Loving Lisa Bk. 01 Ch. 05: Fidelity

Terry paused for a moment, her face devoid of her usual smile. "The reason I look this way is because I'm an only child who was raised by very loving, caring parents who had about the worst social skills that you've ever seen. They were total hippie nerds. I was homeschooled on a ranch a long way from town. They showered me with love and attention, but I never really learned about fashion, never dated, hardy ever went to town. That's why I'm the mess I am dealing with men, and why I'm so bad at picking them or keeping them. I saw you look at my piercing yesterday - I got it because a boy wanted me to. I was too shy to tell anyone here about it. I like it, but I would never have thought to get it for myself. Those workout clothes you saw yesterday were a gift from Andy. The only thing that I've ever done as far as appearance goes is that tattoo you might have seen yesterday. It's a sunflower that reminds me of my favorite meadow at home. Another boyfriend bought me a tattoo gift certificate, but I chose the design, and I love how it looks on me."

"So tell me about your clothes."

"Goodwill, Lisa. Whatever's cheap. The makeup is the cheapest I can find at the drugstore, because all of you wear makeup, and I figured it must be important here."

Christ, Lisa thought to herself, now I'm in the shit. Well, what the hell, I might as well swing for the fences.

"Terry, I'm going to ask you a very personal question that a boss should never ask an employee, but the mother in me can't let you walk out of my office without knowing the answer. Are you on birth control?"

Terry held out her arm and pushed against her bicep. "I have the implant that lasts for three years. It's great, no periods. And, yes, another boyfriend helped me go to Planned Parenthood to get that. By the way, I'm not a total loser. I really like sex. I think my boyfriends and I have a good time in the bedroom. I'm no Shawna, but we have fun. Andy especially."

"He is very handsome, Terry, and from what you told me the other day, he sounds like a nice young man. You're being very hard on yourself about boyfriends - it's normal for young women to have a lot of relationships, especially nowadays."

Terry whispered, "You should see his penis. It's soooo perfect."

Well, we've gone from no share to over share in a few short minutes, Lisa thought. Time to wrap up this episode of Intervention.

"OK, Terry, I've taken you away from work long enough, and I didn't mean to open a can of worms. But, I care about my employees, and I see that I've failed you in a couple of ways that I want to address. I won't be able to do it all today, but I want to start with one thing — the makeup. It is absolutely not a requirement of the job, and I really feel bad that you got that impression. I'm a vain woman, so it's tough for me to say this, but I have to, because it's true: You were the most beautiful woman on the trail yesterday, and you had no makeup on. Terry, your natural coloring is what women buy makeup to mimic. Judging from your bone structure and skin, you will look good for the rest of your life without makeup. If you want to wear makeup, by all means do it, but please just skip it for one day, for me, so I can watch Shawna's jaw drop to the floor when she sees you walk in the door tomorrow."

Terry smiled shyly.

"Tomorrow's installment will be clothes, but right now let's both get back to work. Are we good?"

Terry stood up with Lisa, and awkwardly grabbed her for a hug. Lisa hugged her back as Terry said, "This was really difficult for me, but thank you for saying those things. I know my parents tell me the same thing all the time, but, you know, they're my parents."

Lisa smiled as Terry went out the door. Jesus Christ, she thought to herself, just what I needed, a goddam project. But as she thought it, she realized that she had nothing but time on her hands, except for the special attention she and Bill were paying each other. So why not spend a few days and maybe a few bucks on someone she cared about who needed a hand?

As Lisa stood up, she realized that her butt still had a bit of sting from last night's activities, which reminded her that she needed to contact Bill. She moved to the softer chair behind her desk, pulled out her phone and typed:

"Hi, Buddy, I told Annie about your generous gift, and she offered to cover for me Friday afternoon if we wanted an early start. It's totally your call, just putting it out there. Love you. P.S., Please make sure my messages don't appear on your home screen because I may want to share personal information from time to time that shouldn't be seen by others."

Lisa proofread her message and hit send. She annoyed her children and younger co-workers by texting in full sentences with appropriate punctuation and capitalization, but she considered it part of her mission in the battle to keep civilization civilized.

Bill's reply came quickly, "Great, I can take Friday afternoon off, and that gives us another night in Denver. I already made sure that message text from you is hidden. Love you, too."

