Chapter 2

Cheryl had looked at all the likely job openings. Monday morning, she was calling the unlikely ones. Kochanowski and Kochanowski had advertised an opening for a paralegal OR a secretary more than a week ago on the web. Well, either it was still open, or they’d tell her.

“Kochanowski, Belmonte, and Belmonte,” a woman’s voice answered. Damn! Did she get the wrong number? On the other hand, could there be two law offices involving the name Kochanowski?

“I’m calling about an opening for a paralegal.”

“Fine. Can you come in this afternoon?”

“Certainly. What time is convenient?” Cheryl asked.

“Why don’t we say two o’clock? And ignore the name on the glass. It’s suite 1709.”

The glass on the door of suite 1709 said ‘Kochanowski and Kochanowski.’ She knocked and a cheerful voice told her to come in. The only person that she could see in the office was a pregnant woman behind the desk.

“I’m Cheryl Benson,” she said. “You advertised for a paralegal.”

“So we did. Have you worked as a paralegal before?”

“No. I just got my degree in prelaw. I thought I would work and pay off my school loans before I applied to law school.”

“Can you type?” the woman asked. She pushed away from the desk and pulled herself up onto her feet. “Take the chair. I have a test in there. Hit the space bar when you’re ready.”

Cheryl took the chair. When she hit the space bar, a computerized voice began dictating, and she began typing. When she got more than a word behind the voice, it slowed down. This flustered her, but she didn’t complain. When the voice stopped, she scooted back in her chair.

“Decent,” the woman said. “You’ll probably do better in real life. Pardon me for intruding in your personal life, but do you have a boyfriend currently?”

That question was less an intrusion than something she didn’t really know. “I’ve been on one date with a guy. I have another scheduled Saturday.”

“And is he taller than you?”

Cheryl almost laughed. “Oh, yes.”

“If you take this job, how long would you plan to stay?”

“At least until September next year.”

“Well,” the woman said, “I could ask more questions, but I’m not the one to decide.” She hit a button on her desk. “Chris, could you come in here?”

A guy came in through a door from one side instead of the hall. He was maybe 5’ 9” and slightly balding. He wore a suit.

“Cheryl Benson,” the woman said, “Chris Kochanowski. Chris is the senior partner here. What are your questions, Chris?”

“Can she type? File so you can find the files?”

“She can type well enough. She’s a college graduate; I’m assuming she knows the alphabet.”

“Will she take ten dollars an hour?” The woman looked at her, and she decided.

“I’m really looking for a little more.”

“Twelve and health insurance?”

“That seems reasonable,” she said. It was less than she had expected, but it was more than she could get waiting tables, and she saw that as the next jobs she’d seek.

“When we run over, and law offices sometimes do, that will be time and a half unless you specifically want comp time,” Kochanowski said. “Damn it Marie, it’s really your decision.”

“Then,” the woman said, “the decision is yes. Can you start training tomorrow? Pay starts then, too.”

“What time tomorrow?”

“Nine o’clock.”

She was officially a working woman.

She explained the situation to Jake Saturday when he took her to a restaurant before the movie.

“Marie Kochanowski got a job as a legal secretary. Then she married the lawyer. She’s afraid of her successor in the first position taking the second position, as well. As far as I can see, the fear is totally baseless. He dotes on her, and he dotes on the kid who’s about to appear at least as much.

“Anyway,” she continued, “his sister was the other Kochanowski. She became the other Belmonte, and there are going to be three lawyers in the office as soon as those two are back from their honeymoon. It’s incestuous. I’m the only one in the office who isn’t related, and I call Chris and Marie by their first names.”

They got out of the movie early enough to go to the lakefront and sit on a grassy section between the parking lot and the beach. They watched the moon come up out of the lake. They mostly kissed, and she kept her clothes on.

When the cops came by to announce that the park was closing, they drove back to the building.

His kiss was as long and as exciting as though they hadn’t been making out for the last hour.

Marie’s question seemed to have been answered. She had a boyfriend.

Jake would have been happy to hear that. As he saw it, Cheryl was between boyfriends. Her last one had tricked her. She’d known Jake forever, and the families knew one another. She must see him as safe. She was happy to go out with him. She was even willing to make out with him. On the other hand, Jake damned-well didn’t want to be safe. He wanted to take this further.

Meanwhile, they were ramping up on a new program at work. An insurance company had started with a rate-setting FORTRAN program decades ago. They’d added new calculations to the old program to answer new questions ever since. Finally, somebody had persuaded management that the Rube-Goldberg mess had to go. Larry’s team was tasked with writing something smooth, compact, and in a modern language which would produce all the figures they wanted in logical order.

The first question was in which order the figures should be calculated. Some were useful in calculating others. They couldn’t break it down into modules before that question was answered, and they sat around the conference table tossing out ideas.

