Modern Biology

Theresa agreed to move the meeting outdoors, then took Ryan with her to the market to get ice, drinks and snacks.

The afternoon heat was building when Kelly parked her SUV in front of the lodge, but the place was clean, the tarp was stretched above the table, and the ice chest was stocked with drinks. She turned on the seat to step out, and the first thing that we saw were her legs.

"Oo-la-la," Lilly said. Kelly wore nylons, and the short skirt of her blue business suit showed a lot of shapely leg. I couldn't think of a much worse outfit for an afternoon at the lodge. Theresa went to meet Kelly while she teetered on the rough ground in her high heels, smoothed her skirt down, and peeled off her suit jacket.

Ryan leaned to me and whispered "Damn! She has awesome knockers." Lilly glared at him and he didn't have anything more to say.

Theresa motioned us over for introductions. Kelly barely bothered to acknowledge us—we were just her environmental grunts after all—and she was far too busy arranging her long hair behind her shoulders and complaining about the heat. She unfastened the top button of her blouse and put her sunglasses away. With the sunglasses off I guessed she was about my age, or maybe a little older.

We gave up our seats at the picnic table when a dusty old pickup rattled to a stop beside Kelly's SUV. The two men who climbed out looked about as different as they could be.

I leaned to Robin's ear and said, "I don't have any problem picking out which is the rancher and which is the lawyer."

Abel Gutierrez was a wiry man in bluejeans. He had a dark, lined face under a battered straw cowboy hat. Abel gave me a rough handshake when we met him, then he took his hat off and ran his fingers through his white hair when he saw Robin. He gave her a big grin and said, "Ah bonita. Come live with me."

Robin was always cute when she blushed, and she made Abel laugh.

David Ganz wore a dark suit and black shoes that were almost as shiny as the sweat on his forehead. He ignored us much like Kelly did while he took off his jacket and loosened his tie. He was well-built for a man probably pushing fifty. He had an odd edge to his voice when he said, "I'm surprised Kelly's already here. She usually gets to meetings late and then makes a scene."

Kelly called from the shade, "I heard that, David."

We pulled chairs out of the kitchen, lined them up on the front porch, and pretended to work on our files, but we were all paying more attention to the meeting under the tarp.

It all started civilly, but forty five minutes later David yelled, "Dammit Kelly, we can't believe you. You have a history, you know, of promising things you can't deliver."

Kelly stood up without answering and turned away from David. Abel looked from one to the other and told them both, "Let's take a break."

David and Abel went to the other side of Abel's truck to talk in the sun. Robin came with me to the ice chest and, as usual, we walked close but without touching. For me it was enough to sense Robin beside me. I found a cold bottle of water and offered one to Robin, then on a notion I offered one to Kelly.

She looked at it doubtfully then took it after I opened it for her. "If this had a couple shots of vodka in it then it might actually do me some good," she said. "I'm going to be a wreck before this is over."

"How much do you have to get done today?" I asked. "It sounds like the issues are complicated."

Kelly threw her hands up and water from the bottle splashed over her shoulder. "David is complicating things," she said. "It's what he does. All I need today is a simple agreement in principle. After that the lawyers and the engineers take over."

"It sounds like you and David know each other pretty well," Robin said.

Kelly brushed a little water off her shoulder, looked from Robin to me, and said, "Are you a couple?"

Robin glanced at me and took a short step away before she answered, "Kinda yes, kinda no. At least we're field partners." I didn't like her answer but I figured we could talk later.

Kelly laughed and said, "Then you might understand. We lived together for three years. That broke up, and we've been cycling ever since. Sometimes we're a couple. Sometimes we're not. Right now we're not."

She gave me a concerned look. "I shouldn't be telling you this," she said. "What David's doing isn't very professional."

"Let's try again," Abel said, and Kelly sat down across the table from David.

I felt Robin move even before she turned to face me. She looked up and swept her dark hair behind her ear like she always did when she was about to say something. "You didn't like my answer." she said.

"And how do you know that?" I asked. Maybe it was okay for me to read her and not okay for her to read me.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe the tension in your shoulders, or the way you turned your head. How would you have answered?"

We turned together to walk back to the porch. "I would've said 'yes.' I mean, just look at us. But then with my answer Kelley probably wouldn't have told us as much."