Bill had done well in college, and she and he were on the same page about grammar in text messages. Lisa loved that he had anticipated that she would want to send a dirty text every so often, so she wrote, "You can fuck my mouth harder next time Daddy. I would like you to come when you're down my throat, too. Do you think you could do that for me?"

Bill's next reply was also quick: "Babe, you're going to make me hard at work, but I would love to come down that slutty cock-loving throat of yours. Now get back to work so we both can get home at a decent hour and not be too tired to fuck."

At that moment Lisa decided that she would give Bill her anal virginity Saturday night after the ballet. She didn't care how ready she was. She would promise him that no matter what, there would always be a second round.

Lisa's phone vibrated with a text from Dee. "hey missed u @gym still on today?"

Lisa wrote back "Yeah, something came up at home and I just did cardio there. How about 3 today?"

Dee replied with a thumbs up emoji.

Lisa chuckled with the realization that she and Dee wouldn't be bonding on the finer points of grammar, and went to tell Annie that she would be leaving early on Friday.

That afternoon when Dee arrived, she was wearing what looked to Lisa like a designer wool suit with a skirt that hit her just above the knee. She was carrying a large briefcase, the kind lawyers use when they go to trial.

Lisa walked out to greet her, "Dee, welcome to Great Western. Why don't you step into my office and we can get started with your account."

As Dee sat down, Lisa said, "That is a beautiful suit. Where did you get that?"

"It's Chanel. I got it on a trip recently. I find it hard to get clothing that fits my big ass without looking like what your little teller gal out there is wearing. Did Ore Ida do her dress?"

Lisa chuckled, "Don't worry, we're working on changing that."

Dee said, "Sorry, that was mean. I bet she's really pretty under that makeup, and she probably has a hot bod under that sack. I only said that because this makes me really nervous."

"You're nervous? You come in her looking like a million bucks, all poise and perfection, and you have some worries about opening an account at a tiny branch of a podunk bank?"

"I've had a wide variety of experiences in my life, but due to some strange circumstances, opening a bank account hasn't been one of them. But here I am, and I have my driver's license and social security card. Let's get started. Here's a grand to open it up. I don't want it to look like I'm hiding cash, at least not in my bank account."

"OK, just a moment," Lisa said as she took Dee's information and cash over to Shawna, whose station was open at the moment. "Can you please get a starter account going with this. I'm going to set her up with a safe deposit box." Lisa grabbed her safe deposit box map, and took it back to her office.

"Dee, that bag looks to be roughly the size of our largest box. Those are pretty popular, but we have one left. Some customers prefer to have us open the box and leave the room, and then they deal with removing the drawer themselves. Though we leave the room and don't open the drawer for the customer when we remove it, some customers would rather not have us near the drawer at all."

Dee nodded and said, "I understand Mrs. Hansen. I believe I'll be one of the latter group."

"Alright, Ms. Simpson," Lisa began, going along with their little joke, "the way it works is that you have a key and we have a key. Both keys are needed to open the box. If you lose your key, we have to drill the door to get at the contents - this is the only copy of your key in the world. You may duplicate it, we never do. Even if someone else gets the key, that person would have to show identification that matches your details on your vault card to an employee here and, unless they have a court order, that person would not be allowed to access the box. We will verify your identity every time. For example, if I were in charge of the vault today, I would still ask for your id, even though I know you."

"So, for your family silver that's the most valuable heirloom you own, priceless to you but frankly of little value to anyone else, do you think this box will meet your needs, Ms. Simpson?"

Dee smiled, "Yes, I feel very comfortable putting grandma's silver in your bank, Mrs. Hansen."

Lisa pulled out a vault card and the key to Dee's new box. "Let's go to the vault and you can load your drawer while I fill out your paperwork."

When they had finished, Dee had a set of starter checks, instructions on how to log on to the bank website, and a sheet that Annie had prepared that walked through a step-by-step on how to get her paycheck deposited directly into her new account.

"Goddam, do I need a drink," Dee said, as they headed out the door. "How about the Snug at the Stanley?"

"Sounds good, never been," said Lisa.

"I can drive, I just have one no matter what," Dee said.

"One is all I can handle, I'm a total lightweight," Lisa said, "I'm a cheap date."

"I'm quite the opposite," Dee said, smiling.

