Polishing an Old Trophy

"Cut the bullshit, Derek," Al Too chuckled ruefully. "Just calling to apologise to you for that unpleasantness yesterday. I'm gonna call your dad and Amber to apologise, too."

"There's no need to apologise - "

"Yes, there is, Derek," Al Too cut Derek off mid-sentence, "and more importantly, Willa needs to apologise as well. Willa! Get over here and take the phone!" he yelled off the headset. "Derek, here's Willa. I'm off to call your dad now. Sorry about that again yesterday. We'll get together in the new year."

"Of course, Al," Derek agreed before Al Too turned the phone over to Willa.

"Hi Derek," Willa's voice came over the phone. Derek frowned, hearing the pout in her voice and the affected "little girl in trouble" tone. "I guess I fucked up yesterday, but I was just SO surprised to see her there! How about I make it up to you and take you out for dinner?" Willa offered.

"That won't be necessary Willa," Derek sighed, trying to avoid going on a date with her.

"How about a coffee then?" she continued to insist.

"That's OK Willa, no need," having dated her a few times before, and definitely not liking it, Derek refused again.

"C'mon Derek! Daddy'll be mad if I don't do something," Willa whined. Derek sighed again, noting there was no apology at all in their exchange. "C'mon!" she insisted again.

"Fine. Why don't we grab a Tim's when I come over to your office next time, and we'll call it even," he offered.

"Yay!" Willa exclaimed. Derek could hear her clapping in the background.

"Listen Willa, if you want to make us square, you should call Amelia and apologise," Derek suggested.

"Who's Amelia?" Willa asked.

"Amelia's Amber's real name," Derek explained.

"Fine, fine," Willa brushed off. "Looking forward to our coffee, Derek!" she singsonged before hanging up. Derek sighed one more time, shaking his head before he put the headset back in the cradle.

~ ~ ~

THE DAY BEFORE Christmas was a half-day at Ringer. The office staff came in to take care of last-minute paperwork before the week-long shutdown while the co-packing and plant staff came in to make sure everything was shut down safely and to pick up their end-of-year bonuses. Even though she had only been at Ringer for two weeks, Amelia was surprised to find an envelope tucked into her timecard cubby containing a $25 Tim Hortons gift card and a cheque for $30, two percent of her wages since she was there. It was a token amount since she hadn't been there long, but it gave her both a sense of accomplishment and loyalty to the company. She left with a smile on her lips and a bounce in her step. It was the first time she went into Christmas stress free in over three years.

~ ~ ~

THE HOLIDAYS CAME and went and things were back up and running at Ringer. The floor was getting ready for the Easter and allergy seasonal displays and the print shops were setting up to produce the summer materials, so the compound was humming from the first day of the new year. Derek had braved the pre-dawn darkness and subzero temperatures to be in the office before anyone else, unlocking the doors on the first workday of the year. It took a little while for things to start running at peak efficiency again, as most first days do, but after initial new year greetings were exchanged, people began to re-familiarize themselves with their routines.

Lunchtime found Derek back at the co-packing breakroom lunching with the team on shift. He was happy to see everyone back, taking time to speak with each of them, wishing them a Happy New Year and catching up on their holidays. He was particularly happy to see a well-rested and cheerful Amelia there.

By mid-week everything was running smoothly again. Production and co-packing were churning and Derek's new shopper research service confirmed two more projects. Things were so busy that by Thursday, Derek was leaving the office at six in the evening, having put in a solid ten and a half hours at the office.

As he was leaving through the warehouse door, he noticed the breakroom lights were still on. Not wanting to be wasteful, Derek walked over, intending to shut everything off. When he got there, he was surprised to see Amelia sitting at one of the tables, scribbling on a piece of paper. What struck Derek, besides the fact that she appeared to be working, was the pink tip of her tongue, peeking out through the side of her mouth, framed by beautiful, lush lips, the lipstick long worried off. Giving his head a quick shake to clear the cobwebs, Derek approached the table.

"Hey, Amy," he called out softly, which still caused her to start and yelp in surprise. Hand to chest, she looked at him and chuckled in relief.

"Wow, boss, you scared the crap outta me!"

"Sorry 'bout that," Derek responded sheepishly, "and it's Derek, not boss," he offered with a smile. "So, what are you doing here so late? Shift ended almost three hours ago."

"Oh, I didn't realise! But don't worry, I clocked out right after shift. I'm just working on some things," she explained, motioning to the stack of papers on the table.

