The Australian

It's December, and I have started working at a law firm. I file, type, and transcribe, and after my first few days on this job, when I showed up on time- not too hard to do considering I lived only a few blocks from the building- and did my job competently and professionally (their words), I was welcomed with open arms. You see, I replaced someone who set new standards for incompetence and tardiness, so when I show up right at 8 am, I am greeted by happy faces, even weeks after I started.

This job is a breeze. It isn't even work I have no idea what I am filing, typing, or transcribing and it doesn't matter. It's eight bucks an hour and I'm living the good life, high off the hog. On my right sits a beautiful, athletic looking gal named Jo. She has short dark hair, brown eyes, and a well shaped nose. Her perfume and Australian accent drive me wild. She's in love with the outdoors. There are photos of her rock climbing, skiing, and kayaking with friends on her desk along with pictures of her husband and daughter. She has a beautiful ass. Her clothes cradle it perfectly and I carefully steal a guilty leer when she walks away from me. In the three weeks that I've worked here, Jo and I don't say much to each other except for the obligatory small talk, but I cherish every opportunity to hear her voice. Her eyes sparkle and her teeth are almost perfect. She mentions her family, and her husband seems like a decent guy based the pictures she has on her desk. He appears to be tall with bushy brown hair. He works for an engineering firm in Snohomish County. Their daughter is three years old.

One particular cold morning, not long after the inception of my employment, she comes in late and smiles at me but doesn't say hello. She goes to hang up her coat and doesn't return for a few hours. After I finish transcribing an insurance interview, I get up to replace some files in the file room. I push a metal card that is nearly overflowing with these things for a couple of hours. Finding exactly where to put them is difficult because of the Karen fallout. She had no coherent filing system to refer to except that they went in this room. So while I file, I find myself in the grind of picking up the pieces. I've been in here a couple of hours and Jo walks in. She smiles and says hello and I nod in her direction. She's a couple of aisles over, looking through the files. "God Dammit! Where is that bloody file? I could kill that girl!" she says in exasperation when she can't find what she's looking for. She comes back to me and is suddenly embarrassed.

"Oh....pardon my French. Could I look through these?" she asks.

"Be my guest," I reply, standing up straight and stretching. She leans over and thumbs through my stack and finds the one she's looking for.

"There it is!" she says with embarrassment. "I've been looking for this for hours."

"It was on my desk. Some guy brought it over early this morning with some other files and asked me to put it away when I got a chance," I reply.

"Bet a bear would have bit me!" she says. "Well, thanks." She smiles at me for a beat and I shyly return the favor. She's wearing a creamy green blouse and sweater with black piping, a black skirt and tights, and a gold necklace. She turns to leave. After she's gone, I can lift up my hand and almost feel her soft skin.

A little bit later, I'm back at my desk after finally making sense of the filing I had to do. It's about 12:30 and Jo comes back and gets her purse out of her desk.

"Are you hungry? I was going to get some lunch. You're welcome to come if you like," she says as she buttons her coat. I am surprised and excited at her invitation, and eagerly accept.

"Yeah, that sounds good." I find a good place to stop, shut off my computer, and get up to get my coat. We head over to some yuppie zoo on 5th. Nothing but suits and white people. It's crowded, so Jo suggests we sit in the bar. She orders a glass of wine.

"You want anything?"

"Rainier'll be fine."

"Do you have a deathwish, Jack?"

We take our drinks to a booth. I am the only man in the restaurant not wearing a tie. She lights a cigarette. "You are welcome relief around the office, Jack," she says. "Karen made a mess of everything she touched."

"Sounds like she was the inverse of King Midas. It's amazing to me that she lasted so long."

"It was her tits and ass. They loved her for that."

"That was enough to compensate for her incompetence?"

"Steve was hoping it was. He used to take her out to lunch, help her move. He even gave her rides to and from work, going out of his way to drop her off at places she said she needed to go to."

"It doesn't sound like that paid off."

"Guys like him will never learn. Anyway, if you need help working your way through it, let me know."

"I could have used your help this morning. There was no logic to the way she filed. It seems like she just put things wherever she wanted." I finish the rest of my beer. "I'll get another round if you want another."

"Yes, I would. Thank you," she replies. I give the order to the nearby bartender. "Are you going to get anything to eat?"

"Probably not," and she finishes the rest of her wine.

