BUSINESS TRIP

PART 6

ANN WENT BACK into the ladies locker and rinsed herself off, wincing as the water hit her. God, she was chewed up. There was no way she was going to get those panties back on, or the bra. Oh well. The skirt was plenty long, the blouse not too low cut. She’d be fine. Except she couldn’t keep her balance in the heels. What was the matter with her? Too many beers already, or was she just too tired, legs barely able to hold her up? She crammed the underwear into her purse and staggered barefoot, clutching the shoes, to the elevator. She’d originally intended to go straight down to the lobby to the happy hour, but no way. She was going to get off at her floor and hope no one was out in the hall to see her. Especially not Brad. Thank God, the hall was empty. She pulled out her key, spilling her panties on the floor in the process. But no one was there to see as she scooped them up and retreated to the safety of her room.

What to wear then? Shorts? Same problem as the panties. The skirt from last night? No, she didn’t need a repeat of the flash-a-thon. What about the little white one then, almost like a tennis skirt? It was a little longer, wasn’t it? Maybe not, but those two were the only ones she’d brought with her. Okay, what about a top? The one from last night was disgusting. Okay she had a tank top, hot pink but anything would go with white. Without a bra? Were her n*****s showing? Maybe if she just tucked it like that. Yeah, that would work. God, it was already ten of. She had to get going before happy hour was over. Not that she needed more booze, but what if she missed Brad completely? She looked at the phone. No, it wasn’t flashing. Brad hadn’t called the room at least. Sandals, again, at least she could walk in those. Although both butt and p***y were complaining with each step. How the hell was she going to come back for another round of that in two days? Lotion, they’d had some lotion at the adult shop, and when she asked what it was for the clerk had given a little smirk. Now she understood.

When she got down to the happy hour at last, five minutes to go, there was no sign of Brad. What the hell? Had he given up on her?

“Here honey. It’s a double. You look like you could use it.” The bartender handed her a glass full of something cold and sweet and she guzzled it down absentmindedly. Okay, what now? Go over to the restaurant and have some dinner? Brad came rushing in. He was still holding the bag with his work clothes in it.

“Sorry. Been waiting long?”

“Not really.”

“Last call. Want a double?”

Brad frowned. “What are we doing? Going to that volleyball place?”

“Not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.” Jumping around with no panties? Or bra, for that matter? If she even could jump? “Maybe just stay here.”

“Okay. I could use that double then.” He grabbed the drink and led her over to the restaurant.

“Hey Brad, good to see you.” The waiter smiled as they entered. “Who’s the lady?”

“This is Ann. Ann has come with me to Atlanta many times, but this is her first time to Austin.”

“Well, honey, what do you think of our little city?”

“I like it. I like it a lot.”

“Brad drag you over to the lake yet?”

“Yesterday. Nothing like that in Atlanta.”

“I would guess not. Okay. You having the usual?”

“Okay. But Ann here would like a menu.”

“Sure thing. How about the Southwest Chicken Salad?”

“That would be good.”

“And beer for you also?”

“Yeah, why not?” She realized dimly that she might have passed the point of no return with that double. She wasn’t aching nearly as much. For the moment.

“So what did you do all afternoon?” Brad had tossed down the drink from happy hour and he was going after the beer.

“Oh, just hung out at the pool, until I came down to the happy hour.”

“That little indoor pool?”

“There’s one up on the roof.”

“There is? Never knew that. How do you get there?”

“You take the elevator up to the penthouse.” That drew a blank look from Brad. “You need to know someone who’s staying there. Which I do, from last night. How about you? You were over at the lake a long time.”

“Not really. We came back here first, remember?” Brad looked defensive. “Well, it did get a little strange. Not that it doesn’t fairly often. You know some nights there are party boats, just beyond the edge of the swimming area? And they come along with me as I’m swimming, asking me if I’d like to come on board for a drink. And who knows what else?”

“With your clothes back on the shore?”

“And car keys? Like what’s to keep them from just sailing away with you on board? But it wasn’t that. When I came back there were two guys on my rock. Which was really odd, because the place was not exactly busy, and my shoes and towel were there. With the car keys in the shoes.”

“Just sitting on the rock.”

“They were lying on it. In spoon position. Know what that is?”

Ann nodded. “f*****g?”

“Well, they were just sort of together. Cuddly. The guy in the back rubbing the other one's shoulders. And yeah, with his c**k up his ass.” Brad frowned at how that didn’t come out quite right. “Ever have a back rub like that?”

“No. What about you?”

