Dixie Ch. 02

"Very sure I'm afraid. She did her best to get me to support her."

"Well that was stupid of her. Why would you forfeit your chance at that front office?"

"She figured that with your block of votes and mine she could force the issue."

"Bullshit. What the hell made her think she could survive that job?"

"An abundance of confidence mostly. Besides, even if she failed, by the time the board fired her she would have made maybe close to two hundred thousand, and probably a lot more when they bought her contract."

"She has more money than she deserves now."

Loren wasn't going to hold back now. "Not if there was a divorce and the Prenup kicked in."

That put Frank back in his motorized chair and his face flushed red with anger. Loren had to sit there and wait to see if that anger would be directed at him or Ginny. "Loren, do you think that's where this is going?"

"I have no way of knowing for sure, but I have to think that is a possibility." Frank's look of rage seemed to slip off of his face then, but he still had a stern and determined look.

"Okay Loren, finish telling me everything. We still haven't talked about why it's important for you to know when Virginia cheated on me last."

"Shit...this is the hardest part my friend."

"Okay, let me help you. The last time she fucked around was about two and a half years ago."

"Then this time is something different."

"She's screwing somebody now?"

"I'm afraid so. But Frank, I think this time it isn't as much about sex as it is about my job."

"But that's decided and over with. The board isn't going to buy out your contract just because she's letting somebody dick her for votes."

"Frank there's one more thing you have to know and if I don't tell you, she will when the time is to her benefit. Right now I don't like myself very much Frank."

"You and Virginia."

"Yes, that time of the week long seminar when she went along to shop."

"I'm disappointed in you Loren."

"I can tell you the hows and whys, but the bottom line is what I did is unforgivable."

"So she wasn't along for shopping after all."

"That's how I see it. She swapped room keys when we checked in, so I thought your room was my room and I walked in on her."

"Let me guess, she was naked."

"Very. And she had a buzzing friend with her."

"I know exactly the one you mean. Okay, you don't have to give me any more details Loren, I can about imagine where it went after that. What about after the seminar?"

"Never again after that time Frank. That doesn't make me any less guilty though. I have one other thought about that event though Frank. It may sound like I'm trying to explain away my participation, but hear me out." Loren went through his theory and gave his reasons supporting that, like Ginny's heavy room door closing with a clunk, and Frank just sat there listening without moving.

"So you're saying she knew you would come, and she wanted to have the stage set."

"I strongly believe that Frank. I made it very easy for her to seduce me I'm afraid. I told Dixie all of this too, because I had to have her forgiveness before I could ask her to marry me."

"When did you do that?"

"We were married less than two weeks ago, didn't Ginny tell you?"

"Not a word, congratulations to both of you, though you don't deserve her."

"I can't argue with you about that."

"Okay, back to Virginia. Who is she bedding now?"

"I'm working on that info," he lied.

"Either all men are easy or she's pretty good at seducing."

Loren smiled and reminded him, "Well she seduced you right and proper and in defense of myself, I think she's very good at getting what she wants when it comes to men. She's still a damn good looking woman Frank."

"That she is and I wore her on my arm like a very expensive watch. She shared her beauty and her body with me over the years and I shared my money with her. Unfortunately, she also shared her beauty and her body with any number of other men. She was good in bed though wasn't she Loren."

"She was damn good and you know it."

"Yes I know it, but I also think that was all part of her lifelong act."

"Her orgasms were real."

"I'll give you that, I'm also sure they were. Okay so what are your plans now?"

"Well, I wanted to get your input on that actually, she is your wife and I don't want to do anything that would reflect badly on you."

"Thank you for your concern, but whatever she does will reflect on her. I'm condemned to living in this expensive fucking nursing home for the rest of my days, so I just don't care. Do what you feel you need to do Loren."

"Thanks. I promise, the next time I come we'll talk about much happier things."

"Don't promise me that until this mess is history, but come back and see me."

"I'll do that and I'll try to bring Dixie the next time."

"Wonderful, I'd like to see her again." As Loren reached for the doorknob, Frank said, "Loren?" He turned as he pulled the door ajar and Frank said, "You're an ass hole."