"Are you looking for a permanent job?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want one."

"Why don't you want one?"

"I don't know. I just don't. I'm not very career minded right now."

"Temp jobs don't last forever."

"Neither do permanent ones. But, I've got a lot of money saved up," I lie. Nintendo wasn't that good. "I'm in no hurry to get on a career path. How about you?"

"I'm not a temp, but I started as one. They made me permanent three months ago. My benefits will start pretty soon. You should see about coming on here."

"Really?"

"Yeah, we all like you Jack." She smiles and glows at me. I look at her teeth, then her eyes. I drink some more beer. She drinks some more wine.

By 1:45 we've had a couple more rounds of drinks and we head back to the office.

"Do you always drink like this at lunch?" I ask.

"Sometimes I've gone back to work a little pissed," she says. She takes my hand and gives me some tic tacs. "These will help your breath," and like a high schooler attempting to mask the fact that I was off school property drinking when I should have been in study hall should I be confronted by a teacher or hall monitor, I take them.

"You think they'll notice we're late?"

"No they're pretty lax around here."

"What about me?"

"I told you. We all like you, Jack." She turns and smiles. We walk past the smoker's ghetto in the front of the building and go through the front door, ride up the escalator to the elevator lobby, her ass beckoning to me like a 14 ounce steak. We get on the elevator and ride it to the 23rd floor. We walk past the receptionist who is on the phone. "Here, I'll hang up your coat for you." She takes it and goes to the closet. I go over to my desk to sit down, and turn on my computer. A new stack of files awaits me along with two new long memos to type. Jo comes back and puts her purse back in her desk. I get up with the files and head back to the file room. After about 45 minutes, Jo comes into the room and steps in front of me and starts sticking those long brown folders into the shelves.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"My job."

She stops and then looks at me. Then she pulls me into her and gives me a long, deep kiss, Her tongue dances around the inside of my mouth. She squeezes and pulls my hair. I move back. She looks hurt.

"Why did you do that?" I ask her. She doesn't answer for awhile. Finally she cries, "I want you to be attracted to me!"

She has nothing to worry about. I pause a beat. Then I wrap up with her and we continue kissing. This time I press up against her and we almost knock some files off the cart onto the floor. Someone walks in and we keep kissing. I run my hands along her firm ass and grab a handful. It feels good. Solid. The person who walked in turns out to be Steve, who is looking through the supply cabinet, whistling. He continues looking through the supply cabinets. Doors open and close as he moves from one end of the room to the other, not finding what he is looking for. We stop kissing and hold each other tightly and Steve is one aisle over. We hold our breaths so we won't be heard. After almost 20 minutes, Steve finally leaves. We kiss some more. Then Jo looks at me.

"What about your husband?" I ask.

"What about him?"

"What about your daughter?" I look at her closely. Her dark eyes look back. They are sad. She kisses me again, her tongue taking one long swipe at the roof of my mouth.

"They're going to notice we're gone, and we were already late coming back from lunch," I say, looking around to make sure no one else is in the room.

"You're a pussy!" she snaps. I love the way she says that. She grins.

"You didn't answer my question. What about your husband and daughter? Your family?"

"I don't want to talk about them. Forget them." I pause. She is very beautiful and my groin aches for her. I run my hand slowly up her thigh to her panties and start pulling on them, reaching underneath them. She is warm and moist. She gasps and moans. Then I remove my hand.

"You bastard!"

"Yes."

"They're in Dallas with his family. And you're right, we better get back."

We get back to our desks and back to work. Nobody knew we were gone. Steve comes by a short while later. "Jack, I just wanted to tell you that you are doing a great job for us, and I was wondering if you're available to stay on for awhile?" Jo looks over and smiles.

"How long are you talking about?"

"I can't commit to any time frame, but we're gonna have a lot of work coming through past New Year's at least, and we like the way you've been able to work through the chaos that I'm sure you've noticed."

"Thanks."

"We could end up having you around well past New Year's."

"Sure, no problem." After he leaves, Jo starts laughing.

"What did I tell you?" she says getting up and coming over to my desk. "We all like you, Jack." She cups my face in her hands and pulls my mouth into hers. The kiss is long, sloppy, and wet.