“Not on the receiving end. So I got out of the water and they barely gave me a glance. Then one of them sort of lazily asked me if I would care to join them.”

“And you did?”

“No, but I sort of watched them for a while. I wouldn’t have until last night, but I was wondering what it would be like, with a real penis.”

“Yeah, I was in a sorority and we used to do a lot of stuff with dildos. I know what you mean. So you were j*********f watching two guys f**k?” Brad’s blush was enough of an answer. “Naughty boy.”

The food came. Brad was having ribs again. Why was that a surprise? Brad was a creature of habit. Including screwing his wife every night. Why couldn’t she find someone like that, instead of Evan? Who had to be reminded to have dinner, let alone have s*x.

“So what’s Katie up to? I was surprised she was out here again.”

“Still out here,” Ann giggled. “You know Harry?”

“Sure. Really bright guy.”

“Well, Katie and Harry are a number. She’s staying with him now. Saving the company some money.” Ann giggled again. “She’s talking about transferring. What?” That was at Brad’s grimace.

Brad gave a long sigh.

“What? You don’t think they’re going to make it? You’re just milking this so you can take your f*****g trips out to Hippie Hollow?”

“Ann, exactly what is the status of this project?”

“You don’t know?”

“No, I don’t know. Every time I turn around they’re wandering in with some new requirement. Look, the first thing I did for Atlanta was to write them a general design. Which they didn’t have, even though they were supposedly starting to do their code. I wrote up a design and they came back with we need this, that or the other so I figured out how that fit and put it in. But the point is I know the scope of what they need to do. I’ve been inspecting all the code and I know where they are. I know really hands on, not just from looking at some chart of completed tasks. But here it’s not an application I’m that familiar with, I never wrote the design. I have no clue how much they’ve done or how much they have left to do.”

“Oh. Well Harry doesn’t seem worried.”

“At least the Atlanta folks knew enough to know they were in trouble.”

“So you know they’re going to fail?”

“I don’t know if they’re going to make it. Look the way things are going in this company I don’t know if any of us are going to have jobs in a couple years.”

“Even if you pull this off?”

“Even if I pull this off.”

“How can you handle all the stress?”

“I don’t know.” Brad gave a shrug. He took another sip on his Lone Star. Was that how he handled it, drinking too much? Flirting too much? Enjoying the scenery out at the lake?

“Your wife knows how risky this is?”

“Maybe. It’s not like I’ve hidden it from her. What about that last project we worked on? Wasn’t that a disaster from day one?”

“There wasn’t any threat of layoffs then. The company was still full employment. Now who knows? Where is all this coming from?”

“I don’t know.” The waiter showed up with two more bottles and their food. Brad realized he was having ribs again. “I’m riding a hot streak. I’ve had them before, never quite on this scale. I know they don’t last forever.”

“Long enough to get us out of this mess?”

“Hopefully.”

“And what will you do when you can’t come out to Austin any longer?”

“Oh there are lakes at home.”

“Stephie said you go skiing in the nude?”

That was enough to make Brad sputter on his beer. “Cross country. Back in the woods on a nice clear day, not much wind. The snow is like a sun mirror.”

“What if you fall?”

“It’s cold. But you’re putting out so much body heat it doesn’t stay cold once you get back up and get moving. I don’t fall very often, anyway.”

“You really are very strange. Have you always been this way?”

“Mostly since I got married. More respectable and more wild at the same time.”

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

“Not quite that bad. What about you, letting out your secret slut?”

“I’ve worn this outfit in Atlanta.”

“With underwear.”

That was enough to make her blush. Well, they were all by themselves at the back of the restaurant. She hadn’t been taking any precautions about hiding her lack of panties. “Everything is sore.”

“Still?”

“Again.” She let that drop, and for good measure hiked up her skirt for a very unladylike scratch.

“You weren’t just hanging out by the pool?”

“Not exactly. They want me to come back Thursday evening. Well, I figured if the sun was out we’d be going for a swim.” She saw the look of disappointment. “They said it would be an hour, so figure two. We could have dinner after?”

“Sure.” Brad was getting more and more baffled. Who were “they” and what was going to take an hour or so. Okay, figure it out. It had something to do with her afternoon hanging out at the penthouse pool. An afternoon which had left her all chafed and sore. So “they” must have been up at the pool. Now who would she know with access to the penthouse? That guy Sam, from last night. He had the look of someone who stayed at the penthouse level. What, she’d maneuvered herself back to the hotel by herself just so she could hook up with Sam again? “You really are one conniving little bitch.”

