Costume Party

I know this could be an All Hallows Eve story, but I missed the day. Actually I forgot I had it and having finished some of my current crop of half finished stories whilst looking for one to finish I came across this one.

It could also be a 'Hotel confrontation story, that is where the action takes place.

I'm not a lawyer so there are going to be inconsistencies. Don't worry about it, just enjoy the story.

It's fiction, like Dracula, hopefully!

I stood next to the wide boardroom table. My wife Sharon sat opposite me, we both worked for the same food company. She was deputy director in charge of production, and I was the legal Beagle. My job was to stop the company from getting into trouble. It wasn't a full time job. I was just called in when poo had or was about to hit the rotating cooling device, plus a bit of pre-emptive work. The rest of the time I worked for Smith, Smith and Jones, a company of lawyers in town. I smiled at Sharon.

I had picked a trend in the US and as sure as runny dog shit smells it would hit our small island at some time, so I wanted to be prepared.

The CEO indicated for me to speak, it is something I had passed through him. We had discussed it and he thought it was a good idea. I'd been thinking about it for a while, but I had to move my plans up.

Our group of companies are held in high esteem. We are a family company with family values and with the economic downturn our production runs of slightly less expensive food had garnered us a great following.

"I have noted across the US, and increasingly in the UK that companies are enforcing a moral code of conduct."

I picked up the remote control and pointed it at the large television screen and turned it on. I had done some research. There were headlines of a U.S. company that had nearly gone broke because it found out that the CEO was carrying on with one of the director's wives and there was a great backlash.

I pulled up another one where the stocks fell a full 6 1/2% in a day, because another director took his company to a tribunal. All because he had had an affair on company premises with his married secretary. They were both immediately sacked. The company did not have a moral code of conduct in place and therefore they could not be punished. They went to the tribunal and won. The company lost millions, and nearly went under.

"I have suggested to Sir David that we employ a simple moral code. He has agreed it will be an addendum to everybody's contract. Basically, if people are having a sexual liaison within the company with someone other than their spouse, there will be two weeks suspension without pay. They will have to explain the loss of earning to their other half. If both of them are married, and we all know each other well enough to know who is married and who isn't, the same rules apply to both of them. The full details will be in the amendment."

I looked at him, he nodded and he said. "Even the CEO."

He carried on. "Everybody in this company should be above reproach. That includes me, my son, all of you, and everybody who works for you. Everybody will be contacted, and it will be explained to them."

I looked around the room waiting to see if I was going to see any faces looking flushed, there wasn't any, that was good.

Chris from packaging down the end of the table asked the question that had probably been playing on everybody's mind. "I'm not and I hasten to add, do not know of anybody who is currently having an affair between two members of staff, but what if they are?"

Sir David nodded to me. "It's relatively simple, if they sign the document and continue to have an affair and they are caught the will be asked to leave, if they do not leave of their own free will they may find their employment somewhat more difficult, they may get transferred to prevent the affair continuing. If they're caught having an affair on any of our properties, they will be sacked. If they do not sign the document and that is their right, let us say that will put doubts on their suitability for working for this company in the long term."

With that the meeting broke up. That was when I saw Sharon cast a smile at Brian, Sir David's son.

Sir David was a nice man, a genuinely nice man, he had been knighted for his charitable works. He was so proud of that and quite rightly so, he was a man that people, including myself, looked up to and admired. He had found a way of collecting food from supermarkets that was nearly out of date and redistributing it to the needy. Quite difficult because the rules about selling or providing food that is past its 'best by' or 'sell by' date are difficult to overcome. The people getting this food didn't care. It also saved a lot of waste. He managed to convince other food manufacturers to do a similar thing.

I suspected Brian had been making a play for Sharon for some time, being the boss's son, he thought he had a bit of leeway. But I think that little speech by his father put the damper on that. That was my full intention, but I didn't think I was out of the woods yet.

