NOVEL NEXT I came home and spent a fun weekend with Charlotte after a long time.
Then, I returned to the office… I mean, the ship after quite a while.
It always feels strange to come back to work after being away for so long.
Taking long vacations and returning feels really weird.
But aside from my feelings, Corbin was…
“Why do people have to work?”
“You had a blast for three weeks. Why are you complaining now?”
“It’s annoying to think about starting work again after so long.”
“Just get out of the car already.”
“…I miss Charlotte.”
“Didn’t the boss say you could enjoy one more day?”
“Still…”
He was really being a pain.
He had always been like this, but maybe this vacation was purely for fun.
He seemed particularly averse to returning.
Honestly, I thought it was a bit much, but Corbin always had a strong case of laziness.
So I just let it go.
“Yawn…”
“Are you that tired?”
“Of course, after having fun for three weeks, it’s only natural!”
“But this seems a bit excessive.”
We chatted as we arrived at the ship and got out of the car.
He complained about being annoyed with work, but he couldn’t just skip it, right?
“I’m always curious, why does Lindera only drink bitter coffee?”
“Coffee is meant to be drunk bitter.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah.”
While we were taking our drinks to the office, Corbin brought that up.
Well… our tastes were usually similar, but clearly different in this regard.
Every time we came to a cafe, we always ordered opposite things.
So maybe he was genuinely curious?
“Hmm… It’s delicious.”
“I can drink espresso or americano, but I can’t even taste it.”
“That’s because your taste is childish.”
“Is it really that bad?”
“Yep.”
Corbin held his drink in one hand and grasped mine with the other as we walked and talked.
One had a pink strawberry smoothie, while the other had a dark coffee.
“Hmm…”
“Why do you keep doing that?”
“No matter how I think about it, bitter coffee just doesn’t taste good to me.”
“That’s why you still act like a kid.”
“…What?”
Wait a minute.
Did he just throw that shade back at me?
I expected Corbin to retort, but not like this… I was quite surprised.
“I mean, you’re like two heads taller than Lindera, does it really make sense to call you a kid?”
“…So what? Your taste and hobbies are childish as well.”
“Lindera likes spicy and salty food too.”
“Sweet food is much more childish.”
“Hmm…”
“What’s it about now?”
What was the purpose of this?
This argument was childish, but I found it hard to refute since he wasn’t entirely wrong.
So all I could do was come up with some strange counter-argument.
“…Is coffee that bad?”
“Yep.”
“…Then wait a second.”
“Huh?”
Holding Corbin’s hand, I led him into the meeting room.
There wasn’t anyone using it at this time, and it seemed unlikely anyone would come in.
On top of that, I felt a bit flustered because of Corbin.
“Lindera, why are we here all of a sudden? Are we having a meeting since morning?”
“Um…”
Corbin definitely had a lot of childish sides.
Well, that didn’t seem so much the case when it came to other urges.
But really, being in a place like this with such a pretty, sexy, and sweet wife…
Wasn’t it obvious what would happen?
It was really funny seeing him not even imagine such things.
Of course, he could act like a full-blown weirdo at times, probably more than me.
“Do you really not get it?”
“Yep.”
“Well then, I guess we have no choice.”
Click
I locked the door.
The soundproofing was decent, but just in case anyone came in, it’d be an issue.
Though it was a well-known fact that we had this kind of relationship already.
Still, problems were problems.
“Why did you lock the door? Did I do something wrong?”
“…Sigh.”
“…?”
Should I call it pure, or should I call it dumb?
It was a bit hard to describe.
Well… calling it pure felt tricky remembering what happened a few days ago during the trip.
– rustle…
“Lindera?”
– rustle…
I slowly started to peel off my long skirt.
And then loosened my tie… I was left just in my jacket and pantyhose.
I had thought before that it would be pretty sexy if I dressed like this.
And yeah, it did look kind of sexy.
“Come here.”
“Uh, yeah?”
I beckoned Corbin over with my finger.
I perched myself lightly on the conference table, took a sip of the espresso, and held it in my mouth.
Corbin approached me but didn’t seem to grasp what I was signaling.
Well… if we got this far and he still didn’t understand, I’d have to enlighten him.
“Lindera, what are you doing in an empty conference room all of a sudden…”
Corbin stepped closer with that clueless expression.
He probably wouldn’t be able to keep that face for much longer though.
Slurp
I kissed him directly.
There had been a time when we’d gotten caught kissing in the office, but back then we didn’t lock the door.
But today, I’d locked it and there was nobody around.