“That’s what Katie said.” Ann gave a little giggle.

“So just who is this Sam guy, anyway?”

She didn’t even bother to ask why he was asking that. This was Brad, after all. “Sam Minton.” She was waiting for some shock of recognition, but there was none. “He’s really big in the country music world.”

“Really. Never heard of him. Singer?”

“Not so much these days. He mostly runs his business. Or at least pretends to run it.”

“Which is?”

“Mostly music.” She paused. “They make some movies, too.”

“What kind of movies?”

“Some mainstream. Made for tv, that kind of thing.”

“And?”

No answer.

“Is that why they want you Thursday?”

No answer.

“Look Ann, I know that this is the week of the inner slut. And that’s fine, really it is. I’ve had girl friends who needed to go on a slutfest every once in a while and it never bothered me. But don’t do something you’re going to regret down the road.”

“They’ll give me a wig, fake tattoos, fake piercings. No one will know it’s me. It’s none of your business, anyway.”

“Then why are you telling me about it?”

“Okay, I guess that’s a fair question.” She sighed. “They said you could come along. If you want. To watch.”

“Do you want me to? I suppose that’s a silly question. Unless you’re trying to get me to talk you out of it.”

“So you had girlfriends who were sluts?” Time to change the topic.

“My college girlfriend was very shy when we first met. We went through a long mutual seduction. We were both pretty clueless but we figured it out. At least most of it.”

“It was like that with Evan. So wonderful.”

“Yes. She was my one true love. Except she got restless. So she would let herself get picked up for one night stands and describe to me in detail what had happened. Then she broke up with me completely.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Then my second girlfriend, the student who seduced me, was into f*****g anything that moved. She told me much later that when she was in high school she’d been living with her mother out in California and she’d had this really torrid love affair with a Danish exchange student. She’d leave her bedroom window open and he’d crawl through and spend the night with her. But then he went back to Denmark and she fell apart. Tried to commit suicide. Got herself locked up for a while in an institution. Then she came to New York to live with her father and went to the Dalton school. Spent her time there seducing all her teachers.”

“So you weren’t her first rodeo.”

“Seems not. But she moved in with me.”

“While you were her teacher?”

“Teaching assistant. And there wasn’t such a taboo in those days. Still not something I’m proud of.”

“Here I always thought you were so sweet and innocent.”

“Same goes for you, dear heart.”

The waiter came to claim their dirty dishes. He had brought along coffee and a chocolate fudge brownie sundae for Brad.

“Oh honey, I’m sorry. Force of habit. Would you like to order some dessert?”

“Maybe I’ll just nibble on some of that? If it’s okay?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll get you another spoon then. And some coffee?” The waiter was back with those and the check. “Put it on your rooms?” He had already done that, assigning the dishes they had ordered to their respective rooms with two separate slips to sign.

“Don’t forget to give him a tip.” Brad was scrawling his signature on the bottom of his. Ann did the same. She slid over next to him, her bare leg pressing against his. One hand was dipping her spoon into his ice cream. The other was on his thigh, reaching up under his shorts.

“Don’t you think you’re taking a risk, running around in those flimsy little shorts with nothing underneath?”

“I do it all the time. Next best thing to running naked.”

“Yeah, but what if you got an erection? Wouldn’t that be a problem?” She was poking at the bottom of his balls. “See, it’s poking right out of the shorts now. How are you going to get upstairs like that?”

“I don’t know. How am I going to do that?” Brad was diligently breaking up the brownie and scooping it up in little bites. But his other hand was on her thigh, then touching her in a similar place.

“Don’t do that. Too sore.”

“Through with the ice cream?” The waiter had reappeared. “More coffee?”

“Sure. You can take the bill.”

“Sure thing.” He took away the dish and spoons, came back a few minutes later with a carafe. “Anything else?” A shake of both heads. “Well, you two have a good night.”

As soon as the waiter had gone through the door into the kitchen, Ann’s head was on Brad’s lap, her lips on the tip of his erection, her teeth sliding down it, hitting his balls. And he was coming, just like that.

She sat up, took a swig of coffee to wash it all down, and dabbed at her lips with a napkin. “I guess we’re through here. What next?”

“I’m not driving anywhere at this point.” Brad waved the most recent of the Lone Star bottles.

“Piano?”

“Maybe.”

“Let me know if you are. I’d like to listen.”

“Sure. Need to go upstairs first. Get the music. Call my wife.” Use the bathroom. Put on some underwear.