87 comments/ 81837 views/ 37 favorites Turn Back Time By: StangStar06 Hi folks, thanks to everyone who read and commented on last week's story, especially those of you who took the time to email me. Without your interest I'd probably be doing other things. I'd also like to thank the writers here for inspiring me with their own great stories, especially the ones who bother to read mine. Most of all thanks to mikothebaby for editing this story. The difference between a good story and a piece of crap is often the editor. Here we go. SS06 * * * * * * The rules were there to protect us as well as the customers. They were very simple and so easy that even most of the illegals could understand them. Even the workers who barely spoke English could understand the rules. The first rule was to always leave or prop the door open when cleaning a room. The second rule was to always leave the cart of cleaning supplies outside of the room, even if it might cost you a few extra steps and a little bit of time. So when I saw Bertie leave her cart outside of one room and head into another with a customer, I knew that she was heading for trouble of one kind or another. She flashed me a wink and took the guy's hand. She added quite a bit more sashay to her walk, swinging her slim almost boyish hips with an added flair. As I returned to my own cart, I wondered if the extra shake in her ass was for his benefit or if she was just sticking it in my face. Maybe it was just her way of saying, "Look Grandma, they don't pay us much here. So I'm gonna grab all the extras I can." Bertie was only about twenty years old. She'd started working in the hotel about a year ago. She's a slim blond pixie type with barely any butt or boobs. She had a boyfriend named Ernie who worshipped the ground she walked on. She also had expensive tastes and a head full of dreams that will never be realized. Bertie had barely escaped high school. She graduated number 203 in a class of 204. She avoided being last only because of attendance. Another student in the class had the exact same pitiful GPA as Bertie, but she was saved from the bottom because she'd actually attended class far more regularly than he did. In a way, her performance was even more pitiful when you consider that she got the same grades that he did when he only showed up at school once in a blue moon and she was there every fucking day. Shit, they should have given her points for just attending. In Bertie's mind, her two best chances of becoming rich or at least getting the things she wanted were A, the lottery and B, fucking the hotel guests for extra money. True, the fucking did cut down on the number of rooms she actually cleaned, but she broke even most days and it was easier to Bertie to make the money on her back. Besides, she couldn't really count on the lottery because she kept forgetting to actually buy the tickets. She did, however, sit there in front of the TV every night when they announced the winner. She was really saddened each time when she didn't win. "Tomorrow I'm going to buy a ticket," she said every time. I guess I should have expected it. Bertie was, after all, a very stupid girl. That kind of stuff would only lead to Bertie someday being a very old, very lonely woman. I should know. I shook my head and pulled my cart in front of the room I was about to clean myself. I got lucky this time. The guest in the room I was cleaning was very neat. Holy shit, he even made his bed. I went into the bathroom and wiped down all of the surfaces with an antibacterial disinfectant and shook my head again. I could tell he'd been here recently and had showered. But everything, even in the bathroom, was so neat it was incredible. It was almost like he was used to keeping everything neat and clean himself. This was just easy money. I paused before leaving because something about the room felt very familiar though I didn't know what it was. Maybe it was a whiff of cologne, maybe it was just a feeling. I shook my head to clear it and got my mind back on work. As I headed back for my cart, I could hear Bertie and her guest going at it. Bertie was just stupid. Anyone walking down the hall could hear her moaning and grunting while the guy did her. I was the supervisor for the cleaning staff so she didn't have to worry much about me, but the hotel manager or anyone else could have walked down that hallway. Then it began to filter through my mind. I guess I'd been so locked into what I was thinking about that it hadn't registered at first. Bertie's moans and grunts had evolved into louder shouts. It took the words, "No, please don't," to launch me into action. Bertie was a fucking idiot alright, but she was my fucking idiot. No one would hurt any of my staff if I could help it regardless of what they were doing. I used my passkey and entered the room in time to see the guest trying to force his dick into Bertie's asshole. She tried to push him away. "I already told you, I don't do that," she said. He reared back and punched her in the face hard. Bertie slid down the wall into a puddle and started crying. "Get away from her," I yelled loudly at the man. He turned to face me. "You already got what you wanted from her anyway," I said. "She said I could have anything I wanted," he said. His voice was so emotionless that it scared me. He threw a few bills at Bertie and turned to me. "Now if I'd seen you first, that little tramp wouldn't even be here now," he said smiling at me. "You're more my type. You're older, so you have more experience. You're probably used to a few more uhm...unusual tastes and can appreciate the differences." As he walked towards me, I started backing out into the hallway. I hoped that being back in full view of anyone passing would make him more inhibited. "You're also built better than her," he continued. "You're much more to my liking. Sure you're a little old, but those big titties and that big ass are much better than fucking a bag of bones." "I don't do that," I said, backing away even faster. "You will for me," he said. "Remember part of your job is making sure the guests are satisfied. And I want you to make me real satisfied." "I already told you, I don't do that," I said. "I just clean rooms and nothing else." "I pay you double what you get," he said. "Shit make it triple, but I'll be expecting for you to do whatever I want for as long as I want it." "I said no," I said, even louder. I had backed up all the way out into the hallway and against the wall. "Well, fuck you then you uppity bitch," he said. His face morphed into a mask of hatred and his fist rose again. It was cocked back and ready to strike. I guess I blinked or I flinched, expecting to be hit by a blow that never came. He was grabbed from behind by someone who pulled him off balance and threw him on the floor with that same arm that he was about to hit me with. "She said, No," said the man who'd rescued me. He was standing over the asshole as if he was waiting for either a chance or a reason to continue their altercation. I looked up and saw my rescuer and everything froze. My head exploded with recognition. I ducked my head down hoping that he wouldn't see me. I was saved by Bertie running out of the room. She grabbed my arm and dragged me away from there as our hero still stood over the man. "I'm reporting you to security," said Bertie. Her face was already swelling. "No you won't," laughed the man. "Because then you'd have to tell them why you were in my room in the first place. The way I see it, they'd throw me out of this shit hole and in less than an hour I'll be in a better hotel with prettier whores...I mean maids. But you'll be out of a job. So you won't say shit and we both know it. Neither will your curvier friend. Even though she claims not to be a whore, she's already tried to rescue you once. She doesn't want to see you get fired either." He started laughing. It was a very sick sounding laugh. It was the kind of laugh that only a man who doesn't care about anyone else can give. That kind of man saw most people as being beneath him and only existing for his benefit. It was as if in his own mind he was some twisted version of the chosen one. In his sick little fantasy world we all existed only for his pleasure. The situation was extremely ironic because I'd been in it before. In fact it's the reason I'm here now doing what I'm doing. The bastard laughed at us but only for a very brief second, because after the first ha ha, my would-be rescuer kicked him in the side so hard I was sure I heard a rib snap. The bastard got really God damned quiet after that. "Thanks mister," said Bertie over her shoulder, as she dragged us out of there and onto an elevator. We could come back for our carts later. I was done cleaning the room I was doing anyway. "What am I going to do Blanche?" asked Bertie, in tears. "What am I going to tell Ernie?" "What are you going to tell Ernie about what?" I asked. "What are you going to tell Ernie about the bruises on your face? Or did you mean what are you going to tell Ernie about the bruised and tearing on your vagina? Or maybe you meant, what are you going to tell Ernie about the bite marks on your neck and those little pimples you call breasts?" I know that I was being hard on her but I was pissed. She'd almost gotten herself ass-raped and maybe hurt a lot worse and she'd almost gotten me hurt as well. I knew that someday this was going to catch up to her and God damn it today was it. Then all of a sudden, in a moment of clarity, I thought about the victim in all of this bullshit. Maybe it was my rescuer who made me think about it. I did the nastiest thing I've ever done...well, the second nastiest anyway. I looked deeply into Bertie's stupid trusting cow-like eyes and lied to her. "Don't worry Bertie," I said, hiding my anger. "I'm going to make this all better." "How?" she asked, stifling her tears and sniffles. "I really love him, Blanche. I just got caught up in all of this." "I know honey," I said, lying again. In the back of my mind I was screaming at her. "No one gets caught up you stupid bitch. We always have a choice and you made the wrong one." "I'm going to fix everything," I lied. "M'kay," she said. She tried to wipe her face and it stung her. "Remember, last year when you smashed your hand in that drawer and had to take a week off until you could move your fingers again?" I asked. She nodded stupidly. "We'll do the same thing," I lied. "We just need to figure out a different way that you hurt your face. And of course you're going to have to avoid having sex with Erne until the bite marks and the swelling go down. But shit that man loves you so much, he's just stupid about you. He'll probably spend the next few days waiting on you hand and foot like he did last time." "Like I deserve," she smiled. More than anything else, I think it was that smile on her stupid cow's face that made me change my mind. She went from "hurt little girl in love" to "conniving bitch" in a heartbeat. I knew what I had to do. I smiled at Bertie and led her down the hallway when we got off of the elevator. We went straight to the staff area of the hotel. I had a small office there and I sat her down. I grabbed my phone off the desk and handed it to her. "Bert," I said. "Call Ernie." She dialed his number and handed me the phone. I smiled at her as I heard the ringing in the background. I knew that this would be hard on Ernie. He was a good guy. He worked long hours and still went to night school so he could make more money for the two of them. On the days that he didn't have classes, he pulled double shifts and still found time to study. I'd helped him out a few times in classes