Thinking Marriage

It had been so comical. Her mom pulled the covers completely over her and yelled, "Go away you stupid bitch" while Harry cut his head open diving off the bed and striking the leg of a bedside cabinet.

She walked away leaving them to sort it out. Harry said at dinner he'd walked into on a door.

Charles and Gina believed him of course, incapable of accepting Harry would fuck his hostess in broad daylight when everyone else was in the house.

Harry was too embarrassed to farewell Louise with a kiss whereas his wife had her tongue into Louise's throat. They said they'd never forget this vacation and apart from their hosts the highlight had been visiting Maui.

A day later after Charles had gone to golf Sheryl said to her daughter, "Darling about what you saw..."

"Oh good mom. You are willing to talk about it. What I want you to tell me is everything you know about anal fucking. I'm an anal virgin."

"D-don't you mind that Harry um did that to me?"

"No."

"And you see no reason to say anything to your father?"

"Of course not. It's none of his business when we both know he's gone to fuck Mrs Kingston instead of playing golf."

"God you have a refreshing attitude darling."

That afternoon Louise borrowed her mom's old Toyota car and went to the Windward Town and Country Plaza to buy clothes. Louise had told her to throw out all her dresses and buy new ones. If she wanted to attach to a man the first thing was to look great and act sexy.

She parked and opened her door just as a guy in a Mercedes pulled up alongside her. There was a tiny bump sound.

The guy bounded out of his car and said, "You careless woman. You've half-wrecked my car."

Louise saw just a tiny scratch so held out her arms together, fists clenched and said, "Okay arrest me and take me to jail."

He ignored her, squatted and looked at the passenger door.

"Ah it's just a minor scratch."

"Yeah joining those other disfigurements. If you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, don't bring your car into shopping parking areas."

"You seem quite bright for a woman."

Louise scowled and said he sounded a real arrogant male asshole.

She strode off and in a flash he was beside her.

"Hi, I'm Asshole. Who are you?"

Louise stopped and faced him, hands on hips and said, "Look buster are you really wanting to fight me?"

"No I caught up to you to apologize. I was out of order and over-reacted and then apparently insulted you."

"Apparently?"

"I insulted you and I'm sorry for behaving like a jerk. You probably are a lovely wife to your husband..."

"I'm not married."

"Oh Jesus, how could anyone so delicious as you not be married."

"Because I scare off courting guys."

He grinned and said he'd gotten a taste of that but he'd not backed off.

"No you didn't. Thanks for apologising. I'm off to buy underwear. Goodbye."

"No wait. Please allow me to buy you a teddy."

How disgusting Louise thought and then remembered what Gina said about conversing in a way that would appeal to males with their sex-focused egos.

"Oh yeah, you buy that and then buy a pair of fishnet stockings and then require me to pose for you with my pussy bared?"

The guy croaked, "Honest would you do that for me?"

Louise couldn't believe it; the guy was hooked. She asked was he married.

"No."

"Currently attached?"

"To no one in particular."

"All right, buy those garments and I'll pose for you but with your mother present."

The guy licked his lips and asked was she willing to negotiate?

"Yes but don't expect to win."

He said they should go for coffee.

Louise was staggered. She wasn't wearing sexy clothes being in a top and jeans and sandals, she was at her dominant worst and above all not attempting to work on a guy and yet had made full-on contact with one. What the hell was happening? And why were men so dead easy to pick up?

The guy who revealed his name was Tim Roundtree was a tough negotiator but Louise either won or he allowed her to win. The price he paid was having to buy her a bra, matching panties and fine denier black hold-ups and in receiving that package as an apology, Louise went to his apartment and modelled them for him and was fucked but his wife arrived home a day early and caught them at it. Tim had to step in between them to stop his wife attempting to scratch out Louise's eyes and he then, still holding his foul-mouth wife, he shouted to Louise to fuck off.

