Guilt

Dave should not have been in Denver, he should have been at home with his wife, Janet, and their three children.

He would have been home but there was a bus accident and he wasn't even on it. Accidents happen, one moment of inattention is sometimes all it takes. As it turns out, life is a series of events, one thing leads to another, many lives can be affected.

The Metro system had those safeguards, the bus driver should have been warned but something happened to catch his eye. That was just a rather young and cute gal wearing skimpy clothing, he turned his head to get a better look.

The light rail transport train hit dead square on the right front corner. Most of the people on the bus were just fine, except for Harrison. Harrison was one of the company trouble shooters, the vast majority of the time he was gone somewhere trying to figure out what was going on with one of the big automatic sorting machines for the shipping company they both worked for.

Harrison had decided to move to another seat, he had also noticed the young woman out the window.

He got to his feet and made it just a few steps when the crash happened. There was a scream from one of the lady passengers, then Harrison was flying down the aisle.

He was loaded into an ambulance, sirens bellowed as they headed for the trauma center.

Martha, Dave's boss called him into the office and explained that he was needed in Denver and they had no one else to send.

The airplane took off just two hours later, Dave had called his wife Janet and explained. She was upset, it was a Thursday afternoon and her class reunion was Saturday night.

Janet had been upset quite a bit lately, he knew something was on her mind. He had promised to take her out for dinner and dancing Friday night, then her class reunion was on Saturday afternoon.

Later, the plans were for them to all meet at a local lodge, for drinks and visiting. They even had a live band scheduled.

Dave had hoped that it would make her happy, he liked her best when she was happy. Janet was a good mother, a good housekeeper also. She kept her body in reasonably good shape although at the moment she had that soft little bulge in her tummy.

Normally Janet never denied him sex, but now she didn't reach out for him on the spur of the moment like she had before.

He loved her totally and completely, he was trying to be patient figuring she would get over being depressed. There had been a short period of that right after each of the first two children, but she quickly went right back to normal.

This time it was lasting longer, enough so that it worried him a little bit.

The third child had been a surprise, they had decided to stop at two of them but one night they had gone out to play Bingo. Dave had won the blackout, that paid $500 so they stopped at a bar to celebrate on the way home.

There was an attractive tall man there, he came over and asked Dave if he could have a dance with Janet. Dave really didn't mind the men that asked directly, the ones that waited until he was up at the bar or in the bathroom always pissed him off.

Janet knew how Dave felt about that, any man that tried it was always met with rejection.

But this man seemed all right and was courteous, so Dave told him that it was up to her.

He was mildly surprised when she got up and took the man's hand and they danced for several songs. Janet did love to dance, normally if a stranger asked her she would decline. Sometimes she would dance with men she didn't really know, but usually only after conversation or something like that.

But there she was, smiling and laughing when the man leaned in a few times to say something. Dave watched, he saw nothing at all that seemed out of the ordinary. Janet's movements were fluid like always, she looked very nice out there.

Dave found himself enjoying watching her dance.

That was all that happened, but when they got to the car she started giggling and tugged him into the back seat. It was dark, no one could see or tell what they were up to.

That was one of those crazy and naughty rare incidents, such great fun. The sheer nastiness of having sex in the back seat of their car right there in the parking lot got Dave up and raring to go.

Then on the way home, she had her hand inside his pants, not an easy thing to do with seat belts on but she managed.

Afterward at home, Dave asked her what had gotten into her. She told him she wasn't sure, but that the stranger she had danced with had gushed about how attractive she was and it had been a long time since anyone had done that.

"That just made me feel good, honey. I guess a little bit of my vanity was showing."

Dave asked her if he had tried anything, she told him that the man had been a perfect gentleman and simply told her that her husband was a very lucky man.

"Then when he led me back to the table you were looking me up and down, I suddenly got in the mood."

Her reaction when they got to the car was out of character for her, but it was also exciting. Much more exciting than alone at home in their bedroom.

Nine months later little Sarah was born. Dave hadn't had a condom with him that night, and Janet refused to take the pills. Their making love like that in the car was way different, it just happened.