“Okay,” Larry said, “that’s it. Take lunch, and I’ll have your assignments when you come back. For once, sales hasn’t promised the program for yesterday. Next Wednesday’s the fourth. I want something which will run -- or at least each module will run -- by the third. We’ll start speeding it up and working out kinks on the fifth. I think the building will be closed on the fourth, and I don’t plan to be here to check on that.”

Larry was right. Everybody needed a break. Jake was tempted to call Cheryl over lunch, but she was at work on a new job. Even employers who allowed personal calls at work weren’t happy with them and one of her jobs was answering the phone.

He stopped on the way home at a north-side Korean restaurant. Eating in the Loop was expensive. Except breakfast, he only ate at home when he was pushed or restaurants were closed.

At 7:30, Cheryl would be done with dinner and still awake. He called her cell.

“Jake,” she answered. She sounded pleased.

“Listen, would you be willing to go out for dinner and dancing Friday night?”

“That sounds wonderful.”

“Outside your office building? 6:10?” he asked.

“Make it 6:20.”

“And another movie Saturday? Or is that pushing it?”

“I would love to.” Her voice sounded as if she would really love to.

“And this is really pushing it. How about a dinner and we find a place to watch the fireworks on Wednesday?”

“You really get the Fourth off?”

“Massa Lincoln done freed the slaves.” He didn’t try for a Black accent. He’d tried one once in the hearing of an African-American officer; the Columbia graduate had corrected every grammatical error he made for the next four months.

“Then, I’m inviting you on a picnic. I’m cooking. You can drive.”

“Well, I’ve never had an invitation turned down so attractively. I’d love it.”

Friday, Cheryl got downstairs just before a quarter after. Jake was already there. She spotted him first; Jake was damned easy to spot. He started into the crowd heading towards the doors when he did see her. They met, he held out a hand, and then they had to drop hands when they reached the revolving doors.

“Mind walking a few blocks?” he asked.

“Not at all.” With his hand in hers, he held back his pace whenever she got behind. An hour later, the restaurant would have asked them to wait in the bar until a table was free. Right then, the bar was crowded and the restaurant part was not.

They exchanged updates on their jobs. His module was what he called the front end. A human would type in the data. The program would check that all the numbers were in a reasonable range, ship them out, and start the other modules working.

Marie was three weeks to her due date, though she looked to be in her tenth month.

They danced at the same place as last time. It was as enjoyable, and they closed the place again.

It was impossible to have a kiss hotter than the ones Jake had already given her, impossible, at least, while dressed. Jake achieved the impossible. His tongue raped her mouth while he left fingerprints on her skirt. Finally, he tore away from her and headed up the stairs. She took a minute catching her breath and finding her key to the apartment before letting herself in. That night, she dreamed of following Jake up the stairs. Their clothes disappeared, and their skins kissed each other as much as their mouths.

Saturday, she shopped for the picnic. She bought a ham and figured on making the sandwiches Tuesday night. She’d bake brownies for dessert Sunday. She warned Mom about which foods were not to be touched before Thursday.

“I thought you would go to the beach with us.” Mom said. Every year, they packed a cooler, had a late lunch, saw the fireworks, and came home to a late supper. Cheryl -- and Eve long ago -- usually accompanied them. The fireworks were distant, but the view was spectacular.

“Well, Jake keeps feeding me. I thought it was time to feed him.”

“You could have invited him,” Mom said. “I know. You want to see him without chaperones.”

“Mom!” Cheryl said. “I’m a college graduate. When Eve was my age, Janice was three months old.”

“But Eve was married more than a year then.”

“And she didn’t get married with you watching her and Keith every second, or even every date.” Cheryl didn’t know where this thing with Jake was heading, but she knew it would head nowhere if Mom supervised.

Jake knocked on the Benson door a few minutes before six. This really brought back memories. Mr. Benson had more waist and less hair than when he’d called for Eve. He couldn’t really be shorter. Jake was just taller.

“Is Cheryl ready?” Jake asked. “I know I’m a little early.”

“You guys are seeing a lot of each other, aren’t you?” Well, not as much as he’d like to see of Cheryl, but he’d never tell Mr. Benson that.

“She’s indulging me. I work a crazy schedule, and she gives me dates when I’m not buried in work.”

“The first time they saw you,” Cheryl said as she came in, “you were dating a tenth grader. They think you still are. I’m ready.”

He offered her his arm, and they left. He helped her into the car and then got in the driver’s side. In deference to her parents, they’d skipped the kiss when she came out. They had a nice one before he started the car. It was chaste, only a little tongue and no hands at all.

He had his arm around her all through the movie. She snuggled against him. The moon was smaller and higher in the sky than it had been the last time they watched it. The lake was the same, though, and the feel of Cheryl was even better.