At 5:00, Jo asks me if I want to go get something to eat, and I do, and we leave and head down to a burger joint on the waterfront. Although the restaurant is crowded, we are able to get a table overlooking the sound. It's a cold, clear night. We order more drinks and wait for our food. Jo looks around.

"This is great," I say, taking a sip.

"Yes, it is. It's beautiful." She looks out onto the water, and then turns and looks at me. "My husband and I are separated. He moved out about four months ago. He had a lot of vacation time racked up, so he took a leave of absence from his job and is staying with his father in Texas."

"He took your daughter with him."

"Yes. We wanted to be apart for awhile., and his father is recovering from open heart surgery and he wanted to be with him. His brother's family lives in Dallas, and Alex spends a lot of time with them. They have a big house, lots of room. They've been great."

"Is this what you want?"

"It's been really bad with us. The change of scenery will do her good."

"How old is your husband?"

"38."

"How old are you?"

"32. How old are you?"

"27."

"Don't worry, you're not walking into a bloody soap opera."

"I'm not?"

"No. I miss him terribly. I spent months crying almost constantly. Since then I've been torn up. But I see a light coming." I listen, not responding. "I think I'm going to leave him." I remain silent a few more moments before speaking.

"What happened?"

"Well....." she sighs. "It's a long story. As I said, you're not walking into a soap opera. I'm not expecting anything from you, and I know you're not expecting anything from me....."

"That's true. I'm not," I interject. "I'm not looking to be anyone's boyfriend." After our food comes, we eat slowly and quietly. We both have mushroom burgers that ooze with juice with each bite. Soon, she drains the last of her wine.

"That was good."

"Yes it was," I say as I finish the last of my beer.

"So now, I think I would propose you take me home and fuck my brains out."

"I don't have a car. So why don't you take me home? I just live up the hill," I reply.

"Even better."

Fortunately, she's parked only a block away and we climb into her blue Volvo wagon and head up the hill. She finds a parking space on Howell Street just around the corner from the brownstone, and we run across the street and up the stoop to the front door. Being the gentleman that I am, I open it, allowing her to enter first, and then direct her down the stairs to the first door on the left. She runs down the stairs and is waiting for me. I open the door, let her in, let myself in, close the door, and then turn on the lights. She looks around at the big empty room.

"You don't have any furniture," she observes.

"I don't like furniture. I have all I need," I reply, taking her coat and hanging it up along with mine.

"But you have a TV," she says as she grabs the remote.

"I'm a Zen couch potato. You watch a lot of TV?" I ask as I go into the kitchen to get some beers.

"I like L.A. Law, but it's not on tonight." she says. I hold up a beer, inquiring if she wants one. She shakes her head, so I come out with only one and plop down on the couch next to her. I look over at the TV. It's some kind of police drama. "I have some pot. Do you want to get high?"

"Sure," I say as I open my beer. She grabs her purse and takes out a small plastic bag wrapped tightly, along with a little wooden pipe. She unwraps the bag, digs the pipe in and packs it down with weed, and then she gets out her lighter and lights it. She takes a deep hit and passes it to me. I do the same. It starts going to my head immediately as I exhale. On the tube, some middle aged bald guy is chewing out an underling.

"So you're 27." she says.

"That's a true statement." I drink some Rainier. It tastes really good right now.

"You're a loner, aren't you."

"That's also a true statement."

"How come you don't have that many friends?"

"I'm still new in town."

"How long have you lived here?"

"Almost four months."

"Do you like people?"

"Some of them."

"What kinds of people?"

"People that don't ask a lot of questions." She passes the pipe to me and I take another drag that is long and deep and I look at her. The beer and weed combine to make me light on my feet. I reach over and grab my little Sony box and turn it on to a college radio station. It is finishing up with a Hammerbox song and then goes straight into "Yu gung," by Einsturzende Neubauten. It is a steely grinding torture, and I stay up and allow the music to flow within me.

"Have you ever been in love, Jack?"

"Once." The music is screaming and grinding and Blixa Bargeld is shrieking, "FUTTER MEIN EGO!"

"Really."

"Yeah, really." Her eyes stare at me deeply as I hand her the pipe.

"I know your tragedy, Jack."

"What's my tragedy?"

"I had a dream about you the other night. You were a closet that was full of clothes and boxes and shoes all neatly arranged. There were toys and children's books in some of those boxes. Books like The Wind in the Willows and Thornton Burgess stories. You have a beautiful child- like innocence, Jack. You deserve to be loved." She looks at me as she takes another deep hit, and then changes her mind about the beer, and washes down her last hit with some of my beer.