Billy and Bonnie were both older, and soon would be teenagers. Dave and Janet loved their kids but they were also looking forward to the day they would be off to school.

Then along came Sarah. She was tiny, just 5 pounds with a shock of jet black hair exactly the same color as Janet's.

Now their plans for taking some cruise ships to far away places, a tour of France and Italy, then Greece were all put on the back burner, a decade added to that, probably more.

Even worse, now Dave was stuck on an airplane to Denver, and forced to break his promise to Janet. He had been hoping that some nice nights out, friends around would cheer her up. For a couple of months she had even begged off lovemaking most nights, claiming a headache. Next it was her time of the month or she claimed she had cramps, finally she was taking so long in the bathroom that Dave just fell asleep.

He was thinking that maybe she was worried about yet another child, it was making him unhappy. But he did make great efforts to not let it show.

After a decade and a half of marriage, they knew each other very well. Dave thought so anyway. Janet never once showed any signs of ever being unfaithful, Dave certainly never had been.

Something like that simply had not even crossed his mind, so leaving her home with the kids wasn't a concern. He was just unhappy about circumstances having disappointed her.

When Dave got to the client's facility, he first checked for a mechanical problem. He was hoping that was it, otherwise it was in the program itself. He knew if the problem was there, he was in for a long term effort to try and figure it out.

Harrison had a similar problem with the same machinery and he spent two full weeks in Dallas just a month before resetting everything.

Harrison was quite a bit better and faster at that part of it than Dave was, which is why he was the company trouble shooter in the first place. Dave's expertise was in the mechanics, he had traveled quite a bit in the early years with the company as a machinery setter.

It didn't take very long for him to discover the alignment problem. A bearing had begun to fail, the outer hardened layer was flaking off like the heat treatment was bad. It meant one main shaft replacement and the bearing assembly, plus the bearing housing. Normally that would be a job for one of their machinery setters, but Dave was the one there now and he knew what to do.

That should have been easy, and it would have been except the closest replacement parts were in China. He found that out much to his chagrin when he called the company warehouse.

After a flurry of activity, Dave discovered that the replacement inventory order had been cut, and was on the dock already to Portland. He made a mental note to have a chat with the warehouse about tracking orders and shipments, it cost him two hours to figure out that the part they said they didn't have was already on the way.

The Shipco invoice was finished, customs dealt with, and all they needed was to schedule a truck.

That meant it would be nearly a full week before he could get his hands on the part and get them installed. He called Martha, wanting to fly home. She told him to stay there until it was finished, and she wouldn't budge at his protests.

"That is our second best customer and they aren't real happy with us right now. I need you to do whatever it takes to keep them purring, OK?"

Dave resigned himself to a boring week in a motel room.

He called Janet and explained, she seemed to accept it OK.

"I love you, honey." He told her.

"I love you too." She answered, and hung up.

The weekend was terribly boring, Dave found a small cafe where he could get some food. The tiny motel room he was in had a bed that could not possibly be any harder.

Monday came and he went in to the shipping center, and spent the day in a chair resetting the program each time it tripped to keep the package flow going.

Each evening he called and talked to Janet. He made a point of not asking how the reunion party went, he was afraid mentioning it might upset her.

The truck arrived a full day early, and one more day later the line was humming again. He inspected the machinery he had removed, the huge bearing support showed serious signs of wear.

Dave photographed the parts and wrote the defect report for engineering, something was very wrong. The bearings should have held up for decades, not weeks.

He was at the airport waiting for his flight home when his cell phone rang. He looked at the number and almost didn't answer.

"Hello, Martha. What's up?" He said, already getting a sinking feeling.

"I need you in Dallas, they have the same problem."

"I thought Harrison was just down there and fixed that?" Dave asked.

"He was but it's fucked up again! Damn it! He reset the program but must have missed the heat treatment problem." That was startling, he had never heard Martha swear before and she sounded really upset.

"I am about to board for home."