"I wasn't worried about that Amy, just worried how you'd get home with it being so cold out there tonight."

"Oh, jeez, I didn't even think about it!" Amelia exclaimed, all flustered. "I'll just grab a bus. It shouldn't be too long a wait," she explained.

"It's minus twenty out there, minus thirty with the windchill," Derek told her. "And we're far enough that you'll have to be out there at least fifteen minutes waiting. How about this? I was on my way to this little, hole-in-the-wall kebab place to grab dinner. Why don't you join me and I'll drop you off at home?"

"I don't know Derek...," Amelia hemmed. "How would it look?"

"To who?"

"I don't know..., to the other employees? To your parents?"

"Listen, it's spicy meat on a stick with rice and bread in a local joint, not a marriage proposal," Derek chuckled. "Anyway, I see one of our team members working late, the least I can do is feed them, right?"

"OK, I guess you have a point...," Amelia agreed, still with some hesitancy.

"OK then. That's settled. C'mon, I'm out this way." Derek waited for her to put her coat and toque on and followed her out after shutting off all the lights.

~ ~ ~

DEREK AND AMELIA sat down with their meals at the small Afghani kebab spot, passing the first few minutes in stilted small talk. After a lull of a few seconds, Derek decided to ask an innocuous question.

"So, what were you working on so..., so..., y'know... you were so focused?" Amelia blushed slightly.

"Oh, it was nothing, really," she demurred. "You wouldn't be interested."

"No, I would, really," Derek assured her.

"Well..., I guess it wouldn't hurt...," she acquiesced. "You see, the way you have the co-packing line set up now, you 're pretty efficient, but..."

"But?" Derek motioned for her to continue with his naan.

"Promise you won't be offended?" she asked warily.

"Of course not."

"Well, if you just shuffle the packing section a little," she indicated on a diagram she pulled out of her bag, "and you repurpose a few people here in the corrugate section, and you should improve your efficiency!" she declared proudly in the end. Derek reviewed the diagrams closely for a few quiet minutes. When the silence stretched, Amelia began to doubt her ideas, and squirmed in her seat, acid starting to rise in her gut, her appetite disappearing.

"This could work," Derek said, thoughtfully. "Not sure why none of us saw this before," he wondered aloud. Relieved, Amelia's shoulders relaxed and her body sagged.

"Well, probably because you might be too close to it?" she suggested. "Y'know? You all see it every day and, well, it's already quite efficient so..."

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it?" Derek finished her thought.

"Yeah," she agreed. "But it's just a thought, really. I'm new, so what do I know?" she voiced, going back to her meal.

"No, this is a great idea. I'll have a chat with the shift supervisors and let them know what a great idea you've had," he offered. Amelia was aghast.

"No, no, no! I don't want them knowing it was my idea," she admitted. "I don't wanna rock the boat. I'm the new girl here so...," she said timidly. Derek was both amazed and saddened by the change in Amelia from the first few times he met her when she was so confident to the tired, scared, defeated woman he saw now.

"Alright then. I'll say it was my idea, if you're OK with that?" he asked her. Amelia nodded with some enthusiasm, and a small smile on her face. Derek sighed, and glanced at Amelia, her eyes downcast, and was pained at the small joy she had at his offer to take credit for her idea. "Amy," he called to her in a quiet, but serious, tone. She glanced up at him as he continued. "Would you mind if I asked you a personal question?"

"Um, sure?" her eyes glanced warily at him.

"How do I put this?" Derek asked quietly, mainly to himself. "Are you doing alright, Amy?" Amelia screwed up her face in confusion at Derek's question.

"What do you mean by 'alright'?"

"I mean, you used to be this bigger than life personality," he began to explain. "No matter what, you would make sure people paid attention to you. Now you're..., well, you're different. Quieter." Amelia sighed.

"Withdrawn, you mean," she amended.

"I wouldn't put it that way, but in the vicinity, yes." Amelia looked down and began pushing her rice around the plate. She pursed her lips in internal debate about how much she was willing to share. She sighed again and looked up tentatively at Derek.

"Yeah, that was 'Amber', and she was a dumb bitch," she admitted. "What you've got now," she gestured, with her hands spread, "is 'Amelia', and she's been knocked down a peg or two." Amber snorted a mirthless laugh. "Actually, a lot more than a peg or two"

"How'd that happen?" Derek probed gently.

