Always Ch. 02

This is the second installment of the "Always" story. I didn't originally plan for it to be a multiple chapter affair, but it lends itself to more, and the gracious readers here at Lit asked for more, so here goes.

*Disclaimer -- All characters engaging in sexual acts are 18 years of age or older.

*As always, a special thanks to my editor, RandyD1369. He continues to amaze with his sage advice and call 'em like he sees 'em editing. He pushes me to do better with each new story.

*****

Riley Barrett sat in her office, looking out through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the West Texas landscape below. The P&L report in her lap was marked by the highlighter she held in her left hand, but for the moment, her mind was taking a break from reports and spreadsheets.

The offices of Barrett Oil were on the outskirts of Amarillo. It's owner, president, and CEO, Steve Barrett preferred the views of the open countryside to those of city streets and skyscrapers. The four-story building that housed the central offices was the only commercial campus within 10 miles. The main highway was nearly a mile away down a lazily winding paved driveway.

"Do you need anything else this afternoon, Miss Barrett?" her assistant asked from the open doorway.

"No Janice, thank you," she replied, turning her high backed leather office chair around to face her desk. "Have a good evening and tell Polly, I said hi."

"Will do. I'm headed out then," Janice smiled at her boss.

At 32, Janice Decker had worried about becoming the assistant to the "boss' daughter". She figured it would be more of a babysitting job than the Administrative Assistant job she'd applied for. She had put herself through community college to get her Associate's Degree. She'd been a single mother, working as a waitress and had put herself through the two-year college program to better her life, for her daughter and herself. Her daughter, Polly, now eight years old, was in love with the small three-bedroom house that Janice had finally been able to buy. It wasn't anything grand or extravagant, but it was better than the single bedroom apartment they'd lived in while Janice was in school.

When she was promoted from assistant to a junior level manager to being Riley's administrative assistant, she was at first despondent. She had worked hard for her degree and enjoyed the work, but she feared she was going to be a glorified gopher for a young, spoiled little rich girl who was just a figurehead with an enormous salary. After the first week, she felt like she owed Riley Barrett an apology. Riley was a gracious, knowledgeable, and hard worker. She was often in the office before Janice, who always tried to be at least 15 minutes early, and she often stayed later than Janice's 5:00. She was studious, efficient, and was truly a significant part of the Barrett Oil management team. She didn't ask for special treatment and she dug in and worked as hard as anyone.

Riley went back to her reports, marking line items that she wanted to follow up on with the financial department. She checked her watch before sliding the report to the side and turning to her computer keyboard. She brought up a web browser and entered the web address for Flight-Aware. Once the page loaded, she entered an aircraft tail number into the search bar. A map appeared with a picture of a tiny aircraft, along with a green line, indicating the near-real-time flight path of the aircraft. The information on the side of the page indicated that the aircraft was a TBM-850, owned and operated by Charter Air. She saw the plane had taken off from TME or Houston Executive Airport and was inbound for AMA, Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport. The planned flight distance was 528 miles with a flight time of 1:54. The plane had already been in the air for 1:30 so it was about 0:24 from landing.

She looked again at her watch and decided she had time to run home, grab a shower, and change, before meeting Raph for supper. She started to power everything down but decided to stay and wait until she confirmed that Raph's flight had indeed landed safely. She switched screens and spent the twenty minutes responding to emails and reading output reports from some of their oil well operations. She was studying a graph of historical data versus current data on one of the wells when her phone buzzed on the desk beside her.

"Hey you," she read on the screen of her phone.

"Hey you," she quickly texted back, smiling.

"Just letting you know that I'm back home."

"I was watching you a few minutes ago on flight aware -- is that creepy?"

"Stalker," he texted back but ended with three smiley faces and one blowing a kiss.

"Guilty," she sent back, with three red heart emojis.

"Are we still on for supper at Ruby's?"

"I'm just about to leave. Going to run home, grab a shower, and change. I'll meet you there."

"Can't wait. Love you."

"Me either. Love you too."

*****

Riley saw Raph's truck in the parking lot of Ruby's Country Store and Barbecue. He opened the door and got out when he saw her parking. By the time she opened the door, he was waiting beside her truck.

