Seraphina
Copyright© 2025 by Krista*
Chapter 3
“Use it or lose it. It’s as simple as that.”
Seraphina looked up at Jeff and smiled. “Seriously?”
“Seriously. I was notified this morning that ‘someone’ has so much available PTO that she is on verge of maxing out her time off hours. And you don’t bother to use your floating holidays.” Jeff rolled his eyes. “When was the last time you took a day off?”
“I don’t recall. But you know I save my holidays to cash them out at the end of the year.”
“You might be the only person here to do so. I mean it, think about taking some time off. Today’s Thursday. If you want, you can clock out at lunch and take tomorrow off for a long weekend.”
“That actually sounds like a great idea,” Seraphina smiled. “I need to get a few things for Ruth to wear to school. She grew an inch recently!”
Zoe was happy to cover for her and as Seraphina was shutting down her computer, Eric came by. “What’s going on?” he asked, noting what was happening.
“I’m taking the rest of today and tomorrow off. I maxed my PTO.”
Eric paused for a moment. “I was about to run out as well. I was wondering, and if you say no, I’ll understand, would you like to join me for lunch?”
Eric couldn’t see her, but Zoe was seated at her work station behind him, nodding vigorously and giving her friend a ‘thumbs up’ gesture.
For a moment, she paused then smiled. “Okay. We can take your car and after lunch I will get mine and head for home.”
The pair drove downtown in his VW Jetta. “I’m so happy you’re not one of those guys who drives a ‘pavement princess’.”
“A what?”
“A pavement princess is one of those over-sized trucks with a lift kit and a pair of chrome balls hanging from the trailer hitch and not a speck of dirt on it,” Seraphina smiled. “You know the type. Commercials on TV show a truck racing off road in the desert, kicking up clouds of dust behind them, showing how tough they are. Maybe footage of a truck parked at a construction site and a load of styrofoam rocks is dumped in the back to show how rugged the suspension is.” She lowered her voice to imitate the gravelly slightly southern male voice of a commercial announcer. “Introducing, the Testosterone 1000! The biggest, baddest, ballsiest truck around! This truck is for REAL MEN! If you don’t have one, you’re not a REAL MAN! You want this truck! You NEED this truck! Your wife wants you to have this truck! Your wife wants to have SEX with this truck! Hell, YOU want to have sex with this truck! The Testosterone 1000! Get yours now!”
By now, Eric had managed to pull into a parking lot and his forehead was resting on the steering wheel as he howled with laughter. “Oh dear lord! We need to move you to marketing!”
Seraphina smiled as she exited the car, once Eric had opened the door for her. “Maybe I see things differently? But to me, a truck is a vehicle for work. To do things with. Not be a family transportation and status symbol. There’s a perfect example of what I mean.” She pointed towards an old Mazda truck that was showing its age with numerous small dents and a ‘custom’ paint job that might well have been green house paint, applied with a roller. “Nothing pretentious at all about that truck!”
Eric nodded. “I can see what you mean.” Pausing, he held open the door to the restaurant. “I’m glad you suggested sushi. Love it!” Together they entered.
“Thank you so much for lunch today. It was really nice.” What was ‘nice’ is that Seraphina had allowed herself to relax and not worry about anything. It was still early in the day before she needed to be home, and she felt no pressure from Eric in any way other than to share time and company with each other. In fact, it was the first time she had been out with anyone since her husband died. Up to that point, nobody had held her interest, and most men soon looked elsewhere when they discovered she has a single mother.
“The pleasure was all mine. May I be so bold as to ask if we can do this again soon? Maybe Saturday?”
“Okay. But it would need to be for lunch again, she smiled. “My parents are going out in the evening and I’m home with Ruth.”
“Sounds good. Text me your address and I can be there around noon.”
Eric escorted Seraphina to her car and as she opened the door, she paused and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. As she drove off the parking lot, neither of them noticed that they were being scrutinized by a number of people.
“Mommy! No! Don’t go!”
Eric had shown up at noon, and when Seraphina opened the door, he saw that Ruth, still in her pajamas, had wrapper herself around her mother and was wailing.
“Now sweetheart, I promise that I will be back later this afternoon. Eric is a friend of mine and we were going out for a while. And we will have all this evening together.” She looked up at Eric with a sad smile. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t expected this.”
“But Saturday is a for us day,” Ruth sobbed. “It always is!”
“I didn’t mean to make trouble for you and your daughter. I’m sorry. Can I talk with her?” As Seraphina nodded, Eric squatted down next to the sobbing child. “Hello Ruth, I’m Eric. I work with your mother and she has told me about you.” The child had her face pressed into her mothers skirt. “I didn’t know that you and your mother had plans for today when I asked her out for a date. I’m sorry if that made a problem for you.”
“Mommy works all week and Saturday is for US!” Ruth turned to look at Eric with tears in her eyes.
“I wasn’t aware of that. How about this idea? My plan was to take your mother out for lunch and then find something else to do. Would you like to come along so you can still spend the day with her and be her chaperone?”
“What’s that?”
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