Chapter 3

The following day I found out that I indeed didn’t need my usual morning jerk off session to start the day. As a result, I ended up at the office a good twenty minutes earlier than usual. Unfortunately, the workday seemed to pass a lot slower than it normally did. I had put in a lot of unpaid overtime the previous days and I decided to leave early, knowing that my manager would be okay with it. He knew very well about the extra time I had put in this week and the company was flexible with how we divided our work hours, as long as we made sure that we worked at least forty hours a week.

I had met the deadline yesterday. There wasn’t a lot left to do anymore and I figured I might as well get a head start at the weekend. It beat sitting around bored at the office and I still had a lot to prepare for tonight. Having made that decision, I only worked a little more than half a day and left after a late lunch.

It almost felt as if I was going on a date, instead of giving Ilse’s children a couple of cookies and some toys with which they could play. When I passed a flower shop, I briefly considered if I should buy some nice flowers for Ilse. On the one hand, she might think I’d be pursuing her, on the other hand, I knew the gesture would be appreciated. I wasn’t exactly interested in starting a family of my own for several years to come, especially not with two kids involved from the start, but it never hurt to be kind, right?

I mean, so far it got me a mind-searing kiss and a blowjob. Egoistical as it might sound, I didn’t really ask for either of them. Well okay, that was a lie. I did originally ask for the kiss, but that was intended as a joke. I also knew that I was looking forward to get kissed again like that tonight and maybe something more, but it wasn’t like I was expecting her to do more than kissing. Damn it, okay that was a lie too, but I wouldn’t force her to do anything she didn’t want to do!

So much for keeping my chivalrous feelings intact. Heroes always saved the damsel in distress in stories, without expecting something in return, but somehow they still ended up with a kingdom to rule. I figured that human nature simply didn’t work that way in a society that was based on greed. So no, I was not your knight in shining armor either and I succumbed to the pitfalls of our society just as much as any other human being.

I guess you could say I had both my good and my bad sides, although I hoped that the good parts outnumbered the bad ones. I didn’t want to come across as making use of a woman in distress that had nowhere to turn, but I did have my needs and urges too.

Anyway, I bought the damn flowers and made sure it was a colorful bouquet that smelled nice too. Not roses or something romantic, that’d be too obvious. I went hunting for a toy store after I put the flowers in my car. Luckily, there were several large chains in my city and it didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for. I had the sense to ask if they could put a pretty wrapper around it, so it’d be more of a surprise for Bram and Naomi, Ilse’s kids.

Right before I left the store I spotted the red car from Cars out of the corner of my eye. Call me a big softy, but after a short contemplation, I bought that car on a hunch that Bram would probably love it. Seeing a big fluffy teddy bear an aisle further, I let out a deep sigh and collected that one as well, having the cashier wrap those toys up too.

“At this rate I’ll be buying perfume as a gift for Ilse too,” I thought, “Since I don’t want to come across as hitting on her I better stop my shopping spree right now.”

I didn’t feel like cooking tonight and I decided to eat an early dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. I considered what else I needed to get during dinner. It was right on the tip of my tongue but it kept eluding me. I got up to leave the restaurant after I paid the bill, adding a nice tip for the waitress. Looking at a glass display with all sorts of desserts, it suddenly came to mind what I still had to buy, chocolate chip cookies!

Rushing to the supermarket, I hoped they still had some for sale. They often sold out on Fridays and Saturdays and it’d suck if I missed out on them because I spent so much time at the restaurant and toy store.

My worst fears were indeed realized when I got to the indoor bakery; where my cookies were supposed to be there were only some crumbs left. Pissed off at myself, I wondered what other alternatives I had this late in the afternoon. It was five-thirty already and all shops would close within thirty minutes, apart from the supermarkets that was, which stayed open until eight. However, since this specific indoor bakery was unique in our city I doubted that visiting other supermarkets was really an alternative.

I remembered that there was a confectionery bakery close by my old apartment and I hastily left the supermarket to visit that bakery instead. Luckily, it was only a seven minute drive by car. I wasn’t even sure why I was going through all this trouble for just a kiss, but I guess I just didn’t want to disappoint those kids. I didn’t know if Ilse had told her children anything or kept it a surprise to them, but I wanted to make good on my word and I really hated breaking a promise, especially to children.

