A Fantasy about Love Pt. 07

"Not really, she said that was something you would have to tell me, but she told me about the problems you had with her, the weekend when she made love with James for the first time, and the rules you invented to evade problems."

"Rules? Did she mention Local Rules?"

"Yes. It was actually quite funny and we laughed a lot."

"Did she made you follow a specific local rule?"

"Yes, about not wearing underwear when you are at home with your loved ones. She showed me the collections of outfits both of you have for these occasions and I tried them -- very sexy and inviting! I want something similar, Maureen, as soon as I have money!"

"How about not sleeping in the guest room? You were already part of us, Jenny!"

Jenny started to hum and haw, but Maureen reminded her of the importance of one rule; Never lie! She said finally that Eileen had offered her to stay with her and sleep in her bed and since she had had already some drinks and the invitation sounded harmless, she accepted it.

"Do you really want to hear this?"

Maureen said yes and I stayed quiet; it was obviously embarrassing for her, but Maureen wanted to know what had happened.

"Well, Eileen lay beside me and asked me how I had survived James on Friday night. I was quite happy to tell her; that was the first time I could tell someone how happy I was, and one thing led to another. She asked me what I had liked especially well, and she told me what you, James, liked when she and you made love. It was a bit embarrassing, but I wanted to know how I could please you and she gave me some tips."

She hesitated for a moment, but continued.

"Then she showed me on her body what you want to do and repeated it on my body, but I was more and more embarrassed and told her I was very tired, but suddenly we were kissing each other and her hands were all over me. James, I wanted to stop, but did not know how."

Jenny was blushing all over and she hugged me.

"Suddenly I remembered your face and that I had promised you to that I'd never let someone touch me like you had done, and withdrew slowly. Apparently, your mother was very disappointed. I explained, however, my feelings to her and at the end, she said that she understood me. I felt, however, how frustrated she was, and I thought that I needed to give back at least a bit of what I had received and kissed her. Then she pushed my hands on her breasts and told me how you feasted on them, and one thing led to another and I felt her come on my fingers in her pussy. James, I was so embarrassed! Maureen, I didn't know what to do and told her that I was very tired and would go to sleep."

"When we met again the next morning, however, she was a different person: nice, gentle, making breakfast for me, talking about my future and that if I ever wanted to change jobs, she would find something for me in NT; James, she was the woman I knew you loved. When I was back in Sydney, she invited me to come back for the weekend, but I pleaded work and the change to a new apartment. James, I was afraid. How can a person change from one personality to another so fast? How do you handle this?"

Maureen looked at me and sighed. "I believe that I've to have another talk with Mom. Jenny, leave this to me, and it will not be repeated."

"Let's talk about a more pleasant matter: how is your week organized? We want to know to see how we can all be together as often as possible; unfortunately, you've to be very careful in the office since you could impact your careers badly if anyone finds out. So what are you doing during the week?"

"I've courses on Monday and Tuesday nights, Wednesday is free for private activities" and she grinned maliciously. "Thursday, I have a cooking class and then run for an hour. Friday another course, but that one finishes early. The weekend is free. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Let's talk about this week. You're free on Wednesday and we can come and help you move in. James may have his flaws, but he is very good in carrying boxes and hammering nails into the wall."

"You don't have to do this; the flat is not ready yet."

"That is the reason why we want to come: to help you. Isn't that right, James?" and she shot me a look that told me exactly what to respond.

"Yes, Jenny, we'll be there at about seven thirty."

Maureen murmured that she was getting tired and that we had an infinity of days ahead of us to plan and to do what we wanted. The German in me wanted to disagree: an 'infinity of days'? but a look at Maureen stopped that conversation in its tracks. She lifted her upper body, offered her breasts and said: "Goodnight, my love" and kissed me gently. Jenny copied her and said also: "Goodnight, my love."

