

“Hello?” He answered, “Oh, hey Rashida what’s up.”

Aaron couldn’t notice Clark’s smile when he heard Rashida’s voice,

“No, Aaron and I are just cleaning up that fence job,” he explained, “We just have to swing by the office first before we get back home.”

He paused to listen to her response.

“Yeah that sounds great,” he agreed, “All right, see you then ... love you too.”

It was only after hanging up that he noticed Aaron staring at him with a stoic expression on his face.

“Hey look I know you and I’ve never talked about-,” Clark began before being interrupted.

“I’m gonna say something,” Aaron interrupted, “And I’m just gonna leave it there, and that’s gonna be the last word said on the matter, I’m really happy for the two of you, I hope it lasts, I hope you make each other very happy, but...”

He paused to accentuate his point.

“If you ever hurt her,” Aaron continued, “I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and kick your ass.”

“Sure you will pal,” Clark smiled, patting Aaron on the shoulder.

“I’ll really do it,” Aaron insisted as Clark went to pick up the toolbox.

“I said I believe you,” Clark assured him.

“Yeah, but in the same way you said you believed me when I was six and insisted I was gonna be the first man on Mars,” Aaron argued.

“You might still do that,” Clark teased, “That title’s still up for grabs.”

“You really don’t believe I could kick your ass,” Aaron said, “Dude I push you right and you throw out your back.”

“I didn’t say...” Clark paused, “Wait are you calling me old?”

“You are old,” Aaron stated.

“I’m barely forty,” Clark argued.

“Yeah, that’s old,” Aaron nodded.

“Alright, in twenty years I want you to remember this conversation,” Clark ordered, “Until then sweep for nails while I get Maddie to sign the paperwork. Then we’ll go find a parking lot to duke it out in and a couple of bums to bet on it.”

“Whatever you say, Grandpa,” Aaron teased, pulling the large magnetic bar they use to find nails in the grass out of the truck bed as Clark searched for the paperwork in the glove box.

Aaron watched out of the corner of his eye as Clark walked up to the door and knocked, secretly hoping to catch another glimpse of Maddie and her loosely tied robe.

He was doomed to be disappointed however as Maddie came out in a fancy yet modest sundress.

“I thought I saw more of you two out there,” She remarked, checking out Clark for a moment and even sneaking a peak over at Aaron, “The fence looks great anything I need to sign?”

Clark managed to keep his composure as Maddie signed the papers. He did however notice her hands shaking as she scribbled down her signature.

“Hold on,” Maddie said as Clark was about to leave, “I have a check for you, it’s in the kitchen give me a sec.”

She disappeared back into the house leaving Clark on the port.

“Billing will be happy with that,” Aaron remarked as he tossed the collected jar of nails and magnetic bar into the back seat.

“He might not notice,” Clark said, “Roger’s been kind of distracted lately.”

“Wonder why?” Aaron said semi-sarcastically, walking up to the porch to wait next to him.

“We just gotta give him a little patience,” Clark assured him, “Look at you and me and how long it took us to get used to the...”

Clark’s voice trailed off as Maddie stepped back out onto the porch sans sundress, now revealing every single perfect curve she had let remain hidden when her robe fell open.

“Here’s your check,” she smiled, holding up the slip of paper with a still shaking hand.

“Oh ... uh,” Clark stammered collecting himself, “Thank you.”

He reached out to accept the check, careful not to touch her skin out of common etiquette.

Before he could pull his hand away Maddie grabbed it and deliberately shook it.

“You guys did great work, thank you so much,” she said with a winning smile.

“Actually it was Aaron here who did most of the work,” Clark informed her.

“Well thank you, Aaron,” Maddie said, letting go of Clark’s hand and pulling Aaron in a quick hug, leaving no doubt she was infected.

“Well, you both have a good day,” Maddie said, stepping back inside and closing the door suspiciously quickly.

“Was that ever part of one of your ‘rodeos’?” Aaron asked, still in shock.

“Nope,” Clark admitted, “Let’s go home.”

“Good idea,” Aaron said before the two immediately stepped off the porch and marched towards the truck.

As the two made one last sweep before leaving Maddie’s husband pulled into the driveway and climbed out of his car, looking like he was boiling in his three-piece suit under the midnight sun.

“Looks good guys,” He said, loosening his tie as he walked up his porch, “You get your check?”

“Yes...” Clark said hesitantly, “Your wife made sure we had it.”

“Good,” he sighed, wiping his brow, “I tell ya, you guys have the right idea in this weather. Hotter than the business end of a volcano out here. You boys have a good night, alright?”

“You too sir,” Clark said, trying his best to keep his composure over the thought of what was waiting in that house.

Once he had entered his house Aaron and Clark hurriedly finished their sweep and pulled out of the driveway before Maddie’s husband could come out swinging.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Aaron finally spoke up.