Luckily, this bakery did have some chocolate chip cookies in store, although they weren’t the ones I had originally wanted to buy. Since they offered a variety of choices, I asked for one of each that looked closest to what I could get at the supermarket and sampled them. I must have looked pretty stupid, eating those cookies in a store under the watchful eye of the elderly lady that attended the cash register, but hey, sometimes you’ve got to make a sacrifice, right?

Since I had a sweet tooth for chocolate and cookies this was a really big sacrifice on my part. Yeah, right.

Finally, I ordered a dozen of the cookies I enjoyed best. I hoped that Naomi and Bram would share my taste. The price they charged me even made me step back for a second. These were definitely the most expensive cookies I ever bought, but a promise was a promise.

Since it was a little past six, I rushed back to my house for a quick shower and a change of clothes. It was about six-fifty by the time I finished, prim and proper. Even my cat gave a meow of approval when she took the effort to open an eye. She was too lazy to open the other one. Oh well.

Having received the blessing of my cat, I grabbed the flowers, presents, and cookies and left my house to drive the short distance to Ilse’s apartment.

The parking lot was well kept by the city service and I parked my car away from all the others. Most cars looked old and had numerous dents and scratches on them, while one in particular didn’t even look safe to drive. I didn’t want to park my car in the middle of those. I was afraid I’d get scratches on my car too, when some drunken bum decided that he had just enough space left to squeeze his oversized pimp mobile between my car and another one. Parking neatly to a side of the parking lot I hoped to avoid that problem.

After grabbing everything and locking the car, I searched for Ilse’s apartment. She had door number 516, which meant fifth floor, sixteenth apartment. Considering there was no elevator available it would be quite the climb...

No wonder she looked fit, she didn’t seem to have a gram of fat on her body and climbing these stairs multiple times a day would be a good explanation for that. This was also another reason why I was glad I bought my house. My old apartment was on the second floor and though two flights of stairs wasn’t too much of a hassle, I still found it annoying that I had to climb them every time I got home. The only good thing about the place was the ridiculously low rent they charged me. I paid three times more mortgage for my new house than I had to pay rent for my old apartment.

My old apartment was likely still a vast improvement over the apartments in this building though. For starters, my apartment had been on the highest floor, which meant less direct neighbors. Especially having people living above you could be very annoying when they walked around or made noise of any kind. For some reason you heard the sounds better if they came from above than when they came from below. The type of concrete they used probably had something to do with it. The architect designed those apartment buildings to be as cheap as possible while they still considered safe to live in and it showed with the kind of materials they used.

Additionally, I also had an extra bedroom and overall I had more floor space to live on. I had cringed and had politely declined the offer when the housing corporation had originally offered me an apartment in one of these apartment buildings. Several weeks later, I found the apartment I used to live in until last year. I knew that the rent here was even lower than at my old apartment, but you had to be pretty down on your luck to consider living here.

Still, I could understand why Ilse lived here. Without a husband that could support in paying the bills and no opportunities to get a good job, not to mention two children to take care of, it only made sense that she lived here.

These apartment buildings were overall still in a better neighborhood than some other neighborhoods in the city. Though this area might be considered bad by my standards, it was by far not the ‘no go zone’ some other parts of the city were at night. If you wanted to get yourself in trouble, walking around in those other neighborhoods in the evening would be a good way to do so. Luckily, they were several kilometers away from here, so I wasn’t really concerned about it.

I was puffing by the time I reached the fifth floor. This apartment complex had eight floors in total and I was glad she wasn’t living on the top floor, that’d be even worse. Once I located Ilse’s apartment I took a moment to catch my breath and to pull myself together. I started to understand why Ilse had seemed a bit nervous when she rang my doorbell yesterday. At least, I didn’t have to expect a husband that opened the door. Heck, he’d probably be really surprised when I pushed a bunch of flowers in his hand!

I chuckled as I rang the doorbell and patiently waited.

I heard somebody stumbling behind the door and yelling, “Just a second!” before a flushed Ilse opened the door a moment later.

She looked stunning once more. She was wearing the same dress as yesterday, but had styled her hair in a different way and it also looked as if she had applied some makeup again.

Figuring women like compliments and that I shouldn’t keep all my thoughts to myself, I remarked, “You look prettier every time I see you!”