that were hard for him. He was always so appreciative and so polite. He didn't deserve any of this, just as Den hadn't. Eight years ago came back so sharply in focus. As if I hadn't spent the last eight fucking years reliving it and just wishing I could turn back time. About a half hour later, Ernie came running into my office. A few of the other maids and cleaning staff were outside of the office so I closed the door as he came in. I'd briefly left Bertie alone while I spoke to the manager. Some of the girls had already heard whispers of what had happened. There were no secrets in the hotel. Ernie looked out of breath and very upset. I could tell that, as usual, he was only concerned with Bertie's welfare. "Bert, are you okay, honey?" he asked. Bertie bravely nodded her head. I couldn't tell whether or not the tears in the corners of her eyes were faked or not. But Ernie was eating her performance up with a fucking spoon. He turned to me, hoping I'd be able to tell him what happened and make sense of all this. "Ernie, she's going to be fine," I said. "You know Bert. She always lands on her back." Ernie looked at me and smiled. "You mean on her feet," he said. "Nope," I said, smiling back at him. "She always lands on her back with her legs spread wide open. Ernie, there wasn't any accident. Bertie was fucking one of the guests for money. She's been doing it for a long time. You're out there working double shifts and trying to go to school while Bert fucks guys for a few extra bucks so she can buy a better cell phone or some green shoes she saw in a magazine." Bertie's jaw dropped open in shock and I smiled at her. "Anyway Ernie," I continued. "The guy she picked today, turned out to be a real bastard. After she gave him some of her nasty little pussy, you should have heard her moaning, I could hear her all the way down the hall. But back to the point, he tried to fuck her ass then and she didn't want to do that. Maybe she wanted to charge him more for it. I heard her screaming and went into the room just into time to see him bust her in the face." "She's joking," yelled Bertie, trying to smile and look at me at the same time. Bertie was sitting there nervously twitching. "Is this a joke?" I said, whipping Bertie's skirt up Ernie's eyes got bigger and the set of his mouth got angrier. "If everything is so clear and on the up and up, why isn't she wearing any panties?" I asked. "I wonder what kind of a mayonnaise that is dripping onto her thigh?" Ernie crossed the room and yanked open her uniform's top. He saw the angry looking bite marks around those tiny breasts that he'd considered his own. He stood there staring at her for a long time, still holding the top of her uniform. Gradually the anger faded from his eyes and morphed into pain. With a sound like a wail of agony from the deepest bowels of the darkest corner of hell, he asked, "Why?" Bertie looked back at him and then down on the floor. Cows have extremely tough hides and tough skulls too. What I had done was the equivalent of hitting her in the head with a baseball bat. It finally got through to her and she felt some of both her own pain and his. She couldn't even look him in the eye. She was actually ashamed of herself. "Oh God," she said. She clutched her stomach and threw up all over the floor in MY office. That's why I can't have nice things, I thought. They stared at each other for a long time with neither saying a word. Then Ernie started to form questions in his mind. "Why is there sperm dripping onto your leg?" he asked. "You always told me that we had to use condoms until we were married." He just stared at her. "But..." she said. "So I'm the only one who has to use condoms huh?" he asked. Ernie was backing up even as he spoke. "Check the laundry room when you get home," he said. She looked at him curiously. "It's not the day we do laundry," she said. God damn it I have to give the girl credit. She's a cow to the end. "I'm putting all of your clothes and the rest of your stuff in the laundry room," he said. "That way you don't have to bother coming up to the apartment to get it. If I left it in front of the building or in the hallway someone would probably steal it. I'd pick it up soon if I were you." Then Ernie turned and left. He'd pulled it together pretty quickly. He'd done it so fast that I almost hadn't seen the tears forming in his eyes...almost. Ernie slammed the door so hard on his way out that my ancient frosted glass pane cracked. That's why I can't have nice things, I thought again. Bertie just sat there, stupidly staring at me. It was as if she expected me to bend over and pull a do over out of my ass. "Why?" she asked. "Blanche, why did you do that?" She looked at me with those big cow eyes and reminded me of what I'd said. "You said you were going to make it all better," she cried. Her emotions had finally begun to spill over through her shock. She finally realized that she was losing a good man who had loved her dearly. She was looking for someone to blame and it looked like it was going to be me. I smiled remembering it, she was in stage one. "I did make it all better," I smirked. "I made it better for Ernie. He's a really good guy, Bert. He works hard and eventually he's going to make something of himself. It will probably take a little bit of time, but I think he's going to be successful. But he doesn't need to be tied down to a low class, bottom drawer, two dollar whore slash maid, who's too stupid to make her johns use condoms. In the short term he's going to be hurt. But long term he'll do better." I smiled, I was really proud of myself. "But what about me?" she bawled. "Don't worry," I said. "I took care of you too." She turned those cow eyes back at me again. I swear she looked at me like she was expecting some kind of magic pill that would make this all better. God damn I hate cows. "How?" she asked. "You're fired," I said, as if that explained everything. "Huh?" she said, straining the limits of her bovine vocabulary. "We pay you to clean rooms," I said. "We don't pay you to operate an unlicensed one woman brothel on the side. By firing you, I'm setting you free to go out there and fuck your way to riches. You no longer have to worry about dragging the cleaning cart around with you. And better still, you don't have to worry about Ernie finding out anymore. At this rate you'll be rich in only a few weeks." I have to give her credit. She did appear to actually think about it before she said, "Huh?" I took her hand and walked her over to the door. "You can come by and pick up your check tomorrow morning," I told her. She just walked out the door not knowing where she was going or even why. I was sure that when she first woke up this morning she never expected to be homeless, dumped and unemployed. I was even more sure that she never expected to have a big purple bruise on her face and have to do the walk of shame down the hall and out of the hotel with all of her former coworkers laughing at her. I was just about to settle down to think about what I'd never expected to face, when there was a knocking on my door. Before I could even answer, Dulce Martinez, one of the best cleaners on my staff and the closest thing I had to a best friend stormed in and closed the door behind her. "Ho Boy, How are you doing? What are you going to do? Are you okay what do you want me to do? How did you take it?" she asked, all in one breath. "I already fired her," I said. "Not her stupid," she said. "I'm worried about you. You do know that I've figured it out don't you?" "You figured out what?" I asked. "I thought everyone knew she was fucking the guests." "Not her stupid, you," she said again. "I'm not fucking the guests," I said. "If I were, I'd know it. Shit , you'd know it since you seem to be more concerned with what goes into my pussy, or doesn't than I am." Something told me that I wasn't going to be able to bluff my way out of this one. I looked into her eyes and saw only concern and intelligence there. I sighed. "For the past two days all of the girls have been talking about Mr. Dreamy in room 206," she said. He drives that black Mustang that's always parked very close to the window of his room. Claudine went into his room the other day unannounced to try to catch a look at him naked." Turn Back Time "She yelled room service and just stepped into the room. He still had all of his clothes on and he was sitting at the window sill staring out at the car. She hinted around that if he was interested in ANYTHING she might be available." Dulce stopped talking and smiled a little smile to let me know that she'd noticed my interest. "Not that it matters to you but he told her, "Thanks," but he wasn't interested. He also told her that it had been about eight years since he'd even thought about doing that. Claudine still wants to marry him. I think she thinks that he needs Viagra or something. But when she told me it set off my alarm bells ringing." "Everything sets off your alarm bells ringing," I said. "I have to admit," she said. "When I first saw him, I thought he might be perfect for you. He's about your age. He's good looking. He's polite and he keeps a very neat room. Then I found out the rest so it's your turn to tell me about it." "Tell you about what?" I asked. "Blanche," she said. "You have the same last name that he has. You come from the same town he lives in. And all of the girls told me that you nearly passed out when you looked up and saw him when he saved you from nearly being smacked by that puta's customer." "He's your ex-husband and you still love him don't you?" she asked. "He's the reason why for the past eight years your pussy has been sewed up so tightly that nothing put soap, water and tampons can get into it." As she looked at me, I did what I swore I'd never do again. I swore I was done crying about the things I'd lost. I swore my holiest oath that I would put the past behind me and never cry about Denton Dewitt again. And as the tears rolled unimpeded down my cheeks, I broke that promise yet again. Instantly Dulce was on me, cradling me in her tiny arms and rubbing my back. She didn't say a word. She knew just what to do. She just held my hand and touched me until I got myself back together. Dulce is the epitome of a best friend. She's the kind of person who can just sit there with you for an hour and neither of you ever says a word but you leave the experience thinking that it was the best conversation you've ever had. "Come on, honey," she said. "You can tell me about it at lunch. I'm buying." That was a shock. This was obviously important to her. Dulce and her husband Robert had four kids. They both worked but they still squeezed every penny so hard that Lincoln shit. As we left via the back door, we had to walk past it. It felt creepy, kind of like when you have to go to class with your boyfriend's new love. You can't help but look her over and try to figure out what she has that makes him love her so much when he doesn't love you anymore. Dulce caught me looking at it and gave me that look. "What?" I asked. "It's not him," she said. "It's just his frigging car. It's not like it's a baby and he got custody of it." Seeing my reaction it was her turn to ask. "What?" she asked. "Den loves Mustangs," I told her. "He didn't have this one when we parted, so it's kind of like checking out his new love." "Two things," she said quickly. "Number one, it's a tiny ass car with a great big motor that makes a lot of noise. The gas mileage is shitty. These cars are designed for two purposes. The first is to go fast and show off for other guys. The second one is to get pussy. You apparently don't want other guys