Chapter 18: A New Friend

Brenda woke before Frank did, shortly after six, and in rising up and climbing off the bed, she managed to wake her husband. Frank rolled over and eyed Brenda curiously, since she was still wearing her high-heeled sandals and skirt but was otherwise topless. “Want to get some dinner?”

“Definitely, but I need to shower and change. I don’t think this is suitable attire for a restaurant.”

“There is that place in town I showed you.”

“Not on your life!” laughed Brenda. “Besides, I would still have to dress in order to get there.”

“Want some help in the shower?”

“If you help me in the shower, neither of us will end up getting any dinner,” she said with a snort.

“True, true. Well, hurry up, I need to clean up, too. Did you want to go out?”

“No, let’s try the restaurant here. We can have a few drinks in the bar, have dinner, and come back up so I can model another nightie for you.”

“Sounds like a plan! Now, go take that shower. For some reason you smell like you’ve been fucking your brains out.”

“Well, fuck you and the horse you rode in on! I don’t have to model anything but flannel long johns if you’d prefer.”

Frank laughed and waved Brenda into the bathroom. While she was showering, he dug out his clothing, a pair of khaki trousers and a dressy sport shirt and sat down to watch the local news. When Brenda finished in the bathroom, they switched places. She came out wrapped in her towel, and once Frank was out of the way, pulled a pink and gold halter-topped dress from the closet. Her dressy gold sandals would go nicely with it. She sat down and did her makeup while waiting for Frank to get ready.

It wasn’t until Frank finished in the bathroom, even dressing there, that he got a good look at his wife. “Wow!”

Brenda smiled broadly. “You like?” She twirled around and posed for him. It was a new dress, very form fitting, with a hem several inches above the knees, deeply cut in a vee at the front and dipping very low in the back. It was made from a very light and sheer satiny material and clung to her like a second skin. Frank stuck his tongue out, panting like a dog, which got Brenda laughing. Then he started barking and howling, which really got her going. “You make me laugh too hard and I’ll ruin my makeup!”

“That’s new, right?”

“Very good!”

Frank came up to his wife and reached around her, cupping her asscheeks and feeling for any panties. In that dress a mole would have stood out, but he definitely enjoyed checking anyway. “Do you really want to go out or should we try for room service?”

“Down boy, down!” she demanded. Brenda pushed her husband away and skipped to the door. “Feed me first.”

Frank rolled his eyes and grabbed the card key. Brenda waited in the hallway for her husband, who walked with her down the hallway to the elevators. At first his arm was around her waist, but after a few feet, his hand had slipped down to rest on her ass. At the feel of his hand rubbing her rear, she gave Frank a shy smile, which he gave a neutral response to. However, once inside the elevator, he brought his other hand up and slipped it inside the top of her dress, to cup and caress a plump and warm breast. Brenda moaned and sagged against her husband. “Oh Jesus, Frank.”

“Hmmm?”

“Take me back to the room!”

The elevator jerked as it reached the lobby and Frank pulled his hand out of his wife’s top. Her face was flushed, and her breathing was raspy. “I thought you wanted dinner,” he replied with a smirk.

“You bastard!”

Frank leaned closer, caressing her ass again. “Is this fabric safe from cum stains?” he whispered.

Brenda whimpered and grabbed her husband’s hand, trying to pull him back onto the elevator, but Frank laughed and held firm, pulling back and towing her towards the lobby. “Drinks and dinner!” he ordered.

“God is going to punish you, and sooner than you think!”

Frank laughed and tugged Brenda’s hand pulling her towards the bar. About halfway across the lobby, a voice sang out, “Hey guys, wait up!”

Frank looked around to see a woman waving at them from across the lobby. He gave her a curious look as she came closer, but it was Brenda who remembered her from earlier in the day. “Liz! Good to see you again!”

Liz came to them, her high heels clicking on the tile of the lobby floor. “You guys are such lifesavers! Thank you so much!”

“Oh, you’re welcome. I’m glad we were able to help. What’s going on with your car?” asked Brenda.

“As soon as the rain stopped, Triple-A got a tow truck out here. I went with the driver to the garage, and he brought me back afterwards.”

“So, what are you driving now?” asked Frank.

“I’m not. I’m here all through next week, and I’ll just call a cab if I need to travel. Something should be figured out by the end of my stay.” Liz looked them over. “That dress is just gorgeous!” she told Brenda. “You two going out to dinner?”

“Not tonight. We thought we would hang out and have a few drinks and dinner here. What about you? You look like you’re up for a night of clubbing!” replied Brenda.

Frank eyed their new friend. Liz Burroughs was a few years older than the Housemans, in her early forties, and in very nice shape. He hadn’t been in any mood to look her over earlier, but Brenda was right; Liz looked like she was going to go out partying. She was wearing skintight jeans, stiletto spiked sandals, a crisp white blouse open to the waist, and underneath, a tiny black sequined bra that barely contained a very impressive bust. She looked like a woman going out on the prowl.

“Sort of, but I can wait on that. Are you going into the bar? Please, the first round is on me!”

“Works for me,” commented Frank. He ushered the two women into the bar off the lobby and they settled into low chairs around a coffee table. A cocktail waitress came over and took their orders. “I’d like a rum and coke. What about you two?”

“A margarita?” asked Brenda. The waitress nodded.

“I’d like a mudslide,” announced Liz.

“A mudslide? What’s that?” asked Frank. Liz looked at the waitress, who rattled off the ingredients. “Acckkk, that’s an alcoholic milk shake!” he said.

