Chapter 49

Monday morning, Dec 11, 2028

It was nice having my own gym clothes for a change. I had been self-conscious wearing Eric’s old ones. I wore street clothes on the way to the gym, with the new ones in Eric’s gym bag. The walk was getting easier, even if was still cold in the morning, twenty-seven degrees. At least it was warmer than Sunday morning.

The workout was getting easier as well. I still wasn’t coming even close to keeping up with Ginger, but I felt like it was at least reasonable. It felt good, too. Miracle of miracles

Later, back at her house, we both had to get ready for work. Watching Ginger get ready, sitting almost naked at her makeup table and then getting dressed was a joy. Especially, since we hadn’t done anything fun the night before from being too damn tired.

Ginger wanted to show me her agency office, but it was going to have to wait as it was going to be a long day at the store, stocking shelves. We’d gotten a lot done Saturday with all three of us, but there was still a lot to do and it would only be Susan and me the rest of the week. That is, unless Susan found some good candidates and they were willing to start right away.

That’s exactly what she was hoping when I got there. Susan was already there, working away, her hair back in her normal bun and conservative pants and blouse. “I’m going to have a few people in today, you want to sit in?” she asked me, “I’m optimistic about finding someone good this morning.”

“Nah, you’ve got it, no point in taking both of us away from getting this done,” I told her, motioning toward the vast store. “How many you interviewing?”

“Four, want to hire at least two, hopefully for full-time, and two part-time if they’re as good as their resumes.”

With that, we both got busy working on stocking shelves. At least, after Saturday, it was a little easier to get around, we’d gotten a lot of the boxes out of the aisles. Every box we got out of the way made it that much better.

I never thought anything about it when we heard a knock on the door at nine and Susan asked me one more time, “You sure? Last chance.”

There was work to be done. No point in me sitting in on her interview. I never had before, that was always Addie’s thing. “Nah, I’ll work.”

Susan left me and I didn’t think anything more of it, just continued working on stocking the shelves for the next half-hour until Susan and this little chubby lady walked down the aisle toward me, “Matt, this is Cathy.” She couldn’t have been five-feet tall and was probably over two-hundred pounds, but that face ... she was just bubbling happiness, “Cathy, Matt.” It was interesting, she didn’t introduce me as part-owner, just ‘Matt’.

Cathy stuck her hand out, I took it and smiled at her, “I’m so excited,” she said.

“Cathy’s going to start tomorrow,” Susan said, “she has a few things to take care of first.”

“Welcome, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do,” I told her, “you’ll have a good boss,” gesturing toward Susan.

Susan escorted Cathy back out, unlocked the door for her, then walked back toward me. “She’s worked in retail before, but was unhappy. She loved helping people, but she said the store was awful, all they wanted to do was take advantage of their customers. I told her how we treat ours and she was ecstatic. I think she’ll be perfect.”

One up. Addie will be pleased, I was sure. But in the meantime, the boxes weren’t unpacking themselves.

Shortly after ten, there was another knock and Susan began another interview. That time, it was only a few minutes and she wasn’t nearly as happy, “Ugh,” she said, “what a freakin’ liar! Wonder where he stole that resume from?” she complained, “He’s an absolute idiot!” she continued her rant.

She kept up her mumbling about him while we worked. The guy must have made quite an impression. I’d never seen Susan quite like that. I was feeling kind of sorry for the next person. She said there were four altogether. She’d been in such a good mood after Cathy but now was just the opposite. I asked her what the guy said and all she’d answer was, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Okay, he’s gone, I’ll let it just go away. Then it didn’t help when the person that was supposed to show up at eleven didn’t show. Ahh, the joys of hiring! She said that the next woman was supposed to be here at one... “If she shows up,” she grumbled.

Poor woman, might be a little hard for her, probably just as well that Susan has that extra hour to calm down.

We took a short break for lunch. Susan asked me if I’d mind running up the street to Burger King and getting us a hamburger. When I got back, we sat in her office and she told me a little more about Cathy, “I think we’ll really like her, she seemed fun and bubbly even before we started talking. Seemed like one of the happiest people I’ve ever met. She’s married and has a twelve-year-old boy at home,” then added, “Don’t think she’d be much good for Adriana’s volleyball team, though,” laughing at her little joke.