since no one has been in your saddle since this guy dumped you. And I don't think you're interested in pussy since you have one of your own that I might add is going unused. The second thing is that he's probably sitting his ass on the window sill staring at the car right now." I remembered what she'd said about Claudine so I started to walk away. "Wait," she said, all of a sudden. "Does he really love this car?" "He really loves all Mustangs and everything to do with them," I said. Without warning she pushed me and I lost balance and ended up leaning against the car. She grabbed me around my waist and began moving me back and forth. "Come on," she said. "Shake it girl." Then she turned me around and had me do the same thing. "What the fuck was that all about?" I asked. "Exactly," she smirked. "Just in case." I was totally puzzled. "Dogs do it," she said. "And just in case there's some kind of mystical connection between him and that car. At any rate by rubbing your ass and your hoo hah all over his car you're marking your territory. And if he really loves this car...and your pussy is all over it..." her voice dropped off. "I still don't get it," I said. "Transference," she said. "It's like they learn in psychology 101. If you're really pissed about something and someone reminds you of whatever you're pissed about, you tend to transfer the anger to that person even when they haven't done shit to you. If he really loves this car and your pussy is all over it, maybe..." We both burst out laughing as we headed to her car. Dulce's car was a nightmare. I was very sure it wasn't street legal. The car had no airbags, the brakes squealed like the hinges on the gates to hell and the backseat wasn't bolted in. Just to keep the cops from stopping us the car had seat belts but they just wrapped around the seat giving the illusion that you were buckled in. Only one headlight was functional. The brake lights were on all of the time even when the brakes weren't on and its top speed was a jaw dropping 41 miles per hour. Of course, it took a minute and a half to get up to that speed and the car shook like a dog after a bath once you got past 35. We'd actually tried to go on the freeway in it once. With the screaming and groaning of the car's frame and all of the shaking, I expected Scotty from Star Trek to jump out of the back seat and start screaming, "She can't take any more sir. The warp drives are about to implode and the dilithium crystals will be damaged. Then we'll really be fucked." Luckily, the Pizza Hut that Dulce loved was only three blocks away and the speed limit was thirty all the way there. I still kept an eye on the speedometer because Dulce had a lead foot and it would be like her to try and push her luck going for thirty five just so she could say she'd done it. "Okay," she said, after we were seated and before they brought us our pizza. "Spill it. Unleash this sad tale of lost love." She didn't realize it but that was what it really was. "How did he fuck up and what will it take to make you take him back? You also need to be mindful of the fact that your life's work is cleaning up other people's shit for barely over minimum wage, while the man of your dreams is driving a customized forty thousand dollar car. So think about forgiveness." I nodded. "There's also the fact that you'll be forty next year and your biological clock is ticking so God damned loudly that I can hear it," she said. I nodded again. "A couple of times last week you looked so horny, I started to mount you myself. And the girls are complaining about you in the locker room." "Why are they complaining about me?" I asked. "Well, I didn't want to say anything," she began "Remember how steamy it used to be in the locker room?" I nodded my head. We'd considered buying a dehumidifier for the ladies locker room to prevent mildew and mold. "They say that your pussy is so dry it just sucks all of the moisture out of the air down there, so it's fine now," she smirked. "So no one complains about the locker room anymore." "Can I just tell the story?" I asked. She smiled and nodded. "Before I came here, I was married," I began. "I was a legal secretary. I'd been the secretary for a lawyer in a big law firm and when he retired his son took over his position. His son was only a few years older than I was so I thought it was a great thing. My husband, Denton, worked as a staff engineer for one of the plants near our neighborhood. Back then, young engineers didn't make very much money for their first few years out of college so we actually made similar salaries." "I loved Denton like there was no tomorrow and I was sure that he felt the same way about me. To him, the sun shone out of my ass. Hm...maybe that was why he was always licking around down there. And these," I said lifting my breasts. "These were the things he most loved to suck on first thing in the morning. I tried to get him to try coffee; although I was glad he liked them better." "Anyway things were going great, we had the whole plan. We'd both work for a few years until Denton started to make some serious money. We figured that by the time I was thirty two, I'd be able to quit working and start making babies. We both wanted a house full of kids. " "Things got kind of interesting at work. My new boss, Mr. Bryant junior, was nothing like his father. The father was very polite and very stuffy. He was as sweet as the day is long. The younger version was less formal. When he won a case it was like we all won something. Before I knew it we'd started going out for drinks to celebrate when we won cases. Then we were just going out for drinks sometimes period and before I knew it, one of those times I'd gotten a little bit too drunk and ended up in bed with him." "Denton was always at the plant late anyway and Mr. Bryant got into my head telling me that Denton would never find out and I needed a little bit of relaxation occasionally. He also started giving me bonuses whenever we slept together. It continued for a few months until I got a pregnancy scare. I was so afraid that I was going to lose my husband that I didn't know what to do. It turned out that I had a cyst in my reproductive tract and it required surgery." "Denton was there with me the whole time and I felt so guilty. Somehow though he found out how I'd discovered the problem with the whole pregnancy scare thing and it just all came out. We had words. I guess he wanted me to..."I had to stop for a while because I was crying by then. "Denton walked out of the hospital and I didn't see him again until I went home a few days later. I'd stayed in the hospital a few days longer than necessary to give him time to cool off. Mr. Bryant had told me how to handle him. He told me to go in from a position of strength. He told me that Denton loved me. He told me that Denton needed me as much or more than I needed him." "He told me that if I showed any sign of weakness, I'd lose Denton. I was a fool. Denton wasn't trying to fight with me. And he did love me. After it was all over I spoke to several of our friends. They were convinced that all Denton had ever wanted was to talk to me and maybe an apology and for me to promise that I'd quit working for Bryant." "Maybe it was what Mr. Bryant had said or maybe it was just my guilt but I did the dumbest thing I'd ever done in my life. I argued with Denton. I said some awful things to him. I accused him of spending his time at the plant with another woman. I told him that I'd sought out someone else because he wasn't getting the job done lately. Before I was even done talking he walked out the door. As he was leaving I swore to him that I didn't care if he left or not. But I lost everything then and there." "I sank down on the floor of our living room and started crying my eyes out. When I went to work the next day my Bryant told me I looked like shit and I should take the day off. I told him that I'd done what he asked and it hadn't worked. He told me that I was better off not married any way. Women like me should be free to play the field. He tried to fuck me right there on his desk. I couldn't believe it, my heart was broken and he was basically calling me a whore and trying to fuck me." "I told him that I'd take his advice and go home. He got angry at me and told me that despite my marital problems I needed to be ready to work the next day. He made it seem like my job was at risk. I was beginning to see what a fool I'd been by then. I tried talking to some of my friends and all of them agreed that I'd been a fool. One of my co-workers even told me that I wasn't the first married woman that Bryant had an affair with and I probably wouldn't be the last." "Then I started doing that thing that women do that men hate us so much for. I started to scheme. We always assume that we're much smarter than men when in reality women are just more devious. A man will come at you straight up when there's an issue between you. Women always tend to come at problems sideways or sneak up and lower the boom." "I went to the doctor and told him I was having pain in the region around where I'd had the surgery. He put me back in the hospital for a battery of tests. Since I was still on Denton's health care insurance, I was sure that they'd notify him and he'd come to visit me. I had to do something because he was refusing to take my calls both at work and on his cell phone." "Well my plan worked or at least I thought it had. The very first day that I was in the hospital, I got a phone call. Not from Den himself, but from his secretary. She told me that he was out of town on business but that he'd found out about me being in the hospital. He was rushing straight home and would be in to see me tomorrow. I was sure that he still loved me. He'd dropped his business trip to come and see me. If that wasn't love I didn't know what it was." "Denton showed up bright and early the next morning with a bouquet of flowers and a big smile. He rushed over to the side of my bed and as we saw each other we couldn't help smiling. I was smiling because my plan had worked. I thought he was smiling because he was glad that I was okay and he was ready to take me back. He told me that there was someone else there to see me so he'd go wash his hands while I spoke to her." As he walked out of the room I didn't even notice that he'd put his coat back on at first. All I was wondering was who the woman was. She came into the room and looked around to see if anyone else was there. She was young. She looked like a college student. She had that fucking attitude that all of the college girls have today. You know kind of like, "I'm so pretty my shit doesn't stink." She looked bored to me. She came over to the bed and she was chewing gum. She cracked it a couple of times before she spoke. "Are you Blanche Dewitt?" she asked. I nodded my head. She handed me a stack of papers, cracked her gum one more time and said, "Get well soon. You've been served. Have a nice day." "I work in a fucking legal office so I knew what had just happened. I couldn't believe that Denton had been that fucking devious. He had played me like a cheap fiddle. I looked over the papers and saw that he was still playing nice though. He was asking for an uncontested divorce instead of treating me the way I deserved. He was offering a fifty/fifty split which was more than fair. Especially since on paper I'd made more than he had the previous year. Our base salaries were approximately the same but with my bonuses from sleeping with my boss I was ahead." "I called the lawyer that he'd hired. I asked him if there was any way to avoid the divorce. I was willing to go to counseling or anything