The others laughed, and Liz confirmed, “Pretty much!”

“Sounds yummy! Switch mine to one of those!” asked Brenda. Her husband simply rolled his eyes.

The waitress moved off to the bar and Brenda turned to Liz. “So, is there a Mister Burroughs?” Like Frank, she had noticed a wedding ring and a diamond engagement ring with a stone able to choke a small horse.

“Hmmm? Oh, yes.” She wiggled her left hand. “There’s a Mister Burroughs, he’s just not here.” She noted the curiosity in the others’ eyes, and continued, “Nothing too sordid. He’s in Africa or Asia or something for a few weeks, and I’m on vacation.”

“He’s traveling the world and you’re here?” asked an incredulous Brenda.

“Absolutely!”

“Is he traveling for business?” asked Frank.

Liz nodded. “He’s a senior VP on the upstream side at ExxonMobil. There is no way I am going to any of those hellholes with him.”

Frank shook his head. “Upstream?”

“Production.” Liz watched her new friends stare at her in confusion, so she went on. “See, he works for an oil company, a big one, ExxonMobil.” Frank and Brenda nodded, so she kept going. “Upstream is the production end, exploration, drilling, oil rigs, that sort of thing. Downstream is what you do with the oil, like oil refineries and gas stations.”

“So, he works on the production side?” confirmed Brenda.

“Precisely! Oh, it’s not like he works on the rigs, but he goes all over securing drilling rights and dealing with governments and landowners, that sort of thing.”

“That sounds interesting. So why don’t you go with him? I mean, at least some of the time. You make it sound like you don’t want to. I would think it was sort of exotic and all,” asked Brenda.

The drinks came, and Frank stared at the gigantic chocolate milk shakes that it looked like the other two would be drinking. Brenda sipped hers and squealed, “Yummy!” which earned her laughs from the others.

The waitress left and Liz explained, “I did go on a few trips with him, way back when, but never again. It is nowhere near as romantic as you might think.” Brenda and Frank looked at her curiously. “Well, Jack goes to either West Africa or the Middle East. West Africa, that’s like Nigeria or Angola, is simply hell on earth. I swear to Jesus either one would need a promotion to become part of the third world. Just getting off the airplane exposes you to malaria, dengue fever, Ebola, sleeping sickness, God only knows what. I went there once and won’t go back even at gunpoint!”

“Wow! And the Middle East? I guess that’s pretty frightening these days.”

Liz nodded agreement. “That’s strange, too. It either breaks down as Asshole-istan, where a woman has to be covered from head to toe and walks behind the man, and everybody runs around shooting AK-47s into the air, and killing Americans gets you extra brownie points in heaven, or it’s the super civilized places like some of the Arab cities, where the only women who show up at meetings and parties are hookers, and you might be expected to share. I’m kinky, but I’m not that kinky!”

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Frank. “So, you stay home while your husband works overseas. Where is home, anyway?”

Liz nodded and sipped her mudslide. “I went on a few trips back when we were younger and forget it! Now, if they ever discover oil off the coast of Honolulu, sign me up, but the hell with those other places.”

“Do you work?” asked Brenda.

“Only on my tan,” their friend quipped, getting a laugh. “No, Jack does very well. We live just outside of Houston. We’ve kind of come to an accommodation over the years. When he goes overseas, I go on vacation.”

“And otherwise?”

“He’ll call me and tell me when he’s going to get home. All I have to do is make sure I’m greeting him at the door in a negligee and high heels, with a pair of ice-cold martinis in my hands!”

Frank laughed at that, saying, “When are you going to try that?”

Brenda snorted and answered dryly, “Once the boys have graduated from college. I’ll probably be using a walker and orthopedic high heels, but I’ll give it a try.”

Frank laughed and excused himself to find the bathroom. Once he had left, Brenda leaned towards Liz and asked, “So tonight, are you off clubbing or something?”

Liz nodded. “That’s the other part of our little agreement. I don’t complain if he strays overseas, and he lets me fool around back here.”

“Wow!”

“The only restriction is that I fool around somewhere outside of Texas. We don’t do anything that would embarrass the other back home.”

“And your husband’s okay with that?” Brenda could barely believe her ears.

Liz smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Like I said, I just have to be at home in heels and a nightgown, with drinks and toys and lube ready to go. Hell, he tells me what he’s done, and I tell him what I’ve done. It’s a real turn-on!”

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Brenda.

Frank came back from the men’s room and settled back into his seat. “So, did I miss anything?”

Liz grinned and Brenda said, “I’ll tell you later.”

Liz laughed loudly at this, leaving Frank to wonder what exactly had occurred in his absence. “So, on a different subject, how long are you two here for and what have you seen so far?”

“We’re just taking a long weekend away from the kids. We’re only here until Sunday, then it’s back to Orlando.” Brenda explained that they had only arrived the previous day and their explorations had been limited to the town that morning.

“So, what about tomorrow?’

Brenda shrugged and looked at her husband. “I was hoping to get a little sun and just lay about for a bit.”

Frank shrugged and agreed with her. “Works for me.” They both looked back at Liz. “Any suggestions?”

“Not really. The weather is supposed to be good the rest of the weekend. The storm blew through and is history now. There’s a pool here, or you can go down to the beach. That can be interesting.”

“How so?” asked Frank, raising an eyebrow.

Liz lowered her voice a touch and leaned forward. “Well, there’s actually two beaches. The first, the near one, is just a beach, but if you go down the beach and around a bend, it becomes clothing optional.”

“A nude beach! I’ve never done that before!” said Brenda.