Chapter 1

My name is Daniel Kincaid and the story I am about to tell you happened several years ago now. I am the lead consultant in a small advertising firm here in Boston, and I have been in the advertising business for almost fifteen years now. I recently moved to Boston to take this lead consultant position about five years ago.

It’s a good job, and I enjoy the challenges and the company has a lot of great people working here. I especially like my boss, Allen White. We get along really well and I guess you could say we’re best friends. We hang out socially when we aren’t working quite a bit. It’s a good relationship and makes working a lot better and not so much like “work”.

While I am not married (I haven’t found the right girl yet), Allen is married to a very beautiful and charming woman, Carol. I met Carol at a company Christmas party, and I guess that’s where the story really begins.

Carol is a very friendly and personable woman in her early to mid-thirties, I guess. She is unabashed and flirtatious, and she isn’t afraid of suggestive talk, she is a woman who knows she is a woman and what that does to a man. In high school she would be known as a cocktease, but because she is married to my boss that term is never used!

It was almost Christmas three years ago when “The Incident”, as I call it, happened. Allen always throws a grand Christmas party every year for his employees as a way of thanking them for their hard work throughout the year.

Carol decorates their large and very nice home with all the trimmings and there is a “Secret Santa” type gift exchange after which Allen hands out the Christmas bonuses to everyone. There is always great food and lots of spirits – besides the Christmas spirit – at these parties. Everyone is guaranteed to have a wonderful time.

This particular Christmas party happened at the end of a very good business year and everyone was in a very happy, very festive mood. Carol had done her always superb job of decorating their home, and there was food and wine for everyone with plenty to spare. Allen liked to throw these parties in his home for a couple of reasons.

First off, he wanted the company to feel like a family, so he invited everyone into his home to show that point. Secondly, he had a policy that if you were going to drink, you put your car keys in a locked wooden box by the front door. He didn’t want anyone driving home from his party drunk and getting in an accident.

Allen and Carol lived at the end of a large cul-de-sac so there was plenty of room for everyone to park and, if necessary, leave their cars overnight and take a cab home. He took care of cab fare saying it was cheaper than worker’s comp – “Daddy” Allen took good care of us all!

The party went on and after everyone ate their fill and had one or several drinks, it was time for the gift exchange. Normally, there was a price ceiling of twenty-five dollars or so for this exchange – nobody wanted to feel obliged or uncomfortable to spend much more than that.

This year my “Secret Santa” was none other than Carol herself. And when she handed me the present she had bought me it was in a surprisingly large box.

I looked at her curiously. “What’s this, Carol? I thought there was a twenty-five dollar limit?”

“Just open it, Daniel.” I unwrapped the present and found it to be a very nice leather briefcase! Obviously, she had disregarded the ceiling on presents!

“I noticed your briefcase was looking a little worse for wear. We can’t have our best advertising executive looking shabby, so I got you this one. I’m the boss’s wife so I can do what I want!” She giggled at her remark.

I looked over the briefcase – this was a high-end piece of luggage!

“Carol, I-I don’t know what to say,”

Carol smiled impishly “Well, I understand ‘thank you’ is traditionally what you say when someone gives you a present!”

“Of course. Thank you, Carol.” I blushed and Carol giggled again.

After the gift exchange, the party continued. Carol was the perfect hostess making sure that everyone had something to eat and drink. But after a while, I noticed she was getting a little happier than usual. I didn’t say anything at first, I just kept watch over her. I didn’t really think it was my place to tell the boss’s wife she was getting drunk.

But as the evening progressed, she got more and more inebriated. Finally, I had to say something. I was, after all, Allen’s best friend and Carol was his wife. So I discretely asked Carol to “show me something in the bathroom”. She and I walked back to the bathroom and that’s when I confronted her in private.

“Carol, dear, this may not be my place to say, but I don’t want you to be embarrassed. You’ve had a little more than your share to drink, hon, and as your friend, I think you should probably excuse yourself from the party and find a bed to crash in until the room stops spinning.”

Carol looked up at me through what had to be fuzzy alcohol-glazed eyes and nodded. I helped her to her room and took off her heels. I didn’t help her get undressed – that wouldn’t have been proper.