"Hello, Gorgeous," Raph said, holding his hand up to her before she exited the truck.

"Hello, Handsome," she said, taking his hand and hoping down from the truck's seat. She had changed from her work attire to a pair of Capri pants, a light top, and sandals.

Raph had raced home, grabbed a quick shower, and changed clothes. He wore a pair of blue jeans, a button-up shirt, and boots.

They walked, hand-in-hand, into the restaurant, stopping at the hostess podium.

"Two, for a booth, please," Raph requested of the hostess.

"Right this way," she said, grabbing two menus, cloth napkins, and silverware.

"So, how was your flight today?" Riley asked after they were seated and the waitress had taken their drink orders.

"Not too bad," Raph replied, unrolling his silverware from his napkin, "my IFR flight plan took me west to San Antonio instead of flying up through the DFW traffic. I ran into a little bit of weather over San Antonio but ATC was able to vector me around the worst of it. After that, we were able to climb above it. The skies cleared by the time we started the descent into Amarillo."

"Is that why the line on flight aware kind of zig-zagged a couple of times right after you took off?"

"Yes ma'am. There was a pretty good thunderstorm coming up from the southwest as we were flying west toward San Antonio. Between the onboard weather radar, Next-Rad, and ATC, I was able to zig and zag a little and hit a couple of holes between the worst of the wind and precip."

"Well I'm glad you had some help and got home safely," she said, reaching for his hand.

"Me too, Darlin'," he said, squeezing her hand.

They had their meal, talking about their days, and eventually settled up and left the restaurant. In the parking lot, as Raph held Riley's door open she turned and kissed him on the lips.

"So, would you like to come by the house for dessert?" she asked sweetly.

"What did you have in mind?" he smiled down at her.

"You'll have to come by to find out," she said, kissing him quickly again before hopping up into her truck.

"In that case, I'll be right behind you," he said, pushing her door closed.

She started her truck and waited until she saw his headlights come on before she backed out of her parking spot and headed toward home.

****

"Are you working this Saturday?" Riley asked quietly, her head on his shoulder as they sat in the patio love seat beneath the starry West Texas sky.

"As of now, no. What's up Saturday?" he asked, his cheek resting on top of her fragrant light brown hair.

"My Dad has a business dinner at the Amarillo Country Club and he wants me to attend."

"Oh, okay. Well, I have plenty to do around the airport so I can keep myself busy this weekend if you have other things going on."

Riley raised her head and looked him lovingly in the face.

"I wasn't asking you to make yourself scarce," she said softly, "I was asking if you'd like to come for dinner with me Saturday night."

"You want 'me' to come and have dinner with your dad's business people, at the country club?"

"No, Love, I want you to have dinner with me, while we're having dinner with Dad's business people."

"Well, when you put it that way, how can I resist?" he smiled at her.

"Great!" she said happily.

"And you have no idea who these people are?" Raph asked as she lay her head back on his shoulder.

"Not a clue," she said, honestly.

They talked for a little longer in the relative darkness. Riley had laid back on the arm of the love seat, looking at the stars, and placed her bare feet in Raph's lap. As they talked, Raph had taken one foot in his hands and started to slowly massage the sole of her foot with his thumbs.

"...I had never seen anyone do that," she was saying, "I mean, who is that flex...oh my God that feels good," she said, losing her train of thought. Raph simply smiled at her, continuing the massage.

"Oh, please -- yeah, there -- don't stop, oh yeah that..."

"Should I come back later?" asked a deep voice from the darkness.

Riley never opened her eyes -- until Raph dropped her foot back into his lap like it was red hot.

Raph thought he was going to have a heart attack. Steve Barrett's deep, imposing voice from the darkness, while his daughter moaned her pleasure with the foot massage had been nearly enough to invoke his fight or flight reaction.

"Uh, no sir now's fine," Raph stammered.

"Oh, Daddy," Riley whined playfully, "I was just getting the best foot massage ever, but it appears that's over now," she said, half-joking.

"Well, he certainly doesn't have to stop on my account, as long as a foot massage is all that was going on," he said smiling, now in the light from a nearby window. "I was just coming out to ask if you had invited Raph to dinner on Saturday night, yet?" he inquired.