"So you want some beer after all?"

"No." She comes over to me and kisses me, and I kiss her back. I take the pipe and take a hit that is long, deep, and true. Now we are both pretty high and our slow, deep kisses get slower and slower and slower. The rush of heat envelopes us about half as quickly as normal and I even lose my balance momentarily. I reach down and turn up the volume and we stand there leaning on each other with our eyes closed swaying to the noise as it comes to its twisted conclusion.

"What was that music?" she asks after a moment.

"Einsturzende Neubauten," I reply.

"I like it," she says.

"So do I. And it just so happens that I have a copy of the very album they were just playing on tape!" I go over and get a tape of Halber Mensch and slap it in the Sony.

"That's great!" she says, and then she grabs me and kisses me some more. Her fingers slightly dig into my shoulders and then she pulls herself into me. I kiss her neck and lick just under her earlobes. She gasps suddenly and pulls me close to her. We lean on each other and slide into a slow dance as Einsturzende Neubauten plays on and on. I feel the heat from between her legs and my cock is rock hard. Whenever the tape runs out whoever is closest to the box hits rewind and when the tape has reached the beginning, whoever is closer hits play. Eventually she gets on top of me and removes her sweater and then her top.

"Aren't you going to try anything?" she asks with incredulity.

"No, I'm not. I am uncomfortable with the idea of being on the threshold of sexual relations with a married woman," I say, sliding my hands along her soft warm skin and unhooking her burgundy bra. It falls harmlessly to the floor and her small burnt sienna breasts greet me at attention. Her skin is very warm and soft and it is just as I imagined it to be in the file room this morning. Blixa screams out "DER TODD ITS EN DANDY" and Jo rides me slowly as the music bludgeons along and my hands reach up and gently caress her tits, rubbing back and forth along her nipples, and then twisting them slightly.

"I love your tits!"

"They like you too- a lot. Don't you like how they aren't drooping?'

"I am not having an adverse reaction to that."

"I'll bet you're surprised, since I've had children. My pussy isn't too big either, which is also a surprise, having given birth." She stands up and unzips her skirt, which falls harmlessly to the floor. She removes her black stockings and he white lacy panties and stands naked before me. Her nipples poke straight out at me and her thick pubic hair is an Amazonian forest I will need a machete to slash my way through until I reach the Promised Land. I stare at her and my cock starts to grow as she continues to model her naked body.

"Do you like my cunt?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you love my cunt. I think you're about to shoot because you want to fuck me so bad, but you also want to touch it and kiss it and lick it. I think you want to make me cum." She's batting 1000. I remove the remainder of my clothing as Yu Gung continues to grind along, transforming my apartment into a Teutonic industrial love nest.

"THIS WAS MADE TO END ALL PARTIES! BYE BYE!"

We embrace tightly and then I guide her down onto the floor and move between her legs and she obligingly opens them. My tongue takes a quick swipe at her clitoris and she gasps. Her cunt is wet and sweet.

"You're right. Your cunt isn't that big. One could never guess that you've had children looking at this cunt. I must say that it is a beautiful cunt."

"I like that word. I like the way you say that word. 'Cunt'. 'Cunt' is a word that makes so many people upset, and it only describes what something is."

"Or what someone is." She takes a deep breath.

"Exactly. Now shut the fuck up and keep licking my cunt!!!" I continue to oblige, licking slowly near the bottom and inching my way to her clit. I slowly insert a finger and she bucks a little to her right. I make a pulling motion with my finger inside of her and find her g- spot. I begin to fondle her clit with my other hand. After awhile, my tongue takes over. She wraps her legs around my head as I resume my licking. A few nibbles of the clit makes her groan loudly, so I pull off and go back to the labia and return my finger inside, and then remove my finger and resume my licking. I continue this pattern only with more intensity. I have been taken to the world of cunt on Henry Miller's ovarian trolley and I am being swallowed by her cunt. The mysterious fountain of feminine mystique is now at my mercy and I will pay no attention to the woman behind the fuzzy curtain. I take her clit between my two front teeth and then insert two and then three fingers into her and that hits a special nerve to which she reacts by curling herself up for a second and then opens back out.