When Rudy talked to me on the Mall, I was a little surprised. He´d actually paid attention when I told him I was thinking of quitting and had taken action on it. I had always taken Rudy pretty much the way he appeared – one of those guys who talks about how hard he works, and sort of plugs through the days not really accomplishing much. I guess I was mistaken, because he not only paid attention to me and my problem, but gave me a real alternative to quitting.
When we had finished our lunch on the mall, we went back to the office and he showed me the material for the new headquarters the company was planning. It was just outside of town along the Diagonal Highway, and he was talking about putting me in charge of getting it built – on schedule and under budget. Not a job for a wimp. I took it. We worked hard on the project together and then met with the boss who gave me the green light on getting things done.
We met with the architect, Sylvia, and I was essentially struck dumb. When I ended up in bed with her, I learned what a bombshell is.
Rudy also suggested I join him and Melanie at Tom´s Tavern on Wednesday evening. Said there was a gang of people who just sort of hung out together and I might like it. Sounded light and easy, so I went. Interesting bunch. The women, most of them, were fantastic, especially Rudy´s wife, Melanie. Another sizzling woman. But the rest were worth thinking about, too. Since I´ve been single – really just without regular sex – I think about women a lot.
Dana – goes with Ed. Gorgeous. Toni – hard to say who she´s with, may be an opportunity – tall, dark, lovely. Toni seemed a little wary that first time, but something´s changed. Jennie is beautiful, comes on strong, but there´s a reserve to her, doesn´t want to be pushed around; I really like her. Fran – well, she didn´t show me anything; don´t know how she got into the group, or why she stayed. Doesn´t seem to like the way they all sort of laugh and scratch. It gets pretty cozy in that booth after a few beers. But it wasn´t long before she stopped coming.
The biggest surprise was Sylvia – she showed up just after we met, hadn´t been there before. She hadn´t said anything about this when we were together, but there she was. I think she´s going to take some care in handling, but handling should be fun. She was showing a lot more cleavage than she does on the job.
Rudy, Ned – good, all-around guys – Ed, laid back and handsome. They seem to be a little short of guys, maybe that´s why Rudy asked me.
Anyway, we all sat around and talked and had a good, light time. Broke up about ten, no-one really buzzed, though some of the girls were pretty chummy with their men. Toni left with Ned. Fran left alone. Jenny left with Ed and Dana – I think someone said Jenny rooms with them. Those two under the same roof must be something else.
I decided to make Wednesday a regular stop and came back every week, same gang, just as pleasant. I noticed there seemed to be a lot of body contact between Ed-Dana-Jenny and Rudy-Melanie. Nothing too serious, but it got my cock up a little. Big change in Toni from my first visit. Her clothes changed and there was a really interested look in her eye. Sylvia was there, Fran wasn´t. Definitely a net gain. Sylvia´s got this long braid. When she lets it fall into the front of her shirt, you can´t help following it to those incredible tits of hers. And when she undoes it and drapes it over my face...
Rudy dropped by my office one day and talked, checking out my hand-over to my deputy. On his way out, he suggested I come to his place for dinner on Friday. Melanie is not only hot looking and gorgeous, she can cook. We had great a great dinner, lots of good talk.
Melanie asked me a lot about my marriage, but in a way that wasn´t prying – she seemed to want to know what went wrong for me. I told her what I could, what I had figured out. She´s no coward, that woman – when she realized my problem with my wife was sex, she asked me pretty directly what, exactly, Heather objected to. When I told her, she seemed surprised.
“I wanted sex every night, sometimes twice a day,” I told her. “Heather didn´t. If I tried to love her up, get her interested, she´d get angry, accuse me of harassment.” Of course, it wasn´t always like that, and I didn´t let Melanie think so. Just the last months when it got really bad. Anyway, Melanie was really sympathetic, seemed to really care. She asked if I had girlfriends and was surprised when I said “No”. I didn´t mention Sylvia, because I really don´t see her as a girlfriend. At least, not yet.
It´s not that I´m not horny, Lord knows. It´s that I don´t want a woman just to screw. I don´t like one-night-stands, I don´t like the dating game much, either. It´s hectic, and you spend too much time trying to remember what you said to this one the last time; trying to remember what her likes and hates are.
I want a woman I can feel comfortable with, who likes me for more than just a dinner or a dance. And, who has more on the ball than just some gal from the pool. I suppose that sounds sexist, but it´s true. I´m just not interested in women who don´t use their minds. Trouble is, most of the really competent women are taken. Well, either they´re taken or they´ve been hurt so bad they´re out of circulation. I think that might have been Toni, although she seems to have changed since I first met her – maybe I just caught a bad day. Fran, of course, wasn´t even standing at the table, as far as I could see, and even Sylvia, as much as we enjoyed rolling around in her big bed, seems to be biding her time for some reason. I´m pretty sure, when she makes a decision, we´ll all know.
Melanie runs this store on Pearl Street that sells lingerie and sexy clothes. I think that´s where Sylvia got that thing she wears. When I go to their place for dinner, Melanie´s usually wearing something that looks great; sexy but not nasty. Somehow, she always makes me aware of her as a woman, and as a sexy woman. She´s crazy about Rudy and really committed to him, she looks wonderful and should be great in bed, but I never got a sense that she´s on the make.
This particular Wednesday, I said to her, “Uh, you know, when I walked past the store, I thought I saw you standing in the window next to a manikin. The model was wearing this wild outfit...”
“And so was I,” Melanie said. “Right?”
“It looked like it, but your back was to me. The outfit on the mannequin was pretty sexy, but on you... Wow!”
“Thanks. That´s my new idea. Actually, it´s Toni´s idea. I´m always going to wear something from our stock. Try to wear something kind of outrageous, not exactly dirty or too revealing, but sexy. And I´ll put the same thing on a mannequin with my name on it. I asked the girls who work for me to wear stuff we sell, too. They usually dress more conservatively, so I asked them each to name a mannequin after themselves and dress it with the products they have on. The girls look real sharp, and they can show customers the things they have on without taking their clothes off. Gives them something to talk about, kind of a reference sell.”
I grinned, “That day, I don´t think you had anything much to take off, anyway.”
“Not in that outfit, I didn´t.” She smiled at me blindingly. “Can´t wear anything under it. But if a customer wants to feel the material, they can use the mannequin. Seems to work, especially for guys. I´ve already sold a lot of stuff that way, and I´m getting a lot of men as customers. A lot more than I used to, anyway. And putting our names on the models gets people´s attention. Kind of neat to see the girls all nicely dressed next to their mannequin that´s wearing some really sexy stuff. The customers get a real kick out of it.
“Of course, I´ve got all kinds of things, you know. I´ve got stuff you could show your mother.”
“Oh, that wouldn´t be a problem. You don´t know my mother. I should send her into the store.”
“Do it.” Melanie said. “How about dinner Friday?”
“You´re on.”
But one thing´s sure. Wednesday is a bunch of great-looking, competent people of both sexes. And dinner with Melanie and Rudy is something I´ve begun to really look forward to. When we left that evening, I don´t think Sylvia and I had said more than a dozen words, but she told me to follow her car again. I never thought of refusing.