else. I just wanted to save my marriage at any cost. The lawyer laughed at me. He explained to me that Denton had hired him weeks prior to this and he'd been there when all Denton wanted from me was an apology. I'd lied and schemed and tried to bullshit my way through the whole process and it was obvious to him that I cared more about fucking my boss than I did my marriage." "He told me that Denton would have to be a fool to take me back and he hung up on me. My phone rang again almost immediately. There was a hysterical crying man on the line. At first I smirked, because I thought it was Denton. It wasn't; Denton had not only trumped my plan, he had raised the stakes significantly. The crying man on the phone was Bryant. Denton had named him in our divorce case. He'd been served papers at the same time I had this morning while he was having breakfast with his wife." "Bryant's wife had gone ape shit. She'd thrown him out of their house and was divorcing him as well. She'd also temporarily cut off any contact between him and their children. But that wasn't all. Denton had written a letter about the circumstances of our divorce and sent copies of it not only to Bryant's father but to all of the senior partners of our law firm. He was suing the firm as well since our affair as he called it had taken place during and in connection with the firm's business." "The lawyer Denton had hired was looking into releasing the details of the story to the press. They'd also sent a copy of the letter to the local bar association. They'd already started an investigation and Bryant might lose his license. There was also a chance that the firm might be investigated. Denton had really stirred up a shit storm. When Bryant stopped crying he got angry at me. He told me that it was all my fault. There was no way he should lose his wife, his family, his marriage, his license, his position with the firm, his career and his father's and children's respect just because he fucked some common whore who was begging for it." "I laughed my ass off until he hung up the phone still crying. I started crying myself because I realized then that Denton had gone nuclear. He'd still been very gentle with me but with everyone else concerned he'd gone for broke. Too late, I never realized that Bryant thought of me as just something to be used for his pleasure and thrown away when he was tired of me. I was just another perk of the job to him, no better than a slave. And I'd thrown away the one man who had always treasured me beyond everything else just so that asshole could use me." "I started crying all over again. The phone rang in the middle of my tears. It was the firm of course. They got one of the senior partners to explain to me that they were settling out of court quickly with Denton to avoid any bad publicity that would embarrass the firm or their clients. Since Bryant hadn't coerced me or threatened me in any way to get me to sleep with him, they considered me just as liable as he was. So basically I was fired. There was no need for me to rush back to work to pack my personal items, they taken the liberty of having someone pack up my desk and transport my things to my house where they'd been left on the front porch. My final paycheck and the balance of my vacation and sick pay had already been direct deposited into my account." "The next call was the one I dreaded the most; my parents calling to ask me if it was true. Denton had gone by to tell them how sorry he was that he wouldn't be seeing much of them anymore. He hadn't told them why, he'd left that up to me. I didn't even tell them the truth. My dad supported me through the entire thing. I'll never forget the look of pain in his eyes when we went to court for the actual divorce proceedings. Denton didn't show up since it wasn't necessary. I'd gone hoping he'd be there and that we could talk and cancel the divorce. My dad went to support me emotionally. He flipped out and called Denton all kinds of cowards and bastards for abandoning me and giving up on our marriage without even the benefit of talking to me about it. That was when the lawyers explained to him how I'd been the one who cheated on Denton and he wasn't there because he was still so hurt by it that he rarely ever left his house." "My dad turned to me with a smile on his face because until he looked in my eyes, he'd been sure that they were making it all up. When he did look at me, it was as if a large part of his world and sanity just collapsed. He never said a word to me for the rest of the proceedings or the drive home. He didn't call me or come by for weeks afterwards either. In fact, the next time I saw him was at Thanksgiving. My mom had called to invite me over a few days earlier. I really think they only invited me because it would have been awkward not to. I could tell because they were always cheerful when speaking to my sister and brother, but there were long awkward silences when I spoke or anyone spoke to me." Turn Back Time "I never got another chance to speak to Denton. Since there were no alimony payments either way, I had no contact with him. I did find out that a few weeks after our divorce was final, Denton had thrown himself even further into his work and gotten a big promotion and a huge raise. Meanwhile, I was out of work. Apparently bad news travels at the speed of light while good news travels like a snail. It had taken years of Den busting his ass for his bosses to realize how good he was and promote him. But within only days of me being fired, no law firm in town would hire me. Most of them weren't coy about it either. They did subtle things like throw my application and resume in the trash can while I was still sitting there. Or they'd ask if the next candidate was someone they might actually hire while still interviewing me. One guy actually asked if he could try me out sexually as part of the interview because his needs were probably similar to my old bosses and he wanted to see if we were a good fit." "After a few months of that, I packed all of my stuff and moved here. Denton sent my parents a check to give to me when the house sold. What pisses me off to this date is the fact that they still invite him to Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinner every year. They find out whether or not he can make it and then invite me if he can't. When my brother died in a car crash a few years ago, they tried to hook Denton up with my God damned sister. Fuck them." "Once I moved here, I tried to get a job in my old field, but every time they looked into my employment history, well let's just say that opportunity wasn't beating a path to my doorway. After almost a year, I'd blown through most of my savings and I knew I had to get a job doing something. Anything was better than running out of money and having to go crawling back to my parents." "Maybe it wasn't them, I started to realize. Maybe if I'd been honest with them from the start things would have ended better. But more than anything else I wish I never met Bryant. I started out here in the hotel about seven years ago. I guess you know the rest." Dulce just looked at me. "Why the fuck didn't you just move on and get over the guy?" she asked. I could tell by her tone that she now understood just how hopeless this all was. "Shit," she said. "Honey you hurt him bad. Men have this pride that just doesn't let them get over shit like that. And the more they love you, the worse it is. It's almost like your pussy becomes theirs. So when you're thinking of it as just you having sex with some guy other than them, they see it as a violation of not only your body but their own and they see it as you breaking your marriage vows. Of course, when they do it they're just getting some strange and it doesn't mean anything." "Some guys are different though," she said. "Unfortunately, it sounds like you had one of the good ones." "Why is that bad?" I asked. "Because Honey, he probably never would have cheated on you, ever. He loved you too much. So when you did it to him, he just couldn't understand it. You doing what you did, under any circumstances simply told him that you didn't love him the way he did you and you never had. That's a rough blow for any guy's ego to absorb." "So it's hopeless huh?" I asked. "Yep, sorry," she said. "WE need to just find you a new guy. And YOU need to make sure you don't do that again. Good guys are hard to find. You were lucky to find one like that once. You may have to lower your standards a bit." "Don't worry about it," I said. "Oh, so you're so desperate for some dick that you're in a hurry to get back out there, huh?" she said. "Now we're talking. I've got a bunch of guys to set you up w..." She stopped when she saw me shaking my head. "No, Dulce, that's not what I meant," I said. "What I meant was there's still only one guy I want. And I'm not desperate for dick. I need more than that. I need love, Dulce. I need my Den back. No one else will do." She sighed and looked at me. "Well alrighty then," she said. "Let's start trying to get him back then." "I thought you said it was hopeless," I sniffled. "There's this old Mexican proverb," she began. "Not another one," I groaned. She nodded and smiled. I took a big gulp of my drink and looked at her. "Okay, let's hear it." She looked at me sweetly and said, "You're never too old to try something stupid." The rest of our meal was rushed since we only had forty five minutes for lunch and we'd burned eight of those driving the three blocks in Dulce's death trap car. I felt good, well at least hopeful for the first time in so long I didn't want to think about it. When we got back to the hotel I was just about to pick another room from the board and start cleaning it when one of the security men told me that someone was waiting in my office. I turned and headed back the other way. All kinds of things were going through my mind. Was the person male or female? Shit, I should have asked. It could be anyone. It was probably Bertie, she'd come to her fucking senses and wanted to beg for her job back or start some shit. If the person was male, he could be Ernie, back for more clarification on his cheating ex. Or it could be that asshole from this morning, coming in to either threaten me or hit on me. Of course it could be Denton, coming back to check on me. That thought both quickened my pace and made me weaker in the knees at the same time. It was strange how even after all this time he brought out the strongest reactions possible in me. Shit, Denton could always get to me. Shit was also what I smelled as I got closer to my office. In fact the whole hallway smelled like it. It was like some asshole just dropped a shit bomb on the hotel and ground zero was my office. I noticed that at least half of my maids were gathered outside of my office giggling and smiling like a bunch of fucking schoolgirls. Didn't I have enough problems? I was already faced with having to replace Bertie or expect the other maids to clean her share of the rooms. That wouldn't be as hard as it sounded though because Bertie rarely came close to cleaning her share. The God awful fecal odor only got worse the closer I came to my office. How the hell could those women stand it? I shooed them out of my way and stepped into my office where the smell was if anything, stronger. Suddenly it no longer mattered. It was like some maternal switch in my brain simply turned off my olfactory receptors. Sitting there in the chair by my desk was another cow, an old friend, the answer to my problem and my heart's desire all rolled into one and a half people. Anya Smith was a Russian woman who'd worked here at the hotel for