I moved around until I found a comfortable position on the bed and then both adjusted their bodies to fit to mine: one in front, one at my back. One hand came over to pull me back into Jenny and my hand went forward to hold Maureen's breast. She was satisfied: her nipples had returned to normal, but her firm breast was still a wonder to hold. I also sensed Jenny's hips and pointy breasts glued to my back; for me, this was paradise. We fell asleep and whenever I moved during the night both accompanied me; one to glue her body against my back, the other to make certain that her breast was held firmly.

When the alarm clock buzzed, we jumped out of bed as there was not much time to get Jenny back to her flat and for her to shower, change and be at the office on time. I told her that she could be a bit late, but she said that she had never been late before, and she would not be late now. A rapid kiss on her nipples with an apology that I could not spend more time there, she rushed into her clothes and off she was. I had more time for Maureen, but finally, I had to leave, too.

When I arrived at IBM's entrance, everyone congratulated me and it was funny to hear "Good morning, Count de Winter", "How are you, Count?" and it seemed that the people were prouder of my title than I was. Well, new things are always exciting. I arrived at my office and obviously, Jenny -- no, here it was Mary Ann -- was already sitting at her desk.

"Good morning, Count de Winter, how was your honeymoon? You look well."

I glared at her. "Mary Ann, for heavens' sake, you were my wife's bridesmaid and are her best friend. Don't you think you call me James?"

She nodded. "OK, James. Here is your mail for the last two weeks. This bundle is important and needs your attention today; the next one is important, but not so urgent and I asked your staff to prepare an answer along the lines you normally work; and the last one is mail you should read, but it is not urgent. I took the liberty and gave the main part of the other mail to your staff for a later briefing to you if they thought it necessary."

And she looked around and whispered: "And I love you very much, too."

"There are also three meetings I have set up with two customers and a prospect; please tell me whether you agree. The briefing notes are attached. And Sir Allan wants to see you this morning, if it is convenient."

I shook my head. "Mary Ann, you are frighteningly efficient; please tell me when you want my job; I will gladly step aside."

I stepped into my office; it was well ordered as always, but there was a bunch of beautiful blue flowers on my desk in a nice crystal vase. I went back. "And the flowers?"

"Mrs. Monahan told me that blue is your favorite color, James."

I looked at her again and saw the light blue blouse and the dark blue skirt and nodded. "Looking at you it really is, Mary Ann!"

She blushed and said nothing, but I saw that she was pleased that I had noticed. I went to visit Peter and again I was welcomed with open arms.

"James, you look wonderful. Marriage becomes you! How was everything? Did you see Eileen's face when you were announced as Count and Countess? She almost fainted!"

We chatted a bit about the wedding and then turned to business. He had visited two of my prospects in my absence and felt that it would be very worthwhile to invest in them; he also briefed me on his own customers and prospects. If nothing bad would happen until the end of the year and which was getting much closer, we would have an outstanding year and a big feather in our CV.

At the end, he asked me: "Do you know what happened to Mary Ann? During the last months she came out of hiding and after she came back from your wedding she just blossomed. Does she have a new boyfriend? I tried to take her out, but she always has an excuse. She is very nice and polite, but the answer is always the same: No. Promise not to hit me?"

I nodded.

"When I made that teasing remark about you, she was very upset. When we had coffee together last week, I asked her what she saw in you since I wanted to steal her from you, and she said that she adores you. And then she made a funny remark: Thank God that I'm not into men. Do you believe that she is lesbian?"

I coughed, surprised about his comment and the astuteness of Mary Ann.

"I don't know, and she has given me no sign whether she goes one way or the other. In any case, that's her problem, not mine, and as long as she continues to be so efficient and causes no problems in the company, it's fine with me; but I appreciate that she likes me!"

Peter shook his head and murmured: "Likes you? She adores you! What a waste of a beautiful woman, however!"

When I passed Mary Ann, I whispered: "Lesbian?" She grinned and said this was her last attempt at getting rid of Peter and it worked. She liked him, but he wanted to be more as a friend, but her heart had already been given away. I asked her to see whether Sir Allan was available, she called and told me to go now. He was waiting for me and asked me to close the door.

