Chapter 9: Allegro Crescendo

The next afternoon we visited Allan and Ellen; everyone changed into proper clothes; the ladies with nice blouses and tight short skirts, I with my blazer, a light blue polo shirt, and grey slacks. I must say that we looked very acceptable, and my ladies were gorgeous as always. They wanted the Porsche, and I saw more of Jenny’s thighs than she intended (but I wondered why she took such a long time to get into the car).

Allan’s house was in West Sydney, an affluent suburb. It was not huge, but it was well maintained. Two lions guarded the entrance to the garden with a small plot of well-cut grass and some bushes and shrubbery; these seemed to lack water and pruning. I rang the bell, and soon Allan opened the door, wearing his proper dark suit with a dark tie.

“Welcome back to our home, and please consider it as your home also. I want to repeat: you are family, and there are no formalities.”

Maureen stepped up and gave him a kiss, and Jenny was immediately behind her.

I looked at him.

“No kisses from me, Sir – oops ... Allan. Your wife, however...?”

We stepped in, and I remembered the very comfortable English home: deep leather chairs, a coffee table with picture books, a sideboard with photographs of the two and a young lady who must have been their deceased daughter, a cupboard with fine bone china and exquisite glasses, a deep dark carpet that looked like an old relic from his student days, windows that looked over the Bay, and flowery curtains. It welcomed us, and when I looked at Ellen’s smiling face, I was at home. She was dressed in a white, embroidered blouse with a cameo brooch at her neck and a long, dark skirt. She was sitting in a chair, and it must have been difficult for her to stay up, but she received family: noblesse oblige.

“James, come here and give me a hug!”

I did so, embracing her gently and brushing her cheek with my lips.

“Come on, James, you can do better than this!”

I looked at Maureen, who nodded smilingly and leaned forward, this time kissing her cheeks.

“Now, this is better. An old woman needs to feel the affection of a handsome young man!”

“Ellen, you are not an old woman; you are a wonderful, beautiful lady who I would be honored to escort anyplace as long as if your husband allowed it, naturally.”

She laughed and grinned at Allan. “You see, husband, I still have my admirers. You better stand up and be present to protect me from them!”

Allan laughed and replied that he would allow me to escort Ellen to any event she wanted to go to, but only over his dead body.

“I like you, James, but I love her!”

There was a moment of silence, and then we started again, and Ellen took the initiative.

¨Maureen, please go and get the china from the kitchen, and you, Jenny, please help her get the finger food. Allan, you can pour the tea, and James will sit beside me and flirt with me. Can you do this, dear?”

It was like a family Sunday afternoon tea where mother distributed the obligations. I sat on the couch beside her chair and complimented her on her home.

“Ellen, I have rarely seen a house that welcomes you so warmly and makes you comfortable; this must be your influence. Comfortable is not enough to describe it, but you, Ellen, you radiate affection and love when we see you.”

She touched my cheeks, and Allan coughed.

“James, you have not seen Ellen when she is angry. Beware!”

I looked at her and somehow was touched in my heart.

“Allen, I will take that chance every time!”

They both looked at me and then at each other; he nodded and smiled.

“James, go on this way, and you’ll go a long way in this house!”

We sat at the table that my two ladies had set, and for a while, the conversation was about Australia, the economy, and mutual friends. Then Allan received a glance from Ellen, got up, and asked me to accompany him. We sat at a side table, and I saw Ellen taking Maureen and Jenny under her wings.

“James, I want to discuss what is going to happen. As you probably imagined, I’ll resign from the company to take care of Ellen. I’ve spoken with Bill, and he recommended that the position be offered to you. You’ve done an outstanding job, and I’m entirely confident that you’ll lead this company forward. He agreed with me, but then something happened. The success we had this year threw light on the potential we have, and suddenly, the Chairman put his nephew into the discussion. He’s one of these Texans who believe that they are better than anybody else and treats his staff that way. He’s not completely bad, but his people don’t like him, and ... but he’s the nephew... ¨

He was visibly upset and even a bit angry.