"Well, I kind of lived life like the world owed me something because I was pretty," she admitted sheepishly. "OK, let's be real. I was smoking hot, and I thought the world owed me." Derek thought she was still hot, but didn't say it aloud. "That attitude came from my mom."

"How so?"

"Mom moved here in the early '90's, just before she had me," Amelia began. "She was very beautiful, in that Eastern Bloc chic sort of way. She was also very smart, like engineer smart, but dumb about men. My babcia, my grandmother," Amelia continued, "she was very Catholic and very strict. She moved here in the late '80's when Canada wanted people with her skills, she was a chemist, and my grandfather had just died."

"Tough situation," Derek commiserated.

"Yeah. Canada wanted chemists, but Canadian companies didn't, at least not foreign ones, so she ended up working as a cleaning lady," she explained. "Anyway, that left my mother, who had just graduated from school, alone, young, without grandma's supervision, and stupid about men. She got pregnant with me right around when my grandmother was able to sponsor her, well, us, over. My..., I guess dad, he left right after finding out my mom was pregnant, and mom's had a chip on her shoulder ever since." Amelia teared up and sniffled.

"Here," Derek passed a clean handkerchief over to her. Amelia patted her cheeks dry.

"I'll have a full collection of your hankies soon," she chuckled quietly.

"Don't worry. My mom buys those in bulk," Derek joked, getting another chuckle from Amelia.

"Anyway, mom was really bitter about how she and grandma ended up - a well-educated cleaning lady and an engineer taking dictation. She was determined that I knew my 'worth'," Amelia said, making air quotes with her fingers. "So, she made sure I dressed pretty, did my make-up, flirted, and taught me to go after the rich guys who could take care of me, of us, eventually. She was some sort of twisted pageant mom."

"Wow, that's uh, that's...," Derek's voice trailed off.

"Yeah," Amelia nodded and pursed her lips. "I was raised a gold-digger."

"So, where's your mom now?" Derek asked.

"She died early in my marriage - stroke." Derek expressed sympathy but Amelia continued as if she didn't hear him. "That was a bit of a wakeup call for me. I really hadn't paid attention to Trey's cheating, but all of a sudden, without mom's influence, I finally got her out of my head. I also got some of my pride back and I was ashamed, both of being cheated on, but also being such a venal opportunist." Amelia sniffled, and kept explaining. "I knew living life as a dead weight wasn't what I wanted, so I left, and here we are now. A divorcée with no skills, trying to make a new start on her own." Amelia quirked her lips, shrugged a shoulder and started picking at her kebabs again.

"Surely you got something out of the divorce?"

"Bit of a 'game recognize game' situation," Amelia sighed. Derek gave her a look of confusion. "The Nestor family's had its share of gold-diggers," she snorted. "Trey and Willa's mommy dearest is also a bit of a gold-digger, and she made sure I signed a really lopsided prenup, then threw the family lawyers at it when I decided to leave. So, I left with just what I came in with, which left me with pretty much nothing." Amelia's shoulders sagged a bit more.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Amy." Derek reached a hand out to cover Amelia's. The warmth of his touch caused her eyes to fill up with tears, and she slowly pulled away, craving his touch, yet feeling like she didn't deserve it. "I'm sorry Amy," Derek apologised as he pulled his hand back.

"No, don't be," Amelia assured him. "I gotta own the situation I'm in now and build myself back up," she breathed in deeply and pulled her shoulders back and smiled shakily at him, a tear falling down her cheek. "And hopefully, this idea is a start."

The pair moved on to less heavy things and finished their meal.

~ ~ ~

"THANKS FOR THE lift, Derek, and for dinner," Amelia said as she opened her door.

"Hey, let me walk you to the door at least," Derek protested. Amelia chuckled softly.

"Then that would make this a date, and that would be wrong," she explained. "But thank you for the thought." She made to exit the car then paused, and leaned back in to give him a quick peck on the cheek. "That was sweet, and I appreciate it. Thank you again."

"You're welcome," Derek replied softly, right before she closed the door and walked into the apartment building. He touched his cheek briefly, shocked at his sudden arousal at the most innocuous of gestures. Derek shook his head to clear it and drove away.

~ ~ ~

"BABCIA, I'M HOME!" Amelia called out.

"So late coming home tonight," Magdelena kissed her teeth.

"Sorry. I had dinner with my boss," Amelia explained. Her grandmother kissed her teeth again.

