Chapter 1

"He can't get his puck out of the net," someone yelled from the back, causing uproar in the packed room. Benny turned to see a man with wind-burned cheeks, the sure sign of an outdoor worker. He was about 5'6" and built like someone who makes his living in construction, lifting steel beams for his coworkers to put chains under them. But it was not him; the remark had come from farther back.

Benny tried again but couldn't find his thing. The guy at the next urinal peeked at his dilemma, drip-shook his dick before zipping up. He wore a three piece suit and a sympathetic smile.

"Get out the tweezers," came from the back. This was followed by another clamor throughout the crowd. The tweezers comment sounded like the same voice. Embarrassed, Benny zipped up and stepped aside to make room for the beam lifter.

Hockey fans are a mixed crowd, some coming from work in their three piece suits and others in casual dress, sneakers and sweatshirts. 'Sneakers and a sweatshirt, ' that's what Holly had suggested when she invited him to go with her. "Go home and change, wear something casual, we'll meet in front of the stadium at seven-thirty, gate twelve, okay?"

And that's what he had done, stopping by his place to covert his appearance from junior office worker to designer casual. He had even showered and changed his underwear. As Holly had said, "We have plenty of time; I need to eat with Terry so he knows he still has a Mommy, Tom's out of town."

She was curious when he got back to his seat. "What took so long?" she wanted to know, leaning near him to whisper as if their seat mates would be even remotely interested in the conversation. The crowd had its eyes on the ice below, and the face off.

"You know how those lines are?" he whispered back. She was still leaning close, soft, looking at him, as if riveted by the news that lines at the men's room were long between periods. Her hand swished a strand of strawberry blond hair back in place. She was always doing that.

Benny and Holly had two things in common; they worked at the same company and they had gotten their jobs through nepotism. Her husband was also in the insurance business at a competitor a few blocks away. Through his contacts, he had made it possible for her to be selected for a job in claims. Ben's uncle, hearing that he was having no luck with his job search, arranged for him to be hired in the legal department.

"You're just what they need down there," referring to the legal department being on the fifth floor while his own office was 'upstairs.' Ben's father winced at the idea, "I kept telling him a liberal arts degree would make him the last to find work. What can he possibly offer legal?"

"Nonsense, he'll do fine. They need a smart young person to maintain the case files pending litigation, he'll be a perfect fit." countered his uncle. Then to Ben, "don't give them your mother's maiden name and if we meet in the hall, you don't know me, okay?

They had worked in the same company for three months before they met face to face although they had spoken on the phone from the beginning.

"Can we meet for coffee or something? I'll bring the file." Ben had asked.

"Don't you dare bring the file," she had warned him.

He rose when she came in the door, recognizing her by the pink sweater she had said she would be wearing. The sweater accented her rosy cheeks and the unruly hair that always seemed to flop down, covering one of her eyes. She came his way; seeming to know it was him by the way he was watching her move through the crowded coffee shop.

"Let me see the file, no coffee for me, I can't be gone long" she said as soon as they were seated, not saying why she didn't want to be seen with him. Her boss had forbid her from it, saying, 'don't hold their hands, once we send a claims file to legal it's all theirs, we're finished with it.' Besides, her husband worked just down the street, he could come in and see her with this young man.

She spent the next 10 minutes giving Ben the background on the case, relating conversations she had with the woman who was filing the claim and supplying background on why the claim was being rejected. She advised that he should send form letter 343, and then she was gone.

Ben was mystified. She seemed nervous, distant, not what he had expected from the friendly telephone voice he had become accustomed to. 'Perhaps she had been turned off by his youth? Or worse, his appearance?'

The next time they spoke on the 'phone it was her usual casual tone that greeted him as if they were the best of friends. "What are you doing for lunch?" she wanted to know.

They met for lunch at a diner seven blocks from the office and it became their favorite spot. Meetings were always at her suggestion; she never accepted his offers to take her to lunch. "Tom's out of town," she commented on one occasion. Another time she mentioned that her boss was out sick that day. Ben put it together; she didn't want to be seen with him. Their luncheons were always arranged by her, at the out of the way location.

"What did you do last night? Do you have a girlfriend? You never said," she asked one morning. He also noticed that it was she who initiated the telephone calls. As a rule, she did not take his calls, letting them go to voicemail.

