Chapter 2: Allegro Moderato

Seeing Maureen vanishing in the gate, Jenny and I looked at each other, and I hugged her.

“Now we’ll be on our own, my love, but Maureen will always be with us.”

She nodded, and when we got back, we completed our breakfast, and she sat down to study, and I went through some proposals my marketing staff had prepared. We broke for lunch, and I took her to a small restaurant at Bondi beach (nothing fancy, but solid food). It was hot, and the sun was brilliant in the sky; there were some clouds on the horizon, however, perhaps threatening an afternoon thunderstorm. Afterwards, I let her drive the Porsche again, showing her the way to the place where Maureen and I had started our time together. I took out a blanket, and we sat in the same place, looking over the harbor and the sailing boats crossing each other. It was a beautiful hot afternoon; the sun was shining, some clouds were chasing each other, and the breeze coming in from the ocean cooled us down a bit. We heard the waves crashing against the rocks and the birds yelling their heads off.

I told Jenny how all had started; the party I almost did not go to, the Grange Hermitage that made Maureen look at me, Joan Sutherland singing in Norma, and the freckle hunt, the famous freckle hunt. Jenny smiled and pointed out that she had two freckles and that she was willing to sacrifice herself to continue my medical studies on whether long-term kissing could make them go away. She lay down and pointed out that buttons could be opened, a bra removed, and the experiment continued.

It was an invitation that I could not refuse, and I spent my time between her lips and her breasts. It was affection and love, not passion at this moment. It was a lot of fun, with her comments on my medical curiosity, eventual other intentions, and my lack of capacity to tease and to kiss at the same time. For her, it was proof that women could do parallel processing while men were interested in only one thing, and that was themselves.

It went on and on until I decided I had enough and concentrated on her; as a natural consequence, she stopped to tease, and an eventual moaning turned into quite an intensive desire to be satisfied. I was thrilled with myself as she suddenly yelled my name, and when she pushed my hand onto her pussy, she was very satisfied indeed. When she recovered, I wondered aloud: “I remember someone saying that women have the capacity of parallel processing; what happened to that capacity at the last moments? You did what you accused us of: you concentrated on your own pleasure! Hah!”

She blushed even more but said that she was talking about women in general, and she could not do this as long as I was with her and touching her.

“James, when you do this, I’m in heaven and don’t care what is happening around me. I want to be yours and you to be mine! Let us go home, and I’ll prove it once more!”

She asked me to drive because she did not know whether her senses had recovered enough to drive the Porsche, and when we came home, she kissed me very thoroughly.

“James, you have two choices: you can study your proposals or my body. What do you prefer? All is your fault; I was happy to stay with you and behave, but when you started your story with Maureen and then kissed me, that was not fair, my love.”

At that moment the phone rang: it was Allan with his daily report. Ellen’s condition was stable, but she was sad and unhappy, and they did not know what would happen. I used the moment to tell him that Maureen was on her way to Cleveland to stay with Ellen and him for a few days to see whether she could make Ellen interested in life again. He was upset.

“James, that was not necessary. I didn’t tell you about Ellen’s conditions to ask Maureen to come and stay with us. We like you very much, and I know that the same applies to you, but this is a sacrifice I cannot accept!”

“First of all, Allan: it is too late as she is already on the plane. It was her idea, and we supported her immediately. So accept it gracefully – and you know that Ellen will love it. Anything that improves her spirits can only be good for her, and you know Maureen: when she sets herself a task to help someone, nobody will stop her. She loves Ellen like she loves her own mother, so that is it, my friend.”

There was silence on the other side, and then a low noise like someone coughed with a tear in his eyes.

“James, we’ll never forget this. You are part of our family, and there you’ll stay forever. “ and hung up.

We looked at each other and knew we had done the right thing.

“James, can we delay the study of my body to a later time? I don’t believe that we are genuinely interested in this at this moment after talking to Allan, but it’s a delay and not a cancellation; you have to promise me that!”

I nodded, and she went to prepare tea, and I went back to my proposals; I was not completely satisfied, but I understood Jenny, and if she had not said it, I would have proposed the same. I looked at her study books, and there was a plethora of subjects: Marketing, business administration, personnel management, and even Basics of German! She was asking for punishment!

When she came back, I asked her about the workload and the German course. Her only response was that she liked to study and if one day I invited her to go to Germany with her (and with Maureen!), she wanted to be ready.

“James, I know that there are these fabulous malls in Germany, certainly better than in Sydney, and I want to be prepared!”

I could only shake my head; I had known that she was way above average intelligence, but this put her into a class of her own. She saw me looking at her and the books.

“James, my love, we are different people with different backgrounds. You come from a traditional German aristocratic family that formed you into the person you are today. I come from a broken family, and only when I started working with you, I felt challenged and put out my wings. I’m grateful to you that you gave me this opportunity and to you and Maureen that I feel safe and protected enough that I can do whatever I want. I don’t know what will become of me, but one thing is certain: I’ll always be at your side. And don’t forget the other thing I want: anyhow and anywhere!”

She blushed and kissed me gently.

“James, I love you so much. I cannot tell you how much, but I’ll always try to show you!”

We had our tea and went back to study. Occasionally I looked at her and if, by command, she looked up and blew me a kiss, and went back to her studies. Afterwards I prepared a light supper, and we went to bed. We made love gently but with affection and caring; she was not Maureen, but she was as beautiful to hold and love her in her own way.