The lying bastard, she fumed. She'd ignored the fact that the apartment was too tidy to be an apartment for a sole male occupant and he'd lied and said woman in the big photo with him hanging in the bedroom was of his sister. Louise had been so focused in getting him to fuck her she'd dumbly accepted that and took no notice of the pink towels in the bathroom and pictures of flowers on walls throughout the house and that the kitchen had been so tidy apart from heaps of unwashed dishes.

Absolutely in rage she stopped and made a booking to fly back to Chicago next day.

Surprisingly her parents weren't upset about this sudden decision to return to their former home city where they still maintained an apartment. They gave Louise a key to the apartment and the security access numbers.

Flying out at 8:00 next morning Louise figured out why they were almost relieved to see her go: her mom had suspended her affairs with her girlfriends and her dad was pretending he didn't have a girlfriend who gave him more than a view of the golf course.

God some people!

CHAPTER 2

Louise settled into her parent's apartment in Chicago's CBD and bought a heap of new casual and semi-formal clothes. She noticed a guy in the gym on the third floor of the luxury apartment block looking at her and on the third day he took the rowing machine beside her and said, "You have a very smooth athletic style?"

What woman would fail to respond to that?

"Thank you. You have a fine physique."

"Do you wish to grab some breakfast with me after this?"

Louise thought why not so said why not.

Well the guy took her to his apartment instead of to one of the restaurants nearby.

Louise looked about suspiciously but the signs looked promising. The apartment looked in a bit of a mess and the pictures on the walls were of nude women in groups, motorcycles, cars and small airplanes. Clearly there was no other woman lurking.

"Scrambled eggs on toast?"

"That's fine unless you wish me to do omelet?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "My mom says modern women can't cook."

"I lived at home till I was twenty-eight and the deal was I would share the cooking and housekeeping. I can even run a household budget and not overspend."

The guy looked impressed and said cautiously, "Well let's see how the omelet goes."

"You get ready for work while I fiddle in the kitchen?"

He seemed to really perk up and asked, "Fiddle with what?"

She laughed and said cooking of course and he grinned and went off.

She found eggs, cream, tomatoes and raw potatoes and olive oil. She fried the potatoes and after slicing them waited for the man who'd introduced himself as Andy McLeod to reappear.

Andy arrived back looking sharp in a shiny slate Italian-cut suit and looked suspicious when not seeing the omelets ready. "Have you forgotten how to cook?"

"No omelets are best made and served immediately. Drink your juice while I cook."

"Nice legs," Andy observed.

Louise neither replied nor smiled. She was thinking what was wrong with the shape of her butt if he was driven to comment only on her legs.

Andy picked up the publication Louise had been flicking through. "Why are you reading that business magazine instead of something lighter?"

"Because I'm a business babe that's why and had been so for most of my adult life."

Andy looked away and said casually, "In what field?"

Louise wondered about that because he'd asked that with excessive casualness. She decided to draw him out.

"Oh a bit of this and a bit of that."

"Such as?"

"Several management roles, mainly for a company you won't have heard of, Roebuck Industries."

"Located in Pittsburgh. Specializes in lathes and other industrial precision tools. Hit by the downturn in the vehicle manufacturing industry. Financially squeezed by the heavy cost of being an innovator in automating machines and developing machinery systems operated and maintained 24/7 robotically."

"Ah so you read Business World magazine, last month's issue?"

"Something like that and so you lost your job as a result of down-sizing?"

"No I was facing burnout under the stress of being director of marketing for all countries south of the Equator where many of their currencies had weakened against the US dollar and many of our clients in those regions are turning to South-East Asia for product.'

"Well I can understand that. May I ask what are your qualifications?"

"I have a PhD in business management from UChicago and since have worked in various divisions of Roebuck Industries and for the last two years was director of the South of the Equator marketing and business operation."

"Hmmm, impressive. I had been angling for a date but now my interest in you has extended beyond that. After you finish your breakfast would you care to change into suitable business dress and accompany me to my workplace?"

"I'm not looking for employment in industry."

"What about indirectly?"

"That's difficult to imagine but I could be."