I think he had been making a discreet play for a lot of the ladies, since he got back from working at one of our other factories. He'd been moving around doing a couple of years in each place to work out how the business was managed. And now he was back at base.

I was wary, little rumours had reached me that he was being a bit naughty whilst he was away from home. His wife stayed in their house in our town, and he travelled weekly to the other outlying factories.

I'd also had a few visits from some of the girls on the shop floor asking me questions about what would happen if the boss's son made a pass at them, and they turned him down. They knew he was married, and in some cases so were they.

They were worried about losing their jobs if they didn't respond to his 'flirting'. Their words, not mine.

I told them all they had to say was. "Mr Davidson, that is inappropriate. Please do not do that again." And then report it to me and I will keep track of it and deal with it. Anonymously if they wished.

Now Sharon has always thought she's smart, she is, and sometimes she's smarter than me, she doesn't think she is. She also thinks she's more devious than me, and again sometimes she is. OK that's what I let her think, but I'm still distrustful. In my legal business I've had to do things that are, shall we say, less than completely ethical, so I'm very good at covering my tracks. I contacted one of my people who did work for me on the quiet, and I managed to clone Sharon's phone.

Sharon and I had been married for seven years. We've known each other for nine. We met just after I left university working as a lowly pen pusher in the lawyer's office that I still worked for. She wanted some help over some death duties, and as it was a mundane task, I got it. She was very cute; I was taken by her as soon as we started to talk.

I liked her short, efficient bobbed haircut, the cutest smile and bright blue eyes. She was smartly dressed. She excluded a small air of class. I was taken with her straight away.

I thought she was out of my league. But I asked her out anyway and was surprised when she accepted. It turns out she had been a bit flighty in her younger days, but now she had settled down. Hey, I was the same when I was at university. After two years we were married, and we were happy. We had decided children weren't for us just yet. But Sharon loved children and was looking forward to being a mum in a few years' time, but for now we enjoyed the holidays, the smart cars. We had planned ahead and the in the house we have brought we had already decided which room was going to be the nursery. It was a large room because twins run in her family, and she was hoping it would happen to us.

It turns out the lawyers I worked for liked what I did. It appears I sailed a little close to the wind occasionally but knew when to tack into wind or luff up and run with it. That was how I ended up working part time for the same company she does, the lawyers rented me out on a sort of as needs basis.

It was all fine until Brian turned up, yes, they did have a little fling before they both got married. Cute junior manager and the boss's son, it was always sort of going to happen. But I didn't hear that from them. They kept quiet about that. But there are plenty of shit stirrers in any company.

I could almost see why she'd taken up with me, I look a bit like Brian. Some people thought we were cousins. We both had the same build and height, even our hair was similar when I let mine grow long. At a distance we had often been mistaken for one another.

But I'd seen her look at Brian and the way he returned the look, and that gave me little worries. Whilst I kept an eye out, I could see nothing wrong. It was just the little look thing, sometimes accompanied by a smile as if they were sharing a secret. But being a lawyer, I had heard all the stories of cheating wives and husbands, so I knew what to look for. I saw nothing, and hopefully the new moral code contract would stop anything happening that shouldn't. Some of her flightiness came back in the bedroom since Brian turned up. We were never shabby in bed together, but she took it back to our early days together.

I kept an eye on her messages, there were a few texts from Brian, not many and nothing untoward. But then there were things like. "Your smile brightened my day." He was right, her smile did brighten everyone's day, but it was the three little crosses he put after it that bothered me. I couldn't let Sharon know I had seen that message.

She replied. 'Stop it,' with a giggling emoji.

He sent a winking emoji back.

That was enough to send out warning signals to me. I would have to keep an eye on this.

That night over dinner I almost gave myself away. I asked her. "You're spending a lot more time with Brian than you did John before him. I hope you're not getting too up close and comfortable with your old boyfriend? He is married, you know."

She didn't hesitate. "Of course not, he's just a friend."

"Well, just make sure it stays that way, you won't like the result if that friendship changes to something more."