She left early to change and be ready at the office in the morning. I arrived half an hour later, and she handed me my mail with comments and suggestions; there was also a phone call from one of the big distribution companies asking me to contact them. I did not know where this was coming from, but when I called the CEO, he wanted to visit to see how we could help them organize their business structure. It was less an equipment sale and more a consulting proposal, and something I had been thinking about but did not have the time to initiate anything. We agreed on a visit on Wednesday morning, but I still wondered where this was coming from. After a fast lunch, I moved to Sir Allan’s office to take over my other job.

Irene got up when I arrived and followed me into the office. Closing the door, she hugged me and gave me a little kiss on the cheek.

“James, I heard from Mary Ann that Maureen is on her way to stay with Lady Ellen and Sir Allan. James, you’re such a nice person! You can try to show the straight German side of you and hide that you have feelings, but I know you better by now. If there were anything that I could do to help you and Maureen, just tell me: it will be done!”

She snuffled a bit, wiped a tear from her eyes, and hugged me once more. I hugged her back (carefully and respectfully, I admit), and we started our work.

I had become accustomed to her rhythm by now, and she to mine. We were a good team, and the work flowed. There were no problems with any of my colleagues, and even with the yearly balance sheet closing and the tremendous final sales results, we managed to get things done. Irene remarked the afternoon that she was proud of me, and that Sir Allan would be proud also. There was no more significant praise for me.

Maureen had called that she had arrived safely, that the car had picked her up and that she went immediately to the hospital. Ellen was overwhelmed and broke into tears; Allan was also very emotional and had all a good cry. She stayed there for an hour and went to the hotel to relax. She would go back to the hospital at night and then revisit the other day. She would advise what had happened, and she loved me very much.

I went home at night, and Jenny arrived quite a bit later. She had her work and evening courses, but it was comfortable having her at home. I liked it when she used her favorite pullover with the many holes that let her nipples peep out. I wondered why the holes got bigger every time she wore them, and she said the explanation was straightforward: every time she wore it, I played with her breasts, and somehow the holes were stretched out of proportions. If I wanted, she could change?

I immediately rejected that idea and informed her that if it fell apart one day, I would buy her another one, but obviously with premade holes!

The next day Maureen called, and we spoke for a long time. Ellen was not getting better, and she would have to stay at least another two weeks. That was too long for her because she also had other commitments, but would I agree that Jenny would take a week off and substitute her in Cleveland? More information would be available by that time, and we would know what to do, but she warned me: if she was on her flight back and Jenny on her flight to Cleveland, I should expect a visit from her mother. After all, she would not believe that I could stay on my own for a whole weekend!

I said I would discuss this with Jenny and tell her the next day.

When we were having dinner, I told her about Maureen’s suggestion, and she took a long time to answer. She was eager to help our friends, except was afraid of what would happen here when Eileen was alone with me. I tried to tell her that I had managed Eileen alone three times already and was not afraid of having another go if necessary.

“James, I’m not afraid of what she could do to you because I know that you can handle her, but I am concerned about the confusion she might arrange. She’ll be alone, and that is for her a green light to go all out. You will be annoyed, and our relationship will be weakened.”

I asked her whether she thought her presence would control Mrs. Monahan, and she said yes to my surprise. Eileen’s relationship with Maureen was still a mother to daughter, and Eileen would occasionally try to abuse this. She, however, had already established an equal partnership, and Eileen seemed to respect this. After several run-ins with Eileen, her position was quite clear, and there would be no problem.

In the end, I told her to go ahead and book her flight, and to make sure that she did it correctly, I stated that I would check her tickets: first class! She smiled and offered Business, but I was adamant: she would fly in comfort. I would give her a week off as long as she had a decent substitute in her place on Monday morning! We went to bed and made gentle love again, as we could not think under these circumstances, passion was right.

The following morning, she was busy, and I had to see the CEO who had called me. When I arrived, I was immediately led to his office. I had Peter prepare some notes on the company; it was a big, but not a great company; it was successful, but under average profits; and the public image was solid and stodgy. He was in his early 60’s and had been in his position for a long time; apparently, he had married the daughter of the major shareholder. He got up and shook my hand, something Australians did not do very often.

“Count de Winter, thank you for coming. I’ve heard enough about you to believe that you could help us to start to grow again.”

“Thank you for the praise, Mr. Fuller. We are proud to service our customers and interest our prospects to see what we can do. But do call me James.”

“Thank you, James; I’m Peter. Perhaps you are interested in who recommended you to me: it was a friend of mine, Mr. Young, someone you met on New Year and who was very impressed how you handled a very complicated situation. He said that it would be worthwhile for us to talk to you, so let’s see what we can find out about each other.”

It was an interesting conversation, and we agreed to return in two weeks when they had made up their mind on what they really wanted. When I was back, I called Peter and asked him to dig deeper into the company; perhaps we could make a different sale there. Mary Ann advised that her trip had been booked, and for me to go to the Administrative Manager to get her the week off; that was easy, especially when I told him that she would go to Cleveland to stay beside Sir Allan and Lady Ellen in their need. He had already heard about Maureen’s trip and was very supportive. I had a brief sandwich lunch with Peter and walked over to my second job.

Irene was waiting for me, and she had already learned how I wanted to work and had prepared the mail and the phone calls I should make. There was also a review of the previous year’s results and the organization of the sales meeting. We had passed well our sales quota, and most of my people were entitled to a bonus trip that this year would go to Hawaii. Mary Ann was organizing this, and apparently, everything was in perfect order. Well, since it was Mary Ann who was organizing it - what could go wrong?