a couple of years. She had long limp blonde hair and big innocent eyes. Yep, like Bertie she was another cow. But she was a special kind of cow. She was one of those rare cows who could keep their legs closed. At least until she met the right bull. Anya was a bigger girl and a very hard worker. She had huge...nah I'm understating it...titanic boobs and the rest of her was proportionate. I have never seen a harder worker in my life. I had to hire two maids to replace her when she left. She met a guest, Jack Smith, who fell head over heels in love with her. He asked her out a few times and we all thought that he was just fucking around with her to get into her giant bra. We all figured that he was just another sleaze ball and eventually he'd get what he wanted and all she'd have left would be some shitty memories and a slime trail in her panties. Boy, were we surprised when she told us they were getting married. About a year after they got married, Anya had to quit because she got pregnant. But now here she was and she'd brought the baby in with her. He was so tiny and just the absolute cutest baby you'd ever see. For a fleeting moment I considered knocking Anya in the head and taking him. I think my maternal clock had started its final countdown towards desperation mode. Only three things prevented me from doing it. First was the fact that there were too many witnesses present. Second and most importantly, if I did have a baby I'd really want it to be mine and Den's. And lastly Anya is a really big fucking cow. She'd probably hurt me if I tried it. There she was cooing to the little bundle of joy and handing him to me. Why the hell was she calling me his auntie Blanche? That was it, my heart just melted. "Blanche, I am ready to come back to work if it is possible," Anya said. "Perfect," I replied. "I had to let someone go this morning. You can start tomorrow." I spent another half hour or so smiling and cuddling the baby, while breathing in a large enough volume of shit fumes to singe all of the hair out of my nostrils. The afternoon didn't help me come up with a plan but it did give me yet another reason why I needed my husband back. "What did you used to look like?" asked Dulce as we clocked out. I thought about it as we walked through the hotel and into the lobby. "Well my hair was shorter and cut differently," I said. "I think that even though I'm older now, I'm in better shape than I was in back then. I guess it's because I don't eat as much and I burn off a lot of my excess energy doing those exercise videos every fucking night." "Okay, that's the first thing," she said. "We have to go and get your hair cut the way you used to wear it." "Nuh unh," I said. "I think that would be a mistake. I don't want him to remember me the way I was. I don't want him to think back and see the whore I became. I want him to see me as an older, more mature woman who is really sorry for the mistakes she made back then. I want him to see that I'm different from that woman and that if he gives me another chance I'll cherish every second we have together for the rest of our lives. I don't want to put any pressure on him, but I'd probably start out by being extremely honest with him." Dulce's eyes got bigger. I was sure that it was because she wasn't used to hearing me talk this frankly about my innermost feelings but fuck it. She was my best friend, if I couldn't spill my guts to her, who was there? "I'd say Den; I fucked up badly our first time together. But I'd never do it again. All of the things that we wanted to do and to have together, I still want. And Denton, I still want them with you. I'd look him straight in the eye and tell him that in order for us to have some of those things though, he needed to step up to the plate and knock me up right away, because neither of us was getting any younger. I'd tell him that we'd probably, or at least I'd probably need some practice because I haven't been with anyone since he left me. Maybe I'd tell him about all of those stupid jokes you and the other girls make about how dry my pussy is, or how I should send it back because it hasn't been used." Dulce was covering her eyes and looking at the floor. "You're right Dulce," I said. "That would be the worst possible thing to say to him. Maybe I could do it with a song, like that fucking Cher song. I should just walk up to him and say, Denton....If I could turn back time. If I could find a way, I'd take back all those things that hurt you and you'd stay. If I could reach the stars, I'd give them all to you. And you'd love me, like you used to do. If I could turn back time." "Ah who am I kidding? My ass is too big to be running around on a ship in thong and black stockings." I noticed that Dulce was positively shaking and making weird motions with her head like something was wrong. "What the fuck is wrong with you Dulce?" I asked her, before continuing my rant. "I've got it. I have to get him a card. Does Hallmark mark a card that says, "Denton I fucked up once, but I still love you? I've never loved anyone except you and I'd do anything, anything for another chance?" Dulce had slumped down into a chair and was just shaking her head. "You know what the worst part of all of this is Dulce?" I asked. She shook her head and wouldn't look me in the eye. "It's the fact that I can stand here and say all of this to you, but there's no way I could ever tell him any of this. So the man that I love most will probably live out the rest of his life, he'll probably find some other woman to be with who won't love him half as much as I do. That's the worst part Dulce. I'll never be able to tell him." "You already did," she said in a very quiet voice. "What do you mean?" I asked loudly. "I mean he's been standing behind you the whole fucking time," she said. I very slowly turned around. My neck only moved fractions of an inch per second. I was praying with every fiber of my being that Dulce was pulling my fucking leg. You know how in moments of great stress or embarrassment we think about the stupidest fucking things? At that moment the thing that was going through my mind was a line from that classic three stooges show. "Niagara Falls, slowly I turned." I was moving that damned slow. My eyes did settle on a pair of men's shoes. Then I followed the shoes upwards until they became legs, then a torso and finally a face. And yep, it was Denton's face, the face that I'd loved for most of my life. The same face that I still wanted to spend the rest of my life waking up next to and kissing. My own face turned at least forty three different shades of red in under a second. The room got so hot I could barely breathe. My brain refused to activate. It was as if I'd had a stroke. My heart stopped beating. Blood stopped moving through my arteries and veins. If this had been one of those classic cartoons that I grew up with like the Flintstones, I'd have shrank down to only a few inches tall and escaped through one of the cracks in the floor. Unfortunately this was real life and my embarrassment was so total that I wanted to die. I did what any sane woman would have done in that situation. I booked. In less than the blink of an eye I was out of there. I left both Denton and Dulce standing there awkwardly. I didn't give a fuck what they did or said to each other. My only goal was to end the embarrassment by extricating my ass from the situation ASAP. I was lucky that God looks out for little kids and stupid people, because Mario Andretti couldn't have caught me driving home. But with the good Lord's protection I didn't die or go to jail, so scant moments later I was in my crappy apartment. I was sitting in the dark, wearing a giant sweatshirt and nothing else. I had my knees up and I was sipping a big ass cup of Lipton's tea and waiting for the tears to start falling. What is it about that man that won't let me move on from him? I know that I fucked up. I know that despite the circumstances, I was to blame. The responsibility for what happened was all mine. I'd come to terms with it years ago. Bryant might have been a scumbag. He did ply me with liquor and over a period of time he gradually moved me into something that I should have never allowed to happen. But it was still my fault. The first time that I got drunk and ended up in bed with him, I should have quit working for him. I should have told Denton what happened and how and begged his forgiveness. But I was too proud. I also let Bryant convince me with all of his bullshit about how I should handle things. I actually tried all that bullshit about being strong. Yeah I was strong, too strong to say that I was sorry, or so I thought. But what I really WAS was stupid. Denton was the strong one. He was so strong that he just stuck to his guns and left me behind. And in his wake he took down Bryant and even the law firm. After the investigation into my fling with Bryant, the law firm was found only guilty of misdemeanor negligence in monitoring the conduct of its associates, nothing more. But the whispers and rumors of impropriety dented the firm's reputation and over the next couple of years all of the more talented lawyers moved to other firms. It was like they were standing next to someone who was taking a shit and they didn't want to get splashed. Eventually the firm folded. The last I heard, Bryant was divorced and living in an even crappier apartment than mine. His wife was beautiful. Far better looking than I am or will ever be. She was one of those high society types. She wasted no time hooking up with another lawyer and marrying him. Bryant's kids call another guy daddy now while he slaves away for minimum wage at a fucking seven eleven. His own father blames him for ruining the firm and cutting way down on his retirement funds. The bastard deserves everything he got. And I do too. In a way I wish that Denton had found someone else and moved on with his life. He above everyone else in this little drama deserves to be happy. I am glad he didn't take my parents' machinations seriously and end up with my fucking sister though. That would just be too awful. I think I'd have to kill her. I fell asleep on my couch thinking about murdering my own sister and other cheerful thoughts. The next morning I woke up early and went in to work early too. I thought I'd probably need some extra time to get Anya situated. I needn't have bothered. She fit right back in like she'd never been gone. I was scrupulously avoiding the public areas of the hotel. I was even taking my cart up and down the back stairs. I'd heard from a few of my girls that Denton was only in town for some kind of convention. He owned his own business now and he usually sent someone else to attend the convention each year, but this year the guy's wife was pregnant so Denton had to come himself. Okay, I'm sure everyone knows what I was thinking and you're right. I was thinking, God damn it everyone is pregnant except me. Just as I was considering drowning my sorrows in a stiff glass of apple juice, I heard a voice from behind me. "Come on dummy, we have to go to the cafeteria, now." I turned and looked at Dulce. She was still my best friend despite the embarrassing things I do. "Hey Dulce," I smiled. "Sorry about yesterday. I just had to get out of there." She nodded and smiled back. There's that thing about best friends again. Just her smile told me that she understood everything. "Uhm Blanche, I'm gonna have to cut you off from the old Mexican proverbs," she smirked. "You take them too literally." "Okay," I said. "Kick me while I'm down. I deserve it." "Nope," she smiled. "What you really deserve is to know what happened after you left yesterday. And