“Do you like mustard?” she asked him after one kiss.

“Now, that came out of left field.”

“Well, I’m making ham sandwiches for our picnic, and I wondered what I should put on them. I could bring everything, but with only two of us, I figured on asking.”

“Mustard is fine,” he said, He’d been in enough situations where you ate what was available. It was nice of her to ask, though.

By now, the moon was right overhead. He eased her down where she could see it, and kissed her again. He plundered her mouth. Then he kissed a path down her neck and into her cleavage. He finished up kissing her soft tits through her blouse and bra. Her tush was on the ground and out of his reach. He stroked her belly, stroked her jeans-clad thigh. When his hand reached her mound that had been calling it all night, she didn’t make any protest. The entire park was full of other couples making their own explorations, and he couldn’t bare any of this beauty. He desperately wanted to, though.

The cops came by with their loudspeakers. It had to be too early, but nobody getting up and walking away said so. He had to circle three blocks and make a U-turn to find parking, but they held hands all the way back from the car.

At her apartment door, Cheryl turned towards him and raised her face for the kiss. Her hands were around his neck while their tongues wrestled and his hands roamed. She was tight against his hard-on. He wanted her so desperately. He almost picked her up and went for the stairs.

Instead, he wrenched himself away. He headed to the stairs.

“Wednesday,” she said softly but audibly.

“I can’t wait.” He would, however, be forced to.

Sunday, he scouted a number of possible locations in the Forest Preserve. He wanted some place accessible from a legal parking spot with nobody else near. Of course, nobody being there on Sunday did not assure that nobody would be there on the fourth. Well, he wouldn’t consider any place a sane man would put up a grill. The Fourth of July meant grilling for lots of families. Finally, he identified four possibles.

Monday, there was a sprinkle. He got a drop cloth and put it in the trunk of his car. If Cheryl called off the picnic because of rain, that was her right. He’d be prepared for wet ground, though.

Tuesday night, Cheryl started on her sandwiches. The brownies were in the refrigerator and she’d purchased another cooler as well as the soft drinks. Apparently, Jake hadn’t tumbled to the connection between mustard and kisses.

Wednesday, she got up late. Mom was busy in the kitchen, and Dad was rooted in front of the TV. After her shower, she chose her thinnest bra. It didn’t give as much support, but if Jake wanted to kiss her through a bra, she wanted to have him kissing her and not underwire.

Jake was early. With nobody watching -- she’d closed the door remembering that his parents were across the hall -- they had a very nice kiss before she handed him the blanket and the cooler. She carried the hamper.

“I’ve got ground cover,” he said when they were in the car heading west. “The grass might be a little damp.” He drove a bit, and then stopped in the Forest Preserve where they could park well off the road. She noticed when he opened the trunk that he’d brought a blanket. When he put down the drop cloth, she also noticed that he’d chosen an isolated spot. Well, she wanted to make out, too.

When they’d eaten, she found out that she’d been right. Jake did taste better with mustard. He pushed her down on the blanket though he lay on the drop cloth. After another kiss, he stared directly into her eyes while unbuttoning her blouse. His next kiss was to her belly.

“Roll so I can get the bra straps,” he said sometime later.

“I’ll get it. You get your shirt.”

“I’m not pretty.”

“I’ve seen your scars,” she said. “I want to kiss skin-to-skin.”

He didn’t say anything, but he started on his buttons. She sat up, took the blouse all the way off, and took off the bra. She glanced around. She couldn’t see anybody, not even any passing cars. Still, she was glad to lie back down.

He got his lanky -- still clothed -- legs between her -- still clothed -- ones. The feel of his hairy chest against her nipples was as exciting as his tongue in her mouth. She felt heat gather in the pit of her stomach, and he was hot and firm against her thigh. He slid down and kissed all over her breasts before sucking on her nipples.

She hadn’t registered any time passing, but the sun was definitely to the west of them when a loudspeaker called from the road, “This is a public park.”

Jake rolled off her and stood. He started trotting downhill. She could see that he was keeping between her and the sheriff’s car down there. She got her bra and blouse on, stood up, and tucked the blouse into her jeans. She picked up Jake’s shirt and tee shirt before following him down at a slower pace.

Jake called out, “Is there something wrong with how the car is parked, officer?” He knew that wasn’t the problem, but let’s start with what he was doing right. The cop -- must have been a deputy -- got out of the car.

“Where did you get that?” were the deputy’s first words.

“Falujah.” He slowed down. He might look threatening galloping down on him like that.

“What were you doing up there?”

“We were having a picnic,” he said. The guy knew what else they’d been doing. Otherwise, he would have kept driving. He got to the level and stopped. They could talk like this, and he didn’t want to crowd an armed man.