I don't think she noticed I called him her 'old boyfriend.' I would have to be careful not to do that again.

With that I got up and walked away leaving her to clear the table, something we normally did together. I glanced back, she was just sat there with her mouth hanging open.

When she came into the lounge after she'd cleared up, she looked a bit crestfallen. Like she was waiting for me to ask something like that, and she had a ready answer. But I had shown her I wasn't taken in.

And her looking like that convinced me something had or was about to happen.

She said, "You think you're smarter than me, don't you?"

"Sometimes I am, and sometimes I'm not. We each have our own skills." I laughed at her, smiled and said. "Of course, there is one skill we enjoy together." With that we went upstairs early for the first time in a while.

She had been working late, but that was only to be expected with the new production lines happening and Christmas just around the corner. It was a matter of getting the unit cost for each item of food at the correct level so the company still made a profit. And it might be as simple as only putting six meatballs on a pizza instead of eight.

I wasn't sure if it was the late working or something else, but our sex life fell off drastically.

And I knew Brian was at work with her, that was normal. I wanted to squash anything before it started so I tackled her.

The opportunity arose when she came in late one night, she smelt a little of drink. When I questioned her, she said she and Brian had been for a quick drink after they finished work to discuss the next product they were going to produce.

I didn't beat around the bush; I came straight out with it. "You're spending a lot of time with Brian. Are you sure you're not having an affair? He has a wife and two kids, you know."

That immediately put her hackles up. "No, I'm not, how dare you?"

"Are you sure, you're coming home later and you're always sliding up to Brian a lot. You know that moral conduct thing applies to him and you?"

She was still angry at me for suggesting it. "Yes of course I do, I wouldn't cheat on you." Mayhap, milady protests too much. I still didn't tell her that I knew about them before.

I looked at her "You're a young sexy lady, but none of it's been coming my way recently so where are you getting it if you're not having an affair."

That stunned her, she looked at me aghast.

"I'm not, I promise you I'm not. I'm working late and I can prove it. You can track my phone. The security people know where I am. The factory runs 24 hours a day, and you know I have to be there at times. You can check who's on site, everyone has to sign in and out. You can check who's there." It sounded like she was panicking.

I tried to look like I was pondering on something, and I said to her. "OK but something's not right, something is going on. I need to think about this."

That night I knew where my lovely young wife was getting her sex from, she struggled to walk in the morning. and I was pretty knackered too.

A couple of days later at breakfast I got out a piece of paper. "So you tell me you're not having an affair?"

"No I'm not." She had a worried look on her face at where this was going.

"You're not planning to have an affair?"

"I love you, don't be so bloody ridiculous, of course not." She sounded quite angry now. I was almost relieved.

"Then you won't mind signing this will you?" I pushed a piece of paper across to her. It was a postnuptial agreement. I was expecting a little bit of an argument, but she knew how my mind worked, she read it. It was very simple.

If either one of us engaged in a sexual activity with any other person apart from the undersigned, the perpetrator would leave the house and take one eight of the savings and half the current bank account and their clothes. Underneath that was a list of sexual activities which included, fornication with, masturbation of another person, whether male or female. Oral sex of any kind. No fucking, no wanking or no blowjobs or fanny licking of any other person.

She looked at me and said, "This wouldn't hold up in court."

She seemed to forget I was a lawyer.

"We're not in court, this is between you and me, and by the way it is so simple yes it will, I am a lawyer don't forget. I made it purposely simple." I was tempted to add that she does food, I do law. And yes, it would hold up in court once she knowingly signed it.

She didn't hesitate, she could see I had signed it, so she signed it.

That was when I told her I knew her and Brian before. And when I asked her about it, she said, "It was all a long time ago, don't worry sweetheart, you're my only man now."

"So why not tell me about it?" I asked her.

"It was a long time ago, before we even met. It's no secret. It just didn't come up. That's all."

As a bit of a jibe I said to her. "So now if you fuck Brian, you lose your house, your job and your car plus about 250 grand give or take."

