Stacy’s heart nearly stopped when she heard the whistling. This could not possibly be directed at her, right? But when she turned around, there was little doubt.
The unknown man was still looking her up and down with a big grin. But Stacy would make sure to whip that expression of this face in an instant… “Do you know who I am!?”
Everybody on the street was looking
At first, the man was looking at Stacy, confused. And he was not the only one. She had yelled at him so loudly that everybody on the street had been stopped in their tracks and took notice of the situation.
Eric felt uncomfortable with all those eyes on him… Eric tried to avoid eye contact with Stacy and pretend like he was not involved with the situation, but Stacy was not going to let him get away with it so easily. She marched in his direction and kept repeating the question, seeming to get louder and louder.
Now Eric knew who he was dealing with
“Do you know who I am!!?” “Do you know who I am!!!?” “Do you know who I am!!!!?” When she was nearly up in his face, Stacy was screaming the question as loud as she could. Eric had no choice but to address her now, and then he suddenly saw it…
Eric’s eyes started going wide as he started to realize who he was actually dealing with. This was not just any ordinary pretty woman walking the streets. He started looking around now, nearly panicking, and quickly spotted what he feared for…
People in suits approached
From multiple directions, men in suits were starting to appear, and it was clear that they were coming toward him and Stacy. Other people who were taking in the situation quickly realized what was happening and got out of harm’s way.
Stacy was still fully squared up to Eric. She had stopped screaming at him, but her eyes had not looked away for a second. She knew all these suited-up men were approaching them, and she was probably waiting for them to take action.
Getting out of there
He realized that he was wrong for whistling at this woman, but he was about to just willingly face the consequences of his actions. He quickly looked around him and saw an alleyway that none of the suited-up men were close to.
He started running away from Stacy and into the alleyway. He heard the woman screaming something after him that he could not quite make out, but it was clear that it was targeted at the suits because they started running after him…
Losing the suits chasing him
Eric had a bit of a head start, and he was going to use it. The alleyway had many different routes to take, and it did not tackle long before Eric was confident that he lost the suits chasing him. But to be absolutely sure, he dove into a big trash can and hid out there for nearly an hour.
Eric only came out when he knew the man was most likely long gone. He did not want to take any risk here. He knew that he had avoided them for now but that he was not out of trouble. There was no chance that this woman was going to let him get away with this. And he was right…
Walking with his hood up
Eric had put his hood up and started walking towards his home again. He probably does well to lay low for a little bit and let this all blow over. A good plan, but something that he was not going to get the chance for. And that became clear to him when he walked past an electronica shop…
There were TVs in the shop window, and Eric only needed a quick glance at them to get completely stopped in his tracks. He had no idea she would take this kind of action so quickly. The Tv was showing the local news channel, and his face was plastered on every screen…
How did this woman manage this?
He did not know how she had managed this, but with the kind of influence this woman could command, it did not surprise him. He just did not realize that simply whistling had gotten them into THIS much trouble…
People beside him were also looking at the TV screens and discussing among themselves. Eric put his hood up a bit more and quickly walked away. He was begging he would not get recognized because people would most likely not hesitate to report him to the police…
Friends and family
When he got home, Eric noticed that his phone was blowing up. Clearly, his friends and family had also seen the wanted message on the news and wanted to know what the hell he had done. What they imagined was probably a lot worse than the truth, but he was still afraid to tell them…
If his family found out that he was doing such disrespectful things as whistling to women on the street, they would probably never look the same. But he knew that this way, it was only a matter of time before they would figure it out.
Needing to speak to Stacy
If people reported who he was to the woman, she would probably send those suited-up men after him again. He knew he could not hide out forever and Eric felt like his only chance here was to take action right away.
But he had no idea how he was going to be able to do this. It was not like you could just ring the doorbell of a woman like that. And the chances of him bumping into her on the street also felt like one in a million. But Eric did have an idea…
Getting an appointment
He knew exactly where Stacy worked. Probably everybody in the city knew that. So maybe he could get an appointment with her if he came up with a very good excuse. She most likely had no idea who he was exactly, so she had no way of recognizing his name…
Eric came up with the plan that he wanted to pitch a potentially very lucrative idea to Stacy but that he could not elaborate much over the phone as he did not want them to claim the idea as their own. But of course, he only said this because he did not have a money-making idea at all.
Scheduled for tomorrow
But luckily for Eric, the assistant he spoke to bought it, and she set up a meeting between him and Stacy. They could not do it today as Stacy was apparently not in good mood (Eric could have a guess why), but they scheduled it for tomorrow.
