Rowan began jogging towards the park to meet up with his friends, but became preoccupied with adjusting his
pants and underwear as apposed to looking where he was going. Then BAM, right into a wall. Wait, not a wall,
just his boss. Who was built like a wall. Now he began wishing he really did run into a wall instead.
"Rowan." his boss curtly said with a cross look upon his face. "I guess you've gotten better seeing as how you
can running around town, hm? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were playing hooky."
"Uh yeah! I mean no, Mr Knight!" Rowan blathered, trying to lie his way out of the situation. "I was just
puking all over when I got up. Er, I thought fresh air would help me feel better. I'm a little better now... A
lot better!"
"I see." Rowan's boss replied, stroking his chin. "Sorry. You rarely call out, I should not have been so quick
to judge you. You're one of my more trustworthy employees, a very hard worker too. So even if you were lying,
I would be wrong to fault you for it."
"Erm, it's no problem Mr Knight." Rowan meekly replied, feeling terrible for lying to his boss. He slowly
tried to back away, but Mr Knight placed a heavy hand on Rowan's shoulder causing him to stop.
"Please Rowan, we're not in the office. No need to be so formal, just call me by my first name, Jared. I
should have known you were sick, today was the free buffet for staff appreciation day. I'm actually surprised
you didn't come to work just for the free food." Mr Knight chuckled, giving Rowan a hardy pat on the shoulder.
"I was heading down to the Imperial Inn to get some great Chinese food. Sadly, alone, so perhaps you would
like to accompany me?"
"Oh no, I can't... I mean, I'm not dressed to go out to those fancy places you eat at and stuff." Rowan said,
feeling split between two decisions. He was always down for getting free food, but he didn't exactly want to
get all chummy with his boss. Rowan noticed a pang of sadness cross his boss' face. He was recently divorced
and had no friends, so he must've been feeling very lonely.
Jared Knight was an older gentleman, age 42. He was handsome in a burly kind of way, like a lumberjack or
wrestler. He stood at at 6'8", along with being incredibly tall, he was extremely broad - mostly muscle. Due
to the stress at work and his recent divorce, he put on a few pounds, so now his once chiseled body became
covered in a little layer of fat, giving him a slightly noticeable belly. His hair was light blond and
normally comed over, which went well with his dazzling sky blue eyes, though his glasses made them appear
darker. He was always clean shaven, but it was apparent to anyone that seen any other part of his body that he
was a bear of a man. The intimidation-factor was enough to make Mr Knight seem like a hulking monster to
anyone who knew him. That's probably why nobody ever said no to his proposals and deals. Even over the phone
he sounded intimidating with his deep voice, although he could turn on the charm to win the ladies over -
almost as if he were like Dr Love who's on the radio. He was born to be a businessman, as it would seem. Which
is probably why Rowan never seen him in anything but a dashing business suit.
"Nonsense, today is employee appreciation day, so I must show my appreciation to one of my best employees,
right? Besides, I'm the one who's overdressed and you look fine as is, especially for a man who's sick." Jared
chuckled yet again, gesturing for Rowan to follow him. Rowan would feel bad if he didn't go, so he went to at
least give his boss some company.
"I thought you had a car or something." Rowan mentioned, trying to strike up some conversation.
"I do, but look at this gut, I need to get rid of it somehow." Jared replied, grabbing his gut and giving it a
shake. It wasn't big or even that noticeable to Rowan until his boss grabbed it. The image of Jared being a
big burly bear popped into Rowan's mind, causing him to smile.
"You look fine as is, especially for a man who's over 40." Rowan complimented, playing along with what Jared
had previously said - even using the same professional tone that his boss used. His boss just laughed in
response, causing Rowan to relax. His boss was pretty easy to talk to outside of work so far, maybe a
little trip down to China Town wasn't going to be so bad?