Happy to be in her company, Benny let her call the shots. He liked being with her, watching her eyes when she said something funny or when she became serious. He loved the way they twinkled when she laughed and how they misted when she revealed something personal. "Did you get lucky last night? I did," she would say, her green eyes twinkling, and then glistening. She even told him why she insisted that they meet at the diner instead of one of the more fashionable places near the office. "My boss has something against legal. I don't know what it is but he doesn't want me to help you."

Benny had not taken the job seriously, viewing it as a temporary source of income until something more permanent came along. When he complained to Holly about the monotony of keeping the files up to date she sympathized with him. "Hang in there, something will come your way," she smiled.

"I'm an old lady, way too old for you," she would say kidding, pushing half of her cheesecake his way. "I'm so old I have to watch what I eat."

"You're perfect and not too old at all," he would say, wanting to add, 'for me, ' but not, taking the cheesecake. She would smile, watching him scoop up the last crumbs.

"Don't call me anymore," she said one day at lunch.

"Why?" he asked incredulously. They had been friends for about two years and had shared their deepest secrets. He thought he knew her well.

"They've got a new system that tracks your calls," she whispered, looking around the diner for any sign of co-workers. "I'm not supposed to talk to you, remember?"

It was her idea to meet once a week. "Never on the same day of the week and not at the same time, I'll work out a schedule," she said as she left that day. He was to wait five minutes before going back to work. The calendar arrived in an inter-office envelope the next day. He folded the paper and placed it in his wallet.

"Tom's lost interest in me," she confided. They had just taken their seats but the diner was nearly empty, she had insisted on a mid-afternoon lunch.

"What make's you think that?" Benny asked, trying to hide his bewilderment. 'Why was she telling him this, as if he was one of her girlfriends with whom she shared such secrets?'

"He doesn't pester me for sex any more," she said, holding a slim hand up to her mouth to shield it from a waiter who was clearing the next table. "I have to nag him for it," she grinned, displaying the dimple that Benny had grown fond of seeing.

"Maybe he likes that, you nagging him for sex," he speculated, 'I know I would like it, ' he thought. Wanting to change the subject, he told her that he had a date to see a play. A barrage of questions followed this news. How did you meet her? Is she pretty? What are her measurements?

"How was the date? How did you make out?" she wanted to know at their next meeting, her exuberance overshadowed only by her curiosity. He reddened, reluctant to talk about the date.

"What happened? You didn't fuck it up, did you?" Her eyes glistened, showing concern in her voice and in her eyes.

He nodded. She waited for him to speak and was able to suppress a snicker when he told her what had taken place. His date, a perfect ten in his eyes, had critiqued the play before the curtain fell on the first act, deciding that it was poorly written, the director had misinterpreted the nuances of the plot and the actors were unbefitting for their parts. They had left halfway through the second act.

To his astonishment, the date had agreed to go back to his place for a drink, after which they had another. This was followed by heavy petting, getting naked and...

When he wouldn't say more, Holly had to guess, "Premature ejaculation?"

He nodded, not wanting to talk about it. She pitied him. "It happens, next time will be different, you'll be the stud, I may have to show you a thing or two," she laughed. When he didn't smile she changed the subject.

"Do you think this dress shows how big my hips have gotten?" she asked, looking up to him. Her eyes were moist and her lips were slightly open, awaiting his answer. It was the Friday before Christmas, many of the employees had left early, others were in party-mode. She had made a rare appearance in legal because she knew her boss would never venture there.

"Not at all," he scoffed. It was a knitted dress and he liked the way the yarn clung to her ass. They were in a lawyer's office with the door closed. Benny knew the guy had taken off early and wouldn't be back.

"Is that mistletoe? I believe it is," she said, motioning to the bare ceiling as she stood on tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips. Benny watched her step away to appraise his look of surprise at the kiss. She wore a silk scarf around her shoulders. The multi colored fabric made her eyes sparkle. He playfully dislodged the two ends of the scarf from the ring that held them in place. He lowered the scarf to her ass and moved it from side to side, the silk sliding smoothly over the yarn. She giggled, moving her ass, enjoying the friction. He used the scarf to pull her to him. This kiss was long and real. When it broke neither moved.

Laughing, she whispered, "There's more mistletoe over here, pulling him along as she backed up to the front of the lawyer's desk. Her arms were around his neck. He dropped the scarf and placed hands between the desk and her ass as they kissed, entwining their tongues and pressing their bodies together.

