Made

From what she had learned working with Blair, she could understand his attraction to a company that he respected. She asked, "Like not wearing a shirt with the company logo when they go to certain places? That's not very restrictive."

"That's one," Blair acknowledged. "Management does tend to frown on employees even visually representing the company at strip clubs and the like. However, we've already covered the rules that I was referring to, such as the midnight curfew that everyone has while on business travel, the rule requiring a member of the team always have another member of the team with them when they leave the hotel, and no one of the opposite sex being allowed into your hotel room, rules like that. I've never held you to a different set of rules and I never will."

"What about if I had a friend from college who was also going to be attending the CES show?" Riley asked. "Would it be against the rules for us to meet up while we're both in town?"

"That would depend on your plans," Blair said. "If your friend was a man that you trusted and you followed the rest of the rules, I wouldn't have any problem with the two of you getting together. If your friend is another woman, I would still have reservations about you leaving the hotel, even if you were together. Wolves travel in packs, and two women face almost the same threats as a woman alone."

Riley considered Blair's answer and said, "Well, there isn't any friend here this week, but I will remember your rule for the future."

"You do that," Blair said. "Oh, and one other very important rule, no team member should ever provide a false alibi or lie to protect another member of the team. You are all accountable for your choices, your actions, and your behavior."

Riley grinned and said, "Then you should always be on your best behavior when you are around me because I am horrible at keeping anything secret."

[Eight months later...]

Blair realized that no matter how proper and professional he tried to keep the relationship between himself and Riley, it was impossible for them to spend so much time together and not begin to learn personal details about each other. He recognized that the same thing had happened with each member of his team.

Simple things like sharing meals meant that it would be inevitable that two people would learn the culinary likes and dislikes of the other person. Routine habits would be observed, preferences in reading or movie genres would be discovered, and even what time of day a spouse would be called while the person was out of town would become known.

With Riley, however, Blair had purposely strived to limit not only his knowledge of her personal life but also her knowledge of his. He felt that maintaining a distance from her was more necessary than with the other members of his team because she was a married woman. The way that Blair acted around her compared to others on the team was obvious to everyone, especially, Riley.

For example, Blair would frequently discuss with the men on the team the need for them to take their wives out for a nice dinner, paid for by the company, whenever they returned from a protracted business trip. He knew all the wives' names and how many kids each man had, but never spoke of Stuart unless Riley brought him up in a conversation. Even then, Blair never offered any advice about how Riley should treat her husband or asked any questions about him. He simply listened to her.

"Stuart said that he is getting used to my traveling for work. What do you think that means?"

Blair closed the book he was reading and set it on the tray next to his drink. They had under an hour before their flight was scheduled to land in Milan and he had hoped to finish the book, but his manners wouldn't allow him to ignore his traveling companion. Comments made directly to him by Riley, as well as rumors that he had heard in the office led him to understand that the 'honeymoon' period of her marriage had ended months ago.

He turned slightly in his business-class seat before answering, "I suppose it could mean any number of things. What about it concerns you?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's that he is becoming too accustomed to my absences and doesn't miss me when I'm gone."

"The travel requirements for the whole team have been more than expected since you started," Blair agreed. "I've heard comments from the other team members as well and will be discussing it with senior management when we get back from this trip."

The discussion that Blair referred to had been in the works for several months, but he purposely delayed having it until Riley had been in her current position for one year. Her future played a role in the proposed changes at XES that he would be discussing.

"What do you think they'll do?"

Blair shrugged and said, "My proposal to them will recommend an expansion of our team. The projections for business growth in the next five years easily justify us adding three more program managers, but I would be happy if they approve two, and I would want at least one of them to be a woman so that you could mentor her like I did for you."

Riley suspected that there was more to Blair's comment, so she asked, "Why wouldn't you mentor her yourself? I thought that you mentored all the new hires for the team."

"I can't go into it at this time," Blair said in a tone that sounded conspiratorial. "But, if we can split the travel load among more team members, that should lessen it for everyone."

"It should," Riley agreed. "Although, if Stuart keeps working eighty to ninety hours a week, my traveling less won't really matter that much."

Blair simply nodded but didn't verbalize his thoughts on Riley's husband working so many hours a week. It was none of his business as long as it didn't affect her career.

"What do you do when you're not working?" Riley asked out of left field. Blair had become used to her wandering topic of conversation.

"I relax," is all that Blair said.

Riley bumped his arm with hers and asked, "What do you do to relax?"

"It depends on my mood, the weather, and other factors."

"Well, if the weather is nice when we get to our hotel, do you think that you might be in the mood to see some of the sites with me? We have the weekend free and I would prefer not to spend the whole time cooped up in a hotel room, which is what I would have to do according to your rules."

"Won't you be tired?" Blair asked in surprise. "When we took that red-eye flight from LA to Boston you were almost worthless the day that we arrived. That's one reason why I scheduled this trip for us to arrive on a Saturday so that you would have a couple of days to adjust."

