Chapter 15: Jack

The cab driver took one look at me and leered, then propositioned me. I thought about slapping him but just ignored him. He simply figured that a young blonde leaving a hotel in the early morning dressed in an evening gown was a call girl. I let him drive me home and gave him the money Jerry had given me for the cab. I wasn’t sure whether I should be angry or pleased, to think that men would pay me money for my company. I was not about to undertake a career change!

I got home and found the smell of bacon cooking; it was irresistible! I needed bacon! Rather than head upstairs to change, I went into the kitchen still in Mom’s evening dress and heels. I had tossed the stockings into the bag. Surprisingly, I found that my parents had guests over. I had told Jerry that Mom was probably working Daddy over, but she had had a slightly different idea. She had invited the next-door neighbors, the McNabbs, over for a party! Daddy and Jeff were barefoot and wearing swim trunks and shirts. Mom and Christy were wearing beach cover-ups and nothing else - it was obvious since the cover-ups were totally sheer and hiding nothing! Daddy was cooking up bacon and getting the eggs ready while Mom was starting toast and pouring juice.

“Hi guys!” I said brightly as I came into the kitchen. I kissed everybody hello.

“Look at you!” gushed Christy, “so fancy! Your mom said you had a big date, but you really got decked out, didn’t you!”

I blushed, but she was right, I did look good! I twirled around once and said, “Thank you!” Then I grabbed a piece of bacon and sat down.

“I’m guessing you are looking for some breakfast,” commented Daddy wryly.

“Please!” I pleaded, batting my eyes at him. He just rolled his own as the others laughed.

I glanced out the back door and found several large beach towels laid out together, and a couple of women’s swimsuits. There were also numerous empty beer cans spread around. “You guys fall asleep outside last night?” There were several snorts and chuckles, along with at least one sheepish grin from Jeff.

“So, have fun?” asked Christy.

It felt like I was in the middle of two different conversations. Mom and Christy wanted to know all about my date, where we had gone and what we had done, and they wanted some very graphic details. Daddy and Jeff, on the other hand, and especially Daddy, wanted to know about Jerry, what he was like, his background, what he had talked about in his business, what his plans were for Phoenix, and what he planned to discuss on Monday. I answered everybody as best I could, though it was a very disjointed conversation.

Finally, when we were all finished with breakfast, I stood with my empty plate and set it on the sink. “I need a long hot bath and a nap!” I announced. “I will see you all this evening, whoever is still here!” Mom laughed. I headed upstairs.

Monday morning it was back to work at the television station. Everything went normally, what with the usual Monday Madness of cleaning up from the weekend and getting ready for the week’s news. Still things changed at the morning break.

I was sitting in the break room with some of the rest of the ‘Breakfast Club,’ a group of secretaries and assistants who took breaks together. I was decidedly the junior member, but nobody seemed to care, and we were all women. The break room was an oversized glassed-in office that was never actually used as an office. It held the vending machines, a microwave, a gigantic coffee maker, and a battered folding table and leftover battered chairs. It was about a quarter after ten and we were sitting there, four of us including myself, when Judy Schindler looked over my shoulder out into the news office and said, “Be still, my heart!”

The rest of us turned to look at what Judy was seeing, and it was Carol Dempsey who next said, “Oh, my God, he’s beautiful!”

He was indeed beautiful! He was a man standing there talking to the assistant manager. He was tall, about six-two or six-three, slim, darkly tanned from some Mex in his blood, with curly brown hair, a square jaw with a cleft in it, and what looked like a very muscular, if wiry, physique under his skintight sport shirt. He looked over at the break room when the assistant manager pointed in our direction and smiled. His perfect teeth were glaringly white. He had dimples. I immediately creamed my panties.

I wasn’t alone. Carmen Sanchez, one of the news assistants, moaned and said, “I think I just came!”

Judy and I laughed, and Carol said, “I want to bear his children!” which was hilarious since she was a lesbian.

“Amber? Amber! AMBER!”

I snapped out of my daze and jumped to my feet and ran out of the break room to where the assistant manager was yelling for me. “Yes, Mister Hayes?” What had I done now?

He ignored my nervousness and said, “Amber, this is Jack Rodriguez. Jack, Amber Campbell.” I shyly put my hand out and Mister Beautiful took it and smiled at me again, so that when I creamed my panties a second time the juices ran down my legs and puddled in my shoes. He looked even better up close and personal. Mister Hayes totally ignored the fact that I wanted to tear my clothing off and rub myself against Jack Rodriguez and said, “Jack is responsible for installing an upgrade of the computers around here and you’re his assistant.”

I mentally dressed myself and looked at the boss in confusion. “Sir?”

“Jack is going to install some equipment and you’re his gofer. He’ll explain it to you. Just don’t screw up.” With those encouraging words, he turned and headed down the hall. “She’s all yours, Jack.”

