Business Trip Chapters 16-17

Business Trip Chapters 16-17

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 16

“COME IN, COME in.” Mary greeted them, dressed in a cover up. Anything beneath it? Probably not. Igor waved at them from the couch. He already had the baseball game going, beer in hand. He was dressed in a tank top and gym shorts, showing off his arms. Well Brad had big arms too, maybe even bigger shoulders, although his muscles were smoother, built from swimming and skiing. But Brad didn’t own a tank top. He was wearing a tee shirt, his jogging shorts, sandals which he detested and slipped off as soon as they got inside. Jane had on a sundress, nothing beneath it. Just from the walk from the parking lot to the condo they were both sweating. The blast of air conditioning as they entered the condo was enough to make them shiver. Cold, it was too cold for how they were dressed. But the thermostat on the wall over the couch read eighty two. It was only cool by comparison.

“Have a beer?” Igor offered Brad one and a place next to him on the couch. Through the archway, the dining and kitchen area, the table set for five. “Cindy should be here right away.”

Brad sat down on the couch and it was awkward, all that bare Igor flesh next to him. Which was strange, because hadn’t they been sitting together with even less on over at the lake? The couch was not all that big, and they kept sliding together in the middle, bare legs touching. Awkward, it was awkward. What were they supposed to talk about? Baseball? “We’re watching the Mets?”

“Yankees do nothing this year. Mets maybe.”

“Could be.” Oh well, baseball was baseball. Brad realized he had hardly turned on the TV the whole trip. That one night to watch the porn tape. That thought and Igor’s bare leg were enough to start giving him a problem Ann had teased him about. Flimsy little shorts, with nothing underneath.

Cindy came bursting into the room. She looked like she had run over from the parking lot, panting a little, glistening. She was still wearing the red one piece bathing suit and the white lifeguard tee shirt. “Sorry I’m late.”

“Dinner is ready.” Mary came out to glare at her daughter.

“I need to rinse off.”

“Rinse off after dinner. You can sit on a towel.”

That drew a return glare from the daughter and a sigh. “Okay. I need to wash my hands at least.”

They went into the dining room. Ladies on one side, guys on the other, Cindy at the end away from the kitchen. “You guys going to stick with the beer? We have wine for the ladies. What about you Cindy?”

“Beer.” She took a bottle, twisted off the cap, guzzled it. “I am so thirsty. You wouldn’t believe how zoo like it got after you left. I was supposed to get out at four but we were just so busy. And the tempers?” She gave a sigh.

“Must be the heat.”

“Supposed to break tonight.” As if on cue, there was a rumble of thunder. “Hopefully we won’t lose power. If the AC goes, this place turns into an oven. All the pavement around it.”

It actually was not that cool even with the AC running. Cindy shrugged off the tee shirt and put it behind her on the chair. Okay, Brad had seen her running around the lake in a tiny two piece for how many years? So why was it disturbing to have her sitting there in a much more modest one piece bathing suit? Except of course that she had her legs up on the chair, and the suit was barely covering the space between them.

The ladies came out with dinner – steak grilled on the deck, salad, French bread. And more beer. Dinner was very brief, not even ten minutes, with very little conversation. The salad was gone, the steak was gone, the bread was gone.

“That was really good,” Brad said.

“Why don’t you guys go back out in the living room while we clean up?”

“I’m going to rinse off now.” Cindy got up. She had been eating with as much urgency as any of the others. “God, we demolished that. Sorry Mom.”

“Sorry? Why?”

“Oh I don’t know. All that work, we should have like savored it. Maybe.”

“We’ll have dessert later.”

“Okay. I’m going to rinse off now.” Her mother came over and whispered something in her ear, something that made her smile, before she went upstairs.

Later? After she rinsed off? Brad was totally confused now as to how the evening was supposed to progress.