Business Trip Chapters 14-15

Copyright © 2024 by W. Richard St. James

This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental

CHAPTER 14

“WHAT DO YOU want for breakfast?” Jane was waking him up.

“How about you?”

“The kids are up. Besides you need to save something for tonight.”

That bothered him, somehow. Was he being delivered, as part of some bargain? A sex slave, he was a sex slave. “I’m your sex slave.” He said it aloud.

“Absolutely. For the night. Isn’t that what we agreed to?”

“That we did. So what are you going to do with me?”

“You’ll see.” She gave a little giggle. “Mary and I have been talking about this all week.”

Now Brad was actually starting to get worried. A little late in the game.

“So what do you want for breakfast? Last call. After this it’s lunch.”

“I don’t know. I was pigging out all week. Maybe an egg and some toast?”

“Sure. We’re heading over to the lake.”

“This early?”

“It’s so hot. Lifeguards are there already. I’ll pack a lunch and we can hang out there.”

“The lawn?”

“Didn’t grow much. No rain all week.” Or the week before. Everything was getting very dry. Not good when you lived in the middle of the woods. “We might get some overnight.”

There wasn’t any sign of it. Not a cloud in the sky, not a breath of wind. The outside thermometer was reading over ninety and it was about the same inside the house. Someday, they should get air conditioning. “It’s been like this all week,” Jane said. “We’ve been more or less living over at the lake.”

“Maybe we should get air conditioning.”

“When we put on the addition. Maybe you’ll get another bonus?”

“Yeah, maybe. It’s not usually this hot. Is it worth getting AC for one or two weeks a year?”

“That’s easy for you to say. You weren’t even home this week.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re going to make it up to me tonight. You’re going to do anything, no matter how wild.”

He wanted to ask her what could be wilder than what they had done the night before. But he decided against it.

Off to the lake then. Not that Brad was too enthusiastic about it. It was pretty tame compared to the wild lakes or Hippie Hollow. Crowded on the weekend, no way to really swim even if he had the interest in playing hamster. He was only going to mess up his tan. He plotzed around for a while, trying to avoid adult swimmers moving in random directions and children diving in without looking. Then he gave up and went up on the dock, looking for some shade.

“Hi Brad.” That was from the lifeguard. Mary’s daughter, who had been a regular as a guard during high school, but not since she had gone off to college.

“Oh, hi Cindy. Haven’t seen you all summer.”

“No. I’ve been working in the city. But I got a call could I fill in today and I thought why not?”

“Hot day for it.”

“Oh, you cannot believe how brutal it’s been going into the city. I’ve been wearing, like, nothing and it’s still too much.”

“Hi Cindy.”

“Oh, hi Jane. How are you?”

“Better now that I’ve been in the water. You know, I interned one summer when I was in college, and the catcalls I used to get walking over to work …”

“Oh yeah, there is that. Well, am I going to die of the heat?” Cindy gave a shrug. “I can take it. I’m a big girl now.”

“We used to have summer interns,” Brad said. “Not so much anymore. I remember the first summer I was a manager we were getting some interns in, college kids, and we got this management lecture. Don’t touch the interns. Actually, it was a bit more blunt than that.”

He couldn’t believe he was actually saying that to Cindy. The little girl who was diving off the float and getting in his way. The daughter of his friend. What was he doing flirting with her, right in front of his wife? But hadn’t it been Jane who had steered the conversation that direction?

“Oh really. I guess they didn’t get the memo where I’m working.”

“Not where I did either,” Jane said. “Of course that was a different time. I don’t think the memo was out anywhere in those days.” Brad gave his wife a curious look. Neither of them had ever talked much about their college days. Brad had only wanted to put all that mess behind him, to start over and to avoid some of the mistakes. And Jane? What had that beautiful girl been up to all those years? Not much, according to the few terse comments she had ever made. But now he was intrigued.

“There are legends at work about managers who didn’t get the memo,” Brad said. He stopped. The rest of that story really wasn’t appropriate to share with Cindy.

“About the manager caught screwing the intern on his desk?” That was from Mary, who had quietly come over to join them. “I think that’s an urban legend in all companies.”

That provoked snickers from both Cindy and Jane. Had they both actually lived out that legend? Brad was getting really intrigued now. What sort of game had he and Jane been playing with each other, in their very restrained courtship? Both of them doing penance, finding refuge in the other? Well, he knew for sure that was true in his case. They had bottled up their past, sealed it with their wedding vows. And now that seal had been broken. They had already had a taste of their old selves the night before.

“Hi Mary.” Jane gave her friend a little kiss. On the lips.

“Hi Jane, Brad. This is Igor.” The boyfriend. The boy toy was more like it. Closer in age to Cindy than Mary, he was one of the Russian kayaking nuts who hung out at the camp. Muscular, tiny waist, rippling abs. Brad had been expecting the boyfriend to be closer in age to Mary – middle aged, a little pudgy, balding even.

Igor was looking Brad over with a critical eye. A lustful eye. Well, that was flattering. Brad was acutely conscious of the little bit of extra fat on his belly that would never go away, the relic of his chubby childhood. Maybe all the ribs and beer this week hadn’t helped that, even though he’d been getting plenty of exercise of one type or another.

“You like?” Mary asked, smiling as Brad eyed her trophy. “Should be a fun evening.” Mary herself was in better shape than Brad remembered. Jane too, for that matter, although he had been too busy last night concentrating on certain parts of her anatomy to really appreciate that.

“Mary and I have been working out a lot together this week,” Jane said.

“Yes, you both look fantastic.”

“Even better without the bathing suits,” Igor added.