"I just did a little bit ago," she said, placing her foot back into Raph's hand, hoping he would continue the foot massage. After a hesitant start, he continued rubbing her foot, although in a slightly subdued fashion.

"Well, are you coming?" Steve Barrett asked Raph directly.

"Assuming I don't get any Saturday flights between now and then, I'd be honored," Raph said, still trying to get his pulse rate back out of the stratosphere.

"You'd be honored why?" Steve asked. Raph felt the answer to this question was somehow important, so he thought for the briefest of moments before just answering honestly.

"I would be honored to be Riley's guest at your dinner," Raph said.

"Good lad," Steve said. Then to Riley, "Try to keep the noise down, Honey. I'm headed to bed," he said, turning and walking back toward the back door of the house.

"I feel like that was some kind of test," Raph said, now really getting back to rubbing Riley's feet.

"It was," she said, eyes now closed again and her arms hanging over the side of the seat, over her head.

"Could you elaborate?" he asked.

"He knew that I was asking you to dinner, as 'my' guest. He knows that people are intimidated by him and they tend to tell him what they think he wants to hear. They try to stroke his ego I guess you could say. He hates that. So he asked what you meant by 'you'd be honored' because most would have said that they'd be honored to have dinner with 'him' or as 'his' guest. But you said you'd come to dinner as 'my' guest. You passed on a chance to suck up, so to speak. He respects your honesty," she explained. "I can also tell you that telling him you would come as long as you didn't have to work was a good thing. He respects honesty and hard work more than anything."

"He's a complicated guy," Raph mused.

"Not really," she said. "When you take away all the money and the businesses, he's just a guy that gets up and goes to work early. He works hard all day and still manages to have time for his family. He treats his employees well from senior management to custodial staff. He values everyone as a necessary piece of one big machine.

"I've been with him on trips to different rigs around the country. He knows the tool pusher, the driller, and many of the pipefitters and other more transient level workers. If they've been with the company for more than a couple years, he knows them, or at least their names. He has attended every funeral of every worker that's ever been killed on one of our rigs, and if one's seriously injured, he visits them in the hospital if at all possible. He sits with the families and talks with them. I've seen him pull money from his wallet and give to a wife whose husband was injured, working on the rig. He doesn't do it for a photo op or so that he can come home and post about it on social media. He says that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of you."

"Wow," Raph said, softly. "I guess I never really thought about all that stuff. Having never been management, I've always kind of done what I needed to do to ensure the job got done but didn't think about all the moving parts it takes just for me to be able to do my job. From Angela who takes and assigns the charters to the FBO folks who work with the passengers. The baggage folks, the ramp marshals, and the fuel truck drivers. I interact with probably a half dozen people before each flight and never really thought that we're all just pieces of the same machine. If but one of those pieces were missing, I couldn't do my job," he said, truly amazed at how Steve's philosophy applied from the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, to a simple charter airplane pilot.

While Raph pondered the idea that he and Steve Barrett could have things in common, he laid Riley's feet back into his lap, having finished her foot massage.

"You have no idea how relaxing that was and how good it felt -- thank you," she said.

"You're more than welcome," he said, picking one foot up and kissing the top of it before laying it back into his lap.

"Now about that dessert," she said, sweetly.

"Yeah, about that," he smiled at her.

Riley swung her legs down and stood up, reaching her hand out to Raph. He took her hand, standing up as well. Riley turned and led him into the house and up the stairs to her room. Raph looked down the hall to the large double doors at the end -- Steve's bedroom -- before easing Riley's door closed. As he turned from quietly closing the door, the first thing he saw was Riley's blouse as she dropped it into her desk chair and turned to him smiling. It was definitely 'dessert' time he thought as he quickly started to unbutton his shirt.

*****

Raph had a noon flight the following day so he got up early and headed into town. He had Googled tailors in Amarillo and found that The Men's Warehouse had good reviews. He needed a suit, quickly.

"May I help you, Sir?" the clerk asked when he saw Raph looking at the suits.

"Yes, I need a suit," Raph said.

"What's the event or occasion?"

"Formal dinner at the Amarillo Country Club."