What was said at the table didn't mean anything to me anymore. Now we knew why it was said. We sat down beside Theresa and told her what Kelly told us.

Theresa chewed on her thumbnail and watched the three at the table. "That's odd," she said. "Kelly's the sort of type A that would usually go for the throat with information like that. It's her job."

"Maybe what she really wants is to get back with David." Robin suggested.

"And why would David take the risk?" Theresa added. "He should've told Abel and had someone else represent him."

I sagged back into my chair and watched them argue at the table. "I think he wants her as much as she wants him," I said. "But they built walls."

Lilly listened from the other side of Theresa, then leaned across her and said, "You know, we might be able to break through those walls."

"What are you talking about?" Theresa asked. She looked from Lilly to me and back again before I gave her the resin's short story.

Theresa groaned and said "Oh God," when I was done, and she put her face in her hands. She never agreed, but she never said no.

The scent of pine resins drifted on the lightest of breezes when the talk over the picnic table started up again. Lilly went into the lodge while they talked and came back with the sealed bag of resinous twigs and left it beside her chair.

They talked for about an hour before Kelly yelled, "I can't believe you David. You're lying to your own client, and why?"

Abel stopped the meeting again and I wasn't sure they were going to go on. If we were going to do anything then it was time. I whispered to Robin, "Can you get Abel out of the way for a while?"

Robin searched my face and understood. She took Theresa with her and they intercepted Abel when he stood up from the picnic table. Robin tugged on his arm and asked, "Do you know anything about wind turbines? The one that powers the lodge makes a lot of noise. Can I get you to look at it?" Robin expected that Abel would be happy to impress her, and she was right.

David walked away while Kelly glared at his back. I picked up the bag of twigs from beside Lilly's chair and watched David while I walked toward the picnic table. He stepped behind a pine tree and zipped his fly down. He was there to pee.

Kelly looked curiously at the bag when I set it next to her and sat down to talk. "It's getting late and you don't seem to be any closer to a solution than you were before," I said. "Maybe you're trying to solve the wrong problem."

"David is the problem," Kelly said, and turned away.

"Maybe, but it takes two to tango," I said and nudged the bag toward her. "This is a sort of aroma therapy solution. If your relationship with David is the problem then share the scent with him. The stakes are high and there aren't many answers. Why not grab at straws—or twigs."

Kelly seemed merely curious when she opened the bag and inhaled the scent, but then she was already committed. I watched from the porch with Lilly and Ryan while Kelly met David beside the table. She stood closer to him than she had all day, and opened the bag between them. I couldn't hear what she said, but David's expression softened and he bent his head over the bag.

David set the bag back on the table and when Kelly sat down again he leaned over her. From where I stood it looked like he was sniffing her hair. It was only a moment later when Lilly snickered at the bulge that appeared in Dave's pants.

"Oh, man!" Dave said as he stepped back from Kelly. "What did you do to me?" His eyes were on Kelly when he took two steps back, tripped over a branch, and landed on his butt. Kelly tried to reach David, but she couldn't move far or fast in her heels. He scrambled to his feet and dodged behind a tree.

David wasn't very well hidden. I could see him lean back against the tree, open his belt, and his pants. He pulled his hard-on out and started jerking off. Maybe he had an extra-large whiff of the resin or maybe he had pent-up feelings about Kelly. Whatever the cause, the resin hit David hard like it hit Robin.

Kelly looked confused, but only for a moment. She pulled her high heels off and went after David in nylon-clad feet. This time their negotiations were direct.

David wrapped Kelly's hair in his fist and turned her back to the tree. He covered her mouth with his and reached between her legs. We couldn't hear anything they said, but we could hear her nylons tear.

"Well shit." Abel said. He stood between Robin and Theresa and watched his attorney bang the woman he'd argued with all afternoon. Robin told Kelly's story over a background of muffled gasps and grunts, and I added the 'aroma therapy' detail as their noise reached a crescendo.

Abel signed Kelly's agreement in principle that afternoon and then fired David over a dinner of hot dogs and baked beans. The sky was almost dark when David and Kelly left, and they left together. When they were gone, I laid back in the bed of the truck and watched stars on a moonless night: the broad band of the milky way, the meteors streaking across the sky.

