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Marc Lucas, a 23 year old, hunky boy has just recently graduated from college and just landed himself his first big shot job, where he will for the first time in his life, need to look, act, and dress the part of an executive.
He prepares for his first day of training by spending hours in the department stores, looking for a perfect business suit, shirt, tie, s hoes and socks to compliment his near-perfect body, beautiful masculine face, dark eyes and dark hair. He is suited by a tailor and looks at himself in the mirror to see a man in which he had not even known could be. A far cry from the usual Abercrombie boy that use to peer back at him from the mirror! Only one thing was missing -- shoes. He looked at his watch and realized it was late. He rushed into the dressing room to put his clothes back on and have the sales associate check him out for the suit, dress shirt and tie. He asks the associate what time the store closes and he replies, "In 10 minutes." The boy nervously asks where the shoe department is and the man tells him the shoe department is one floor below him. The young man takes his new duds and rushes down the escalator to find a pair of dress shoes to go with his suit.
He spends his 10 minutes asking the clerk there what shoes would look best with his suit. The clerk suggests a pair and then finds them for him in the size he requested. As the clerk returns, Marc hears the closing announcement of the Department store and feels bad about keeping the clerk there after store hours, so he looks at the shoes and says, "I'll take them."
The clerk asks, "Don't you want to try them on?"
Marc shakes his head, "No, they will be fine, I have worn this shoe size for a while, I am sure they will fit!"
The clerk looks at him and says, "Well OK, if you have any problem Hold on to your receipt and we will gladly exchange them for you." Marc thanks the man and is out on his way home. He figures he needs to get a good night sleep for tomorrow is the first day on his new job and he needs to be at his best. Before going to bed he lays out all of his new buys so they are all set and ready to go in the morning. He even opens the packaging on his new nylon dress socks and places one ever so gently in both of his shoes as if he thinks he will hurt them if he handles them too rough. Then he sets off to bed.
He wakes up to his alarm buzzing in his ear. He looks at the time and sees that it is 6:00am. He gets up and starts to get ready. As he is getting dressed he turns on the news, and just as he is placing his watch on his hand he realizes that it says 8:00am. He just sort of ignores it until he hears the time check on the news -- "The time is now 8:00am, and now the weather" A feeling of frenzy falls over him, he is supposed to be at work no later than 8:30am and he is still at his house! He must have somehow messed up the time on his alarm clock when setting it the night before. In a mad rush he tightly ties his new cap toe dress shoes onto his size 11 nylon-socked feet and thinks to himself, "I hope I can run in these things."
He dashes out the door and down the street hoping to catch the next bus. As he runs he keeps thinking to himself, "How could this happen on my first day? I need to be at my best!"
As he makes it to the bus he is eager to get on and everything that slows the bus down is just making him more and more upset. He tries to calm himself by thinking how great his new job is going to be and how nice he looks in his new outfit, yet he is already sweating bullets from the run and because he is late. He is never so relieved to turn a corner and see his new workplace, yet at the same time still panic-stricken. His watch now says 8:35am, and his training class started at 8:30am. He thinks to himself, "OK there is nothing I can do about this now, but just relax and make the best of the rest of my first day."
As he stands up, to get off the bus, he feels a slight pinch on his toes that he sort of ignored until it happened again, as he steeped down and onto the sidewalk. He continues to walk and feels the hard leather from his shoes rubbing the back of his tender heels. He continues to walk, and just dismisses it to the fact that they are dress shoes and that is how they are supposed to feel. He then gathers himself together and walks into the office building. He walks over to the receptionist, tells her his name, and asks her where he is supposed to be. She looks at him and says, "Oh you are Marc Lucas! Mr. Worthington has been looking for you, thought maybe you had went to the wrong building." Then he had an out for his tardiness!
He shook his head, "Yes, I did go into the West tower instead of the East one."
She gave him a smirk and said, "Well, we are glad you are here. I will call upstairs and let them know you are on your way. But, Mr. Lucas, only one problem the elevator just went down, so you will have to take the stairs, which are right over in the corner, by the water fountain. It is on the eighth floor."
Marc gets a look of disbelief on his face, thinking to himself, "How much more bad luck could a guy have in one day?!" As he makes his way over to the stairs, the pinching of his left shoe starts again and the rubbing on his heel. He thinks to himself, "How am I going to make it through this day with these shoes on?" Just the slightest movement and his left foot is screaming with pain. Now he has to walk up eight flights of stairs, but he has no choice. He is already late so he starts up the first flight. The pain just keeps getting worse and worse. As he reaches the fifth floor he is almost thinking about taking the shoe off, but he realizes he can't just walk into his training class full of people with one shoe on and one shoe off -- then what will people think of him? So he continues on his way up the stairs and finally makes it to the 8th floor. He opens up the door, makes his way to the conference room where his class is taking place, and does his best to disguise the fact that he is in pain and his embarrassment for being late.
He enters the room and Mr. Worthington stops his lecture to greet Marc. He extends his hand to shake and welcome Marc to his new job. Marc looks around the room to see that everyone else is all ready seated and has their booklets open to the second page. He locates the last available seat between two very handsome and aggressive-looking guys. He makes his way over, still cringing with every step, and takes his seat. At that point he is just so happy to be sitting down he does not even hear what is going on. He then realizes that the guy to his right Is trying to tell him he needs to get a book from the credenza outside the conference room. The thought of having to walk another step and save face almost makes him want to cry -- that is how bad his shoe is bothering him. But he must do it! He takes his 10 steps that seem like 1000 to get his training booklet and comes back to his seat. Now that he has his booklet open to the right page and is somewhat paying attention, he feels he can now try to do something to take care of his foot. He tries to wiggle his toes inside the hard leather of the cap toe shoe only to feel more pain as his soft toes make contact with the shoe. He thinks to himself, "Could I be getting a blister from the running this morning?"
