Tom and Sophie

"What the Hell? What is going on with this electricity bill?" I yelled. My wife Sophie just got in the door and handed me the mail and went into the kitchen to start dinner. Jake my eighteen year old son was playing video games in the living room. They were both ignoring me. A couple of years ago an electric bill wouldn't even register as a topic worth discussing, you paid it and that was that. Of course back then I was a vice president of a firm with over a hundred employees, and we were well off. But then with the melt down in the economy we had to downsize. We weathered pretty well, we didn't have that much debt - my background in finance allowed kept us from that trap. We owned a couple of rental properties, one is still generating a little income the other was abandoned so we moved into it. Our real estate agent told us we had a better chance selling our house since it was custom built on an estate lot in a great neighbourhood rather than this three bedroom bungalow in the city. Sophie is a nurse at the local hospital and from here she can take the bus to work, which allowed us to downsize to one car.

Our big problem was when I lost my job, the whole company went under. I was out of work for almost a year carrying the taxes and bills for two houses and sending my daughter Kate to college, and saving up for Jake who starts college in September. For the last year I have been working with this company helping them with their investments and currently restructuring to save costs, which was a polite way of saying looking to layoff staff. It was only supposed to last three to six months, but I have been finding ways to make myself useful. One nice thing about the job is that I get to work from home. Every Tuesday I go in for meetings, but usually I am left on my own, it works out cheaper for them not to have me in the office and I don't have to pay for gas and parking downtown. Of course, I don't get paid anywhere near what I was making before, and now all I seem to do is complain about how much things cost.

"I can't believe how much the bill has gone up, where are the old bills?" I asked myself angrily. I stormed off into my den and went through the files. I grabbed the folder and stomped back into the dining room. "See, look, we are paying almost double what we paid last month."

I didn't think anyone was paying attention to me, I rarely was acknowledged in my own home anymore especially when I was angry. So when Sophie answered back I was a little surprised.

"The price of electricity, like the price of everything is going up." She didn't raise her voice, but spoke in an almost condescending manner, not even bothering to look up but continued with her dinner preparations. "Of course if you are looking to blame someone for the electric bill, there is no point in yelling at us. Kate moved out, Jake spends the days with his friends and works nights so he is only here to eat and sleep, and I am working double shifts at the hospital trying to help pay these bills. If you want to blame someone for the electric bill, perhaps you should be yelling at the person who is here all the time. Not that you ever leave the house, but you may have heard that it is damn hot out there. I shower at work before my shifts because no matter what time of day I leave, I am usually sweating by the time I get there." She was right, we were in the midst of an unusually hot summer, every day was either breaking a record or damn close.

"If you want to cut down on electricity, maybe you should use less, turn off some of the gadgets. Of course if you are really serious you could turn down the air conditioner, maybe turn if off completely and walk around naked. That would do the trick" she smirked.
Having just put in my place, the only thing I could think to answer was "Maybe I will." It was the matter-of-fact way she spoke to me now, completely devoid of emotion. Sometimes I wish she'd yell, at least I would know she felt something towards me. Sophie slid two plates of equal sized portions cold chicken and pasta on the table and went to the bathroom. She told Jake his dinner was on the table as she passed him.
We ate wordlessly as she showered. I stared at Jake's expressionless face as he wolfed down his food. Nothing seemed to phase him. I always thought he would be happier as a cartoon character, all he thought about was hanging out with his friends and playing sports. His grades weren't bad, but he tended to skate by on his good looks and charm whenever he could. His trademark smile only disappeared momentarily when he sat down to the only thing he took seriously, eating. He was accepted to the same university his sister goes to, but he would have to move out and get his own place. Sure we could help with tuition and expenses, but when we sat him down and showed him that he would have to quit his current job and get something that allowed him to work a full 40 hour week in order to save up enough, and even then he would have to get a part-time job, like Katey did, he simply said no. He said he would rather go to community college and stay here with us, then he flashed a big grin stood up and walked away. That was that.