"We already booked your flight, it leaves in the morning. We suspect it's the same problem, we are trying to get ahead of it. The replacements are already in Gulfport, I need you to go down there and fix this! Much more of this shit and we will all be working in a gas station or something."

"All right." Dave sighed.

By the time he got back to the motel it was booked up, so he ended up spending the night in a different one, it was also on the seedy side. He had a very long talk with Janet, she seemed to be oddly unconcerned.

"Are you OK, Babe?" He asked her.

"Yes, fine. I am just a little tired, I guess."

They finally hung up, after the usual "I love you."

Dallas was hot, very hot. It had been raining when he left Portland but then it always seemed to be raining there. Denver had been on the chilly side, now it was at least 90 degrees and it felt like he had stepped into a sauna.

He remembered what it was that he had hated about his job back in the early days.

At least the hotel he was staying at was a lot better. There was a bar downstairs, a very nice restaurant. The room was spacious, the bed huge and comfortable.

The next day he took a taxi to the place of business, it was a large building in a section of town that could best be described as low rent.

A young woman was sitting there hitting the reset button every time the line overloaded and tripped the circuit. She looked cute, but she also looked unhappy.

"Hi! This is a pain in the rear, isn't it?"

"Yea, the darn thing keeps shutting down."

"Well, I am Dave, I am here to see if we can fix this."

"OK. I'm Carla, I am supposed to be up in accounting, at least we have air conditioning up there." She laughed, displaying overly white teeth. Dave could see the beads of sweat on her forehead and on the open throat of her blouse.

She caught his glance but simply smiled, hitting the reset button again. Dave went up to talk to the office manager, explaining what was going on. The man was gruff and didn't say much, Dave could tell he was mildly pissed off.

"At over 2 million bucks the damned thing should work!" The man muttered.

Dave nodded in agreement. Then he went back down to the line, Carla was sitting there fanning her blouse. He got a glimpse of the top of her breasts as he walked up to her, she had on a flimsy white bra.

Once again she caught his glance and smiled. Dave blushed, he didn't want it to look like he was sneaking a peek at her.

That afternoon a big truck rolled in, he got the new assembly into place in short order. They moved two fork trucks in, started relaying parcels around the bottleneck.

Dave knew that he needed to get the system up and running as soon as possible, no one looked happy at the moment.

Five PM came and went, he wanted the job finished so he kept on working. It was still hot as blazes and he was soaked in sweat.

"Hey! Are you going to work all night?" He heard Carla say. Dave couldn't see her, he was on his back snugging down the last huge fastener. He pulled that last one up to specs and slid out from under the machine.

Carla stood there with a big glass of ice water, and a cool damp towel. He took the water and drank greedily, then used the towel to wipe down his face and neck.

Then he touched the button, the line started up, perfectly silent. He shut it back down.

"She will run now, the new assembly appears to be lots better." He held up one of the rollers, it looked like it had almost been peeled.

"What caused that?" She asked.

"Heat treat problem, I will send it to engineering tomorrow."

She nodded, took a sip of her own glass. He noticed she looked to be around 30 or so, and she was really on the cute side. She flushed slightly, Dave realized he had been looking at her closely. He looked quickly away.

"What are you still doing here?" He asked.

"They made me stay until you were done so I could lock up. I don't mind, it's overtime and I can use the money."

"OK. Well, I am done now, I will be here first thing in the morning to run the tests and make sure everything is right."

They walked together outside, she locked the doors. Dave realized it was dark, he glanced at his watch and it was just after 9 PM.

"Where is your car?" Carla asked.

"I don't have one, I need to call a taxi."

"You won't get any taxi way out here after dark."

"Really? Why not?"

"It can get pretty rough out in this section of town at night. Come on, I will give you a ride."

They walked across the empty lot to a little white Civic. Dave got in, she started the engine and pulled out onto the street. He noticed she expertly handled the floor shifter.

At the hotel, she parked and turned to him.

"I'm hungry, want to get something to eat? I never ate here, besides, I bet it's on your expense account." She giggled at that.

Dave laughed himself.

"Sure, I just need to freshen up."

"Can I come up? I could use a towel bath myself."