"What are you thinking about?" Robin asked. We brought our bedding from the lodge, built a nest in the truck, and left the lodge to Lilly and Ryan. The noises from inside told us it was the right thing to do.

"I was wondering what things will be like when this is over and we go back to town," I said. "Are we going to stay together, or will the distractions pull us apart?"

"I don't want us to change," Robin answered, and I pulled her close. Her lips tickled my ear when she said, "I want to be together."

"Close together" I said and slipped my hand under Robin's tee shirt. Of course she knew exactly what I intended. "But without the clothes," I said.

Robin relaxed while I held her and slipped her clothes off. I worked slowly, and stroked my hands over her soft skin. I kissed her mouth, and I kissed her breasts. She wrapped me in her arms and legs for a time then pushed away. "My turn," she said.

I laid back, watched, and helped when I needed to as Robin opened my clothes and pulled them away. She leaned over me and her hair fell and hid her face from the starlight. She studied my face and my chest, she ran her hands down my body, and she laid down beside me.

I held her close so my lips brushed hers, and we shared the same breath for a moment before I rolled her on her back. She lifted her legs around me and asked "What are you doing?" when I pinned her arms over her head.

"I'm going to have my way with you," I said and kissed her mouth. I kissed her ears and made her giggle. She lifted her chin and I kissed her throat. On a whim I bent down and sniffed and then kissed her arm pit.

Robin squealed. "Don't do that!" she said. "I'm ticklish." She probably couldn't see me grin in the dark. She writhed and laughed under me when I licked her again, and she complained, "Jim, that's gross. Stop!"

Of course, I didn't stop. She bucked under me when I kissed her other armpit and struggled to free her arms from my grip, but I wouldn't let go.

She laughed and gulped for air. "If you make me pee," she said, "Then you're the one that's going to be sleeping on the porch tonight."

That was convincing. I let go of her arms. She jerked them to her sides and rolled away from me, but I followed. I kissed her neck and she complained, "Don't! Don't!" She tried to duck her jaw against her shoulder to stop me. I pushed my hand under her butt and between her legs. Robin was wet, and her thighs sprung apart when I touched her.

I held her under me, grasped my hard-on in one hand and thrust it into her. Robin clutched at the bedding, buried her face against my arm, and pushed her butt back against my thrust. I worked my cock deeper into her tight slit with each push, and I couldn't stop until I squeezed against her with my whole shaft inside her.

Robin gasped and told me, "Keep going!" I caught my breath and plunged into her again. I slapped my hips against her round butt and rocked her body. She lifted her head back against my shoulder, and made garbled noises each time I pounded into her.

I felt Robin's body tighten; she groaned and her hands twisted. I drove my cock into her, stopped deep inside, and felt her orgasm take over. I was so caught up in the way Robin's climax felt that my own took me by surprise.

"Oh God," I said and flattened Robin under me with three thrusts that I couldn't stop. My essence gathered in my core. I squeezed myself against Robin's butt, and it erupted through my aching shaft.

I collapsed on Robin's back when I was empty. We both caught our breath, and then I rolled away. Robin followed me. She pulled sheets and blankets around us, giggled softly in my ear, and coaxed me to do her again.

*****

Robin's folks thought I was robbing their cradle when I married her. They like me more now. She's dozing beside me as I write and I'm starting to think of how good the sex will be when this story is done.

We found a few scattered stands of the 'Love Shrub' that summer. Most of them were in the wilderness and safe from the mine—if the mine ever starts. We've gone back each summer to harvest resin, and that supports our little business. It turns out that tiny amounts of the resin in an e-cigarette juice or inhaled from your lover's skin has a powerful effect, but only if the couple is tuned to each other. Otherwise, the impulses it creates are offensive.

Lilly couldn't keep Ryan pussy-whipped for long, but she didn't expect to. Since that summer, most of her income has been from our sales, but she went back to her science classes anyway. She went back with a whole new perspective, and she had a whole new crop of dreamy high school boys to fantasize about her.

Ryan visits Lilly a couple times a year, and she tolerates him just long enough to satisfy them both. He bounces from one low-cost adventure to another. The last I heard he was kayaking in southern Chile. The business pays him all the income he needs.

Robin stirred beside me. Her touch on my chest was warm and soft. "Are you still writing?" she asked.

"Almost done," I answered.