"James, your wedding was exceptional, especially your grand entrance. I had prepared Ellen for this moment, and she enjoyed it tremendously, as she did with the whole evening, but let's talk about business. You have led your team to great success this year and New York is impressed and proud of you. Just make certain that nothing bad happens since I was told that the bonus of top management depends on us. The other regions didn't do well and we're the outstanding star. So continue the good work."

"An additional comment and a private wish, which you obviously can decline. First: Your Assistant is very effective and competent and on top of it, she is quite pretty! I asked her twice for some documents when Peter was not around, and she briefed me better than Peter! Take good care of her, you hear!"

He was visibly satisfied with my secretary -- no, my Executive Assistant!

"Second a private wish of mine to you and Maureen. Ellen adored the wedding and since she had been with Maureen during the afternoon before the wedding, she really started to like her. She talked a lot about her and what an easy couple you are, and how the love between you is visible and warming her heart. We lost a daughter when she was around Maureen's age and she never got over it. This is the first time I've seen her animated about another person. Could I ask kindly whether Maureen would find occasionally the time to visit Ellen? Don't tell her that I asked this, but I'm certain that a visit of Maureen would do her a world of good. Could you ask your wife, please?"

Now I was satisfied about the warm relationship that was building up between us.

"Sir Allan, you don't have to ask. When we were travelling, Maureen asked me whether she could call upon Lady Moise. She liked her immediately and felt that her intelligence, experience and especially her human warmth could teach her very much. She'll call this week. Just a warning: Please make certain that they don't go shopping! Maureen can be very persuasive, and her credit card drops like a rock. She doesn't spend money on superfluous things, but when she really likes something, she doesn't hesitate."

Sir Allan laughed and remarked that he would be happy if Maureen could make Ellen spend money as it would be a new sign of life.

I called Maureen immediately and she agreed; it had been a pleasure to stay with Lady Moise for a few hours in Brisbane and she would enjoy seeing her again. I went through my mail, called the three contacts Mary Ann had noted and agreed to a meeting during the week. Then I walked through the offices to talk to my people; they were upbeat, seeing the result of hard work coming in.

I spent more time on bureaucracy when the HR manager walked in. I heard him talking to Mary Ann for a while, but he closed the door now.

"Count, I..." I stopped him telling him that he had known me as James, and I that I wanted to continue this way.

"OK. James, I want to talk about Mary Ann. I have received her first course results and they are outstanding. I've never seen someone progressing as fast as she has done over the last weeks and months. You must have participated in this" and he did not know how much I had participated in Jenny's progress... "but she is much more intelligent than we thought. She's an obvious candidate for promotion and I have an assistant's position in my department for her, if she wants it. This would give her more experience in people evaluation and management and a better all-around comprehension for future jobs. What do you think? I have a possible candidate to replace her already in mind."

"I'm happy to hear this and I always knew that she was more intelligent than she let us know in the past. But this is not my decision; she has options here also, you know. Let's call her in."

He went and called her, then explained the offer. Mary Ann looked at me as if wanting to know what I wanted her to do. I said that it was an excellent offer, but that staying in her present job she had career possibilities also, and I was very happy with her performance and would like her to stay. It was her decision, however, and I would support her in whatever she decided. She looked at my colleague and said that she preferred to stay here. She was obviously grateful for the opportunity, but thought that at this moment, she still had a lot to learn how Marketing worked. Perhaps in the future she might change her mind, but right now she chose to stay. She thanked him for the opportunity, and he was a bit upset -- who wouldn't be seeing a very promising candidate refusing an offer to work with him, but said that he understood her, and left.

Mary Ann looked at me and asked whether this was what I wanted.

"Mary Ann, I want you to decide what you want to do. I personally want you to stay with me; partly because you are very competent and help me do my job better, but principally because I want you close to me; I want to hear your voice and I want to see you."

She smiled and said that there would never be an opportunity that could take her away from me.

"Wherever you are, I´ll be, too. I'm still learning a lot, but my answer will always be the same: I want to hear your voice and I want to see you."