Riley stuck her tongue out at Blair, which made him laugh. That in turn made her smile broadly. Blair seldom laughed when it was just the two of them together, which is one reason that Riley got so much joy out of it when he did. She knew from witnessing his interactions with others that he was more open and freer with his emotions with other people than he was with her, and she had wondered about that many times.

She knew that Blair respected her as an employee and probably gave her more opportunities than other team members, due largely to her being less opposed to travel than the others on the team with greater family obligations such as kids. Riley was happy to take more trips than her coworkers and hoped that when the time came for her and Stuart to start a family, someone else on the team would be available to step up for the team like she had been doing.

Blair had accompanied her on every trip so far, and the additional time spent with him had been invaluable to her knowledge growth within XES. He was uber intelligent about the technical aspects of their job, had a professional maturity about him that earned him the respect of more senior personnel, and led by example by never expecting anyone to do something he wouldn't do himself.

Last week, Riley had reviewed her calendar for the past year and confirmed what she had suspected; she had eaten more meals with Blair over that time than she had with Stuart. In fact, she felt that she could confidently order any meal for her boss, but she would not be able to do so for her husband. The familiarity that had developed between them made simple meals with Blair much more enjoyable for her than even the most romantic meal with Stuart.

Not that there had been many romantic meals with Stuart. Riley tried to keep what romance and passion existed in her marriage alive and vibrant, but she seldom, if ever, received any cooperation from Stuart. There was no way that their sex life could have the frequency they had enjoyed before she had started traveling so much, but Riley had felt an obligation to be available for Stuart whenever he desired sex. She had even tried to get Stuart interested in video sex over their cell phones when she was away for more than a few days, but he refused to even consider it.

That memory made a thought that had crossed her mind a few times resurface. When she and Blair were alone in their respective hotel rooms at night, did he have someone to share video sex with? She couldn't imagine him having any difficulty finding willing sexual partners. He was good-looking, in prime physical shape, financially and professionally secure, and he could charm the panties off a nun. Women were constantly flirting with Blair, even with Riley right beside him. Then again, men did the same thing with her when Blair was beside her.

Blair had been reviewing an email on his cell phone, when he said, "The Milan Stock Exchange is providing an escort for the duration of your stay. Her name is Gianna Lux and she will act as your translator and tour guide."

Riley snickered and said, "Her name sounds like that of a porn star."

Blair resisted the impulse to ask Riley how many porn star names she knew because that was definitely an inappropriate question. He just frowned at her and continued reading the email.

"That's why you chose me for this assignment instead of one of the guys on the team," Riley said. "Because you knew that the escort was going to be a woman."

"No, I chose you for this assignment because you are the person on the team with the greatest knowledge of Oracle and any integration challenges between it, Salesforce, and other systems. They picked the escort and assigned her to you after I told them that you would be coming."

"Do you have an escort too?" Riley asked.

Blair shook his head and said, "There will be a translator available in all of the meetings that I will have with the Board, but since most of them have a very good command of English I don't see there being much need for his or her services."

Riley turned and looked out the window. Their plane had begun its descent and she could see a mountain range on the horizon, which she assumed would be the Italian Alps. She watched the landscape passing by and tried to identify objects as they got closer to the ground. When the announcement came for the passengers to stow any electronic equipment for landing, she turned to watch Blair put his cell phone away.

"Blair, are we friends?"

He took a moment to consider the question and his response carefully. Finally, he said, "I would not categorize us as friends in the sense that most people would define it. I think of us as colleagues."

"What's the difference?" Riley asked with disappointment in her voice.

"Friends, at least those that I have encountered, share life experiences on a much broader scale than colleagues do. You and I share work experiences only. That's how I see the difference."

Riley nodded. She couldn't argue with Blair's assessment of their relationship, so she asked, "Do you have a lot of friends?"

"Not as many as I used to," Blair admitted. "Several people that I considered friends are still acquaintances and would likely become friends again under the right circumstances."

"The right circumstances?"

"Yeah, you know," Blair tried to explain, "If our lives get in synch we would likely renew our friendships. Between careers, family obligations, and mundane challenges in life, people move in and out of others' lives all the time. You've probably experienced it with some of your friends."

Riley had to admit that she had, especially with those friends who were having children. They were busier with parenting obligations and had less in common with her at this point in their lives. She still tried to stay in touch, but the opportunities to share life experiences with them had diminished considerably.

Riley reached across and lightly patted Blair's hand, saying, "Well, I consider you a friend, and by your definition, we are. Sure, most of the things we have shared are work-related, but there have been several experiences we have shared that were not."

Blair shook his head in disagreement, and said, "I know the things that you are thinking of, and yes, while they weren't technically work-related, they were experienced by us only because we work together. Catching a movie or seeing the sites of someplace we are visiting due to work obligations makes us colleagues sharing them, not friends. I don't share life experiences like that outside of work with any other members of the team and I certainly won't share the life experiences of a friend with a married woman. That is the exclusive right of her husband."

"That sounds awful patriarchal," Riley said.

"It's really gender-neutral," Blair countered. "A wife would have the same right to expect that all of her husband's life experiences would be shared with her exclusively over any other woman. Ask yourself, how would you feel if you learned that your husband was learning some new skill, such as cooking or dancing, but he was doing it with another woman? Aren't those experiences that you think should only be shared between you and him?"