you really deserve to get this guy back. He really is a nice guy, Blanche. But we don't have time to talk right now. My private network of spies, who are also known as the rest of the maids, have told me that he usually has breakfast soon." "Ooh let's go," I said. "Perhaps stalking our quarry in the wild will give us information on tactics we could use to trap the elusive beast." I thought I sounded just like that British guy on those wildlife adventure shows. "Why the fuck are you talking like that?" she asked. "Jeezus, I can't take you anywhere." We scurried (yep I used the word scurried. Shit it's what they did) down the back stairs and came out near the cafeteria. Denton was sitting alone near the door. He probably just wanted a light breakfast before heading over to his convention or whatever it was. Lupe, one of the waitresses, was serving him. She was pulling all of the tricks. She was smiling at him with her incandescent smile. The darkness of her skin against the whiteness of her teeth made the smile even brighter. She was leaning against him and trying to touch him every chance she got. I heard a growling sound and didn't realize it was me until Dulce slapped me on the back my head. "Sorry Dulce," I said. "That bitch is pissing me off." "Blanche, she doesn't know that you like him and he is kind of cute for an older guy. It's also understandable for you to be jealous, but just fuck her up, don't fire her. She has three kids and a lazy assed hillbilly boyfriend to support." Turn Back Time "What do you mean?" I asked. "Oh, it's all over the hotel about you firing poor Bertie," smirked Dulce. I didn't even justify her comment with a response. I watched, getting even angrier, as Lupe came back out of the kitchen with Den's coffee and what looked like a cinnamon roll and some kind of breakfast meat. He also had some cut up fruit. But what pissed me off was that the little bitch had unbuttoned her shirt at least two more buttons. Of course, she'd have had to unbutton her top all the way to the waist in order for him to see anything. Lupe's saggy tits could be covered by one of those tiny band aids that you use for shaving cuts. First Bertie and now this shit with Lupe. I began to wonder if all of the members of the itty bitty titty committee were trying to gang up on me and ruin my life. "Okay, she's asking for it," said Dulce. "If you don't fuck that little bitch up, I'm going to." "Shhh Dulce, watch," I said. Lupe took a pen from her order pad and wrote something down on it. She smiled at Denton and folded it up and stuck it in his breast pocket. Denton smiled back at her and I felt heat. Lupe probably didn't have long to live. But then as she turned to walk away, swinging her hips with so much amplitude that I was sure she need to have both of the joints replaced before she was thirty, Denton surprised me again. He reached into his pocket and took out the folded piece of paper and without even looking at it, dropped it into flower pot on the table beside his. Seeing what he did caused another temperature change in me. I went from being hot allover to just being warm, especially in the regions of my heart and between my legs. "I told you he was a good guy," hissed Dulce. "He must have a built in skank detector." "Why does he keep looking up?" she asked. "How the fuck would I know?" I hissed. "We've been apart for eight years." A few minutes later Denton called Lupe back over. He paid his check and apparently gave her a really nice tip as well. She went as far as to pat his breast pocket reminding him of her little note. He pointed upwards and they exchanged a few words and then he left. As soon as Denton cleared the room, I grabbed Dulce's hand and dragged her into the cafeteria. We immediately grabbed Lupe and frog marched the little bitch into the kitchen away from the guests. Dulce fortunately had the presence of mind to place herself between Lupe and me. "What the fuck were you doing?" I yelled. "And why is your uniform unbuttoned?" My face was so distorted that no one would have been surprised if my next line had been, "Is that a Twisted Sister pin on your uniform?" Dulce, who naturally was the voice of reason, tried to defuse the situation. "Lupe, the man you were just trying to flash your two tiny tatas at is Blanche's husband." Lupe jumped back and seemed to deflate. "I didn't know," she said. "Sorry, please don't fire me." God damn it, I thought. I've worked in this pit for seven fucking years. In all of that time I'd fired one person and now everybody I ran into thought I was going to fire them. Lupe was a study in contrasts. Her eyes were bottomless pits of sorrow written so deeply that her children were probably sad at that moment. I felt really bad about the way I was treating her until I noticed that the bitch was still smiling. At that moment I hated her. I hated her and her fucking dentist enough to just slap those fucking pearly white teeth out of her mouth. "What was he asking you about?" asked Dulce, shattering the moment and probably saving Lupe's dental health. "He asked about those decorations near the ceiling," she smiled. "He said he'd love to have some of those to decorate his garage." Dulce grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the kitchen while I was still mean-mugging Lupe. "Button up your God damned shirt," I screamed as we left. "Blanche this is it!" whispered Dulce excitedly. "This is what?" I asked. "This is your first chance to do something to help you get back into his good graces," she said. "The cafeteria closes when the restaurants open right?" I nodded my head. "Well, we'll be back here at lunchtime," she said with a crazy smile. "But Dulce, they don't serve lunch at the cafeteria," I said. "Just be here and bring a fucking ladder," she hissed. "Is this another one of those Mexican proverbs?" I asked. "Well...no," she said. "Okay it's actually the same one, but I can't explain it to you because you'll just fuck it up." That morning I cleaned three rooms and settled two disputes among the maids. Both of the disputes involved Anya. The first one had Anya coming to me to report that at least three of my twelve maids were fucking the guests. She thought it was shameful and they should be fired immediately. I had to sit down and have a talk with Anya. I tried to explain the Paul McCartney principle to her. I told her it was, "Live and let live," until they did something to hurt you. Once they'd pissed you off you switched to, "Live and let die." She was going nuclear way too early. "But you haven't fired anybody yet today," she said. An hour later, four of the maids cornered me in the room I was attempting to clean. These four maids were not among the ones who were fucking the guests. They wanted to complain about Anya. The maids, including me, all received a small base salary and made more money based on the number of rooms we cleaned. Anya was cleaning almost twice as many rooms as any other maid on the crew. They were worried that their bonus money might not be as much as it had been. I tried again to explain the Paul McCartney principle. It seemed to fit well in both places. Leslie, one of the more outspoken members of the group, told me to put Anya at the top of my list of people to consider when I fired someone that day. Finally it was lunch time. I got one of the maintenance men to loan me a ladder. He carried it to the cafeteria for me and agreed to pick it up later. He'd have it out of there long before the cafeteria opened for late night and early morning service. "You should have seen the way that guy was looking at your ass," quipped Dulce. "I bet he'd like to bury his face and something else in it." "Well the only thing going near my ass is toilet paper," I said. "What about Denton?" she smirked. "Okay, him too," I said sheepishly. "Now what are we doing here?" "The cafeteria staff left hours ago," she said. "They work ten hour shifts from midnight until ten a.m." "I know that but thanks for the information Sally schedule," I said. "They only work when the restaurants are closed. That still doesn't tell me why I'm wasting my fucking lunch hour here." "We're going to steal some of the decorations," she said. I looked up. "Remember the song," she said. I smiled and nodded my head. But I was thinking about how desperate I must seem. Here Denton was worried about decorating his fucking garage, for what? Did he want to impress his fucking car? Like the Mustang would care about what was on the garage. The only person who thought their car could see or think or had any feelings was Denton. Okay maybe him and all of those other Mustang people. So here I was dragging my nearly forty year old, broken hearted ass up a ladder in a probably vain attempt to make him see me in a better light. I needed help, and I wasn't talking about Dulce holding the ladder. Thirty eight minutes later, sputtering and covered in dust, we'd taken five of them down. We'd done it in a pattern so no one would notice that they were missing, as if anyone would care anyway. Besides we'd only taken the star shaped ones. I used my pass key to go into Denton's room to clean it and left them on his bed. I was sure he'd notice them right away because his was the room from before that was so fucking neat. I ran all kinds of little scenarios through my mind about how he'd react to my gift. In some of them he reacted badly, as in calling the front desk and complaining. In others he called and tried to get me fired. There were also scenarios where he either didn't notice or pretended he didn't notice and simply left them there. My favorites, of course were the ones where he came and found me and thanked me. He even asked me to go out to dinner with him and took me home and fucked my brains out in one of them. Of course my depressing mind even managed to twist that one. After we'd had sex, Denton gave me three dollars and called me a cab. As I left his room I heard him speaking his thoughts out loud. "Shit, after being a whore for eight years, I expected better." None of those things happened, of course, because in the real world Denton was at his convention until long after I went home. So I didn't actually get to see him. And even more naturally, the next morning he didn't go to the cafeteria for breakfast. Dulce and I had gone out to lunch along with Anya. We took Anya with us to keep her from cleaning any God damned rooms on her lunch hour. I was going to have to talk to her. Anyway, we had a few minutes left so Dulce and I were sitting on a bench with Anya standing in front of us she was facing us and talking about her baby. I think Dulce had reached her limit to the amount of cutesy baby shit she could handle so she changed the subject. She asked me about what had happened with the decorations and whether I'd heard anything from Denton. I hadn't and I was so frustrated that I let go again. "He probably didn't like them," I snapped. "Either that or he probably did, but then he realized that they were from me so he just threw them away. Maybe he pissed all over them and set them on fire too." "Blanche, I never told you this," said Dulce. "But the other day, after your performance, he was smiling." "He was probably laughing at me," I said. "No, Honey," she said. "It wasn't like that at all. It was a really nice smile. Remember what he told Claudine about not having uhm...you know in eight years. I think he feels the same way about you that you do about him. I think this is going to be far easier than you think. We just need to find a way to get you guys together to talk." "Then why didn't he try to find me, yet?" I asked. "I'm here. I've been here all fucking day. I think