She blew me a kiss and went back to her desk.

At night Maureen told me that she had already spoken to Lady Moise and that she would visit her on Thursday afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday passed rapidly and at night, Maureen and I were knocking on Jenny's door at 7:30, as promised. She opened the door looking lovely: dust smears on her face, an old t-shirt on her body, floppies on her feet and her black, no now grey, hair in a ponytail. She hesitated for a moment, but I stepped forward and hugged her.

"Jenny, you're lovely. I love you so much." Maureen came forward also and added: "Jenny, you're wonderful and I love you, too."

Jenny embraced us both and started to cry. "I'm so happy that you're in my life; please never ever go away!"

Her apartment was a mess; it needed painting, new furniture, a thorough window cleaning and I could see why Jenny got it such a low price. It was on the third floor with four flats per floor and if you stood on a chair on the right side of the main window you could even see the harbor far away. It had potential, however; the sitting room was huge, the kitchen was well sized and illuminated through a big window (looking at an adjacent building not far away), and the bedroom was astonishingly large. It was run down, but that could be repaired.

Jenny had prepared a light supper with some cheeses and a bottle of Pinot Noir since she remembered that I liked that grape, and we discussed what could be done. Jenny had already organized her next weeks to paint, to clean the floor, to repair the bathroom tiles and only regretted that she had not more time available.

"Even if this flat is not my home as you said, I'll still sleep here and receive guests. I want it to be pretty and comfortable, and I want to feel welcome in it."

Maureen and I looked at each other and she came to a decision.

"Jenny, this is all fine and good, but I've a better suggestion. You'll need months to complete this engineering and builder, you'll be upset and cranky most of the time, and you'll be tired and snap at us when we want a huddle. Re-decorating a flat or a house is time consuming and very, very stressful. We want you to be happy, relaxed and wanting to make love, not thinking which screw enters that hole, and how to remove the four holes you have drilled in the wrong place. I've more money that I can use, and James has agreed that I can re-decorate our flat, but I'll use professionals. I'll not spend my time hammering nails into the wall; I prefer to lie in James' arms and get entertained by him. I assume that you feel the same. Here's my suggestion: do the same and use professionals ... Do you agree?"

"Maureen, that will cost a lot of money I don't have. I prefer to do it slowly."

"James, she will not listen to me, but occasionally obeys your orders. Tell her to shut up and do want I want. Then she can have a shower and we go out for dinner. Everything resolved."

Jenny looked to me for help, but I agreed with my wife.

"Jenny, my love, she really has a lot of money and decorating your flat would not touch even her petty cash account. You can pay her back if you want it, but I agree with Maureen; we'll do it her way. No more wallowing in dust, so get a shower and over the weekend you decide how you want your flat and we decide how to do it."

Jenny wanted to say more, but one look at my face was enough. "Yes, my lord and master. Your wish is my command!"

I was quite proud of myself: she had obeyed! It was fun ordering people around, especially when they obeyed, which was not often the case as far as my women was concerned, but this time it worked.

Jenny changed into her working clothes: light blue blouse and a dark blue skirt. I had seen variations of this in the office and asked her whether she had other colors, too.

"Later I will have, but since Eileen told me that blue is your favorite color, I bought these first."

She wondered where we would go, and I suggested Luigi's; Maureen agreed and told her that we had been there before, and it was a very nice Italian restaurant. Jenny glanced at me and saw me admiring the little décolleté she had offered; she smiled and reached back and with one of these movements that only women understand, took off her bra. Now this was interesting! She opened another two buttons and it was even more interesting!

"Are you satisfied now, my love? One more button and I will fall out!"

I heard Maureen murmuring wondering what monster we had awakened, but she smiled happily, and I saw her opening two buttons herself.

When we arrived at Luigi's he saw me coming and a smile appeared on his face. "Hello, James. Nice to come back to your friend after such a long time! What happened?"

Then he saw the two ladies at my side and his smile became even bigger.