"Sure." She opened the trunk and pulled out a small overnight bag.

"What's that?" He asked.

"I knew it was going to be late so I brought a change of clothes."

"Oh." They went in and took the elevator up to his room.

"Wow, this is nice!" Carla said, looking around the room. It was nice, too, the big windows in the front looked out over downtown.

"The bathroom is right there." He said, pointing.

"OK. I will jump in the shower and rinse off, I will be quick."

It was at that point that Dave realized he was in a hotel room with a cute young woman, and she was going to take a shower in his bathroom?

And he didn't even know her last name. He also had not called his wife Janet. He glanced at his watch, it was now almost 10 PM.

He decided to wait and call her in the morning, by now she was probably in bed.

Carla came out a few minutes later, she had said she would be quick and she was. She had on a simple white blouse and tan slacks.

"Your turn!" She smiled as she sat in a chair and began fluffing her hair.

Dave went in and stripped down, taking a quick shower. He was just finishing drying himself off when he realized that all of his fresh clothing was out in the main room in his suitcase.

"Carla?" He called out, cracking the door.

"What, Dave?"

"Can you hand me my suitcase?"

"Sure!" He watched as she hopped up, noticing the telltale movement of her upper body under the soft cloth. It was rather apparent that she had no bra on. She picked up his suitcase and handed it to him with a giggle.

"I have never been in a hotel room with a strange man that is naked." She teased.

"I have never...I think my wife would never understand." Dave blurted out.

"Better not tell her then." Carla giggled as he shut the door.

Dinner was wonderful, they both ordered the Fillet with all the trimmings. He could cut it with his fork, it was delicious. Their conversation was relaxed, easy, he found himself enjoying it very much.

"I don't get to eat like this very often." She told him.

"Neither do I, I have the expense account when I am on a trip but it's been years since I flew anywhere."

He explained to her about the accident, and how he had ended up in Dallas. She mentioned that she had met Harrison when he was down before and tried to tell him it wasn't the computer program but he had ignored her.

Knowing Harrison, that made perfect sense.

Not quite wanting the evening to end, he asked her if she would like some wine.

"No, but I could use a Vodka and tonic." He ordered one and a whiskey and water for himself.

They returned to chatting, sipping their drinks. Dave had just two of them he noticed she had three. But she didn't seem to be affected.

Finally, Dave glanced at his watch, it was 2:30 in the morning.

"Oh, God! I need to be at the job by seven!"

"So do I. I live nearly 40 miles from here." That was when Dave noticed that her words were now slightly slurred.

"Maybe you should take a taxi?" He said.

"No, I can just get a room here." She said. "How much are they?"

"Mine was $298.00 per night."

"Ouch! I guess I can't afford...."

"You can stay in my room and we can drive in to work together tomorrow if you want to." He said that without even thinking.

Carla looked at him pointedly. He blushed furiously.

"Hey, I didn't mean....."

"Relax, I know you didn't. You really are a nice guy. OK, I will." She grinned at him.

"Besides, I don't bite...not very hard anyway." She giggled at that and got up.

Back upstairs in his room, she looked around. The room was large, the bed was huge.

"Wow!" She said.

There was a couch, Dave went over and tugged on it to see if it opened into a bed but it didn't.

"Tell you what? You take the bed and I will stretch out right here." He told her, eyeballing the couch that was a good six inches too short.

"Oh, don't be silly. That isn't fair. You are a nice guy and I trust you, let's just get some sleep."

"Turn your back. I have to undress, I will need to wear these clothes tomorrow." She told him, reaching for the buttons on her blouse.

Dave dutifully turned his back, until he heard the rustling as she slid into the bed.

"OK." She called out.

He turned off the lights, the room was still fairly well lit from the lights in some large building nearby. He quickly stripped down to his undershirt and briefs and slid in on the other side with his back to her.

"I bet you will never be able to explain this to your wife, either!" Carla laughed.

"Probably not." He answered, feeling sleep already overtake him. Carla also was quickly falling asleep, the last thing Dave remembered was the soft quiet sigh of her breath.