Riley seriously considered Blair's example before responding, "I would hope that I was trusting enough not to be so selfish as to deny Stuart the opportunity to experience something just because I wasn't present at the time. Sure, I would rather he experience things with me, but I wouldn't deny the opportunity for him to do it with someone else, even if it was another woman."

"Would your husband be as noble and selfless?" Blair asked.

"It wouldn't matter to me if he was or wasn't," Riley said. "However, since I now recognize the importance of it to you where any experiences shared by us are concerned, I will ask Stuart how he feels about it. How's that?"

"Let me think about it," Blair said. "I'll let you know after we land."

Blair wouldn't mind getting out to see some of the sites around Milan and northern Italy during the two weeks that they were scheduled to be there. Lake Como was supposed to be beautiful and Venice was only a two-and-a-half-hour train ride east. Both were places that would hold more value to him if he could share the experiences with someone else. He would have to decide whether Riley's husband agreeing to let her share these experiences with her boss would be enough to appease his own conscience.

Just outside the jetway into the airport, there was a tall, attractive red-headed woman holding a sign that read "XES". Blair was expecting someone from the Milan Stock Exchange to greet them at the airport, but he had assumed it would be after they had cleared immigration control and customs inspections. He placed his hand on Riley's arm and steered her towards the woman.

Riley initially jerked at Blair's touch because until now, any physical contact between them had been entirely coincidental. This purposeful contact was uncharacteristic of Blair but when she considered the noise level in the airport, she realized that his intention was purely communicative. She focused on the feel of his hand gently holding her arm and felt his knuckles softly graze against the side of her left breast under her light coat, blouse, and bra.

She suddenly felt a desire for the man next to her that, up to now, had been foreign to her. Since agreeing to marry Stuart, she had seldom given any thought to the effects that another man's presence had on her and the thoughts that were now attempting to take root in her mind confused her almost as much as they excited her. She forced the thoughts to the recesses of her mind as she and Blair reached the woman greeting them.

"Buon Giorno," Blair said as his eyes made contact with the woman's. "I am Blair Andrews and this is Riley Haberman."

"Good morning to you both," the woman replied. Her English was impeccable as her smile radiated over her face and sparkled in her eyes. "I am Gianna Lux. Please follow me and I'll escort you through the immigration process. Your bags are being expedited through customs and should be waiting for us at baggage claim shortly."

Gianna led them to an unattended counter in the immigration lobby where they were soon met by a supervisor. She smiled at Gianna before exchanging a few words in Italian and then gave their passports a perfunctory examination before quickly scanning and affixing each with an entry stamp. As the remaining passengers from their flight queued up in long immigration lines, Gianna escorted her guests through the exit doors, and ignoring the arrows and signs directing arriving passengers to the customs lobby, she directed them out a side door and down a hallway directly to the baggage claim area.

[Two weeks later...]

Blair waited patiently in the aisle of the airplane as Riley sorted through her computer bag for the things that she wanted to remain in the seat pocket during the flight. When she handed him the bag to place into the compartment above their seats, she smiled at him warmly and said, "Thank you."

Smiling back and sliding into the seat beside Riley, Blair said, "It's my pleasure. You have always been a considerate and low-maintenance traveling companion."

Riley felt more like she was returning from a honeymoon than when she and Stuart had actually returned from their honeymoon. Her time in Italy with Blair hadn't been romantic, intimate, or sexual in any way, but Riley was coming away from the experience with a sense of belonging that still didn't exist in her marriage. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she wouldn't have enjoyed the trip as much with Stuart as she had with Blair.

Having Gianna as her escort definitely played a part in allowing Riley and Blair to bond and explore a non-work-related aspect of their relationship. Gianna accompanied them when sightseeing, eating meals, or even going out to dance a few times, providing Blair and Riley with the chaperone that mitigated Blair's personal and professional conflicts he had when he and Riley were alone together. His sense of humor came to life in ways that Riley had never seen. He countered Gianna's flirtations with his own and even threw a few remarks to Riley that she was initially caught off-guard by, but she quickly recovered and gave as good as she got.

Gianna was a very affectionate person and had no qualms about physical contact with either Blair or Riley. Over two weeks, she frequently gave both hugs and friendly kisses, often for no apparent reason. From the time that they had all entered the limousine for the ride from the airport, Gianna arranged their positions to create a "Blair sandwich", with one woman on either side. Seeing Gianna lock her right arm into Blair's left arm without any objection emboldened Riley to do likewise with his right arm.

With Gianna as their tour guide, they visited several basilicas and museums before being deposited at their hotel. Arriving at the hotel, Blair was initially reluctant to agree with the room arrangements. Gianna had reserved a two-bedroom suite for Riley and Blair, with her being assigned an adjoining single room. Blair argued that he should take the single room so that the two women could share the suite, but Gianna assured him that her position with the Milan Stock Exchange would likely suffer if one of their guests' accommodations were not the top of the line. After viewing the suite and seeing that each bedroom had a private bath, Blair relented.