this is like one of those stories that guys read on the internet. You know the ones they call, "Burn the bitch stories." Dulce looked at me like I was crazy and Anya was making a crazy face too. "You know those stories," I continued. "Some woman cheats on her husband. He finds out about it and divorces her and gets some kind of over the top revenge where she spends the rest of her life living in a crate under a bridge eating tuna fish until she dies. No one ever loves her again or has anything to do with her. It's like God gives her the fecal touch and everything she touches turns to shit, forever." Dulce was smiling stupidly at me. "At the end of the story, the hero recovers his self-esteem, buys a Mustang and drives off into the sunset with a new, better woman who may or may not have big tits, while the old wife, aka the bitch, goes down in flames and continues to burn." "I guess maybe my life is like that," I said. I was beginning to cry and Dulce shifting into best friend mode reached out and hugged me. "Dulce, I know it was my fault. I deserved everything that happened to me after what I'd done. I lost everything too Dulce. I lost my home, I lost my job, and I lost my career too. I lost my family. My parents still haven't forgiven me. And my fucking sister looks down her nose at me every time I see her. She treats me like a turd that she stepped in and she can't scrape off of her shoe." "But most of all Dulce, I lost Denton. That's what hurts me the most. I know you keep telling me to move on and get over it but I can't. He's the only one I want. My whole fucking life is one big burn the bitch story and I'll probably have to burn forever. I wonder sometimes whether or not he has any forgiveness in his heart Dulce? Maybe all of the love he had for me filled his heart so much that it just left no room for any forgiveness or compassion. And now that all of the love has been replaced by hate, there's still just no room for him to ever see that I've changed or even think about forgiving me. I can't move on Dulce. I don't want to move on, so I just have to burn forever. Maybe I should get a tattoo of a burning bitch." Anya was now wildly gesticulating and waving while Dulce and I hugged. Anya does tend to have kind of a puritanical stick up her ass. Maybe Dulce and I hugging in public had tweaked her anti-lesbo switch or something. "What Anya?" I snapped. "You don't think I should get a tattoo?" "I think you should get a Q tip," she said. "And use it to clean out your ears. So you can hear people when they're talking to you. I've been trying to get you to turn around." By this point in the story, most of you realize that if luck was dynamite, I don't have enough to blow my nose. So yep when I turned around Denton was standing there again. This time I didn't turn red, but all of the blood rushed out of my head and I turned as white as a sheet. He really didn't look happy this time. Unlike the previous time when it was just Dulce there, he wasn't smiling. "Uhm, sorry," he said. "I tried to find you to thank you for the stars that you left on my bed. I figured it was you from your speech the other day about the song and everything. But uhm...you don't seem to be in the mood to talk so...I'll leave you alone." He was shaking his head and he just walked away. "Who was that?" asked Anya. "God Blanche," said Dulce. "You talk too fucking much. Is there anything you can't fuck up? He liked the stars. He even understood what we were trying to do. This was really good. If you hadn't gone off on another of your little rants this would have worked. You could have possibly had him back. Jeezus you don't have to share every fucking thought in your head in public. Most people would have learned the first time. Shit, now I have to come up with ANOTHER plan." Unfortunately, there wouldn't be time for another plan. We found out from one of the women at the front desk that today was the last day of the convention. Denton was checking out early the next morning. Dulce came back and told me that she was sorry for her outburst earlier. She was just upset because the whole plan with the stars had been perfect. She was mostly upset for me because she wanted me to be happy and she sensed that without Denton back in my life, I probably never would be. "Duh, when did you figure that out?" I asked her, trying to blink the tears out of my eyes. "When that cute maintenance man was running around the building carrying ladders and shit for you and you never even noticed him," she said. "That was a bad sign because the poor guy kept walking into walls trying to get a glimpse of your body parts and he never even entered your consciousness. That told me that you have a one track mind and there's only one train on it." "Honey," she said, as we got to my car. "Life is a motherfucker. Sometimes without trying to we stumble onto things that we simply didn't earn and probably don't deserve. Other times we work our asses off trying to find a small shred of happiness and it just seems to elude us no matter how deserving we may be. You won the lottery, your first time out. But like you've already admitted, it was your fault you pissed it away. We have to look at this realistically. That was probably your only shot at the fairy tale." "But Blanche, not every woman gets to be Cinderella. Not all of us get to marry the prince. Shit, we both know that I married a frog. But God damn it he's my frog and HE loves me. He may not be as attractive and perfect as you think Denton is, but he'll be there beside me doing the best he can, no matter how fat my ass gets. That has to count for something. So think about that cute maintenance guy, okay?" "Dulce, I love you," I said. "I know you only want me to be happy. But if I did hook up with one of the maintenance guys, or some guy I meet tomorrow, or president Obama or George fucking Clooney, I'd still spend the rest of my life imagining that he was Denton. I know Denton isn't perfect, but he's perfect for me. So there's no one else." "Hey, this isn't over," she said. "We just have to be ready next time he comes to one of these conventions. So we'll start planning tomorrow and next time he comes to town, we'll get him." I smiled at her as I drove off. I didn't say anything because I knew that my voice was going to break and I'd start crying before I got home. Surprisingly when I got home, I got into my huge comfy sweatshirt and grabbed my cup of tea. As I thought about it, I realized that Dulce had been right. She'd given me two chances to get Denton and I'd fucked them both up with my big ass mouth. In fact, it had been my big ass mouth that had cost me Denton in the first place. Denton had been ready to forgive me in the first God damned place until I let Bryant into my head and said all of those terrible things to really drive us apart. When we were married, Denton and I never really talked about our problems. I know it sounds terrible in modern day terms because all of the fucking experts like Oprah and Dr. Phil always talk about how couples should talk about their problems. Denton and I never did. When there was something going on we just went to bed and made love and the next morning there simply weren't any fucking problems. He'd just say, "Honey, I love you. We'll try it your way." How could I have forgotten that? Even now I was still learning how stupid I'd been and what a horse's ass Bryant had been. I fell asleep knowing that my world would be a little bit...make that a hell of a lot darker tomorrow. I woke up wondering why the hell my alarm hadn't gone off. I looked at the clock on my cable box because I had fallen asleep on the fucking couch yet again. Why did I even own a bed? The clock told me why the alarm hadn't gone off. It was only two a.m. I don't know why I was doing it but I got up and showered. I put my clothes on and just a dab of perfume in a few areas. I got into my car and drove to work. All of the workers on the night shift looked at me as I walked in. There were very few of my maids who worked at night. I heard whispers as I walked through the halls heading for my office. "She came in to fire somebody," said a voice. Long before I got to my office I got on the elevator. My feet seemed to know where I was going, even if I didn't. I used my pass key and slipped into the darkened room. As I pulled my sweater over my head I got it tangled in my hair. It took me a few moments to get it untangled and I almost fell on my ass, but luckily I could still hear Denton's rhythmic breathing. I pulled my pants down and shucked out of both them and my panties. I dropped my bra onto the puddle of clothing on the floor. I stepped cautiously over to the bed. I had a weird thought as I stepped cautiously over to the bed. Wouldn't it be ironic if I'd come into the wrong room and was getting ready to fuck a complete stranger? The guy would wake up and start complaining or asking who the hell I was. I'd run out into the hallway to get away from him and run right into Denton, who was just getting in. He'd look at me and shake his head. "Still a whore, after all this time," he'd think. That wasn't to be the case this time though. I caught a glimpse of his face in the moonlight and almost swooned. I pulled the sheet back and lay down on top of him. His arms moved and enfolded me. I could tell though that it was only a reflex. His eyes popped open and he was beginning to wake up as I started to trail hundreds of tiny kissing along the stubble of his jawline. When I reached his neck with my lips, I felt the strange combination of hard/soft that was his erection pressing against my stomach. Turn Back Time "Whuh?" he said, as his brains came back online and forced sleep away from his consciousness. "Shhh Den," I said. "Don't talk. Don't think about it. It doesn't have to mean anything. But I can't wait another eight years before....It's just been too long, Den." I quickly pulled his boxers down and sucked him into my mouth in one quick motion. I think I might have bobbed my head up and down two or three times before I knew that he'd been telling Claudine the truth. He tried to push my head away from him but I held on for dear life and all of his scalding hot juices flowed into my mouth. Denton used to be able to last a long time either in my mouth or in my pussy, but this was a Denton who hadn't had sex since he and I had last done it. It had been even longer for him than it had been for me. Not by very much but a few days at least. "Sorry," he said. "But it's..." I closed his mouth by kissing him. "I know Baby; it's been eight long fucking years for both of us. You didn't do anything wrong. Besides, that will make the next one last longer. And that's the one I'm looking forward to." Apparently Den had been working out. He flipped me over onto my back with very little effort. I was fighting him because I wanted to...I needed to kiss him badly but he wasn't having it. As usual my brain worked too fast for its own good and read all kinds of terrible doomsday scenarios into his actions. I imagined that he just wanted to pound me. He just wanted to fuck me like the whore that I thought that he thought I was. He didn't want to kiss me because kissing is too intimate an activity to do with a whore. I just lay back and got ready for it, because no matter how he treated me, he was still the man I loved. And for all of these years, I've sworn that he could do anything he wanted to me whenever he wanted. It was time for me to live up to it. All of those foolish notions were very quickly removed from the realm of possibility from the instant that his tongue hit my pussy. Denton always did enjoy the pleasure of having me