Erik Pethersen - The Ball

I make a single stack of a hundred pages and put it all on the automatic scanning unit. I look at the sheets that are swallowed one after the other and appear again after a few moments. I realize that I haven’t bumped into the girls from the fifth floor in the lift that, for several years, I used to meet almost every morning.

Times: it is a matter of times. Maybe he has always been here too, but he would go to the common areas of the building at different times from mine.

Himself: the surprising one. But all this, however, cannot interest me.

I hear the front door open at the back of the room: it is Serena coming in.

I look at the clock on my PC, which indicates 8:31, while she screams: «Hello Lavi!»

«Hi» I reply in a lower tone of voice and waving a hand to greet her.

I glance over my monitor and see Serena hanging her black fur coat in the closet, then she goes over the desk behind the counter in the hall and stores her bag. I look down at the monitor again and start writing the first e-mail with the list of contracts attached in pdf.

The sound of Serena’s heels distracts me. She is walking to my right down the hall, past the glass window, towards the coffee room. Her body is almost completely hidden behind the plants placed close to the transparent partition. I only notice the highlights of her dark blond shatush protruding beyond the green shrubs and the black heels that can be seen among the vases.

Hi Carmela, I am attaching ten contracts signed yesterday. Do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of further assistance or if it is necessary , I write.

«Lavi, is everything okay? What are you doing?»

«Hi Sere, all right. I’m sending the contracts to Carmela. Are you all right?»

«Yes, all is fine.» She walks over to the window with the cup of coffee in her hand: her slender figure stands out against the light, while I notice that the fog is rising.

I stare at her legs: they look really nice in her tight jeans with those high heels. Lean, but toned. Then I look up.

«Has your son still got a fever?»

«No, I just dropped him off to school, this morning he wasn’t even 36.5.»

«But wasn’t he 39.5 yesterday?»

«Yes, but you know what children are like, they recover immediately» she replies and keeps on looking out the window.

«It depends on the children, I would say. And also on your illness.»

«Yes, I would so. Probably the virus that affected my son was a bit weak and he recovered quickly. Luckily, since I didn’t know what to do with him. I am running out of days off because of his flus...». She turns around.

I watch Serena as she arches her back stretching, she presses her shoulders against the window and pushes her chest up. The quadriceps tighten and show the toned muscles underneath her tight jeans; the back of her feet, hidden by the black nylon stockings, lifts up making her heels protrude from high heels.

«Has your coffee not fully gone into your system yet, Sere?»

«I think I’ll need at least another four or five, or maybe I should change drug» she replies while examining me.

«Aren’t you cold dressed so lightly?»

«No, I’m not: here in the office, it is always around twenty-eight degrees, so I decided to put on my three-quarter sleeves, which are not really three-quarters. You see» I explain pulling the left sleeve down, «it’s the pattern that gets it to stay up, actually if you pull it down, it comes to my wrist.»

«Yes, actually it’s always very hot in here. Anyway, that stretchable three-quarters thing there is really nice, it suits you just fine. Did you buy it at one of your auctions?»

«Actually, no, I got this in a small shop in Verona. A few weeks ago, Amedeo and I went on a trip there» I explain. «Anyway, I asked Teresa just yesterday, but it seems that the temperature of the thermostats is already set to a minimum: you can’t lower it down and it just seems a bit of a waste to me.»

«Yes, it doesn’t make much sense to have such a temperature in winter» she replies as she looks at the pile of documents I have on my desk: her gaze seems to float between the sheets and the neckline on my sweater.

«You know Serena, you just made me realize that I think I left my jacket in the car this morning when I arrived. I just realized it: I must have come up the internal stairs of the building dressed like that and it didn’t occur to me at all.»

«The stairs leading down to the garages are always damp and cold: I think you had something else on your mind.»

«It may be the new time.»

«It probably is. Do you know that today you are even more glowing than usual?»

«Why, am I usually glowing? Like a human torch?»

«Of course, not like a torch» she replies, laughing. «Glowing like...» she says, interrupting herself for a few seconds, «I don’t know: radiant.»

«Anyway, I am the same as every morning, apart from being up an hour earlier and the fact that I forgot my jacket in the car.»

Serena gets closer to the stack of papers and looks curiously at the first identity card placed on top of all the other documents. «Who knows: to me you seem particularly radiant. But who is this here? An Italian Tom Selleck?» she then says giggling. «And what kind of name is this?»

«He’s Polish» she replies. «I too have noticed their similarity. He was here yesterday with his partner to ask for a loan.»

«Seriously, I haven’t seen him go by. Or is he different in person?»

«No, he is the same in person. I think they were here when you were on the corporate health and safety course.»

«Sure, I was out most of the morning yesterday. So, what is he looking for here? Magnum P.I double?»

«I don’t get it, Sere: they look like two regular guys, but they told me that they would like to run a dating site, I didn’t understand if physical or virtual.»

«And what kind of dates? To meet people with similar interests, I guess. Like someone who is looking for people to share his interest in water sports, he signs up and finds a new friend to go water skiing with...» replies Serena with a smile that seems a bit mischievous to me.

«Yes, that’s right. I got that too. Also passionate about hunting and fishing» I reply laughing.

«So, we’re talking about sex.»

«Yes, Sere, I really think it’s a dating site for adults, but I wouldn’t be sure about sex, because it could only be virtual encounters, like chatrooms with webcam.»

«I don’t think it’s such an original idea. I think there are now so many of them. But how is the site called?»

«I don’t know, but I’m not sure it’s already working. I think the company had a stupid name like New Dates, I didn’t understand.»

«Some of my friends told me crazy things about these sites.»

«Like what?» I ask.

«I don’t know if it’s all true, but these two stoners signed up to meet up with their potential partner. However, they did it just for fun: they put in all their personal info and preferences.»

«What kind of preferences?»

«Preferences of all kinds: appearance-related, but also their favourite sexual activity or sexual deviations.»

«Interesting. Then?»

«Nothing, then the portal selects people based on similarities and common interests.»

«And what did your friends choose?»

«But nothing in particular: they just selected that they were interested in flings and then they selected the physical features they were looking for in a man. The portal selected different individuals to my two friends, quite attractive and also from rather close areas. The same evening, they organized a date, each with the partner chosen from the dozens suggested by the portal. One went to a town in the province of Bergamo, on Lake Iseo, I don’t remember exactly which one; the other in a town towards Cremona. They agreed to meet up at the end of the evening to share their impressions.»