Meet Kevin

Tom came out of the toilet. There was a party for the commercial department in the office in honour of another major deal. He goes to his wife, the head of this entire department.

Sarah, a sexy woman in her late 30s with long, curly brown hair and radiant green eyes, mingles with her staff. Her red dress accentuates her toned physique.

Tom's gaze follows Kevin as he enters the room: a short, overweight nerd, wearing an ill-fitting polo shirt. Sarah introduces them.

Kevin goes straight to Sarah, he greats her: "Hello, mrs. Peterson".

Sarah introduces Kevin to Tom: "Tom, this is Kevin, our junior office manager. And Kevin, this is Tom, my husband and our senior Software Engineer".

Junior office manager… This is very funny corporate slang. To simplify, the young man was Sarah's printer manager. Tom used to have to help her print something very often. “Click here, select this, scroll through this menu” and all this was argued with a simple answer “I don’t understand anything you say”.

One day, when Tom was once again helping her print something, Sarah, in the heat of the moment, allowed herself a simple joke "If you were as good at sex as you are with this printer". Tom looked at her with embarrassment. A joke for which she had to apologize too many times.

Nothing helped. She even ordered a new printer and replaced her laptop. It drove her crazy. At some point she said “enough.” She got a headcount for an office manager who could help her and not only with this equipment, so as not to touch more "valuable employees".

Back to our story.

Sarah tells them: "You two chat while I go say hello to our CEO".

Tom notices that Kevin breaths heavily.

After a few seconds of silence Tom asks Kevin: "So, how is the job?"

Kevin looks at him and answers: "Well, I think it's alright. I actually had troubles to find one for so long… my mom found a posting on some website for me… and I tried my luck".

Tom simply replies: "I see".

After yet another weird pause Kevin says: "Your wife is a beauty, you're really lucky guy. My mom says that I will also find me some m'lady. Unlucky me… probably someday".

Tom raises an eyebrow at Kevin, curiosity piqued. He looks at him curiously: "Maybe you have someone in mind?"

Kevin replies: "Well, I had one. She is a streamer. I followed her for so many years! Once I donated her 300 dollars and she even said my name! I thought that she would be mine soon enough, but in a few weeks, I learned that she already had a boyfriend…"

Tom looked at him again. All he could think about at that moment: "Has he ever touched a woman before?"

Sarah returns to them and says: "Wow, that was a nice party! Tom, I think it's time to go home – it was quite an exhausting day for me".

Tom simply nods his head. He extends his hand to Kevin and says: "It was nice meeting you".

They shake hands. Tom and Sarah leave the office and get into the car.

Tom replayed the conversation with Kevin in his head. The whole thing felt a little strange. A rather unexpected thought popped: "Well, it would be quite funny, if Sarah and him…". And then Tom's heart trembled slightly. He felt a thrill at the thought. Tom tried to imagine what it would look like if Sarah were in a crush on this man.

They drive in silence before Sarah speaks again, noticing her husband's distant expression.

Sarah (concerned): "Tom, is everything alright? You look a little tense".

Tom gathers himself and replies: "Oh, just got swamped with work, that's all".

An awkward pause hung in the car.

Tom: "Kevin is quite a funny guy, don't you think?"

Sarah replies: "Sometimes I feel a little sorry for him because he's… uh… well, he's a little intimidated by all this work, but I think he'll get used to it".

Tom (smiling): "What's intimidating about fixing your printer, Sarah?"

Sarah: "Tom, that's not the only thing he does… he's helping my guys in the office with… tech stuff… mostly printers, yeah…".

Tom lets out a chuckle.

They make it home. Sarah walks straight towards the kitchen. Tom says he needs to check something related to work and goes to his home office.

Tom repeats in his head: "Sarah and Kevin. Sarah and Kevin." This thought haunts him.

He sometimes noticed how jealousy just kindled in him when Sarah talked about other men. But suddenly the idea that she might have a crush on Kevin fell into a slightly different category. He found something alluring about it. Something that played on some undiscovered fetish.

Tom slides his wedding ring off and replaces it with the glowing ring of power. His heart pounds in anticipation as memories flood back. He had used this potent object for countless desires before, but he never succumbed to the lure of a hasty wish.