Ilse blushed and made a gesture to usher me inside her home.

“I brought something for you,” I said, as I clumsily handed her the bouquet.

Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice my awkwardness and seemed genuinely happy with the flowers.

She smelled the flowers, and said, “Wow, they smell lovely and they look really wonderful too. Thank you, Tom.”

“I got something for the kids too, apart from the cookies I mean,” I said, showing her the bag with presents. “I figured I’d give them something to keep them busy for a while.”

Ilse’s breath seemed caught in her throat as she found it hard to speak for a moment, only giving me a happy nod. I thought I could detect some tears welling up, but they were gone before they came to the surface. Either way, it seemed like I did something right at least.

“Who is it, Mommy?” I heard a yell from Naomi, coming from somewhere in the apartment.

“Please come to the living room, I’m sure the kids will be very happy to see you again,” Ilse said, taking my hand to guide me through the narrow hallway.

“Ohhh, it’s the friendly cookie mister!” Bram exclaimed when he saw me.

“Hi kids, I was in the neighborhood and I thought I’d drop by,” I said, beaming a wide smile when I saw how Bram and Naomi scrambled from the couch to make room for me.

As I had thought, Ilse’s living room wasn’t very spacious and with all her belongings it was quite full. There were a couple of narrow paths from the couches to the dinner table and television, but with the cupboards in the room there wasn’t a whole lot of free space left. Despite being on the fifth floor there also wasn’t a lot of daylight in her living room. Since Ilse’s windows faced east, it meant that in the morning there would be a lot of light in the room; however, in the afternoon things would tend to get dark quickly.

Her apartment was well kept, probably cleaner than my own house and it made me consider that it’d be a good idea after all to hire her as a cleaning lady.

I sat down on the couch after Ilse made the introductions, while Ilse sat on an available chair opposite of me. I’ve always had a knack for children and after seating Naomi on my left knee and Bram on my right, it was time to give them their presents.

“I got something for the both of you,” I told them, as I gave the wrapped up colored pencils to Naomi and the wrapped up book with coloring pictures to Bram, “You have to share these two gifts since you need to use them together, okay?”

“Okay, Tom,” they said in stereo, making me snicker and Ilse smile.

Once they unwrapped their gifts there were several ‘Ooh’s’ and ‘Aah’s’, after which it was time to give them their next present.

Wanting to save the best for last, I gave them the cookies next.

“They’re not the same ones as two weeks ago, but I hope you’ll like these just as much. I personally selected them,” I said with a proud voice.

“Ohh, can we have one, Mommy?” Naomi asked with big eyes.

“Just one, but you have to promise to be good and go to bed when I tell you to, okay?” Ilse replied.

“I promise, Mommy,” Naomi said with her cute voice.

“I promise too!” Bram hastily added, after receiving a stern look from Ilse.

Satisfied with their promises, Ilse said, “Alright, you can eat one then, but you might want to wait until Tom is done. I think he has something else for you.”

“Yup, that’s right,” I said, handing Bram a small package and Naomi a slightly bigger one.

They unwrapped their presents quickly and went completely silent for a moment when they saw what they had received. Something unexpected happened after that; they both started to cry.

I gulped and wasn’t really sure how to deal with this situation. Looking at Ilse, I didn’t get a lot of support from her either, since several tears were billowing down her cheeks too.

Confused, I asked, “What’s wrong? Don’t you like your gifts?”

Looking up at me with big red, puffy eyes, Naomi exclaimed, “I love it! You’re the best man ever!”

She hugged me tightly with her little arms and gave me small kisses on my cheek to thank me.

Damn it, it was hard not to start crying too in this situation, but I managed somehow. Although I really had to fight back my own tears.

Bram looked up at me and asked with a tentative voice, as if he couldn’t belief his good fortune, “Is this really for me?”

“Yup, big boy, it’s all yours. You don’t have to share this toy with anybody else.”

He went silent for another moment, but then hugged me, squeezing his eyes tight as he whispered, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

For a little guy he sure knew how to hug. I patted their backs and slowly calmed them down. The toys, cookies, and flowers had set me back maybe forty Euros, but seeing how happy they were made it worth the money. I was glad I had decided to buy the car and teddy bear after all. Truth be told, it had been on an impulse, but I didn’t regret it one bit. They’d probably remember this for the rest of their lives.