When they got to the hotel, Dee had the valet take her car, and they headed to the elevator. Lisa had been at many events at the Stanley, but never in the tiny upstairs bar where Dee took her that afternoon. It had about 5 booths. An older distinguished gentleman greeted Dee at the door.

"Hello, Ms Simpson," he said, with a slight bow.

"Victor, wonderful to see you again. This is my friend, Mrs Hansen. Is my usual table available?"

"Yes it is. Mrs Hansen, Ms Simpson, this way."

As they sat down, Lisa said, "Are we still in Rogers?"

Dee laughed and said, "This place is a real anachronism, isn't it? I love it, and I bring guests here all the time, especially when we need a little privacy. Do you like champagne?"

"Yes, the drier the better," Lisa said.

Dee turned slightly, and Victor appeared on little cat feet. "Two splits of Veuve please, Victor, and how about a dish of those yummy nuts you hide behind the bar."

"Yes ma'am", he said.

"Everybody likes to splash out with Dom, but I find that the subtle fruitiness of Veuve is more to my taste. I'm interested to see if you agree," Dee said.

Lisa just stared at Dee and said, "Who the fuck are you?"

Dee gave Lisa a smile and said, "OK, I'm going to tell you something, but no matter how you feel about what I'm going to say, you have to promise to finish this drink with me."

Lisa said, "I hope you're not going to make a pass at me."

Dee's eyes lit up as her smile broadened. "Only if you want me to."

Lisa smiled and said, "No to the pass, yes to finishing the drink."

Dee continued, "OK, here goes. I do dance at the Tip Top, as I told you, but I'm also a sex worker. I have a small set of clients here in town, and I travel to others. I have a long life story that got me here, but right now I'm in a place where I'm happy, I'm not being exploited or trafficked, and I actually like what I do, most of the time."

Lisa paused and thought over her response. She began, "I'm glad to hear you're safe, and I'm sorry that we haven't legalized and regulated your profession. I can't say I'm not a little concerned or nervous about it, and I sure haven't ever been a friend of a sex worker..."

"That you know of," Dee interjected.

"You're absolutely right, so this will be something new, but I bet as we get to know each other, I'm sure it'll be fine," Lisa said, "I have about a million questions for you, but I don't want to turn a casual drink into quiz time."

Dee said, "Well, why don't I ask you something - what happened at home this morning?"

Lisa lit up. "My husband surprised me with tickets to the ballet in Denver this weekend."

"Oh, nice, touring or house company?"

Lisa said, "I have no idea, it's Swan Lake, he made the arrangements."

Dee said, "That's probably the touring company of the Bolshoi. They're really good, almost as good as the home company in Moscow. And I'd rather see it in Denver. That new performing arts complex has great acoustics, and it's a hell of a lot more comfortable than that drafty theater in Moscow."

"You've seen Swan Lake at the Bolshoi, in Moscow?"

"Well, most of it. We were in a box, and my owner required oral service during Act 2, but I saw the other three. So what's your husband's name?"

"I'm just going to step around the crater of that bomb you just dropped, for now, but we're coming back to it. His name is Bill, and we've been married for 30 years next April."

"You've been married as long as I've been alive. I can't imagine what that's like."

"It's had ups and downs, but right now we're on a major up, and I'm really enjoying the ride."

"That's good to hear. As you can probably guess, I see the other side of long marriages, mostly men who aren't getting any at home and use my services to stay married. What does Bill do for work?"

"He's the engineering manager out at the trona mine. He's a real expert on mining trona, but as you probably know from living here, there are about 5 places in the country where they mine it. Rogers is the nicest town out of all of them."

"Oh, I know all about the mine, or at least about miners. When I first came to town, I danced and tricked at the Ghost Ranch. That place is pretty rough, but I was able to work my way up and out before I got sucked into the worst of it."

"Hmm, I thought that place was just a rough bar. Bill always warned the kids to stay away from there, and I've never been."

"Well, if it's any consolation, we rarely saw mine management there. It seemed like mostly workers, but they were tough customers. Hard to keep a condom on them, and a lot of the more desperate girls would bareback for extra tips. Most of the girls provided Greek service. Luckily, I had already done plenty of that before I started there, so I could compete, but I made them keep it covered."