I couldn’t help but visualize that. No, I didn’t think so, either.

We finished our hamburgers and went back to work until there was another knock on the locked door. I didn’t pay any attention, just kept on working while Susan left to, hopefully, find another person to hire.

It took her a little longer, she hadn’t come out of her office after forty minutes. A little later, I had my back to the aisle and heard a voice I thought I recognized but couldn’t think where. Then it hit me. No way! No way in hell! Everyone’s had coincidences, but this was too far, too much.

But the closer they got, the more I knew it was. When I turned around, there she was, Tammy from Dry Falls. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been half-naked, topless, scrambling to get inside a car before that other car got there. Right after she and Ginger had been in a much too short, passionate embrace.

When I turned, Tammy stopped in her tracks and stood there gawking at me, the same as I was at her. Poor Susan looked totally confused about what was going on, “Umm,” she started, “I was going to introduce you, but...”

“We met,” I told her, “yesterday, totally by accident.” I didn’t tell her the circumstances – Tammy and Ginger making out, half-naked - although, with what I’d found out about Susan, she’d probably enjoy hearing about it. Maybe eventually.

“Tammy’s going to start right away ... like this afternoon ... now,” Susan explained. “Can you help her get started? I have an appointment this afternoon.”

After Susan left, Tammy and I stood there like a couple of dummies, just looking at each other. Finally, she spoke, “Matt, I...” her voice trailed off to virtually nothing.

I smiled at her, “I know, at least I hope. I’ve never done anything like that, either. That thing with Ginger ... that had just been spur of the moment. Neither of us are like that ... not really.”

She looked around at the piles, “Maybe ... we’d better get busy? I’d hate for Susan to fire me on my first afternoon.”

So we put our ‘history’ behind us and got busy with the shelf-stocking. Tammy proved to be smart, pleasant, and a hard worker. And the more we worked side-by-side, the more I noticed all over again how pretty she was. It was getting harder and harder to keep my mind on my work, watching my pretty co-worker and remembering the day before. I was still completely blown away by the massive coincidence.

When Susan got back a couple hours later, she was pleased, “Found us another local - Christmas crafts,” she said, “you want to help me bring in some boxes?” directing her question to me.

We carried in six boxes and I let Susan work on them while I went back to helping Tammy. The more we worked, the more I thought about asking Ginger if she’d want to invite Tammy and Matt for dinner one evening. And maybe a little more.

I called the kids again that evening before going home. Funny how I was starting to think of Ginger’s as ‘home’. Kind of scared me a little, too. My conversation with Addie was short, but she asked me to watch the eleven o’clock news that night, no explanation as to why. When seven-year-old Katie got on the phone, she sounded excited but wouldn’t tell me why. We talked for a little while, then she turned the phone over to Kevin, our four-year-old. “Daddy, Daddy, Mommy told me I couldn’t tell you but we’re going to be on TV and it was so much fun.” He was running his words together so that it sounded almost like one long word, he was so excited.

After talking to the excited little boy for a while, him trying hard to not tell me anything more, I asked to speak to Mom again. “What’s that all about?” I asked her.

“Just watch tonight,” was all she’d say about it.

I told her about the two ladies Susan had hired, omitting, of course, the fact that I had met one of them in a rather ... revealing sort of way. I also told her that it seemed very likely that, with four of working in the store tomorrow, that we may very well finish with the stocking and be able to start with the final cleaning up and Christmas decorating.

It was nearly seven by the time I got to Ginger’s that night. She had the leftover lasagna from Friday night so dinner was relatively quick. Which turned out to be a good thing because, after our day Sunday, we were both more than a little ready for some ‘extracurricular’ activities.

Ginger met me in bed wearing a kind of a cross between a silky one-piece, loose-fitting pajama set and gown, green to match her eyes. “Bought this just for you,” and did a sexy little pirouette for me before climbing on the bed, crawling up over my body, leaning down and kissing the tip of my nose, her long red hair tickling my body as she crawled.

