Checking my phone, I still had twenty minutes before I had to return to the throne. “I need to stretch my legs. Do you want to join me?”
“Sure.”
Belen
“Why do you smell like piss?” I asked, as we circled the mall.
“Occupational hazard.” Kris frowned.
I tried to hold back the laugh rumbling in my chest. The thought of his reaction when that warm liquid made contact with his thigh pushed me over the top and I covered my mouth attempting to soften the sound of my amusement at his golden shower. Even though he smelled like a gas station restroom, I was happy I’d run into him at lunch. He was a fundistraction, nothing more, just a little harmless flirting to boost my confidence.
Sure there was a ton of work waiting for me back at my desk, but I was content taking a stroll with Kris. I imagined we were a peculiar site. An imposing melanin-rich Santa, and me, a vertically challenged Christmas elf. Shoppers stared as we passed by and a couple of kids waved and called out “Hi Santa.” Kris, as if on cue would reply, “I hope you’ve been good this year” or “Ho, ho, ho, hello friend” in his deep booming voice. His acknowledgment caused the child to smile and look at Kris in awe.
“So when you’re not breaking and entering into people’s homes, what do you do for work?”
“I’m kind of in the middle of a micro retirement.” He shook his head from side to side.
“What’s that?”
“Essentially, I’ve excluded myself from the workforce while I pursue the things that interest me.”
My posture slumped slightly. Why was it always the fine brothers who were underemployed and living in their mother’s spare room? Not like it mattered, I wasn’t looking to start another office romance. I’d learned my lesson with Aiden. When we met he seemed too good to be true. Handsome, well dressed, actually into dark-skinned Black women. But his pedigree and personality did not align. Aiden was selfish and narcissistic, and in the bedroom he was a taker, never a giver.
I had an eligible dating pool the size of a four-mile radius and Kris was smack dab in the middle of it. A long-term relationship was the last thing I was looking for, but it would be nice to have someone on call to stuff my stocking when the need arose. An added plus, Kris would be gone after December twenty-fourth so we couldn’t even categorize it as an office romance, maybe more like an office fling.
“So you’re retiring from what exactly?”
“It’s a micro retirement.” I got the sense this wasn’t the first time he had to explain the concept. “I work in tech.”
“Is the tech industry on the decline?”
“No, far from it. I created this app. People liked it and eventually I sold it.”
“You sold it? To who?” My normally brisk pace slowed to match Kris’s casual stroll. He was never in a rush. It was as if he had all the time in the world. Like he was on a perpetual vacation.
“TheNew York Times.”
“Wait what? You’re an app developer?”
“Yeah, I’ve created dozens of apps. Some I keep and they just generate income and others I eventually sell.”
I had so many questions. Primary of which was why would an app developer take a side gig as a mall Santa? Perhaps it was research for his next app. “So this app you sold, what was it called?”
Kris offered a smile which didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Uhm … Wordbop.”
I stopped in my tracks, grabbing his arm with a squeeze. “You created Wordbop? Oh my God I’ve been obsessed with that game for months.” Wordbop was a game that took the country by storm. Everyone was addicted to it. There were news articles and features on the morning chat shows about the dictionary-based word game. Chloe and I would touch bases each morning comparing how long it took us to guess each word.
Wordbop was part of my nighttime routine. Shower, brush my teeth, perform my nightly skincare regimen, and then crawl into bed and work on my Wordbop of the day. When I lay it out like that, my nights sounded kind of pathetic. But in my defense … okay I didn’t have a defense. This was exactly why I was single,because I was more invested in my cozy bed than meeting new people.
“Why did you make the levels so hard?”
“They’re not hard, we selected common everyday words.”
I released an exaggerated cackle. “I’m not even certain all of them were real words.”
“They’re all in the dictionary.”
“Ducat, aglet, pople?”