writhing on his tongue. He tentatively and very gently licked and explored my outer labia and then plunged his tongue into my hole without warning. That piercing searching tongue scooped up nearly all of the fluids I was releasing while his nose tickled my clit. God it felt good.... Blackness....Floating....White hot intensity burning with the brilliance of a million suns. Huh? "Denton, why are you laughing at me?" I asked. . "You're just as quick on the draw as I was," he laughed. "It's been a while for you too, hasn't it?" He looked down at me and even in the darkness I saw something in his gaze that made my heart flutter He was leaning over me gently running his fingers over my very sensitive breasts. He was being very gentle because he remembered that I was very sensitive all over my body after an orgasm. He stretched out beside me and started kissing me then. He was giving me all the kisses I wanted or needed. Long wet sloppy kisses full of lips and tongue. Kisses that lasted for hours yet were still too short. Kisses that tasted like my pussy must have. I realized then that I was a fool to ever have given this up. Bryant had never come anywhere near this and Denton hadn't even fucked me yet. Bryant never kissed me like this. He didn't kiss me at all and he'd never once licked me down there. God I was such a fool. Denton continued to kiss me and he started rubbing and licking my breasts too. My nipples felt like they were going to explode if he didn't bite them. "Ohh God Den," I screamed. I was already beginning to ramp up again. My body was quivering for more of whatever he wanted to do to me. He never stopped kissing me and rubbing me all over. I think I had another mini orgasm when he finally entered me. We were rubbing against each other very slowly and wrapped in each other's arms. I never wanted this to end. That second time, when I got close, I remember begging him to hurry up so we could cum together. Just as I screamed, I felt him splashing inside of me. He must have been saving it all for me. Eight years-worth of accumulated semen all deposited at once. It gushed out of my vagina and ran down my legs. But we didn't stop then he flipped me over and took me from behind. This time it was much more frenetic, he pounded the shit out of me and I matched his every thrust. I just needed to rest for a few minutes and then I was going to let him have my ass. I wanted him in every hole I had. I told him that as he kissed me and we snuggled up together. "Maybe we'll try that next time," he said. "A little nap first?" "Mmm hmm," I said. He wrapped one of his arms protectively around me and I was in heaven. It lasted for all of what seemed like two seconds before I thought he was after me again. I felt him pull the covers down and I wanted him again, but I was too tired to move. "It's your pussy Denton you can have it whenever you want, but can I please just have five more minutes to nap. I need to get my strength back before you have your way with me again," I said. Remember my luck? I heard two things simultaneously. The first was a loud snort of derision and someone saying, "Whore. I thought she was better than that. No wonder she didn't care about the others doing it." The second was a bunch of giggling and a voice that was obviously Dulce's saying, "Whoopee. Somebody finally got some." My eyes opened quickly and I noticed that it was broad daylight. I looked around the room and quickly surmised what must have happened. Anya had come in to clean the room and found me. She'd called Dulce to help get me out of there. The two had differing purposes for being there. Dulce was there as my best friend trying to cover my ass. Anya just wanted to clean the room. She looked at me as if she could barely stand me. Denton was of course long gone. "He checked out at six a.m. this morning. He's already gone," smirked Dulce. "What the fuck did he do to you? This whole room smells like a brothel. You have cum stains all over your face. There's dried sperm in your hair and it's still dripping from between your legs. Obviously he got you too drunk to remember to use condoms. I'd ask what got into you but I already know. Jeezus, Blanche put some clothes on so I can hustle you out of here." After I got dressed in the same clothes that I wore the previous night I came out of the bathroom that Anya was waiting to clean. She looked at me and shook her head. "I'm sorry Blanche," she said. "I didn't know he was your husband. How did you survive for so long without...?" We quickly left the hotel. Dulce was full of questions for me at first. "How the hell did you end up in bed with him? Are you guys back together? Did he forgive you? What happened?" As soon as she realized that I didn't have any answers for her questions her mood changed. "So you guys didn't actually talk at all?" she asked. "You just showed up in his hotel room in the middle of the night and let him fuck you to sleep, no questions asked?" I nodded. "Well I guess that's that," she said. "When should I set it up?" "Set what up?" I asked. "Your date with the maintenance guy?" she said. "Now that you've gotten your ex out of your system, you're going to need sex pretty regularly." I looked at her strangely. "Don't look at me like that Blanche. Be realistic," she said. "You guys didn't even talk. If he wanted any kind of relationship with you he'd have told you. What you guys had is over with. What you just had was great but it's like old shoes for him. They're really easy to slip on, and they feel good. But you don't want anybody to see you wearing them. So last night you offered him sex. He took it. You were even begging him to fuck you in your ass like some slut, Blanche. Today he's back in his life. Story over. Roll credits." The longer I thought about it the more depressed I got. Before we even got to my house I was crying like never before. "That bastard," said Dulce. "And he had me thinking he was something special." "It's my fault Dulce," I said. "He tried to tell me something when I went into his room. But I just started kissing him and I told him it didn't mean anything." I said that with my mouth but my heart was breaking all the same. The Denton I knew and loved would never have done that to me. After Dulce went back to work, I ran the events over and over again in my mind. I had after all told her the truth. It was my fault. I was still shocked at Denton's actions. But I had just offered myself to him, no strings attached. All he did was to take me up on what I'd offered. Maybe I needed to get my head out of my ass and think about this realistically. Denton had changed. That was my fault too. The changes in him were probably at least partially due to what I'd done to him. There were other things I needed to face to. I was at a really dangerous time in my cycle and I hadn't made him wear a condom. He had fucked me at least four times and had left a lot of sperm in me. I could very well be pregnant. Somehow I wasn't upset. I took a few days off from work and thought about it even more. Denton had actually done me a favor. He'd given me one last wonderful memory and maybe even a child. It was far more than I deserved after what I'd done to him. Three days later, I was driving in to work and I stopped off at a store. As I stuck my hand inside my purse, I found a card. I looked at the card and dropped my purse and the bottle of soda I was carrying on the floor where it shattered splashing everything in the area. I quickly ran out of the store. I called my boss Steve and told him that I needed a few more days off. "Is this some kind of female thing?" he asked. "I guess," I said sheepishly. "Okay," he said. I drove like a woman possessed. I might've been reading this the wrong way but I couldn't afford to risk it. I pulled onto a street in a really nice suburb. The house was beautiful. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. I sat down on the porch and waited. Suddenly my brain came back on. There was a phone number down there too. I should have called first. How the fuck did I even know that he wanted me to really call. He could have simply left me the card out of guilt. Men always say they'll call you after they fuck you, but most of them don't. Most of the time they just leave you the number and when you call them they're vague and defensive. I'd over reacted again. Denton hadn't actually said that he wanted to see me. And in the three days since we'd slept together he hadn't called me. What the fuck made me drive all of this way? I had a screw loose for sure. I needed to get out of here quickly before he showed up and I ruined any chance of getting back with him. I'd over reacted for sure. I was still thinking about this like I used to when we were married. Denton used to leave me notes in my purse because otherwise I'd forget them. If he left them on the fridge or the table I rarely got them so he started sticking them in my purse. Oh shit, I thought. I heard the rumble of a way over sized V8 even as I got to my feet. The car pulled into the driveway blocking any chance I had of getting away with my dignity. Denton got out of the car. He looked up and saw me. I was hoping for a smile, or a confused look on his face. I got neither. He was obviously angry. I had fucked up again. Denton dropped his briefcase to the ground and started towards me. The fire in his eyes must have been the same as when he was pounding me the other night only this time instead of trying to make himself one with me he was obviously upset at me for invading his space. What right did I have to intrude on his life out of the blue? I wondered as he got closer to me if he'd be kind enough to ask me why I was there of if he'd just spit out something nasty like, "What the fuck are you doing here? Get the fuck out of here, you whore. I already gave you a dose of dick. What the hell do you want now? Holy shit what if I WAS pregnant. He'd think I planned it to trap him. I needed to just politely get out of there. As he got closer to me I could feel him again and I wanted him so badly. But he was still pissed. I closed my eyes as he took a breath to speak. Oh my God he was raising his hands. I couldn't believe that Denton, my Denton was going to hit me. "What took you so long?" he asked. "I couldn't concentrate on anything for the past three days. I tried calling you at work because I don't know your phone number. They kept telling me that you'd had a bad experience and were taking a few days off. That big Mexican woman was especially nasty to me. She hung up on me four times yesterday. I think she doesn't like me. Then I thought that maybe I'd done something stupid. I was confused because from all of your crazy little speeches, I had the feeling that you missed me as much as I missed you. I thought that maybe you wanted to give us another try as much as I do..." I just couldn't help it. I started crying when I realized what he was saying. "Where's all of your stuff?" he asked. "Fuck the stuff," I said. "You really want me here, with you?" "More than anything," he said smiling. Just then I swear he was about to kiss me out in public for all of his neighbors to see and I was ready for it, my fucking phone rang. "Oh hi, Mom," I said. I was surprised. She hadn't called me in months. "Yeah, I guess I can come for Thanksgiving Mom," I said. "Is Doris going to be there?" Then I got a really evil thought in mind as Denton grabbed my hand and starting walking me inside of the house. "Mom, is it okay if I bring a date?" The end. Oh wait, sorry I almost forgot to tell you. I actually was pregnant. Both Denton and I were really happy and this time we lived happily fucking ever after.