An Illicit Love

Chapter 2

Leaving work five minutes after all her other female colleagues had left, Catie ‘clocked out’ in the loo. That was a standing joke as Catie couldn’t bring herself to leave work without a quick visit to the loo. What if she had an unexpected traffic stop on the way home, or some other unforeseen delay, and urgently needed the loo? Catie - always careful, always correct. As Catie walked into the kitchen on her way out to her car, Dave, the Financial Manager at the Branch, was entering the kitchen from entry door. Catie had seen him walk out the office a few minutes earlier, and wondered why he was coming back in. As she opened her mouth to ask him if anything was wrong, Dave firmly, and with no hesitation or uncertainty at all, walked right up to her, took firm hold of her upper arms, drew her closer, and kissed her. Thoroughly. What a kiss should be. Absolute shock. Catie had been kissed many times – having only married at the age of thirty. Yes – previous kisses could perhaps compare favorably. But this was so unexpected, this was so different. So sudden. Had she already thought, so totally unexpected? Dave smelled like he always smelled – only up close it was quite potent. Not being a smoker, Dave tasted fresh and clean. He tasted as only a man can. His kiss was heaven. His lips soft yet firm, and they moved with instinctive knowledge of how to kiss, and coaxed a surprised, belated response from Catie. From the pressure Dave exerted as the kiss continued, it became obvious that Dave kissing her was more than just a casual impulse which had crossed Dave’s mind. The kiss held emotion and depth, as he pulled her close to himself as possible.

The kiss became rather drawn out, with neither Dave nor Catie seeming to think of being discovered in this situation, which would set the office alight with gossip. Why? How? Dave had never looked in Catie’s direction longer than necessary. Never spoken other than professionally. Never given a hint that this is what was on his mind. Catie could feel the intensity in the kiss that indicated that this was not something that was being taken lightly. Not from Dave’s side, and although Catie responded instinctively, the thought of this happening had never crossed her mind. Neither of them were this way inclined?

Dave was one of only two men who had managed to avoid becoming a conquest of Wanda. He too did not really enjoy the Friday get togethers, and tried, without appearing rude, to leave the gatherings as early as possible, without offending his colleagues. Dave was different from the rest of the men, and oft times appeared abrupt and unapproachable. Being the person Catie reported to at the branch, she felt she knew him quite well and knew the boundaries of his work ethics - never rude, never over friendly, always professional. Joan, the other female colleague in the admin department, used to muse aloud about him - guessing that he was a dark horse, with a forbidding yet sensual nature, for all his austere demeanor. Joan was divorced and fantasized what it would be like to have a few intimate moments with Dave. Dave being Dave, all the ladies knew this would not happen, as he was married and was not of the same nature of the other men. It was just a bit of girlish romanticizing to while away the time, and Joan was the recipient of a lot of laughs and teasing about her crush on him.

And now Dave had ‘happened’. How did it happen? Don’t know she answered herself. But, even as she touched her lips softly and her face softened while remembering, Catie told herself sternly that it was definitely not going to go any further. Most definitely not she repeated in her mind. When Dave had drawn away, slowly and lingeringly, his eyes locked with hers as they both slowly opened their eyes and emerged from the embrace, nothing had been said. He had just leaned forward, pressed his lips softly against hers, smiled and taken her elbow to walk to the door with her. Not that she had been capable of saying anything. The kiss had jumbled her thoughts and scrambled her brain and she could just manage to walk to her car, without falling over her own feet, by great dint of will. As Catie had left the parking lot, she was aware of Dave standing next to his car, watching her leave.

Now, sitting next to the road, she re-lived the look on Dave’s face. It was not triumphant – rather as bemused as she herself felt. As she started the car to proceed home, Catie resolved to dissect the whole thing over the weekend, put everything in it’s proper place, and so stop anything before she got carried away by something that was obviously an impulse, and not meant to develop any further. She told herself this as she cautiously pulled onto the tarmac, and started home once again.

To her waiting husband. And son.