¨It seems that a decision has been reached, to appoint that guy against my strong recommendations. They will offer you a good HQ position as compensation, or you can stay as Director of Marketing in Australia. I don’t know what to say: They created an excellent HQ position for you, and it will be a promotion, but it is an internal job: Planning and Strategies, and you lose your contacts with people outside the company. I also know that you don’t want to leave Australia and your family, and we’d also like to keep you close. This guy, however, has a very mixed reputation: he has been successful in other companies around the world, but there was always a foul smell when he left – and his successors needed years to clean up the mess he created. But again, he’s the nephew of the Chairman, and that counts at this moment.”

He shook his head, showing disappointment and a bit of sadness in his eyes.

“I know that you have options; I have heard enough rumors that you have outstanding job offers and that Mrs. Monahan wants you to come to Brisbane and run NT. So it’ll be your decision, and we, Ellen and I, will be behind you whatever you decide. You don’t have to decide now, as they will announce the appointment at the Regional Sales Meeting, where you’ll give the keynote speech. You’ll want to discuss this with Maureen and probably with Jenny; the way the three of you are connected is quite extraordinary. ¨

He looked at me with affection.

¨Ellen and I discussed this in Cleveland: you are amazing people. Jenny is frighteningly intelligent and organizes everything; Maureen is the emotional backbone of your group, and you, son, think out of the box, heal and motivate, lead and decide strategies and direction. If as people you are different, as a group you are something else, each complementing the other. As long as you trust each other and stay together, you’ll always be successful.”

He got up, and I looked at him as he walked away; this was the second time he had called me ‘son’. I liked it, but what had happened? We returned to the table, where Ellen was trying to teach Maureen to knit a pullover. All were laughing and looking at how the needles and the yarn had crisscrossed each other, and I could assume that she needed a lot of practice. Allan and his wife exchanged a glance that said everything. I wondered when Maureen and I would have the same capacity to say everything without saying a word.

Ellen put her needles down and told Maureen to stop; it would take her time to unravel the mess, and perhaps she would be more useful getting more tea? Maureen was upset; when I glanced at her, she snapped.

“This is not so easy as you think!”

I smiled, and she handed the needles to me. “If you believe that you can do, why don’t you show me?” and turned away to the kitchen.

I looked at the needles in my hands and smiled. “Superior intellect, my dear. German superiority!” Maureen stopped and challenged me. “Show me, my dear German husband. Show me your superiority!”

Everyone looked at her because we were not used to seeing her in a bad mood, but when Ellen said that men could not do everything, I accepted the challenge. I unraveled the yearn, placed the needles in the proper position, and to make it a bit more suspenseful, asked Ellen: “Any particular way to hold these, or could I just copy your moves?”

She told me to go ahead, and I started to knit the first row, turned it around and got the second one, and so on until there was a square of perhaps six inches wide. Asking Ellen whether she wanted me to introduce a pattern with different colors, she smiled and said it was enough; I didn’t need to show off. Maureen looked at me with suspicious eyes.

“Where did you learn this?”

I teased her: “I was looking at Ellen and you, and I learned from her proficiency and your mistakes.”

She looked at Ellen and asked quietly whether she would be forgiven if she hit me. Ellen nodded but recommended that she do this at home, as it might be more fun to kiss it good again? She blushed, and when Ellen added that perhaps Jenny might join the fray, she blushed, too.

It was good fun, and when I saw that Ellen was getting tired, I looked at Maureen; she nodded, and we said goodbye. Both repeated that we were family and expected to come back the next day and stay with them whenever there was an opportunity. I received another little kiss from Ellen and a handshake from Allan, and off we went.

Maureen was quiet - she was still upset, and when we closed the door to the flat, she turned on me.

“German superiority – bullshit! Where did you learn this?”

I was surprised to hear her cursing; she had never done this before. She really must have been upset.

“Maureen, my love, I grew up in a lonely house, and one of my aunts tried to interest me in handicrafts. It did not work out, but I still remember the moves.”

She turned to Jenny, who was amused, observing us:

“What should I do with him?”