He tries once again to move his foot to gain some comfort, but no relief. At this point he has no idea what is going on in the class. He is in such discomfort he is blocking out everything that is being said, yet he is making it look as if he is looking at his booklet. At that point Marc decides that maybe if he could just slide his foot out of the shoe, just enough so his heel is up and out, he might have some relief. So very nervously, Marc uses his other foot on the back of his new shoe to try to slowly pry his heel out of the shoe slowly. He does not want to go to far, because if the shoe comes off, he might not be able to get it back on without unlacing them. He tied them so tightly when he ran out the door that morning! Just at that moment he realizes, "Shit, I have pulled my foot out to far!" But finally he felt better, so he thought he would just leave it there. Marc was beginning to get a clue as to what was going on in the room because he was finally comfortable, his foot now able to move freely no longer trapped in the captoe shoe. He notices that there is an aroma in the air. At first he does not even realize that it was from him, being as he had never worn nylon socks before. He did not realize that all of the running and walking up stairs would cause his feet to sweat so much in his new shoes, or that they would smell so strongly. Then he panics, because he thinks he needs to get his shoe back on so that no one will notice the smell. He then begins to desperately twist and turn his foot to force it back into his shoe, but being as they are new and have no traction, they continue to slide on the carpet as he tries to push into them. Also, they are laced way too tight for his foot to just slip in. He then feels the back of the shoe bend in from the pressure of his heel, and then he knows he will have to use his finger to pull it back up to put his foot in. He then wonders to himself why had he not tried on these shoes before leaving that store yesterday. If he had only gotten a pair of slip-ons he would not of been having half of these problems! Marc did not realize how much of a commotion he was making, because just then Mr. Worthington, asks Marc if everything is OK. Marc swallows hard, and says softly that he is fine, hoping that he did not know what was wrong with him.
Mr. Worthington, then says "Well, you might want to turn your booklet to page 14 and look at the graphs with us."
Marc with a now flushed red face, says a meek little "OK, thank you sir."
Just then, Michael, who is sitting to Marc's left, reaches over and turns the booklet page to 14 for Marc. Michael reaches out his hand to Marc and introduces himself. Marc swallows hard again and tries to smile, hoping Michael did not notice what he had been doing or the smell of his feet.
Michael looks at him and smiles, leans in and says ever so softly in his ear, "New shoes?" Marc thinks the world is going to end! He just sort of shakes his head nervously "Yes."
Michael leans over and says, "I like them, they are very nice and they look good on you!" That statement is followed with "Are they comfortable?" Those world run through Marc's head like someone had turned on a kitchen sink. Marc gathers himself, smiles and says, "No, they are killing me," under his breath.
Michael says, "I thought so. You look a little uncomfortable."
Marc did not know what to say. Michael leans over and says to Marc, "Cross your leg over your knee and I will make you feel better."
Marc is skeptical about this at first but then thinks to himself, "Well, what could it hurt?" So Marc does as Michael had asked, placing the foot that is not in the shoe on his knee. Michael then slides the shoe off of Marc's foot and places it on his briefcase between the two chairs, ever so discretely so that no one could see. Both men slide closer to the conference table so that the action that was about to take place would be well-hidden. Then Marc feels what will be the greatest thing would happen to him all day -- Michael's warm, soft, yet intense hand massaging the toes, arch and heel of his foot. As much as Marc wants to moan in relief he has to keep his composure while Michael works his magic. He can't believe that Michael can do so much with one hand on his foot. Marc looks at Michael and gives him a smile to let him know he is very appreciative of the massage. Michael smiles back because he is excited to be able to play with the big, soft size 11 nylon-covered foot of this cute 23 year old guy. Marc begins to worry again as to how he would get his shoe back on without anyone seeing him. Just at that moment, Mr. Worthington says, "OK, we will take a 15 minute break. Meet back here at 10:00. There are muffins and coffee at the end of the hall."
Everyone stands up and makes their way out of the room. Michael makes chit chat with Marc to make him feel more comfortable, and suddenly Michael realizes that everyone is out of the room. He reaches down and grabs Marc's shoe, unlaces it and pulls up on the heel that Marc had bent out of shape trying to get the shoe back on. Michael holds the shoe in his lap for Marc to place his foot back in. Marc smiles and says, "Thank you!" Michael leans in and says, "If I were you I would just keep them loosely laced if you think you should need to pop out of them again." He also tells Marc that if he needs one, he would be free for a foot massage after work. Marc looks at Michael and says, "I would love that!" Michael then stands up and walks out of the room, leaving Marc alone. Marc then reties his other shoe so he could easily get it on and off like Michael suggested. Marc is amazed at how much he liked the massage, and how he could not wait for another one, whether he really needs one or not! In such a short span of time he felt so attached to Michael already because he took care of him and made him feel at ease. Now he will be able to get through his first day on his new job. Marc feels that he owes him the world.
When Michael comes back in the room, Marc smiles at him and gives him his phone number he has written down on a post-it note. They sit next to each other the entire day, exchanging small talk and getting to know each other. They had both found their fun in their new workplace and are ready to explore!
Just think if stuff like this could always happen on your first day on your job!!!