It was a perfect crime… well, not a crime, but certainly a situation where we wouldn’t get caught.
“Mmph… Mmm…”
“Mmm… Haa… Mmm… Mmm…”
The exchange was a kiss, but instead of saliva, I was passing him a bit of bitter espresso.
Couldn’t I just let Corbin know what coffee actually tasted like after he kept complaining about it?
Yeah, that seemed likely.
“Ahh…”
One thing was clear… transferring coffee from mouth to mouth was ridiculously challenging.
I had to focus on breathing, concentrating on our closeness, while transferring the drink too.
“How is it? The coffee taste…”
“…….”
“Is it still not good?”
“… It’s delicious.”
Finally, he gave a somewhat tasty answer.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
Of course… the tastier stuff was yet to come, right?
“Here. The even tastier one…”
– rip…
– tear…
I slowly began to rip the part of the pantyhose around my thigh.
Well… it would be ideal to just take them off completely, but I thought Corbin would like it more this way since he was a bit of a perv.
And anyway, it wasn’t a big deal; I could just take them off afterward.
I felt driven to do this.
“There’s something.”
“Isn’t this something you usually don’t do before going to work?”
“…So? Is that a problem?”
“No.”
Honestly, he was quite the honest person.
*
“Lindera!”
“Welcome back!”
“It’s been a while.”
“Haha… It indeed has been a while…”
…I ended up arriving about 30 minutes later than usual.
I had arrived at the ship two hours ago but somehow took much longer to get into the office.
“Did you have fun on your honeymoon?”
“Is it even a honeymoon if it’s not really marriage…?”
“Oh ho! It’s basically similar! Have a drink!”
“Huh…?”
“I had a great time. I planned to stay for about a week, but somehow I ended up staying longer…”
I should have replied casually, but today I was finding it difficult.
Was it because of the things that just happened a moment ago?
I usually shouldn’t feel this way, but having just come from that situation, I was a little worked up.
Given all that had happened, I ended up being late today because I was refreshing myself in my personal space.
Isn’t it strange to feel embarrassed after doing all that?
“But why… are you welcoming Lindera and ignoring me?”
“The commander can’t work properly, so you’re not as welcome…?”
“…What?”
“Exactly! Lindera does a much better job than the commander!”
“That’s true. Lindera is far better than you, Commander.”
“…Why do you treat me this way?”
“Shouldn’t you have worked better?”
Well, I had cleaned myself up nicely, so no one seemed to notice anything.
Everyone welcomed us without a care, and I felt a little embarrassed.
I had already washed up thoroughly and even put on perfume, so being embarrassed made no sense.
“So how was the trip? They say it snows there.”
“It snowed a ton. It was like a never-ending winter throughout the trip.”
“Wow… Really!?”
“Yes, it felt like winter was all it had, like this place doesn’t exist during summer.”
“Cool…”
“But it was super cold, so it was tough.”
Anyway, I felt somewhat odd but happy to be back from my long vacation.
People are meant to work, after all.
“Let’s get started. What have you been working on lately?”
“…Are we really starting with work already?”
“Yeah, what else are we supposed to do? It’s a company.”
“Ugh….”
Honestly, wasn’t this the right way for me to work?
Back when I began with Corbin, I worked really hard.
There used to be so much to do, and there were fewer people back then…
But nowadays, things really felt easier.
“Oh, by the way. The boss said we’d be getting more work on our ship. They want to expand the scale a bit…”
“Did he mention that?”
“He told me personally.”
“…I’m the commander, why?”
“Because the vice commander is more trustworthy than you?”
Anyway, I’d returned from a vacation of three weeks.
It was time to work now.
In fact, during the trip, I had been busy playing, eating, sleeping, and, well… not working at all, so I was actually a bit bored.
I really needed to fix this habit of mine.
But you could say it’s just in my nature?
Some parts of me just couldn’t change.
If I could change like that, I wouldn’t have gotten chewed out for doing too little work back when it was just Corbin and me.
Still, even after that, I tended to manage work in my private space.
“Everyone, please take your seats. The boss’s orders suggest there will be quite a mountain of work… Let’s finish the important tasks quickly.”
“…Saying that, it sounds more like Lindera is the commander, not me.”
“Ah. Uhm…”
…Yeah, it does sound like that.
“The commander said this while coming in.”
Anyway, it was time to get back to work after a long break.
Maternity leave, parental leave, honeymoon leave… I felt like I had taken too many breaks recently.
But now, there wouldn’t really be any more chances to slack off for a while.
Starting today, it was time to get back to genuinely and properly working.