Jenny replied that one option was to hit me and then kiss it well, and if she were going that way, she would join enthusiastically. Maureen went through her decision process: analyze, decide, execute, and then hit me solidly on my chest.

“This is for teasing me: German superiority, hah!”

Then she came forward and hugged me: “If you promise me not to tease me again, I will not hit you again! OK?”

I shook my head.

“I can promise you that I will tease you again many times, but in the future, I will run away faster!”

She decided that it was still early and that we should sit down and discuss our future, but we had to change first. She took Jenny by her hand and pulled her into the bedroom; looking at me; she asked me to put on a robe, put a bottle of good Chardonnay on the table and play one of my classical CDs. I did all this and sat down, waiting for them.

It was an incredible sight that I always enjoyed when they re-appeared; dressed or undressed, they were always beautiful, and this time they selected those little pieces that tried to hide but never succeeded. Jenny was in her standard pullover with the constantly increasing big holes in front and Maureen in her baby doll that started at her nipples and stopped before her pussy. They joined me, lying down in their favorite positions with their heads on my lap and my hands on their breasts. Jenny asked me to tell them what Allan had said, and I repeated the message.

Jenny was concerned.

“James, what do you want to do? What are you going to do? We’ll follow you everywhere. You know this, but what do you think is best for you and us?”

I tried to analyze and expose to them what I thought was best for us; for personal reasons, I did not want to leave the company right now, and I wanted to have at least another year to show that the success of last year was not a one-time event. It was tempting to go back to NY and start another career path. Still, too much kept me in Australia: my own ambition to beat my sales record last year, my love for my two ladies (I knew that they would go with me wherever I wanted to go, but this would not be fair), the friends I had found here and now even the offer of more than friendship that Ellen and Allan had extended. And I had to consider Eileen: if we left Australia, she would be devastated.

Maureen looked at me.

“Do not consider us, Jenny and me. We’ll be at your side wherever you are, and we’ll be happy. Your career in the company is safe, here or there: select the path that fulfills and satisfies you. Friends you’ve here, and you’ll gain them also somewhere else. Eileen is the problem: I agree with you that leaving her here alone would hurt her very much., but even there is a solution: she can sell the company and come with us if you decide to go to NY. That’s not an ideal solution, but a possible one. Decide what you want to do and just tell us.”

Jenny added: “My love, Maureen is right: decide what you want to do, and we’ll follow you. And by the way, your fingers have been shockingly still the last minutes: please tell them to exercise a bit. Right, Maureen?”

Maureen smiled and concurred that my fingers could be a bit more active; then, she came back to what I had said and added that she had discussed me at length with Ellen and Allan.

“They respect you immensely, they have started to love you, and they definitively love Jenny and me. They are family now, and they can advise and suggest options, so don’t forget this. I heard that he called you ‘son’. They believe that we are their children, and they will look out for us.”

She grinned mischievously.

“And I can only repeat what Jenny said; let your fingers do the walking, but first pour me another glass of this wine. I like it.”

We continued our discussion, drank more wine, the music changed to a Mozart violin concerto that Jenny liked (Mozart with his structured music appealed to her), and my fingers walked up and down their bodies. There were delightful curves to explore, but the occasional mysterious holes had been eliminated. The pullover was now draped around her neck, exposing her beautiful body, and Maureen’s baby doll had vanished when I went up to get more wine. I felt that they were slowly getting excited, and when it became dark, Maureen suggested eating a bit and to retire.

“Jenny, you´ll stay with us tonight, will you not?”

Jenny looked at me. “May I?” and I nodded.

“I want that very much, darling. And never ask this again; this is your home, and we expect you to be in it every night.”

This got me another kiss. The supper was light and fast, and when Maureen and Jenny walked in front of me to the bedroom, their deliberately undulating ass cheeks provoked my interest. They jumped onto the bed, and glancing at me, Maureen smirked.

“Who do you want first?”

Jenny protested.

“You had him all week, and from the way you walk, it seems you had him in all possible ways. Remember what you promised: it’s my turn now, Countess de Winter!”