She tickled my nose for a bit with her lips and tongue, then moved down to my lips, teasing until finally culminating in a long passionate kiss. My hands were roaming all over Ginger’s body, my eyes peeking down at the top of the gown she was wearing, where it gaped down revealing her bare tits.

I was frustrated because of the long pant legs of the one-piece she was wearing. I couldn’t get to the part of her that I really wanted. I tried to reach my hand up her leg underneath it and simply couldn’t reach far enough.

“Having a problem?” she asked me, giggling.

My little ‘difficulty’ was frustrating my raging cock, making me even harder.

Ginger rolled over, off of me, ‘accidentally’ letting one of the spaghetti straps fall off her shoulder, popping a bare boob out in the cool air. I leaned up on an elbow, just gazing at her a moment, then couldn’t resist the temptation of that bare nipple just begging to be sucked.

She arched her back and moaned when my lips descended on her nipple, sucking it in my mouth. My hand went between her legs, still frustrated that I couldn’t get underneath that damn thing she was wearing. It was obvious, though, that there wasn’t anything underneath it as I could press the material between her pussy lips, eliciting more groans and Ginger spreading her legs further apart.

I was so frustrated, needing to be inside her, my cock steel-rod-hard, still sucking her bare tit, Ginger squirming underneath me. When I’d first seen that ‘gown’ she was wearing, I was excited, it was so damned sexy on her. Now, it was nothing but frustrating. I pushed the other strap off and her gown slid down enough to suck that other tit. When I found it with my lips, I heard a whimper come from Ginger.

Her body was shivering, the same as mine was with the combination of sexual excitement and frustration. That silky material felt so good against Ginger’s skin, but damn, it was frustrating that I couldn’t get to her pussy, no matter how hard I tried. I tried reaching up her leg again but the material bunched up and kept me away, my frustration growing more and more.

I finally gave up and whispered in Ginger’s ear, “That thing has got to go!”

Ginger struggled a bit, trying to push it down, finally giving up and telling me, “Help me ... please!”

My hands were shaking as I unwrapped my present.

It took all my will power to not just climb back on the bed and fuck the shit out of the woman I was with! My steel rod was more than ready. Not so sure that wasn’t what she wanted, either. But I didn’t. I’d been with her for ... this was the fourth night, fifth if you count that first date ... and I had yet to taste her. I wasn’t going to pass up that opportunity one more minute!

I crawled back up on the bed between Ginger’s now naked legs, “Pillow,” I told her. She grabbed the one off my side of the bed and lifted her hips so we could together push it underneath her. Then I began kissing the inside of her thigh, slowly moving my lips upward toward her prize. Ginger’s legs were spread wide with her knees bent and feet flat on the bed. As soon as my lips and tongue touched her thigh, I heard a very distinct, “Oh God!” coming from her lips.

I glanced up, enough to see Ginger’s hands already clutching at the sheet, her beautiful red hair spread across the bed ... and then I was at that juncture of her leg and that flat spot with her treasure centered in it. My hands were kneading her butt cheeks as my lips moved closer and closer. Her arousal was so pungent and sweet-smelling that I could barely control myself from just plunging in.

But that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to tease and torment, both of us. God, I wanted my cock inside of Ginger’s hot, wet pussy! And she was both when my tongue finally found its way into her, licking up and down, tickling her little nubbin and sucking it in my mouth.

Ginger’s hips were bucking and strange noises were emanating from her mouth, the kind of noises that aren’t contained in the English alphabet. Her juices tasted sweet, not at all like Addie. And it had been too long to remember Tanya’s taste. I guess it was like the taste of ... ginger. I kissed, sucked, reached my tongue deep inside her, all the while enjoying Ginger’s bucking and screeching.

There did come a point, though, that I couldn’t take it any longer. I moved up above her and my cock found her opening, sliding into her, all the way. God, she felt good wrapped around me; hot and wet. Ginger let out a huge moan as I slipped into her, pressing her pelvis up onto me. I looked down on Ginger’s grimacing face and lowed my lips onto hers.