But she lay down on her bed and within a couple minutes, I could tell she was on her way to dreamland. I closed the door quietly and went back to the party.

I pulled Allen aside and told him what had happened and that she was safely asleep. He thanked me for helping her and for my discretion. It wasn’t much after that when I decided I, too, had gotten my fill of Christmas revelry and went home.

The next day was Saturday and I didn’t have to work so I was doing some housework that I had been putting off doing – laundry and so forth that needed to be done if I expected to show up for work Monday wearing clothes.

All of a sudden I heard the doorbell ring and so I closed the lid to the washing machine, spun the dial and pressed start, then I went to see who was giving me this unscheduled break in my housework.

It turned out to be Carol. “Oh hi, Carol! Come on in, hon!” She came in and I closed the door behind her. “Have a seat, Carol. I got a pot of coffee going, would you like a cup?”

“That would be nice. Thank you.” I got us both a cup of coffee and brought them both into the living room with the sugar and creamer for her. I had seen her have coffee at work when she came by and knew she used both.

“Daniel, I just came by to thank you for what you did last night ... taking me into the bathroom to tell me I was getting ... well, getting tanked. That was very sweet and thoughtful of you.”

“That’s quite all right, sweetheart. I just figured that it had snuck up on you and I wanted to protect you. You know how office watercooler gossip can be!

“Oh yes, very much! But I’m sorry I put you in such a place. It’s just...” She let her words trail off.

“Just what Carol? Is there something wrong?”

“Oh Daniel, I have to tell someone! I don’t have anyone I can talk to! But you have to swear that you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone, especially Allen. Promise?”

“I swear I won’t say anything to anyone. Now, what’s going on Carol?”

“It’s Allen and I. We are having troubles ... you know marital ones.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I don’t know what to do either. I mean he’s always so focussed on work and if isn’t work, it’s his damn golf. I tell you, he’s obsessed with the both of them! I have tried to get his attention, I really have.

“I’ve made him his favorite dinners, I’ve gotten dressed up in nice clothes and did the candlelight dinner thing, I’ve even gotten into sexy lingerie and met him at the door when he came home. But nothing seems to get through to him. I’m beginning to think he isn’t interested in me anymore!”

“Oh, Carol, I’m sure he’s still interested in you!”

“Oh really? Well, the other day he came home after work and wanted to take a shower. While he was in there, I came into the bathroom naked to shower with him and see if I could get his attention that way.

“Do you know what he did? He told me he’d be out in a couple minutes and shut the door on me! Left me in the hallway dripping onto the hallway floor! Thank goodness it is hardwood and not carpeting like our bedroom!”

“Oh my!”

“Oh my is right! I was pissed and didn’t speak to him the rest of the night. Not that he noticed. He just ate dinner and turned on the sports channel and watched TV!”

“Geez, Carol, I don’t know what to say.”

“Daniel, can I ask you ... Do you think I’m attractive? I mean do you find me attractive?”

“Oh, Carol I don’t think I should...”

“Please, Daniel! Please, I need to know. Am I getting dull and drab? Am I not attractive anymore? Please tell me the truth, Daniel, it’s important.”

I turned on the sofa where we were sitting and took her hand, looking straight into her eyes.

“Carol, I have known you and Allen for five years or so, and I can tell you right here and now that you look every bit as beautiful today as you did the day I met you. I don’t know what is going on with Allen, but if he can’t see the beautiful, desirable, and sexy woman that is sitting in front of me right now, maybe he needs to have his eyes checked. Cause from here you are an absolute knockout, honey!”

Carol lept up from her seat and threw her arms around me, knocking me backward on the sofa as she fell on top of me. She kissed me over and over again enthusiastically. “Oh, Daniel, thank you! Thank you, you wonderful sweet man! Oh, that means so much to me, you have no idea!”

Not realizing what I was doing at the time, I put my arms around her and held her – mostly as an automatic reaction to keep her from falling onto the floor. But looking back on it, I guess there was a desire to hold her as well. I mean she IS every bit as beautiful and sexy as I told her she was and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want her, too. Every man (and probably some of the women) in the company wanted Carol White!