When we finished his smile returned, as he stood up he slipped on his baseball cap. "Do you want me to pitch in and help with the electric bill, I could maybe pay half or something." He picked up our plates and cutlery and took them to the sink.

"No thanks Jake, it was kind of you to offer."

"Anything to help out, Pop. You just tell me what you need." He knew that I wouldn't accept, but I knew he was sincere. He rinsed off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher. As Sophie walked he thanked her for dinner, kissed her on the cheek then went into the fridge grabbed two pieces of cold pizza, folded them into a sandwich and took a bite. He grabbed a soft drink and headed to his room. Sophie laughed as he walked away then stopped as she turned an saw me. She went into the fridge and grabbed a pre-packaged salad. I took that as my cue to leave.

"I have some more work to do." I got up and went to the den.

"I am working 7 to 7 tomorrow, so you'll have to make your own dinner."

"OK" I answered. I actually did have work to do. I went into my office. It wasn't a real office exactly, it was like a small family room or a parlor. It was a good size, I was able to put in two desks, one for my PC, and the other was full of papers where I kept my work laptop. I also had a couple of book cases and a large filing cabinet. The biggest problem was that it had no doors, it had an oversized archway maybe 48 inches across nicely framed with wood. The other problem is that it was centrally located, it was just to the right of the kitchen. On the other side was the laundry room / side door foyer that led to the garage. If you came in through the front door, walking past the powder room, unless you were going into the garage or laundry room you had to walk past it. Also, part of the doorway looked down the hallway that led to the three bedrooms and the second bathroom. So unless people were in the bedrooms, I could hear everything that was going on.

My assistant Gwen liked to clear off her desk on Fridays so she didn't have to worry about work over the weekend leaving me with a few hours of emails and various reports to read. It is one of the reasons we work well together, neither of us like to leave things undone. She is also very detailed in her tasks, which is very important when we are doing a deep dive into the numbers. When I started with the company I inherited her since no one else wanted anything to do with her. Gwen was the niece of one of the executives at head office, she was in her mid 20s, bright, recently finished her undergrad degree in England, and was currently doing her MBA part time. She didn't have any specific job description, just put on various projects when they needed help. She was very bright and capable but also very straightforward, to a fault. She was universally despised by the rest of the staff. Some hated her because she got to work on choice projects well above her pay grade, others because she done something to specifically piss them off by overshadowing them, or calling them out when the screwed up. It didn't help that Gwen also the backup for the receptionist when she was sick, or like now, on vacation. The idea that the 20-something assistant receptionist was working on their multi-million dollar projects raised the ire of some project managers. I checked my inbox and, sure enough, there were a few reports she completed that I had go over.

I barely got through my first couple of emails when I heard Sophie head off to the bedroom. That was her ritual, come home, make dinner, shower, eat and then off to bed. She would surf the Internet wile she watched TV from bed, then after a couple of hours, she would turn everything off and go to sleep. A few minutes later I heard Jake leave for work. I had the house to myself again, as usual.

I got an IM from Gwen. We chatted quite a bit over instant message. I told her I was going over the reports, she said she would be online off an on all weekend since she was working on a paper. She bounced a few ideas off me and asked what I had planned for the weekend. I told her I was probably going to work, I had to do some grocery shopping tomorrow, but no other plans.

She responded back with "All work and no play makes Tom a dull boy!"

"You are one to talk, aren't you working on a paper all weekend?"

I got three more texts in quick succession. "If u only knew what other things I have planned... what about the wife, no plans? what about tonight?"

"She's gone to bed already, working all day tomorrow, she'll be home late. Sunday we have house stuff, laundry..."

"make a romantic dinner when she gets home."

"For us a romantic romance is leaving each other be. After 22 years, that is good enough."

The reply was a sad face smiley.

"Not really, it works for us" I lied.

"Everyone needs romance." The response ended with a heart.

"If you really believed that you wouldn't be working so late on a Friday night."

"I have a friend patiently waiting for me."

"Friend, or romantic prospect?"

"That is a little personal."

