Chapter 3: Back To Work

After the unexpected but completely satisfying evening, night and following morning with my ex-husband Peter, I had four options. As my first choice, I would have been very happy to remain in his condo with him, preferably with him in his bed. My second choice was to rush to South Carolina, share the good news with Betty, and maybe share something else too. Third, and in some ways the option I desired the most, was to sleep for about a week.

Well, none of those were possible. Peter was headed off on a book tour and the arrangements precluded me from accompanying him. Betty was at her corporate headquarters for two weeks. And Sleep, while wonderful, assumes that the bills have already been paid to date. They weren't.

That left my fourth, and by far my least favorite, option. I went back to work.

In one way it was good that we were busier than usual for this time of year. It kept me hopping from one job to another, usually assisting Tommy or one of the other managers. However we had a rash of first line supervisors deciding they had found better jobs. The result of that bit of trivia was that I was asked to fill in "temporarily" as a store runner. Since management met my requests for a pay raise and a perk or two, I decided to do it.

I wanted to stay busy because I wasn't sure what to think about Peter and I. The sex in the shower had been great fun. The love making in the bedroom had been wonderful. To quote a popular commercial, waking up in his arms: "priceless".

I wasn't sure what it all meant, and neither was he. I certainly didn't want to ruin the friendship that had sprung up between us. For two people who had formed the habit of discussing most things at length, including our failed marriage, the subject of "us" seemed to bring on awkwardness and hemming and hawing. I thought both of us wanted something more, but weren't sure how to exactly bring the idea into the open. Perhaps the break would allow us to consider what was going to come next.

So here it was, a Saturday night and I was working. An upscale woman's boutique in an upscale mall in an upscale area of the city. Not an enormous amount of stock. What there was had to be carefully inventoried as there was not an inexpensive item in the house. I was fortunate to have only experienced auditors working for me that night, so after a brief discussion with the store manager and my crew, we went to work.

Following the awakening of the previously unknown part of me that found other women attractive, I kept my eyes on one of the clerks assisting in running down the stock numbers of the items that had lost their tags. She was about 25, blonde, with a short red dress that accentuated her nice figure and showed off her legs. I certainly had no intention of making a pass at her but she gave me something to rest my eyes on when they began to turn red from reading the long lines on the printouts that my laptop was spewing. No wonder everyone who did this a lot wore glasses.

I smiled to myself as I saw that I wasn't the only person girl watching. Two of my young male auditors were all but drooling whenever the blonde passed by. I didn't think they were actually discarding merchandise tags so as to have an excuse to have her come over to them but they were very pleased when the opportunity arose.

I passed them once on the way to the manager's office and overheard them quietly discussing how much they would each like to get her alone, in bed or almost anywhere else. I burst out laughing when I had heard one of them say that to the other. Generally they kept an eye out for me while discussing girls, both because the company discourages idle chit chat at work and to avoid embarrassing me. Apparently they imagined I was too old to realize people talked about sex. As cute as it was, I was willing to bet I could shock them, not the other way around. Especially with the way my life had been running lately.

I couldn't resist it though. I paused by them and they both immediately shut up and looked guilty. "Think of how she would look on the big wooden desk in the manager's office while you're at it why don't you?" I actually giggled when both of them stood there with their mouths open and nothing coming out. I don't often get to make a guys speechless, much less two.

I was still chuckling to myself when I reached the office in the back room.

"What's so funny Sherry?" asked Angela, the store manager.

"Two of my guys, Chris and Adam, are enthralled with one of your salespersons. I just couldn't resist a remark to them."

She grinned back. "I noticed. Well, boys will be boys. Dianna is very attractive. Too bad she has a husband who's about the size of both of them put together."

Further discussion was interrupted momentarily as I was startled by the driving beat of nearby music.

"What in the world?"

Angela laughed. "There's a club just around the corner. Of course normally by the time they get started rocking we're all gone."

"Well, maybe we can go there after we get done." I replied in jest.

"You never know," replied Angela, a smile dancing around the corners of her mouth.

Initially I didn't think anything at all of Angela's comments. We discussed how the inventory was going and agreed that another hour would probably see us through. I headed back out to the sales floor and got to work on the laptop transmitting what we had done so far.

Maybe it was the effect of my experience with Betty. Maybe it was a touch of, what had she called it? Gaydar? There had been something in Angela's voice when she mentioned how attractive Dianna was. And she hadn't said "Too bad for them". She had just said "Too bad."

The next time Angela came out of her office I stopped paying surreptitious attention to Dianna and instead watched Angela. She was about my age, early thirties, with long straight brown hair. She was attractive, although not really beautiful. Then, I never considered myself in that category either. She was wearing a sleeveless gray pullover top, that didn't do much to hide her black bra, nor the nice set of breasts it held. She was barefoot, having pulled off her black low heeled sandals hours ago. A pair of jeans, ragged at the end of the legs, completed the outfit I was pretty sure wasn't what she normally wore at work.

I rapidly checked each member of my crew to make sure their counts were accurate. I started to return to the sales counter where I had my laptop set up. Angela was there, explaining something to one of her other associates. She turned to put the papers she had been using back on the counter and several of them slipped from her grasp and disappeared. She mumbled and leaned over the counter to try to retrieve them.

I absolutely stopped dead in my tracks. Up on her toes, her jeans had pulled taunt over a full, rounded bottom that absolutely made my mouth water. No skinny girl's ass, it was definitely that of a woman. I actually found my hand beginning to reach out in an involuntary attempt to touch her.

I shook my head in almost disbelief. "Holy COW, Sherry, get hold of yourself," I scolded myself. Angela squirmed off the counter and turned, the papers triumphantly in her hand. When she did her head came up and she looked directly at me. I blushed. I couldn't believe it but I actually did blush.

Angela didn't react at all. When I came up to the counter she merely started discussing a couple of discrepancies she had discovered. She didn't seem to act shocked, or even aware for that matter, that I had been pretty well caught staring at her. I regained control of myself with an inward sigh of relief. I might be a lot more adventurous now but I wasn't prepared to be quite as daring as Betty was. She would have probably found a way to kiss Angela before the night was over and discover if the vibrations Angela might be giving off were real or only a product of her imagination.

I smiled when I thought of Betty. I smiled broadly when I realized that I was acting as bad as my two young guys. I was willing to bet I suddenly I was matching them fantasy for fantasy. Hopefully I wasn't as obvious as they were. I pulled myself together and managed to return to some semblance of normalcy.

The actual counting process of the inventory finally ended. I rapidly checked that everyone had put their equipment up and let everyone go. Angela let her people clock out also, with a reminder to rest up over Sunday so they could all be bright and eager on Monday.

Poor Chris and Adam. They rushed out the door after Dianna, only to be brought up short as she jumped into the arms of a man who was very large indeed. After locking the door, Angela came back towards me. She was all but biting her lip to keep from laughing. I was doing exactly the same thing. When our eyes met we couldn't hold it back anymore and we both broke into deep belly laughs.