Struggling to Survive Pt. 03

Review of previous chapter:

Tom managed to find a job, providing much needed relief for the financial situation. However, the communication gap hasn't been resolved. In fact, it's gotten worse.

Kara's boss reneged on his deal to keep the blowjob a one-time event. He decided to use his advantage as boss and retrieve more sexual favors from Kara. Unfortunately for him, he found a different woman than the one he literally brought to her knees once before. She exploited several weaknesses that he had with a few tricks of her own. She successfully freed herself from that horrible circumstance, at least for the time being.

Along the way, she found an ally that would assist her in getting revenge on her boss, and give her a more permanent solution to her situation. However, more trouble may be on the horizon, as this new savior may turn out to be the fire that she fell into when escaping the frying pan.

Tom Narrating: Six Months Later

"So Tom, tell me. How are you liking the job?"

"Everything's fine Mr. Danvers. Everybody is nice and I've been learning a lot. It's been a bit of an adjustment learning the system, but overall I think it's been good."

Mr. Danvers nodded and checked over some paperwork in front of him. I sat in the seat opposite his desk.

"Good. Good. I've heard good things about you. You seem to be learning things fairly quickly. Well, I won't hold you up with a bunch of gibberish. As you know, this is your 6-month evaluation that is also the end of your trial period. I don't think there's any suspense as to if you made the cut or not."

I decided that discretion was the better part of valor as I chose to humbly avoid tooting my own horn. The truth of the matter was that I was killing it here. This job was so much like my last job that I felt like I was back there. The only difference was that I was getting paid a lot less. In due time.

The best part of today's meeting was that it signaled the end of my trial period, which meant that I was getting a raise. So far, this job was working out nicely.

I wished that my good fortune and success at the job extended to my home life as well. But it wasn't so. My home life, namely my marriage, hadn't improved with my employment here. In fact, things seemed to be getting...worse?

Not sure how to describe my marriage. We were fighting less. A lot less actually. You would think that this was good, and it was. But then again it wasn't. The fighting had stopped, but we were even more distant than ever before. It was strange.

No matter how hard I tried, things stayed the same between us. We ate together, slept together (and I really mean we slept), and we interacted, but we were just existing around each other. When we were around the boys, we were a family. We laughed, joked, and genuinely loved each other. But when we were alone, we were ALONE. Separate from one another. In our own world.

I just couldn't get past this wall. And it was slowly killing me. But the funny thing was, it was becoming such a dynamic in our house that it was beginning to feel normal.

Later on that night, I looked at Kara as she sat reading a book. She had on baggy sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a lazy ponytail. But at that moment, she looked like a Goddess. And I wanted to worship.

"Hey there sexy. What do you say you and I go upstairs and do it?"

She looked up from her book like she was annoyed. "Let's do it? Really Tom? Boy, you sure know how to romance a girl." she said sarcastically. With that she put her face back in the book.

The frustration of everything going on reached my boiling point. I was trying to set things right in my marriage. I really was. But it seemed like I was the only one trying.

"Goddammit Kara! What the hell is wrong with you? What do you want from me? I'm trying to get to you, to be with you, and you keep shooting me down. What the fuck?"

That got her attention. She looked up from her book once again, this time with more than annoyance. It was somewhere between being angry and exasperated. Like she was having a pointless conversation.

"Tom, you honestly expect to say 'Kara, let's do it' and have me swooning at your feet? Really?"

"Well, maybe if you told me what you wanted, I can do it for you. I can't read your mind."

"If I honestly have to TELL you how to get me in the mood, then there's no point. I'm not a voice activated machine that you turn on by simply saying a magic phrase. If you want to turn me on, you have to put some effort into it."

"What kind of effort Kara? Damn, give me a hint or something."

She looked at me for a second, then she put her book down and turned to me. Her cool soft hand grabbed mine and I saw a wistful smile come across her face.

"Tom, do you remember the first time we made love? We'd just went on our fifth date. Me, you, and Dean had spent the day at the water park. Dean was scared of the water, so you taught him to swim. Do you remember that?"

My mind traveled back to that day. I did remember. I remember that seeing Kara in a bikini did things to nether regions that would have been noticeable had there not been a pool around to sit in. We had so much fun that day. I really enjoyed having Dean open up to me and allow me to teach him to swim.

She saw the recognition in my face as I recalled that day. Encouraged, she continued.

"When we got home, you tucked Dean in to bed. Then you came downstairs and put on my favorite CD."

I smiled as I remembered. "Yeah. You love Boys to Men."

"Then you took me in your arms, and we danced in my living room. You leaned in slowly and kissed me gently. I tried to pull away at first, but you wouldn't let me. Finally, I gave in. I knew right then and there that we were going to have sex that night."

Her eyes glazed over as that memory took her away. She was so gone.

"So what, you want me to put Boys to Men on and dance? Hell Kara, why didn't you just say that?"

The wistful look disappeared and was replaced by that annoyed one that she held minutes before.

"It's not about the CD Tom! God! It's about...you know what? Never mind. Forget it." With that she got up and went upstairs. I sat there on the couch as confused as ever. I wished that wives came with a handbook. They just make simple things unnecessarily complicated.

**************

Kara narrating: The next day

"So, have you gotten that boss of yours fired yet?"

I sat back savored the meatless spaghetti. God I loved this restaurant! Ever since Richard had taken me here all those months ago I fell in love with the place. I shook my head after I wiped sauce from my mouth.

