I awoke to find myself alone in Elise’s bed. I got up and found a note on her pillow.

‘I left you to recover.

There is food in the kitchen.

I’m in the office.

MWAH!

E.”

A heart was drawn around the words of the note.

I took a quick shower and I pulled on my t-shirt and jeans and walked barefoot to her kitchen. I found some fresh donuts and a pot of coffee on the warmer of her stove. This was enough to get me going. I went for my boots and put them on in the kitchen. I put the note in my back pocket. I left her apartment and went down the stairs to her office.

I found Elise at her desk with a laptop going through last night’s business receipts and logging them on a spreadsheet.

“Give me a couple of minutes, Ger, because if you kiss me I won’t get this done.”

“Not a problem, Elise. Take all the time you need.”

I sat against the wall and watched her concentrate on the paperwork. About ten minutes later she hit save on the spreadsheet and put the paperwork into a folder and then into a filing cabinet.

“OK, done and needing a kiss to stop me seeing numbers.”

She came from behind the desk and molded herself against me and crushed her mouth to mine.

At that moment the door opened and Sean stopped in his tracks.

“Sorry, Elise. I didn’t know you were still doing the dirty with the dude.”

Elise broke the kiss and turned to Sean.

“One, I am not doing the dirty and two, whatever happened to knocking first? What is so important that you want to fuck up the few minutes of peace and quiet I get doing the bloody books?”

Sean looked sheepish and said,” Your favorite person is at the bar. I thought you should know.”

Elise looked up at the CCTV monitors above her desk and frowned.

“I’m sorry, Sean. I apologize for being a bitch.”

“No worries, Elise. Can I watch?”

“What? Oh! Sorry, yes you can.”

Sean grinned, “Ger, you’re gonna love this! Best entertainment of the day is coming up.”

“Sean?”

“Yes?”

“Fuck off now and tell him I’ll be there in five minutes. No coffee. Got that?”

“Yessum.” He closed the door.

“Where were we? I remember.”

Elise wrapped herself around me and kissed me even harder than before. Her body against mine was arousing me and I knew she felt my swelling dick against her. She broke the kiss and said,

“Later. Go into the bar and make like you are working with Sean. I need to deal with this prick once and for all.”

She gave me a brief kiss to send me on my way. I left the office and joined Sean in the middle of the bar.

“Ger, if you don’t mind just hang up the glasses above you. Will not make him suspicious of what is going to hit him.”

I glanced at the rep who must be from Diageo. He was about forty and overweight wearing an off the peg gray suit. He had a briefcase on the bar and it was open.

Elise came out of the office and stopped on her side of the bar opposite him.

“Good morning, Elise. How are you doing?”

“You can stop right there calling me Elise. I am Ms Hayes to you. I was doing fine, in fact I had never felt as good as I did this morning for some reason. That was until I learned you were here despite my express wishes that you do not set foot in my bar. Listen to those last two words again. My Bar!

My dad built this bar up by himself and he kept your kind out of it. He saw too many bars lose their individuality and independence when you corporate shits pushed yourselves through their doors and, to put it very politely, fucked them over.

I do not want your branded crap splattered over my bar. I do not need anyone telling me how many cases and kegs I need to shift. I certainly do not want your in-house design crews fucking my bar up. Do I make myself clear?”

“El….Ms Hayes, we can give you the kind of support that would expand your customer base. You don’t need to be as hostile as we can…..”

Elise cut him off,

“I am going to say this once and once only. Get the fuck out of my bar and stay out of it.”

She turned to Sean and me,

“You two get paid to work so get fucking working instead of spectating.”

She left the bar and went into her office slamming the door.

The Diageo guy looked at us as if somebody has burst his balloon. He closed the briefcase and left the bar, shoulders slumped.

Elise must have been watching the cctv monitors and came out of the office a few moments after he left laughing.

“Too much?”

“Perfect, boss. He left with his tail between his legs. I don’t think he will be back.”

I was astonished at Elise’s interaction with the rep and made a note to not piss her off.

“OK, fun is over. Sean, the books are leveled . When the crew comes in tonight tell them it was just over a thousand in tips so that will make them happy. I am going to the bank with the deposits. ‘Johnny Cash’ here will ride shotgun with me and I’ll be back before six. OK?”

“No worries, Elise. Cindy will be here soon so we can cope no probs.”

“Ger, you can be a gentleman and escort me to the bank.”

“My pleasure.”

Elise ducked into the office and came out a few minutes later wearing a shirt and jeans with a Minnie Mouse backpack on. I looked at her and raised my eyebrows.

“Minnie Mouse?

“Minnie Mouse.”

The trip to the bank was uneventful with Elise holding my hand with both of hers as we walked.

“I want to do something but not a boring something.” Said Elise, “Any ideas?”

I looked at the sky and it was cloudless.

“I might have one. How are you with heights?”

“Heights? I think I’m ok with them. What do you have in mind?”

“You’ll see but we need to go to my place first for the car as it is out past the edge of town.”

“Well let’s go then. What am I letting myself in for?”

“Wait and see. It will definitely not be boring.”

I hailed a cab and on the journey to my house Elise had her head on my shoulder with my arm around hers.

At my house I opened up the garage and we entered from there.

“I need to change,” I said. “Make yourself at home.”

I dashed upstairs and changed quickly swapping my boots for trainers and pulled on a fresh t shirt.. Back downstairs I found Elise looking at a photo.

“Your parents?”

The photo showed a middle aged couple with a younger me between them, sitting on rocks at a beach smiling.

“Yes, that was one of the last times we were all together.”

“I’m sorry, Ger. They look like nice folk, your mom was beautiful.”

I took the photo from Elise and looked at it before I put it back on the shelf.

“She was.” I said quietly. “OK, let’s go before it is too late.”

Back in the garage I put a large kit bag in the trunk of the Mustang.

“What’s that?” She asked.

“Just a little something we need for a not boring something.”

A gentle kiss on her lips and we drove out of the garage.

I headed to the outskirts of town and took a dirt road I knew well. We pulled up at a little airstrip that had a few single engined planes on it and a Cessna 182 parked next to a hanger. Getting out of the car Elise was looking puzzled.

“We’re going flying? I know I said a not boring something but flying?”

“Kind of flying in a way,” I replied, “You’ll see.”

I got the kit bag out of the trunk and slung it over my shoulder. Taking Elise’s hand we headed into the hanger where a few folk were around a table. A guy raised his head and came over to us.

“Long time no see, Ger.”

“Hi Graham, it has been. Meet Elise, she wanted to do something that was not boring.”

“Well she is in the right place for that. Hi, Elise. You are going to love this.”

“Graham, have you got coveralls that would fit her?”

“No problem, she looks to be the same height as Marissa. Five six, five seven?”

“Five seven,” Elise said looking at me. “What’s going on?

“Not much, we are going to throw ourselves out of a perfectly good airplane and hope we reach the ground safely.”

“WHAT? Oh no, when I said not boring I did not mean life threatening. I’m too young to die!”

Graham laughed and said to Elise.