Now that caught her out that made her shake her head, she paled a little for a short while.

Now was the time to keep an eye on what was happening. I checked on her phone daily.

It wasn't long after that that I saw the text she sent to Brian. "Pete knows something is planned. He made me sign a post-nup. He wouldn't do that unless he suspected something. We are going to have to call it off."

Brian replied. "He can't, this is fool proof. It is so simple, so even if we get caught it will look like it's him. Nobody will believe him, and if he says anything else he will look like the idiot he is."

"Don't you run him down, I love him. This is just a one off, just like those old days when we used to sneak around. As I said once."

"You just want to get something over on him don't you? And you're using me to do it." Brian texted.

"Might be." She replied.

He put a smiling emoji on. "Don't worry, I'm not complaining."

So, it was soon, the only thing coming up was the company Halloween party.

They were so smug they could get away with whatever it was they were planning. There was nothing else in the texts apart from meet you so and so, it was always in the building and the places they were never alone. It will be an office or the cafeteria, but they were sitting talking together which is not unusual. She was in charge of production, and he was in charge of the factory.

Then on Friday afternoon I got the text from Sharon's phone. "I've got the costumes." There was nothing more than that. We were due to go to the factory Halloween party that Saturday. The factory would be very busy at Christmas making Christmas foods, so Halloween was the best time for a company get together. It took a bit of sorting out, shutting the factory down for a day, but I think the maintenance people got a lot of stuff done.

We had done this before, and I generally picked my own costume, but this year Sharon picked it. It was normally quite a fun event. Management generally hired their costumes, but the lads and lasses from the shop floor tended to make their own, some of those were better.

I got a little worried when I saw mine. It was a cowboy outfit, a hat, shirt, waistcoat, chaps and a gun in a holster. I found out the gun was a water pistol. She even got cowboy boots. That was Ok but what worried me was it included a Lone Ranger style mask and a full beard. You almost wouldn't be able to tell who I was. I will probably have to lift the beard up to drink beer, a straw might be in order.

We got dressed for the party. The hairs started standing on the back of my neck when Sharon did something strange. She tucked a pink handkerchief in the breast pocket of the waistcoat, and she messed around with my hat.

She was wearing a PVC catwoman catsuit that i hadn't seen before, complete with whiskers, ear headband, the most fantastic cat eye make-up and a tail. We were sometimes a little risqué in the bedroom. The zip went from neck all the way round to the small of her back, that is where the tail was stuck in. I did draw the line at her wearing her thigh length boots and leather waspie. That would have been too many secrets out in the open. It was all finished off with a small black handbag on a golden chain, the sort of thing that women keep their phones and a little make up in.

I tried to get a little naughty, we had time for a quick one. She was as sexy as hell and I wanted some of that, she laughed and told me to wait till we got back home.

Anyway, with my senses all alert off we went to the hotel where the company had hired the ballroom and somewhere to store coats.

Lo and behold, when I got there Brian was wearing exactly the same outfit as me. We all had a bloody good laugh about it. How we were both dressed the same and anyone could get the two of us mixed up. It didn't take me long to work out what they were planning. I could see their game straight away. What bothered me was how would she know who was who? If you didn't have a suspicious nature and didn't think there was something untoward going on, it'll be a good laugh.

Then I noticed a more worrying fact, he also had a handkerchief in his top pocket, but his was red, he also had a hat on the same as mine. It looked a bit odd, then I realised the feather in his hat was on the opposite side to mine. Now I could see how their plan was going to work. It didn't take me long to think of a way round it. But I would need a bit of luck.

Sharon stayed close to me and I didn't even see her glance across a Brian at all. There were lots of laughs and jokes saying that we were both dressed the same and you could get us mixed up. Sharon arranged to have photographs taken in the middle of this. I got someone to take photographs using my phone, we even had photographs taken of us with our beards and masks off, I insisted on that photo. Just so people could tell who was who. It was a bit of a giggle.