Part one of Eric’s plan was completed, but he realized that that was the easy part. Stacy had no idea what his name was, but she did have a picture of his face from their encounter, and she, alongside anybody else that he had to get through to get to her, would most likely recognize him…
Facemask
Getting inside the building with his hood up would probably raise suspicion immediately, but maybe Eric could take the global pandemic they recently had to his advantage. He still had some facemasks lying around, and wearing those was still very much accepted by people.
During the rest of the day, Eric had to respond to a lot of messages from friends and family that they did not need to worry about anything and that he would sort everything out tomorrow.
Some did call the police
But the main issue was that not all the people who had recognized Eric had sent him a message about it. Most of them did not know Eric that well. And so some had decided to immediately report his whereabouts to the police…
Eric would only find this out after somebody started knocking on his front door very loudly. Eric knew it was not the police as they would have announced themselves better. He got a quick peek through his check hole and immediately recognized the suits.
He needed to get out of here
These people were with Stacy. There was no doubt about that. The police were probably ordered to immediately pass this information on to Stacy’s or her assistants. Whatever the case may be, Eric knew he needed to get out of her.
He managed to slip out the back door and get away from his house as quickly as possible. His advantage was that he knew the area here like the back of his hand, so losing the suits around here was easy.
The meeting was a big risk now
Eric knew that going to the meeting now also had extra risk as Stacy might know his name now and recognize it. Suits could be waiting for him there with all the consequences that come with that. But Eric just hoped that somebody in her position had no interest in the names of people with who she had appointments with.
Eric decided to get a cheap motel room for the night. One of those sketchy ones that do not ask any difficult questions. Here he also did some research on the building where he would meet Stacy tomorrow and worked on his excuse.
Nervous as could be
The next morning Eric knew that he could not go past his home to grab some supplies as the suits might still be waiting there. Luckily he had been smart enough to grab a facemask on his way out so he could go to the building directly.
He encountered no problems at the entrance. His name was on the list of people with appointments today, and the secretary did not look at him suspiciously at all. Not even the security guards found him worth a glance.
Keeping his face hidden
But even if they did not know his name yet, they had most likely seen his face on the tv yesterday. So Eric decided to make hast upstairs and made sure his facemask stayed in place. It was not long before he was in a sort of waiting room for Stacy’s office.
He was not the only one there as two other people were waiting for her 2. Both of them dressed in their best suits, all while he was barely presentable, still wearing his old clothes from yesterday. Not strange that he was getting a bit of side eye from the two men.
What if his excuse did not work?
But they got invited into the office only moments later, and then Eric was just by himself, to his great relief. He was so close now to his goal but still did not know if this was even going t work out. He had come up with an excuse, but what if Stacy did not care about it?
She could just disregard him completely, call in her security and have them have their way with him. And considering her position, most likely, nobody would have a problem with that. His disrespecting her in public would easily be a good enough argument.
A beautiful office
He was called into the office by Stacy’s assistant, and he started walking with lead in his shoes. The office was absolutely stunning. There were no expenses spared here, and the walls were covered by prizes, diplomas, and newspaper clippings mentioning Stacy’s achievements.
Eric had already taken off his mouth mask, seeing as hiding his identity was no longer needed. He had made it to where he wanted to be, into the office of one of the most powerful and rich CEO of the city…
Doing a lot for the city
Everybody around here knew Stacy as one of the most brilliant and ruthless businesswomen there was. Her philanthropy had nearly single-handedly lifted the city out of poverty with her investments in local businesses.
But besides all these great things she did, people were also very aware that this was not a woman you should cross in any way. She had a single-focus mindset and was very full of herself. She would have no problem kicking you out of her way.
Fighting for equality
And finally, one of her biggest tropes was that she did everything to make sure that men and women were treated equally. In her company, of course, she also made an effort to get local laws passed that made this a reality.
Before Stacy got a chance to call in her security to “handle” Eric, he begged and pleaded for a chance to explain himself and ask for forgiveness. He knew that he had made a mistake. Not in the fact that he whistled at her but in the fact that he whistled in the first place.
Wanting to make it up to Stacy
It did not matter who the recipient was of his whistling because, in all instances, it was a case of showing disrespect. A case of only seeing a woman’s appearance and not everything else she had to offer.
Eric could admit that this was not the first time he had done this, but he ensured Stacy that it was the last time he would ever do this and if there was anything he could do to make it up to her, that he would not hesitate to do it.
Volunteering at a female help shelter
Eventually, they came to the conclusion that if Eric started volunteering at a female help shelter for a couple of months, then Stacy would stop her crusade against him. She wanted him to see the other side of what women actually go through to learn and grow as a person.
He eventually also came clean to his friends and family about what he did and why his picture was on the news, but because of his now volunteering to become a better person, none of them had any problem with forgiving him.