They matched one another's movements and sounds. She moaned when his lips pulled away to make sucking sounds along her jaw line and down her neck. She opened her legs, stretching the yarn, permitting his thigh to stretch it further. The moans changed to humming approval as his mouth returned to hers.

It was their difference in height that brought her to her senses. His member was pulsating against her stomach, making her aware of their circumstance. She was seven years older and it would be up to her to be the adult. She broke away and buried her face in his chest, trembling, trying to regain her composure. This confounded Benny. He relaxed his hold on her butt and pulled away to look at her.

"Too bad I'm wearing these damn pantyhose," she laughed, green eyes glistening as she looked up at him. She wanted to apologize for being the old fuddy-duddy, knowing how insecure he was around women. She hoped he would understand. That was their last meeting until the invitation to the hockey match.

She had taken a chance and dialed his extension. "I have hockey tickets, can you go with me? Tom was going to use them but he's been called to the home office."

Excited to hear her voice, Benny accepted. He hurried to his apartment, showed, shaved, put on cologne and dressed as she had instructed, casually.

"I have to go back to the men's room," he said to Holly. By the expression on her face he knew an explanation was required. "My shorts are on backwards, I couldn't go before," he shouted over the crowd noise which was expressing discontent over a penalty leveled against a member of the home team.

This sent Holly into gut-reaching laughter just as a hush came over the crowd. A player from the opposing team, flat on his back on the ice, was being administered to by the medical staff. The entire section focused on Holly who, oblivious to the injured player, continued to howl. Even the iron worker, who had been behind Benny in the men's room, looked up from three rows down. He waved to Benny and said something to his partner. Soon everyone in the section, except Holly, knew about the incident in the men's room.

He told her about the voice from the back of the room, "He can't get his puck out of the net," Benny said, explaining why everyone was looking their way. This sent Holly into another fit of laughter and everyone around them laughed with her as the player was being placed on a stretcher and carried off the ice.

When he came back from the restroom Holly suggested that they leave. There were five minutes left in the second period but the visiting team was ahead by three goals. Benny agreed to leave.

"I seem to recall that my husband's company has four seats. Those people next to us may work with him. They may even know who I am and tell him how crazy I was acting. I thought it was better that we leave. You don't mind do you?" she asked, taking his arm, playfully.

In the cab she said to Benny, "Give him your address, Honey."

Then to the driver, "my boyfriend has his shorts on backwards, we've got to get them turned around." This was followed by tumultuous laughter. The cabby looked amused but did not comment. Holly lunged at Benny, snuggling against him.

"Do you think my boyfriend is too young for me?" she asked the driver while holding Benny's face up for display. The cabby looked in the rear view mirror at the youthful Benny, then to Holly, refraining from saying what he was thinking.

"I think my boyfriend is just the right age," she said, pulling Benny down for a long kiss. "But my husband wouldn't agree, would he?"

"He thought I was drunk or crazy," she laughed, clinging to Benny as they climbed the stairs to his apartment. Still giddy, "do you think I'm crazy?"

Benny didn't know how to respond. He had never seen her act this way. She had always been cautious when they were together before, a little nervous, always checking to see who was coming in the door at the diner, never letting him walk back to the office with her. "I like you this way," he answered.

"You do what you need to do," she said to him, inspecting his apartment. He disappeared into the bedroom and made short work of turning his shorts around.

When he came out of the bedroom she was talking on the telephone. He waited at the front door, jacket in hand, ready to take her home.

"Do you have wine?" she asked as she hung up the phone. Her mood had changed from capricious to somber. He noticed that she had removed her jacket and sweat shirt and was in the process of pulling the bottom of her T-shirt out of her jeans when she looked at him, catching him watching her, knowing that he had realized that she was braless. "Wine? Do you have any?"

They sat on the sofa and drank merlot from water glasses. She looked around, appraising the clutter that surrounded them. "You don't bring girls here often, do you?" she charged. "When did you change the sheets on your bed?"

Ben took a long swig of wine and blushed. 'She's so perceptive; she must know how uncomfortable she's making me.

"Hey, kiddo, let's go make your bed," she said, moving in the direction his bedroom. He followed, admiring how the loose T-shirt covered her waistband where the butt-line curve began.

Holly stripped the bed and made short work of replacing the sheets. When the bed was made to her satisfaction she jumped into the center of the bed and asked, "Which side is yours?" Ben was taken back. When he didn't answer she laughed and led him back to the sofa for another glass of wine.