Thank You Derek

I was always the shy and quiet type of woman who lived vicariously through other women and their relationships. I considered my love life as being “bad luck” until the day that changed my life forever.

It was a few months ago before covid came and ruled the world. I was following my weekly routine at the gym where I saw him. He had the most beautiful big bright blue eyes I ever saw, dark brown hair, he was tall ,handsome and had a great smile. It has almost looked like he came out of magazine and was standing right across the room. He was at the front desk, I guess signing up for a membership and I was sitting at the juice bar on my phone as per usual. I caught myself starting at him and then I noticed he was looking at me, my palms were sweaty and I knew that it wasn’t because I was working out. I have a bad habit of going to the gym to work out hard but then I always end up hardly working out. He glanced over at me again then left.

It wasn’t until after he left that it occurred to me that I should of said hello but that was fine because men like that ALWAYS are taken.... literally. A couple months went by and covid finally presented itself. I was out of work, I was stressed and most of all I was lonely. I went to the grocery store to buy something for dinner and that’s when I saw him again. He was standing down the isle and I recognized him even with his mask on by his big blue eyes. Eyes like that are hard to forget.. Especially when they are on someone who seems so perfect. I tried to walk the other direction since I was literally in sweats and didn’t look my best. “Hey stranger, long time” He said. I turned around and acted like i was surprised to see him. “Hey how are you, from the gym right?” I responded. “Yeah I remember you at the juice bar, I wanted to say hello but I was in a bit of a rush. How’s it going?” He said. “Well understand the worlds circumstances I guess I’m fine but could be better”. I said nervously and then laughed. “Right, this whole Corona situation definitely is something.” He said. Then I nodded and said “Sorry I didn’t catch your name actually”. He said very bold and proud “Derek. My name is Derek nice to meet you” and he stuck his hand out to shake my hand. At this point I could feel my face getting red and I knew I was blushing. Even under my mask I could tell I was blushing, he’s such a confident man and he’s so charming. We stood there for about 20 minutes just talking about the gym, working out, and how life has changed for us. Somehow along the line I mentioned being out of work and that’s when he said “Oh well actually I work from home in my home office and I was looking for a office keeper and cleaner”. He looked sharply at me and I knew at this point I really did need the money however seeing him and actually talking to him feels so right. I mean how could I say no? We exchanged numbers and the next day I went to his house and started my shift. He didn’t live too far from me, and his house was pretty big, the office was a good size and it wasn’t too messy. He stayed in the living room while I cleaned and then I left. The next day he contacted me and I went again. And we had a schedule that I would go every other day but i wasn’t allowed to be there at 6pm and after. As the time went on and weeks passed by I was there pretty much every day and we started to spend a lot of time together. Eventually the cleaning stopped and we were just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company. I really liked him, I thought at last I found someone who is good, honest and didn’t bring any baggage or bad luck. But it was always in the back of my mind that I had to leave at 5:30pm everytime I was there. Never thought about it for too long though. One afternoon when Derek and I was having lunch I prepared for both of us the house door opened. Derek jumped up from the dinning table in panic. “Oh shoot!”He said. My eyes grew wild and I was very confused but my response was “Are you expecting anyone?” And I guess that was the perfect question to ask. Right at that moment he grabbed me and told me he will explain later and to go in the basement. So I wasn’t sure exactly what was going on but I did as he told me. A minute later he opened the door again and threw my shoes and jacket down the steps and they landed in front of me. I was so confused but yet scared and worried at the same time. Was he in trouble? Did something happen? What’s going on with my Derek? All these questions going through my mind. Suddenly I heard a womans voice “hunny put my shoes away and I had to leave work early since I’m feeling really ill the baby is also kk king a lot.” I couldn’t believe what I heard! The baby? What on earth... So my Derek really isn’t my Derek then. At that point I peiced all of the questions I had together and made sense of everything that didn’t make sense. I started to cry softly.. then I picked up my shoes and jacket and thought how long will I stay down here? Is he trying to get her out the house so I can leave? It was just a lot to really take in. Then I thought to myself maybe I should just go up there and introduce myself. How dare he disrespect me and embarrass me like this! Rage consumed me at that time but I was so upset it was like I couldn’t even move. I thought I heard the door rattling and that’s when I ran and hid behind the stairs, but I almost tripped on a big black bag behind it. I caught my balance and waited a few minutes, no one opened the door. I started to look around and I was still so upset and annoyed now directing my frustration to this bad that nearly tripped me. I thought to myself stupid me thinking he was different and stupid bag for almost causing me to break my knee! I opened the stupid bad to see what was in there anyway and I saw cash... lots of it.. maybe like thirty thousand dollars or so, all stuffed in this duffel bag. I never even seen money like this before. This is the most money I ever saw in my life. But then I thought to myself here I am hiding in a basement and was played again by a man. Here I am going through covid alone and in need of work and this man has a wife, a baby on the way, this big house, my time and this bag of money?! It was completely against my ethic. But I did... I looked left, I looked right, I looked up and even down and I said to myself “I guess I’m not so bad luck after all, ” I took the bag and went to the other set of stairs that happens to lead to the side of the house. I took the entire bag of money and left. Later that day after counting all my new funds I noticed a little black book at the bottom of the bag, the papers were empty but it had Dereks initials on the cover in gold. I went back to his house and left a note on that same black book that I put on his door step that said.... “Thank you Derek”.