"Ah, come, let's look over here," the clerk directed him to another rack of suits. All appeared black or dark gray.

He wound up selecting a black Joseph Abboud suit and a white Joseph Abboud French cuff white shirt with cufflinks. He also selected a blue Kenneth Cole tie and a matching pocket square. At the checkout, Raph nearly had a stroke when it totaled up to nearly $1000. He tried to appear casual as he handed over his debit card to the cashier. The suit needed a couple of alterations so he would come back and pick it up on Friday afternoon.

He returned home and got his black Justin Ropers from the closet and his boot polish, rag, and brush. He spent 30 minutes bringing them to a mirror finish. With his boots ready to go and his suit being altered, he tried to think of anything else he needed to do. He didn't want to embarrass Riley or her father, in front of a bunch of wealthy country club folks. Content that he'd done all he could to prepare, he got ready for work and headed to the airport.

*****

Raph got up Saturday morning and went to Sport Clips to get a haircut. With that done, he went home and went for a run to try to dispel some of his nervous energy. When he'd finished his run he did feel a little better. He took a quick shower, shaved, and checked himself closely in the mirror. No weird blemishes, no horn suddenly growing from his forehead. He spent some time going over some paperwork. He had a light lunch and cleaned up afterward. He read part of the latest paperback novel he'd bought at the bookstore. He typically read these in a few days, but since he and Riley had started dating, he was finding himself with less personal time to kill and he was fine with that.

He finally went to his bedroom and got his suit from the closet. He dressed, put on his tie, and then donned the jacket. Turning to the mirror he had to admit that he looked pretty sharp. He put the blue pocket square in the breast pocket of his jacket and decided there was nothing else he could do.

He was to meet Riley and Steve at their house and they would all travel together to the country club. He jumped in his truck, careful not to get anything on his suit, and headed for the home that he'd come to call Barrett Manor. He didn't know if it had an official title. He'd have to ask Riley about that. Before he knew it, he was turning off the highway, onto the paved driveway up to the house. He parked in the guest parking area and approached the front door.

"Come on in Raph," he heard Steve's voice over the intercom.

Raph entered the foyer and shut the door behind him.

"In the den," he heard Steve's voice boom through the hallway.

"Good evening," Raph said as he entered the large den.

"You clean up well, Raph," Steve said, extending his hand.

"Thank you, Sir," Raph said, taking the offered hand and shaking it. Steve was wearing a gray suit so dark it almost looked black. He also had on a white shirt but wore a red tie. The suit looked like it must have been tailor-made as it fit him perfectly. Raph felt a little self-conscious in his off-the-rack suit, even if it did cost nearly $1000.

"There she is," Steve announced, looking past Raph, up the stairs.

Raph turned and was immediately awestruck. Riley descended the stairs as he'd only seen people do in the movies. It was like she was in slow motion. She had a blue dress that seemed to sparkle and shimmer. It was off the shoulders and showed a modest amount of cleavage. It fit her like it was a second skin. It went nearly to her ankles but was split up one side to her knee. She had on three-inch heels with open toes, showing toenails done in a French pedicure. Her hair was done up on top of her head with a jeweled pin. She had a pearl necklace and pearl bracelets. Her earrings hung about an inch below her ears and were also large white pearls.

When she saw Raph, she smiled a beautiful smile. Raph could only grin back at her like a simpleton. He hadn't yet recovered the ability to speak so he just continued to stare.

"Cat got your tongue?" Steve chuckled.

Raph could only nod.

Riley came down and stopped in front of Raph.

"My God, you're gorgeous," he was finally able to whisper.

Riley blushed slightly. "Thank you, Raph. You're pretty handsome yourself."

Raph suddenly realized that he could have gone completely naked with a fruit bowl on his head like Carmen Miranda and as long as he was beside Riley, nobody would have noticed him. She was always beautiful, but now -- wow, just wow.

"Are we ready to go?" Steve asked.

"Ready when you are," Riley said, reaching to take Raph's hand.

Steve led them to the garage and a black Chevrolet SUV. Raph held the rear door open for Riley as Steve climbed into the driver's seat. Once Riley was in, Raph went around to the other side and got in the back with Riley.