"I know Frank and I'm sorry as hell."

"I forgive you, now go take care of business."

hapter Twenty Three

Loren was about halfway home when Holly called him. "Honey I hope you're not still with Frank."

"No, I'm trying to decide where to go for dinner."

"Do me a favor and go home first, because Linda needs you to get a file from my desk for her. It's the largest one in the right middle drawer of my desk."

"Where are you?"

"I was going to tell you that part next. Grandma Emmons is dying and I'm trying to get to St. Louis to see her. I should be there shortly after midnight and I'll go see her in the morning and be home late tomorrow afternoon."

"Grandma Emmons is..."

"My father's mother. She's who I lived with for awhile after I left home to get away from Dad."

"I'm sorry honey."

"She's ninety three so I'm not surprised. I'll still cry though of course."

"And Grandma Emmons went along with you running away from home?"

"She didn't agree with how her son was living and treating his family at all, so she was happy to have me."

"I guess you and I need to spend more time talking about our past."

"Probably so. How did it go with Frank?"

"It was strenuous for both of us, but it went well. I'll give you the details tomorrow night. At least now I know how to deal with my Gordon problem."

"Fire him?"

"That will depend on him hon. I'm going to give him a chance to clean up his act, but he only gets one chance. I don't have time to baby sit him or hold his hand while he tries to remember he has a wife and children."

"Just don't let your personal feelings or beliefs dominate your business sense. Two separate issues."

"Thanks honey, I know that, but I needed to be reminded. Just be careful and hurry home to me."

"I will honey. Love you."

"Love you too babe, now mind on the road and I'll see you tomorrow."

He closed his phone and forgot about Linda coming for the file until he was in the garage. He looked down at his dress shirt and slacks and decided he'd be more comfortable if he changed before he went to dinner. He was halfway through the house with his tie and shirt off and his slacks unfastened when he heard the front doorbell. Linda, he thought, so he ignored his shirt, but refastened his slacks and went to the door.

With a quick look through the security peep hole he opened the door and smiled. "Hi Linda, Holly just called and said you'd be here."

She smiled and said, "Well don't let me interfere with you...changing or whatever, I can wait."

"Sorry, I was getting more comfortable before I go out to eat."

"Take your time."

"That's okay, Holly told me right where it is so follow me. It'll only take us a minute."

"Thank you Loren," and she followed him to Holly's office. The file was easy to locate so he pulled it out, but in his haste he didn't have a firm grip on it as he handed it to her. She reached for it and bumped it lightly sending it to the floor. "Oh no."

"Damn, I'm sorry Linda, let me get those for you." She joined him on the floor and between them they gathered all of the papers that had scattered halfway across Holly's office. "Makes you wonder how I can hold a job doesn't it."

Linda laughed and said, "Don't kid me, if you want a file at work your secretary brings it to you along with coffee and a smile."

Loren stopped and still on his hands and knees with a handful of paper he smiled back at her and said, "Smart ass, how did you know that?"

"Because I was one of those secretaries not long ago."

"I'll bet you didn't take any nonsense from your boss."

"Oh yes I did, because I needed that job. I smiled, I brought him coffee and I even learned how he liked a splash of whisky in his coffee in the afternoon."

Loren stood up and offered his hand to her. She smiled and took his hand in hers and he pulled her up to her feet before handing her what papers he had in his hands. "I hope these weren't in order."

Linda laughed and said, "Of course they where in order."

"Damn, about half a ream of paper all...damn what a mess I made."

"I was partly at fault though."

"Okay, here's a deal. I'm too hungry to even think straight, so here's what we'll do. I'll finish changing and we'll go someplace to eat and then I'll help you sort that mess out."

"Loren you don't have time to do that, I'll work on it tonight and tomorrow."

"Now don't argue okay? I know you haven't had time to eat, and doing it my way neither of us has to eat alone. Then I'll help you and we'll have this mess taken care of well before midnight."

"I'll have to tell Holly how persuasive I think you can be. Okay, I accept dinner and the help, and thank you."