Lisa's thoughts at hearing what Dee had just revealed were interrupted by Victor's arrival with the splits, each of which had a tiny bucket to keep cool. He opened and poured a small amount in each glass, then placed each split back in a bucket. He also placed a small bowl of nuts with a spoon on the table, and placed two plates topped with small cloth napkins in front of each woman.

"Again, wow," Lisa said. Dee chuckled and raised her glass for a toast, saying "Here's to moving up."

After they both tasted their champagne, Lisa said, "You're right, that's really good. Fruity is a good way to put it."

Dee said, "Hey, I saw your wheels spinning after I told you about the Ghost Ranch. I don't know your husband, but I'll bet with a fine woman like you, he didn't stray. Even if he did, here's my take: if there was a low point between you two and he needed a little companionship and release, isn't it better that he paid for it from someone who had no connection with him, than to fuck up your marriage with a 'love affair'?" Dee pronounced those last two words mockingly.

"You're right," Lisa said, "You must see a lot of cheaters, but Bill is a really honest and loyal man. I'm so lucky to have him, and if there was a low point, I was the cause of it." Lisa meant every word, but she knew that Bill had been on short rations for a long time, so she still felt a little unsettled. She quickly steered the subject away from his possible infidelity by saying, "I'm really glad you were able to get out of that place and keep your health."

"Yeah, Dr. Mel is a godsend. I did have a couple of little issues but nothing that lingered, knock wood. She cares so much about all of us, and I'm so glad I found her. Though I think she ought to be paying me a referral fee," Dee chuckled.

"Wait, you mean Melody Arbruster?"

Dee nodded.

"That's who I go to!" Lisa exclaimed. "Our kids played soccer together. I really like her as a physician, and we used to have fun together when we hung out at their practices and games."

"Small world. I love her, too. She was the only doctor who wasn't shocked by my high mileage hole — in fact, she was both kind and a little curious. I think she might be kinky, but that's just a feeling. It's hard to tell, you know?"

Lisa thought of the marks on her ass and wondered if Dee would be surprised to learn about them. "Yeah, it really is difficult, I agree. If you don't mind a personal question, I have some idea of what a high mileage hole might be, but maybe you should fill me in."

"Well, Mrs Hansen, a high mileage hole is, broadly defined, any orifice that has seen a lot of action and shows the scars," Dee said in a faux pedantic tone. "In my specific case, my owner was a sodomy afficionado whose preferred orifice was my anus. We had many long and somewhat brutal sessions, after which I developed a ring of scar tissue around that opening. Luckily, and contrary to old wives' tales, my normal function of that particular sphincter is just fine. And, for me, it has become just another orifice that my customers may use or not use, depending on their proclivities and willingness to pay," Dee said.

"Owner? Is that the guy who took you to Moscow? And is that what that 'Owned' tattoo is all about?"

"Yes - I want to share that with you sometime, but it's a little tough for me to talk about. I'll need a fair amount of weed to be able to open up. That's why I used my 'Frankly, Mrs Hansen' voice. You'll notice that I do that when I have something tough to talk about."

"Would you show it to me someday?" Lisa blurted out. "Wait, that's so wrong, I'm sorry."

"No, I get it, at least you're honest about your curiosity. Yeah, next time we're alone in the locker room, I'll give you a peek. But no touching or licking, unless you're paying," Dee smiled.

"I didn't mean to go too far," Lisa said as she touched Dee's hand.

"Don't worry, it's taken a lot of time and therapy for me to get to where I am about the whole experience. I wouldn't be here in this place talking to you if I hadn't met that man, so there's that," Dee said with a wan smile. "Now you tell me one super personal embarrassing thing so we're even."

Lisa took a sip of her drink and realized she had a lot to say, and thought, fuck it, I doubt if I could shock this woman. She began, "One, hell, here's a bunch: I gave the first blowjob of my life on Friday night. My husband - or should I say 'Daddy' - whipped my ass so hard last night that I'm a little uncomfortable sitting here, but when he fucked me after my punishment, I came harder than I ever have in my life. I can't stop thinking about what that means. I basically forced had to face fuck me this morning as a reward for buying me those tickets. I want to give him my virgin ass after the ballet this weekend, and that makes me scared shitless and turned on in equal measure. Up until Friday, we'd only had sex in the missionary position, infrequently. So do you want to be the friend of an almost virgin weirdo like me?"