“About done with your food?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why don’t you pack it up and find another place, maybe a quiet room?” the deputy asked. “My sergeant was in ‘Nam, and I’d be doing night shifts until he retires if I arrested a Purple-Heart veteran for public indecency. On the other hand, families use the Forest Preserve. You want a little privacy.”

He’d wanted a little privacy, and he’d thought he’d got it. On the other hand, never argue with a cop.

“We’ll close it up, then,” he said. “Took us a couple of trips to carry the stuff up.”

“No hurry. I’ll swing back in maybe five minutes.”

“We’ll be gone by then.” The deputy got back in his car, and Cheryl handed him his shirts.

“Wait here,” he told her. “I’ll get the stuff.” He did, loading the car after everything was down. He put her blanket in the back seat and put the rest in the trunk.

He let her out by the house. She took the blanket up, and he parked further away. He managed the cooler and hamper in one trip.

“They’re still at the beach,” Cheryl greeted him when he came in the door of the apartment. She followed him into the kitchen and started to put stuff away when he set the basket down. He took the cooler. He put the cans in the ‘fridge and carried the cooler out to the back porch. He tossed the melt water and the rest of the ice over the railing.

When he came back to the kitchen, Cheryl came into his arms for another kiss. She was soft in all the right places, and he was hard again. When he squeezed her ass, she tightened one cheek and then the other.

“I don’t know for how long, though,” she said when they broke.

“Do you want to come up?” After all, they had a police order to find a quiet room.

She was still for the longest time.

Cheryl remembered Lori. Guys don’t have an off switch. If you went to a guy’s room, he expected you to have sex with him. Did she want to have sex with Jake? She thought.

“Let’s.”

They returned to the hall and went up the stairs. Jake sort of hung back, and she suspected that he was eying her butt as she climbed. She swayed for him. He caught up at his door and unlocked it. They went into his kitchen, and she remembered that he didn’t have a living room. Well, she knew where the bedroom was.

“Cheryl,” he cooed when she went there. They had a kiss and he stroked her butt. He didn’t taste of mustard any more, but he still tasted of Jake, and that was arousing as hell. He turned her around, and she was facing his bed while he held her breast and unbuttoned her blouse. He kissed her shoulder while unsnapping her bra.

She was scared shitless. At the same time, she was aroused until she was creaming. He kept kissing and stroking. He tweaked her ear while he sucked on her nipple.

“Look, do you have something?” she asked when he opened her belt. The belt didn’t puzzle him like it had Dale.

“Yeah.” He opened a drawer in his night table. Right there; the guy was prepared. Well, he’d had a long -- occasionally brutal -- life between Eve and her.

“Have you done this before?” he asked while opening the box.

The question froze her. How far had Dale gone? He’d said he hadn’t, but the guy was a total liar.

“I don’t know.”

Jake silently cursed himself for an idiot. It was a fair question with some gal. This wasn’t some gal. This was Cheryl, and he’d seen her state when the guy had dumped her out front.

“That guy who’d got you drunk?” he asked.

“Yeah. He said he didn’t, but...”

“Well, in that case, you really haven’t. What he did with your body while you weren’t there is another question. We’ll go nice and slow.”

She smiled at him, and he kissed her again. When she felt less stiff, he took off his own shirts. She had already seen his scars, and, instead of looking, she went into another kiss. Feeling her soft tits and hard nipples against his chest hardened him until he ached. “Slowly,” he told his cock silently. The cock never listened.

“Why don’t you lie down?” he said. When she did, he started on her tennis shoes. When they were off, he kissed her belly and sat on the bed to deal with his own boots. The next kiss was skin to skin again on the top. It was more comfortable with his feet able to push off the bed.

He kissed down to her tits, got lost in them, and then kissed down to her belly button. When she had writhed while he licked there, he knelt up with his hands on her waist.

“Let me,” he said.

Cheryl had already made her decision before the last round of kisses. She raised her hips, and she felt the jeans slowly sliding down her legs. She was ready for the panties to follow them, even if she was feeling a little nervous. Instead, he lay down beside her and kissed her again. He kept his body off hers, and he stroked her thighs while he kissed her mouth and breast. He rubbed through the panties while he sucked her nipple. She felt hot, and she welcomed the possible cooling when he finally removed her panties.

Then, his hand was directly on her genitals, and the heat only increased. He leaned across her to lick and suck her left nipple, and she felt the hair on his chest tickle and scratch her other one. The heat rose in her; she felt herself stiffen.

“Yes, darling,” he said. “Come for me.”

She tried to tell him that she would. Right then, though, the fire flared. The flames ran through her, shook her, consumed her.

“Oh, Cheryl,” he said. She shook again and again.

“Darling,” he said. Then, though, he left her. She could feel the bed shake from his motions.