We kissed with me buried deep inside her, body and soul. I have to admit that I was really falling for this woman and didn’t know how I was going to leave her in a few days to return to my normal life. And we still had nearly another week together ... that I had absolutely no intention of cutting shorter.

Between the pillow under Ginger’s hips and how hard I was, my cock was buried deep inside her. I didn’t want to move she felt so good, but at the same time, I couldn’t resist pulling out and plunging back into her, eliciting a little scream. And I heard myself groaning as well.

We made love like that for maybe a minute, maybe ten. I had no concept of time. We alternated fucking and kissing, sometimes both. Her lips relayed every plunge into her by stiffening, then softening again.

But all good and wonderful things have to come to an end. And what an ending it was! I fired spurt after spurt of cum inside Ginger’s body with her pussy lips gripping and pulling, finally culminating in her own body stiffening and orgasming.

Afterward, we lay together a long time, both of us on our backs, shoulders tight together. “Forgot to tell you,” I finally said, “guess who Susan hired today.”

Ginger lay there, uncomprehending, “Umm, who?” she asked.

I rolled over on my side facing her so I could watch her expression, “Remember Tammy, from yesterday?”

Her eyes grew wide, looking at me, “Are you serious? How...”

I chuckled, “Yup, can’t say I wasn’t shocked about out of my mind when they walked down that aisle and Susan introduced us. Think Tammy was just as shocked. Pretty darn good worker, too.”

She laughed, “I can imagine the look on both your faces. I wouldn’t have expected that in a million years.”

I knew it was getting late so checked my watch, ten till eleven. I remembered that I was supposed to watch the news at eleven so turned on Ginger’s TV and turned it to KEPR, Channel 19. Then Ginger and I lay in each other’s arms and watched. The national news was still dominated by the last Presidential election a month ago, that was still being contested. Then local news about the Christmas toy drive asking for donations. At twenty after, my eyes and ears popped alert when we saw what Kevin had been so excited about. It was an ad for the new store, filmed inside the Ontario store, the two kids dressed up and acting as running the store. Probably about the cutest one-minute ad I’d ever seen.

The kids had every right to be excited. They were wonderful! Ginger said so, too.

Tuesday, both of Susan’s new workers were there. With the four of us working, by the end of the day, Susan said she was sure we’d finish on Wednesday, giving plenty of time for decorating and any final touches before Saturday.

When I called home that evening, I gave Addie the news about finishing up and she told me that Susan had already told her. Darn, I wanted to. I complimented her on the kids’ ad, telling her that I had loved it. Hopefully, it’ll give the store a ‘family’ feeling when it opens in a few days. Addie still didn’t ask me anything about Ginger and I didn’t bring her up, either.

I spent the next half-hour talking to the kids, complimenting them on their TV ad, told them how wonderful they were and how much I missed them. And I do! This has been the longest I’ve been away from my kids since Katie was born.

Later that evening, I took Ginger out to dinner at a new pizza place that had just opened in Kennewick, The Rock. It had a really good wood-oven pizza buffet, but the music was too loud. Besides, it was rock music, not my favorite by a long way. Ginger’s either.

But the company was good. Almost too good and I realized that I was falling in love with her. It was only Tuesday and I had five more nights before going back to my old life and my family.

Later that night, after we went to bed, it was even more starkly obvious that I was falling in love when she came to bed wearing nothing at all and we just held each other, kissed, and caressed each other for what must have been an hour before making love. It was so different than the night before; tender and gentle; like lovers, not fuck-buddies.

And I was actually starting to enjoy the morning workouts. Getting up so early from being in bed with a goddess was still the shits, but I was beginning to feel like the exercise was actually making a difference.

By the end of the day Friday, the store was ready to open. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas, the candy was all in place, we’d gotten the leatherworks from Daryl, took the paper down from the front window and had it ready to go.

With each day and night, I felt myself slip a little further under the spell of this older woman. Although, she sure didn’t feel ‘older’ when we made love ... or any other time. She was still saying that she didn’t want a man around the house full time, but I thought she was not sounding quite so confident about it as when we’d made that little trip on Sunday.