"You are the one that brought up romance."

"it's a perfunctory romance"

"huh?"

"Fuck buddy."

"Oh, I should let you go then."

"If you insist."

"That was a little inappropriate" I said out-loud. I was glad there was no one around, I could feel my face flush with embarrassment. I had to walk away from my office for a few minutes. I went outside for a breath of fresh air. I could hear my neighbors splashing around in their pool. I thought about taking a dip myself, but I would have to go into the bedroom to get my suit. I could swim naked, but that would be really weird especially with my neighbors fifty feet away veiled by a wooden fence. I decided to go back inside and finish up my work.

I worked for a couple of hours then I closed the office laptop and fired up my PC. With my old job used to email my work to myself and work on it at home. My new job gave me a laptop, so my old PC is only used for porn these days. Both Sophie and Jake have their own laptops so I am the only one that uses it, but I still make sure to clear the browser history and make sure there aren't any traces left on it. While it started up I slipped down my pants and unbuttoned my shirt. Usually I would keep it like that until I was done, in case I had to get dressed quickly, but today I noticed that I was a bit cold. I got completely naked and walked over to the thermostat. It was a bit of a thrill to walk around the house naked. I never did this before. I increased the temperature to 85 degrees Fahrenheit. I'd see how that went, sure it was warm but still cooler than outside, which meant the AC would pull out some of the humidity. I could always change if it got too hot. I went into the kitchen to get a drink. I brazenly turned on the ceiling light wondering if a neighbor could see me. I plunked a few ice cubes into a glass and poured in a generous amount of scotch and wandered back to my office.

I sipped my drink and surfed the net for porn. I read a few online stories and watched a couple of videos. Of course I wasn't thinking about the porn, I was imagining Gwen lying in bed naked typing away on her laptop while a naked guy sits patiently on a couch in another room. I wondered what kinds of things Gwen liked in bed. I knew if I asked her she would probably tell me. She was like that. My scotch addled brain wandered over to Sophie. Sometimes Sophie wore a sheer nightdress to bed, but usually she liked to sleep in just a pair of panties. I used to like waking her up for sex by pulling the sheet off slowly and sucking on her sensitive nipples. She would instinctively spread her legs as she started getting wet down there. Then I would listen for a change in her breath, that would be my cue to slowly work my hand into her panties and finger her. It was a bit of a game to see how long I could go before she woke up. A couple of times she awoke to an orgasm.

Sophie was in great shape for a woman in her mid 40s, all of her friend marveled at how thin she still was. Her B-cup breasts were perfect for her frame, but her cut abs and toned legs that still turned heads. Even with the 60 hour work week she puts in from time to time, she still made it to the gym almost every day to work off the stress of her job. I thought about how we used to make love when we were younger. But that was long ago. She hasn't touched me in close to eight months. The last two times were complete disasters. We hadn't had sex in several months so when she offered to have sex with me on my birthday it had been so long that I came after the second stroke. Two months later on our anniversary I was still so worried and embarrassed I couldn't get an erection. Those thoughts were anti-productive, I focused on some lesbian videos and got back to the task at hand, so to speak. After a few minutes I shot my load into a tissue then cleaned up in the powder room by the front door. I cleaned up the office and made sure I cleared my browser history before turning off my computer then got dressed so that if I woke up Sophie when I got into the bedroom she would see me getting undressed. The house was already warm so I decided to sleep nude instead of in my tee shirt and briefs like I normally do.

I woke up the next morning to Sophie asking me why it was so hot, was the AC broken? I explained that I had turned the AC temperature up to save electricity like she suggested. She didn't seem pleased with that answer. She got up and went to the bathroom. Since I was up I slipped on my underwear, a pair of shorts and a tee shirt and went down to make a pot of coffee. When she came down I offered to make some breakfast, she said she just wanted cereal. She poured it herself at it and left without saying a word more to me. I made myself some eggs and toast and then cleaned up the kitchen.