Andy smiled and said that satisfied him. It would be best if he began the briefing his office.

Andy and Louise entered a nondescript building that left Louise thinking was this the headquarters of a covert CIA operation but was relieved when in the elevator she saw the directory contained names of engineering, legal, dentistry, accounting and marketing companies. But then she thought they could be fictitious as a front.

They left the elevator on the 16th floor occupied by The MacDonald Foundation and two receptionists greeted Andy warmly and smiled curiously at Louise who was dressed in black, the only suitable business-looking clothing she had brought to Chicago.

Andy led her into an officer marked Andy McLeod, Director of Field Operations.

Omigod, it was the FBI shivered Louise, as the room swallowed her and Andy, switching on the lights, closed the door behind them.

Andy hung up his suit jacket and began the briefing.

The MacDonald Foundation is a quasi-Federal agency funded to provide independent monitoring of America's heavy industry. The late Angus MacDonald began work at the age of fifteen working in his father's small business building custom-made motorcycles. Later Angus moved into heavy industry, built tanks during WW2 and then post-war built railway rolling stock."

"I've read about him."

"Good well you'll know why the foundation is appropriately named because he was a staunch advocate of American heavy industry throughout later life and became a hugely influential political lobbyist. The foundation independently assesses and reports to the Feds on the state of heavy industry in this country, monitoring activity within states company by company. Now looking at this wall map you can see this red line running taking in the southern boundaries of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Those states and all states north of them comprise the states we monitor from this office."

"I see. I wasn't aware of the existence of this foundation."

"We keep a very low profile to allow us to work more effectively. Companies file reports and that information goes directly to Washington or else filters through to interested parties in Washington. The job of the foundation is to verify exactly what is happening in foundries, production lines and in sales offices. In other words to use our own vision statement summary: we provide current independent audit data across the heavy industrial sector."

"And so this is why I have been invited here."

"Yes to be interviewed for an important post initially by our HR manager. Should you accept a job offer if presented, you would be responsible to me with the designation of regional coordinator for New England and would manager our regional office in Boston and live in Boston."

Andy slept with Louise that night and most nights thereafter for the next ten days until she returned to Andy's office with him to be questioned by the recruitment team who included Andy and he said in all probability she would be offered the position.

* * *

During the 2¼ -hour flight in business class Louise decided it was time to dig in. She was no closer to finding a husband than when she first deciding to find a guy suitable to wed when she turned twenty-nine. She'd turn thirty-three in four months. There had to be a guy out there who was right for her and he thought she was right for him.

Then why the hell hadn't it happened?

She gritted her teeth and scowled.

As the thoughts streamed through her mind Louise thought initially she'd been too focused on her job to commit to going steady with any guy, even the ones she liked. Since she'd stepped away from that bind she'd been leading something of a nomad life that wasn't conducive to developing a steady relationship.

She decided to allow fate become involved and the way for that to happen was to settle down. She decided Boston would be it because she'd been there three times on short visits and liked the feel of the place. Yes her new home would be Boston whatever happened with her business career.

Feeling pleased at making that decision Louise ordered a white wine and settled back to think of other things. She had no one sitting beside her. She was booked into the Doubletree Hotel downtown for a maximum of two weeks at her employer's expense to give her time to find her own accommodation.

After inspecting apartments over three days, not going near the office, Louise chose an available one-bedroom furnished apartment and leased it for six months with right of renewal of lease. The next day she went to her office, knowing she had an admin team of five and a field staff of eight to manage. Small cheese really to what her former responsibilities were but surprisingly her remuneration was only $600 a week short of what she'd been paid when last in employment with no vehicle alas but hopefully placing her under far less pressure.

* * *

Two months later Louise was well settled in and her office was on schedule in meeting all targets. During that period she'd traveled into the other five states within her territory to meet the guys (all were male) working on field assessments to ensure as best she could they were all performing according to the guidelines set by the foundation.

Then it happened for her.