"Child, I hope you are not doing stupid things again like your mother taught you!" she admonished as she crossed herself in memory of her departed daughter.

"No, Babcia, it's not like that!"

"Then what is it like?"

"He saw me working on a plan to make the line more efficient after work and wanted to hear more about my idea," Amelia explained. "You know I would never do what I did with Trey again. I have to learn to do things myself now." Amelia's grandmother sighed, knowing how hard that would be for her granddaughter, but also proud that she finally came to that realization.

"Dobre," Magdalena declared her grudging approval. "If you still hungry, there are cabbage rolls in refrigerator."

"Thanks, Babcia, but I think I'll pack it up for lunch tomorrow. I'm just tired, so I'll jump into the shower and go to bed. Good night!"

Amelia quickly disrobed in the bathroom and jumped into the shower. For a moment, she luxuriated in the warmth of the shower, sluicing away the efforts of the day and loosening the tightness of her muscles, still getting used to being back from the holidays. Pulling the showerhead off the wall, she adjusted it to pulse and directed it onto her sore shoulders, craning her neck to reach some tough spots.

Slowly, the showerhead travelled lower along her body until it was pulsing on her pubic bone, just above her pussy. Leaning on the wall, Amelia adjusted the pulse softer and situated the stream right over her clit. As the pulses of water stimulated her sensitive button, Amelia reached down with her other hand and caressed her lower lips, occasionally dipping her fingers deeper into her warmth.

After a minute of steady stimulation Amelia's knees began to weaken. She slid along the wall, setting herself down on the floor, her legs akimbo, feet writhing on the wet tile, toes flexing to gain purchase on the slippery surface. She pressed the showerhead harder into her clit and pushed deeper into herself, her finger curling in and strumming along the spongy surface of her g-spot. She felt the familiar pressure build up low in her belly.

Amelia withdrew the digit stimulating her g-spot and let her fingers fly quickly across her clit, combining with the pulse of water to draw out her climax. Thinking again about kissing Derek's cheek, the softness of his cheek and the roughness of his stubble, the scent of his maleness and the hint of citrus and pine, she tumbled her over the edge. Aware of her grandmother through the thin door and small apartment, she came with a small grunt, slumping along the wall.

After a minute of heavy breathing, the cooling water brought her to awareness. She shivered in the chill air and cold tile and pushed herself up, finishing her shower and drying off. Amelia went back to her room to a satisfying sleep.

~ ~ ~

DEREK LOCKED THE door to his three-bedroom brick townhome in the quaint Unionville area of Markham, and re-armed his alarm system. He drove home in a bit of a daze, entered his home and closed up after himself by rote. He walked over to the fishbowl that held his two goldfish "TV" and "The Game", because when anyone called, he could actually say he was watching "TV" or "The Game". Derek shook some fish food in and stared for a few seconds.

Hanging up his coat and stowing his briefcase, Derek walked up to his room and got ready for a shower. His mind kept going back to the brief kiss that Amelia had given him, the softness of her lips, the scent of jasmine and oranges as her ponytail swished when she turned away, and the twinkle in her eye. He was glad that they didn't end the night on a down note and that Amelia seemed to be happy. His arousal and yearning at the pit of his stomach disturbed him, the guilt of lusting after one of his employees, and his teammate's ex-wife gnawing at him.

Shucking his work clothes, he went into his shower to clean up for the evening. His mind wandering under the hot streams, his thoughts went to Amelia's soft lips as they brushed along his cheek earlier. As he thought of the scent of jasmine that he detected as she kissed him, his hand drifted down to his rapidly stiffening member.

Stroking himself absentmindedly, his thoughts took a decidedly lustful turn, fantasizing about Amelia and making love to her. The closer they got to climax in his mind, the closer he came in his shower. As they both reached fulfilment, so did he, experiencing a toe-curling orgasm like he hadn't in a while.

A twinge of unease pierced him briefly, spacing him out, but he quickly recovered and finished his shower. The memory of the kiss and his fantasy lingered into his dreams later that night.

~ ~ ~

DEREK IMPLEMENTED AMELIA'S suggestions a week later after discussing with Ratish and found, after initial hiccups, that it really did improve efficiency. Over the next few weeks Derek found reason to spend time with Amelia, asking her to watch some tape of the second shift to see if there were some efficiencies she could see, or to ask her about morale on the floor. One evening at one of their weekly dinners, this time over jerked pork with peas and rice, Amelia confronted Derek.