I was doing some clean up around the house when Jake got up, he too complained about the heat, but was OK when I explained everything. I took a shower, changed and went to run a few errands a do some grocery shopping. The heat wave had not ended, it was a scorcher, by the time I got home I was covered in sweat. I put the cold stuff away and left the rest while I took a quick shower. I put on a pair of shorts and a tee shirt again and then went back to put away the rest of the groceries. By the time I was done I was starting to sweat again. I went to my office to do some work, but I was distracted by the heat. It was so hot in the house, I honestly thought about caving in and turning up the AC. It was so warm I was feeling lazy. I hated that feeling.

Instead I decided to go for a swim. I stripped off my clothes and went looking for my bathing suit. It was a bit of a turn on walking around naked, I thought I might go for a naked swim. I hadn't gone skinny dipping in years. The only times I went was with Sophie at our old house. When we first moved in we were hot and sweaty, everything was still packed and Sophie suggested we go for a swim. I said there was no way we could find our suits. She said we didn't need them. She pulled off her top and ran to the pool pulled off her shorts and panties and jumped in. I was hesitant that someone would see us, but they would have had to come in pretty far onto our property to do that. I watched her for a minute swimming naked in the pool. She was the sexiest woman I ever saw. She still is.
I took off my clothes and jumped in. She swam over to me and we started kissing once I was good and hard she swam away and I had to chase her. When I caught her I kissed her. We fondled each other for a while and she got out of the pool. I followed her. She took one of the cushions from the long lounge chairs and laid it flat like a small bed and she laid me down on it and sucked my cock. After a few moments she moved into a 69 position and I licked her pussy. I could taste her juices mixing with the chlorine in the pool. I dove right in rubbing my tongue in little circles around her clit. She had a small orgasm and broke off, turned around to face me and climbed on top of me. She bounced on my cock for a while but her knees were hitting the concrete so she moved into a squatting position, crouching over my cock. I was amazed that she could hold up that workout. She was rubbing her clit as she fucked me. We came within seconds of each other. The force of my orgasm triggered hers. I don't think I ever came that much in my life. Afterwards she slumped down on top of me and we kissed some more. I could feel the juices slowly flowing down my cock and balls. We left the cushion out all night and the next day the sun bleached the wet spot into it. We kept those ugly cushions for years afterwards. We turned over so you couldn't see the stain. But it was a continual reminder a reminder of the night we made the new house our home. I realized I hadn't gone skinny dipping since the kids were still really young.

I wrapped myself in the towel and made sure that Jake was gone. I snuck out into the backyard making sure no one could see me. The backyard is pretty private. We have an eight foot fence bordering all sides. Our neighbor to the right has a deck which they could see over, but they would have to be right by the fence standing on their deck. I walked around the yard to see where I could be seen from various windows. By the pool area which was close to the house I was pretty safe, if I got further back towards the garden I could be seen.

When I was sure it was safe I threw my towel onto a chair and jumped in. The water was warm but it still cooled me down. The feel of the water on my cock and balls was stimulating, I could feel myself getting hard. I thought about jacking off, of course I would have to get out of the pool since I didn't want to make a mess. Just as I was pondering my options I heard the back door open.

"Hey Pop, what are you doing?"

I looked up and there was Jake and his friend Brian. Jake and Brian had been best friends since grade school.

"Uh, sorry. I was just going for a swim."

"Naked?"

Thinking quickly I said "Yeah, you know we are trying to cut back on electricity, you know for the environment." I added that last part for Brian's benefit. "So I thought I would swim nude. You swim every day, right Jake? How many loads of laundry do you do for just your towels and suits?"

"At least one or two. I need a fresh suit every day since it doesn't dry out in time, I don't like wearing a wet one, and I don't want to throw a dirty pair in the dryer."

"Exactly, so if you swim nude, then it would save at least a load a week."

"Why didn't say something yesterday? I already went for a swim this morning."

"Oh well... I didn't want to ask you to do it until I tried it out myself, you know, that wouldn't be fair to ask you do do something that I hadn't." I wasn't sure if that would work.