Andy called her to advise the director of the foundation had accepted two speaking engagements, one in Detroit and the other in Boston and had attempted to pass on the Boston engagement to Andy who would be away in California at his younger brother's wedding at that time.

"Will you make the presentation on behalf of Nicholas?"

"Yes of course."

"Good I will notify the School of Management at Boston University. It's the school's turn to host a dinner for 100 academics and partners from throughout the university and they decided this time to get the foundation to describe its work and how effective it is."

"Ah yes that would be right up the director's alley. For Christ sake Andy I've only been with the foundation two months."

"So you have decided not to go and I have to miss my brother's wedding?"

"No I'll go."

"Thanks darling. We run a tight ship so are thin on the ground with senior management. I have copies of three of Nicholas's speeches he's given to Chambers of Commerce and one to a convention of engineers so you'll have all the background you need and just have to place your own mark on your presentation such as how your New England team operates. I'll advise the school of your acceptance and send your profile and photo to them and I'll send you three risqué jokes about engineers."

"Thank you Andy," Louise sighed. "As you know I'll do almost anything for you."

"Yeah baby. You're a great girl to have in bed."

"Thank you Andy," Louise sighed. It was good to be appreciated.

A week later Louise received a call from the school to confirm the time and venue of her presentation and was told the usual format was to speak for thirty minutes and answer questions for the next fifteen minutes.

* * *

Louise was thinking of buying a black gown for the event but then thought she had good legs so why cover them. So she bought a slinky bright red cocktail dress plus matching red shoes.

She was seated at one end of the top table with a professor of computer studies beside her who was brusque and appeared more interested in tapping his fork on the tablecloth than conversing with her. Soup plates had been cleared away with a guy slid into the seat beside her and squeezed her thigh and said brightly, "Hi."

"Hi."

"Sorry I wasn't here to greet you despite being allocated that task. I teach business economics and you may call me Jack. John Latimer actually but I prefer Jack."

"Hi Jack I'm Louise Flint."

"Mrs Flint with a PhD in Business Management I understand?"

"It's miss actually."

"Correct and I apologize about my hair. I've just finished playing squash and was in the shower when I remembered I was supposed to be here. I'll not drip on that fancy red dress. God you have great boobs."

"Jack."

"Sorry."

"No it's okay but it you're going speak to me intimately please keep your voice down."

Jack introduced Louise when it came time for her to speak and because people didn't know about the existence of the foundation she appeared to hold the interest of her diverse audience and they were delighted by the story she related that when Angus MacDonald who established the foundation with a grant of $5 million in 1955, on his retirement as executive chairman of his company that built locomotives and railway rolling stock he established a new business, It manufactured wind-up toy train sets, one popular line being similar to the one he played with as a child, and he was still president of the foundation on his death aged 91.

She answered questions for forty minutes and when more questions came about her job for Roebuck Industries more questions followed from women academics how could a women get a job of that importance and Louise raised huge laughter when she said in all seriousness, "My mom taught me how to flutter my eyelids and to stand with my hand on one hip and to push that hip forward."

Huge applause followed when the chairman thanked her for such a riveting and entertaining speech.

"You were much better than I expected," Jack said candidly. "It sounded such a dry subject and I guess it made people think that Washington is doing something useful in keeping an eye on industry that is declining in this country."

"Thank you for that Jack, we must date some time."

At that point the chairman called Louise over to him and she didn't see Jack again before leaving.

The following day the organizer of the hosted dinner at the university called Louise to thank her for her participation and said many people had commented on her presentation very favorable.

"Thank you."

Louise was about to say goodbye when Ann Turner the caller said, "Oh Miss Flint, we are unable to give out contact details without the authority of the person being contacted unless they are here at the university."

"I can understand that cautious approach."

"Thank you. I've received an approach from Professor John Latimer..."

"You mean Jack who introduced me as guest speaker. Is he really a professor?"

"Yes and heads a department in our School of Management."

"Is he married?"

"Oh no, few women could handle Jack because he's so full on... um I mean how he talks to women. I have no idea of how he behaves socially."