Watching Linda as she crawled around the floor on her hands and knees gathering papers had given Loren ample time to study Holly's partner, both visually and her personality. Perhaps fifteen or twenty pounds overweight, but still attractive. Soft blond hair on the short side and cut in a simple style that framed her face nicely, and a medium complexion that was nearly perfect. Add her quick and sincere smile and her very nice breasts and he was hooked.

"Okay," Loren said, "Give me five minutes and we'll go find food and drink."

When Loren returned he asked her, "Market square okay?"

"That's very okay. I was thinking more like Mario's."

"I like the blackened steak at Market Square."

"That's a very nice restaurant."

"Shall we?" and in the grand old style, he offered her his arm and then led her out to the garage and opened the car door for her.

The service at the restaurant was always exceptional, and along with their great food, that always brought Loren back. They passed on a cocktail and Loren ordered his blackened steak and Linda went with the broiled scallops. Then he ordered his usual merlot and Linda the ménage a trois white. As the waiter nodded and retreated, Linda smiled and said, "Okay, explain the wine with the cute name you ordered for me."

"It's a very clean white wine with a pleasant fruity finish. Sweeter than a chardonnay, more along the lines of a Riesling, but fruitier." Then he smiled and said, "I'll bet you thought I was trying to be clever."

She smiled and told him, "I'm not sure what I thought."

"Okay, so maybe I did want to stir you up a little, but it really is a nice wine and it will go with your scallops."

"I'm assuming that Holly will be okay with us dining together."

"Let's find out," and he retrieved his phone and called her as he smiled at Linda. "Hi honey, it's me, things going okay for you?"

"Fine. Boring, but fine, what are you up to?"

"I having dinner with Linda at Market Square."

"Oh really, tell me more."

Loren was looking into Linda's eyes as he said, "Well, she came for the file and I managed to drop it and...well you can imagine the mess that I created."

"Uh huh, and how accidental was this little disaster?"

"Very."

"So that automatically led you to take her out for dinner."

"Well yes in a manner of speaking. Let me put Linda on, just a sec." He handed her the phone and watched his dinner partner smile as she talked to Holly and looked over at him.

"Holly, this was all his idea."

"Oh I'm sure it was. Just between you and me, I don't mind at all, but I had to give him a hard time."

Linda looked over at Loren and smiling at him she told Holly, "Your husband is very persuasive and charming."

"I know that all too well. Okay, just look at him and nod your head like I'm sharing something with you about him and I'll see you soon."

"Holly, take your time with your family and I'll work on getting ready for our first real client on Friday." Linda smiled, nodded her head again and then closed the phone. Handing it back to Loren she said, "Holly told me I was to watch you very closely."

"She's just too funny."

Chapter Twenty Four

After dinner, they talked over wine until Linda told Loren, "I better stop or I won't be able to remember my alphabet when we try to sort those files."

"I'm curious why you don't have that information on your computers."

"Those are all notes that we jotted down in our early days. I'm going to have Rubin enter them into our system tomorrow as another phase in us getting organized. When Holly and I first started talking about this whole idea we were just exploring and didn't take it as seriously as we should have."

Loren paid their bill and they walked out. "Thank you very much for dinner, it was wonderful."

"My pleasure and thank you for coming with me."

"I really can sort those tomorrow."

"Not if Rubin is going to work on them and I'm sure that if you hand them to him in a mess he'll take much longer to do his work and that will cost you and Holly more money."

"Okay smooth talker you've convinced me." In reality he knew that Rubin could easily sort the files as he worked on them, but he was enjoying Linda's company.

They set up a system of sorts on the dining room table and began their project. Their simple system was working as they moved around creating stacks in alphabetical order and a few by subject matter. They accomplished that part fairly quickly considering the volume of paper they had to deal with, and as the last paper was placed, Loren called for a break. "Something to drink?" Loren offered.

"My problem is I had too much to drink with dinner."

"Okay, coffee maybe?"

"No thanks."

"Let's rest for a few minutes before we tackle the next part." They went to the living room and Linda dropped on to the couch and Loren took the easy chair. He considered sitting on the couch with her, but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable. "Loren, thank you for all of your help."

"You're welcome, but I was the one that scattered it all over the floor."

"With my help though."