But I knew where my obligations ... and my true love was; with my two kids and my wife and unborn baby in Boise. Ginger knew that, too. It wasn’t going to make leaving on Sunday easy, but given the recent history between Addie and me, at least I knew it wouldn’t have to be ‘goodbye’ to Ginger on Sunday. And if she took our relationship as knowledge that she could perhaps build a relationship beyond Eric with another man, I’d learn to live with that ... even be happy for her.

Susan planned a celebration dinner at Sterling’s Steakhouse in Richland for the store’s opening. We all planned to be there; Tammy and Matt, Cathy, the little whirlwind and her husband, Ginger and me, Susan and John, and of course, Addie and Nick.

Ginger hadn’t wanted to meet Addie, but after our week together, she felt like she was ready, spending almost an hour getting ready for dinner. As always, she was gorgeous, wearing a fairly modest green blouse with flowery appliques and cream-colored slacks.

I think I was probably more nervous than Ginger; it had been over a week since I’d seen Addie and she’d be with her lover, Nick, who doesn’t know her husband isn’t off serving the country with the National Guard. I had been looking forward to seeing him and her together again with him having no inhibitions to romancing her, probably trying to steal her away from that long-missing husband. Now, it being only minutes away, and having not seen Addie for a week, I was a nervous wreck about it.

We took Ginger’s BMW and got there about five minutes after Susan’s seven o’clock reservation. The only ones not there yet were Addie and Nick. I introduced Ginger as my girlfriend, which was kind of humorous when Tammy and Matt stood and we reminisced a little about our ‘meeting’ at Dry Falls, without mentioning the girls being topless and the short making out – that part didn’t need to be public knowledge.

We talked and laughed about the incredible coincidence of that meeting, then the next day Tammy applying for work at the store. Still, as far as they all knew, I was just another employee at the store, and I was perfectly happy to keep it that way.

Then I saw my wife walking toward us, Nick with her, his arm around her waist; God, she was gorgeous! Dressed in a pair of slacks and I recognized the silk blouse. And the scruffy guy with her. His scraggly beard and tangled, blond hair looked exactly the same as every other time I’d seen him. I still didn’t get that, but obviously, Addie did. Susan stood and introduced Adriana as the owner to all of us, me included as if we’d never met before. Addie introduced Nick and it was the first time he’d ever seen me, except in passing that one time in the nightclub, which I was sure he wouldn’t remember since I’d just been another patron.

I introduced Ginger as my girlfriend to my wife. They greeted each other politely as if it was the most normal thing in the world, no acknowledgment of any prior knowledge.

There were ten of us at a big, round table, Tammy and Matt on my left, then Addie and Nick next to them. Addie apologized for being late, explaining, “Fresh snow on the mountain. It was slick.” I saw her surreptitiously take several glances toward Ginger, no doubt wondering about our relationship after a week. She hadn’t ever asked about or said anything about Ginger in our nightly conversations; actually, because of that, I knew she was jealous of Ginger and concerned about our bond. I didn’t want to do anything to alleviate that jealousy so I was determined to be especially attentive to Ginger ... just like I knew she intended to be with Nick. In spite of my prior nervousness, the situation was making me hard, thankfully, hidden under the table.

Our waitress had already brought menus, leaving one at the two empty seats, so we all decided our order. Ginger and I decided to share a full rack of barbecue ribs. I don’t remember what anyone else ordered, but once Nick and Addie decided, he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Cathy was the same bubbly personality that I’d seen in the store the last couple days. As far as Nick and Addie, dinner was actually kind of anticlimactic from my expectation as they acted more like a married couple would, rather than a hot date like I’d expected, holding hands periodically and Addie absentmindedly rubbing her fingers on the back of Nick’s hand, a little thing that has always seemed an intimate expression of affection to me.

Then I realized what I’d just thought, ‘like a married couple,’ and that itself scared the shit out of me ... and added to my sexual tension.

Ginger’s and my only significant possessiveness was Ginger’s hand on my thigh a lot during the meal and I held that hand. Otherwise, it was just a pleasant dinner paid for by Addie’s business account credit card. It was hard, though, not having any personal interaction with Adriana after not having seen her for a week.