At the Office

"No, I had to break up with him," Kelly was explaining to Nancy as Jordan Jacks walked into the building. The two receptionists, both attractive young women, often spent the morning talking about their personal lives, "He was so, ugh..."

"Butch?" Nancy asked.

"Totally," Kelly said, "Like, all hairy and gross. What is it, 1980? Girls don't go for that anymore."

"Yuck," Nancy stuck her tongue out and made a gagging noise, "Did he, like, touch you with his body hair?"

"Sure did," Kelly did not sound impressed, "I almost puked."

"Morning, ladies," Jack said with a smile. He'd never heard women talk that way about body hair. Sure, they were a couple years younger than him, but not enough of a difference in age that he could chalk it up to a generational difference.

"Morning, Jackie," the two said simultaneously, smiling at him with a bit too much interest, as if they were assessing him. He hadn't heard that nickname for years, since high-school, in fact. As an adult, he'd moved away from it, preferring Jordan. Jackie always sounded too feminine to him. He wondered what had motivated the women to use the name.

For a moment Jordan's mind went to his own body. He hadn't shaved that morning, so his stubble was coming in. Were they staring at it? Did they find him unattractive? Disgusting?

He shook his head. Who cares what Kelly and Nancy thought. He had Rachel back home who was crazy about him. It was her opinion that he should really care about, not his coworkers. Sure, if Rachel suddenly wanted him to go hairless, then maybe he'd consider it. After some discussion. Consider, not commit.

Jordan put his name and time into the sign-in book, as was standard practice, then waved goodbye to the receptionists, entering into the building.

"...and then she dared me to wear them to work," Bob from accounting was laughing as he told his story to Paul, one of the sales reps.

"And did you?" Paul asked.

"Of course," he guffawed again, "I'm not afraid of wearing my wife's panties. If she thinks she can get one up on me, she's going to have to do better than that. I think I'll wear them all week, and if she's not careful, she'll never get them back!"

"Gentlemen," Jordan said as he passed the laughing men, not really wanting to get involved in the conversation. Jordan's cubical was at the far side of the building, near Louis' office. Louis was his cousin, but he was still the boss. It may have been his family connection that got him the job, but Jordan knew that being close to the big boss' office might work to his advantage as he tried to better himself in the company.

"Morning, Louis," Jordan called through the open door, noting that Edith the secretary's desk was empty.

"Hey Jackie," Louis said, waving. That was the second time that day he'd heard that old nickname from his childhood. He grimaced each time he did, hoping that it would be the last. No use correcting Louis, though. Once he got it into his head that something bothered you, he couldn't help but tease. If Jordan pointed out his feelings about the nickname, he'd never hear the end of it.

Finally, Jordan reached his desk, surrounded by cubical walls. The table-top was bare but for his keyboard, monitor, and a yellow notepad. Even his inbox was empty. Jordan opened his emails and saw that he had quite a few. Some from customers, some from business contacts. One stood out, it was from Alex, the guy who normally sat in the cubical behind Jordan's.

"Hey pal," the email said, "Just thought I'd let you know. I'm calling in sick today, but it's more than that. Something happened to my clothes. I think it was those mites that were on the news. Won't be able to come in until I get some replacements. You should probably wash yours when you get home - could be that you picked some up from me yesterday. Don't know if washing will do anything, but just in case, you know? Sorry to be the bearer of (potentially) bad news!"

"Shit," Jordan muttered, pulling out his phone and texting Rachel, asking her if she had time to put his clothes into the wash. No response, but she had said that she was going shopping with her sister. Hopefully this was a big nothing-burger, that Alex was just getting Jack worked up for nothing.

And so Jordan pushed the thoughts from his mind. He instead focussed on the other emails, responding to normal queries, not worrying about stupid cloth-eating-mites. He did, after all, have a job to do.