"We'll have it straight in another hour," and he looked at his watch and added, "So by about...ten thirty or eleven I'd guess. I stay up that late watching the news."

Then she really caught him off guard when she said, "Tell me about the cruise."

He smiled but hesitated before he said, "Like what? I thought we told you about that."

"You did tell me some things."

He was still smiling, but he was studying her as he tried to figure out what she wanted to hear. "I'm not even sure now what all we did tell you."

"Oh, about the boat of course and the weather and how it felt to feel the boat slip through the water and to bask in the sun and ocean breezes. Oh, and you both admitted that you tanned all over." He thought it was interesting that she just happened to add the last and most delicate part almost as an after thought.

"I can't think of a lot more to add to that. It's hard to describe how relaxing and free we felt. Whatever problems we had melted away. Though Holly did think about your new business venture and though she kept in contact with you, through the day she was able to escape all thoughts of anything other than pleasure."

"And you? Were you able to escape all worries?"

"I did until I got a couple of emails that concerned me."

"What was it like cruising the Atlantic naked?"

"Oh...those details," and his eyes drifted away from her for a second.

She smiled and said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"You did surprise me, that's for sure. Okay, how can I answer that?"

"Openly. I'm not overly sensitive and I'm curious what experiencing that would be like."

"Didn't Holly tell you all about that?"

"Not a lot, and besides, what she did tell me was from her perspective. She told me about the fear or rather near terror she experienced the first time you two went out on the yacht, but I'm curious about your experiences and how felt or what you thought about it."

"Well first of all, I loved it. I'd been out with Chuck and Sandy before, so it wasn't new for me."

"And Chuck's sister I understand."

He had to smile then as he said, "Oh, Holly told you about that."

"Yes."

"Anyway, it wasn't as hard..." and he stopped and looked off to his left as he beat himself up for using that word. But when he realized Linda was laughing he looked back at her and said, "Sorry, poor choice of words. Anyway you know what I mean."

"I'll just let my mind fill in some of those fine details. So having Chuck see Holly naked didn't get you excited...now I'm doing it...didn't...upset you."

He managed to smile and said, "Not at all."

"No jealousy?"

"None. Chuck and Sandy love each other very much."

"But I'll bet it was different for you than when you were there with his sister..."

"Gwen."

"Right, I couldn't remember her name. That whole issue still amazes me."

He ignored her last comment and told her, "It was very different with Holly there, but it was also much better."

"I can imagine. You have a strong emotional investment now."

"Okay, now it's my turn. Had you been there, could you...would you have sunned naked with us?"

She smiled, but then she licked her lower lip much as Holly would do and then she looked up toward the ceiling. "I've thought about that, but I'm pretty sure I could have and would have. I might never get another chance to see what doing that felt like."

"Did Holly tell you about Chuck putting his arms around her when he kissed her and they talked?"

"Yes, and we talked about that for awhile. I could see in her eyes just how that experience had affected her."

"Oh, it did do that. Okay, so my question to you is, if Chuck were to embrace you while both of you were naked, what would you do?"

"I've never met him so that's hard to answer."

"You're being a little evasive love. Holly described Chuck to you I'm sure, so close your eyes and imagine Chuck wrapping his arms around you and you feel his naked sun warmed body against you. Then tell me what goes through your mind."

She smiled and managed to keep good eye contact with him as she said, "I think you can imagine what would probably go through my mind and what almost certainly went through Holly's mind. So back to my question earlier. Even then you felt no jealousy?"

"No, I was busy holding Sandy close to me."

Her smile grew then as she said, "I wondered if you would say anything about that."

"Linda honey, are you really interested in that cruise or are you trying to get me to blush?"

"I'm interested in the cruise and I wondered if you would blush. I was also hoping you would admit to more happening."

"Your turn again. Tell me what might have happened had you been there with Chuck instead of Holly. You two have embraced and kissed and talked back and forth. Sandy and I are busy doing our own thing, so it's just the two of you out there on the ocean. The sun is pouring its energy down on you and the sweet smelling warm salt air is drifting across your nakedness. Chuck is looking into your eyes as his hand rests on your bare butt and he kisses you again. What happens next Linda?"