Would that it were so! I turned back to Jack, who had laughed at this, and he said, “Don’t worry, I almost never bite.” He smiled again and my pussy juices started forming a lake around my ankles. “Come on, let’s get some stuff out of the van and I’ll explain everything to you.”

We went out to a van with the name on the side of some computer company, Techno-Something-Or-Other, and I got the gist of everything on the way and as we unloaded some paperwork and a briefcase. The station replaced computers on a three-year cycle, but rather than replace everything all at once, they would replace about a third of the computers every year. This year it was the news department and the executive offices, last year had been daytime programming, and the year before had been a bunch of others; next year the cycle would start all over again.

Jack’s job was to determine the specific computers to replace, bring the new ones in, swap them out, and get them talking to the network properly, set up email, yada, yada, yada. My job was to do the scutwork and get yelled at when somebody didn’t want to get off their computer. Likewise, you can guarantee that when it became necessary to crawl under a desk to connect the cables, it was me doing the crawling, and you just wouldn’t believe the crap under some of those desks!

My first job was finding a cart to haul equipment into the offices, then we moved stuff out of the van and inside. At lunchtime, he took off for more equipment. After lunch, we started doing the work, a few computers at a time, with Jack doing the brainwork and me running around being a gofer.

It was sort of interesting. Once you got past the fact that Jack made Mister Universe look ugly, you figured out that he was actually a nice and interesting guy. He explained everything we were doing, without making me feel stupid, especially once he figured out that I had no real idea what computers did except get on the Internet and do email. He was polite and charming, not condescending at all, and a good talker. And God but was he beautiful!

Tuesday morning was the same, as we worked our way through the newsroom. This time, however, at lunch he asked, “Hungry?”

I shrugged and said, “Sure.”

“Come on, let’s go grab some lunch.” I must have looked startled at this. We normally got just a half hour for lunch, and if some people stretched it regularly, you can bet that interns didn’t dare! Jack caught my glance at the clock, and he grinned. “Listen, anybody says anything, we’ll just say you had to come over to the office with me for some gear and tests.”

I blinked and mumbled, “Uhh ... okay.”

“So? Let’s go. I’m hungry.” He pointed towards the door.

I woke up at that and scurried off to wash my face and hands. He must have had the same idea, since he met me outside the men’s room and led me out to his work van. We went down to the nearest mall and had lunch at an Applebee’s. It was pretty cool to sit there and have a civilized meal, without worrying about rushing through, even if all I had was a chicken salad and iced tea. I don’t really remember all we talked about, but it wasn’t about work. He asked me about myself and what I did and where I went to school and what I wanted to do and all sorts of things.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, and that night I played with my vibrator again, just like I had Monday night, thinking about Jack. Wednesday morning, he announced we were almost done, and he was right. By the morning break we had finished. He ceremoniously shook my hand and said, “Congratulations!” at which we both laughed, since I really didn’t have a clue what we had done. Then he threw me for a total loop. “Would you like to go out to dinner tonight?”

“I thought we were through,” I replied.

“We are,” he said with a nod.

“Then why are we going out to dinner?”

“Maybe because I want to go out to dinner with you. Well?”

Okay, so I’m fucking dense. I still wasn’t getting it. “Uh, not work? You mean, like just you and me?”

He looked both worried and amused. “Like a date sort of dinner. Listen, Amber, if you don’t want to, just say so.”

Holy shit! A date sort of dinner! Jack wanted to go out with me on a date! Oh, my God! My jaw dropped, but I clamped it closed and quickly nodded, “Yeah, sure, okay!”

“Good! Should we meet here? The restaurant?”

Suddenly I remembered I was still dressed for work. I mean I was clean and presentable, but I wasn’t dressed to go out afterwards, at least nothing fancy. I looked down at myself and said, “Uh, I mean, I’m not really dressed...”

Jack waved it off. “It’s nothing fancy, Amber, just dinner. Don’t get worried.”

“Okay. How about we meet here after work?”

He nodded. “Six?” I just nodded in agreement. I would have to stick around after I got off at five, but maybe I could make sure I got cleaned up or something. Jack smiled and waved coyly, then left.

Oh, my God! I had a date! This is going to sound wacky, but I hadn’t had a real date since the disastrous night of the prom. I mean, I was getting tons of sex, really hot and great sex, from parties and swaps, but no dates. No boyfriend-type dates, anyway. I did have that great date with Jerry Varrel, but he really wasn’t boyfriend material. I mean, he was outstanding Sugar Daddy material, but not boyfriend material! I hadn’t had a date with a guy my age since before school ended. Jack was, like, in his mid-twenties, but at least we were almost in the same decade. I called home and told Mom I would be out late and not to hold dinner for me.