"No. Not yet. We're still working on that front."

"Well, I for one hope you fail miserably. James is one of my best clients. He certainly knows how to make a woman wet."

"Ewww Sandra! How could that man possibly make you wet?"

"By throwing lots of money at me, of course! You know I love a man with a big...wallet. Just last Friday he gave me $200 in lap dances alone. Then he paid for my...special dances."

My best friend smiled from across the table. I sometimes envied her. The way she was able to be so detached. Nothing phased her. I mean, here she was openly joking about having sex with a disgusting excuse for a man, and had no shame about it.

"God! How can you even joke about sleeping with that man?"

"Because he paid me $300 for 15 minutes of work. Between the lap dances and the fucking, I made $500 in one hour. That's my car note sweetie." Sandra (Starlet) said as she winked playfully at me. We shared a laugh off of that.

Ever since the day she helped me backstage at the club, Sandra (Starlet) and I had become fast friends. In so many ways, I admired her. She has always been tough as nails. During my time as a stripper, I was hassled constantly. However, none of the girls ever messed with her.

She was strikingly beautiful, but it was kind of cold and detached. Almost like a sociopath. Everyone that came in contact with her were chess pieces to be moved.

For some reason though, I got inside of her icy heart. She genuinely cared about me. I don't know if I was just so pitiful when she first saw me that she felt the need to protect me, or if she saw some kindred spirit in me. For whatever reason, we clicked.

"Ever since I had that conversation him, he hasn't trusted me enough to let me see anything that could get him fired. It's really frustrating." I said as my mind traveled back to my many failed attempts to finagle detrimental information from that pompous asshole.

Sandra seemed to be enjoying her Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo. Unlike me, she had no issue eating meat. It wasn't like any of it ever stuck to her body anyway. If anything, all of it went to her ass and made her more popular with her customers.

"Yeah. Frustrating. You certainly don't seem to be all that upset about it. After all, it just gives you an excuse to hang out with your partner in crime even more." She said as she eyed me suspiciously.

"What! Sandra! That's ridiculous!"

"Right." She said as she looked at me like she was not convinced. I shot her a hurt expression.

"I would never cheat on Tom. I'm not like that. You of all people know that."

Her expressions softened. She reached across the table and grabbed my hand.

"Kara, listen to me. People who cheat usually don't set out to do it. But they do. I'm saying this as a friend. This Richard guy is dangerous for you. I get it that the two of you are joining forces to get rid of a common enemy, but this is more than that. Honey, trust me when I say this. He. Is. Dangerous."

"Sandra..."

"Kara, stop kidding yourself. We've been doing these lunches for a while now. In the past six months, you have talked about Richard more than you've talked about Tom. Face it kiddo. You are infatuated. You need to be real with yourself."

I took a good look at myself in that moment. With Sandra's eyes peering into me like they were I couldn't discount what she was saying. Yes, I was infatuated with Richard.

"Okay! So what if you're right? I may be a little infatuated with him. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to cheat. I love my husband. I'm not a cheater."

She shook her head even before I was done speaking. "Are you forgetting about 'the incident'?" She asked, using air quotes when she said the incident. I almost threw my knife at her.

"We said we weren't going to mention that. EVER!" I said through gritted teeth. She raised her hands in surrender and backed off of that.

"Okay. But that aside, you are having clandestine lunches with a man that you are extremely attracted to about twice a week. You haven't told your husband about these lunches, nor do you plan to. You are discussing things with him that you don't talk to your husband about. I hate to break it to you Kara, but you're certainly doing a good impression of a woman who's cheating."

I mentally sulked for a moment as I shook Sandra's hand off of mine. We ate in silence for a few moments, each of us lost in our own thoughts.

I would never cheat on Tom. How could she even think that?

Sandra broke the silence. "Kara, I'm sorry. Okay? I...I just don't want you to end up getting hurt."

I glared at her for a moment, then softened my gaze. She was just trying to be a friend. In her shoes, I would probably do the same thing.

"I get it Sandra. Okay. I get it. But what am I to do? Nothing is going on between us. There is no reason to stop meeting Richard. At least until we get rid of Asshole."

A worried look passed Sandra's face. "Be careful Kara. You and I both know the kind of men that are out there. You lucked up and found one that didn't care about your past. He took your son in like he was his own and didn't think twice. Men like that don't come around every day. Don't ruin it because you wanna play with fire."

I snorted a sort of laugh as I defensively lashed out at her. "What ever happened to 'men are just walking, talking wallets? Isn't that your motto?"

It was her turn to look hurt. I immediately regretted attacking her like that.

"Kara, you know that is completely different. From what you tell me about Tom, he is world's different from the assholes that come down to The Lounge. Treating them like wallets is par for the course. Treating Tom like a wallet is shallow and cruel."

Her words hit me hard. Is that what I sound like I'm doing? Do I sound like that kind of woman?

"I love Tom. I'm not with him because of his money."

Sandra grabbed my hand again and sighed. "I know you do honey. You aren't like me. You can't play this game and come out unscathed. That's why I'm trying to warn you to be careful. Losing Tom would kill you. You wouldn't survive it."

I squeezed her hand to let her know that I heard her. I mean really heard her. I mentally shuttered at the thought of losing Tom. Despite our current problems, he was my world. Without him...

I can't lose him. I WON'T lose him.

Maybe Sandra was right. Perhaps Richard was a distraction that could prove troublesome down the line. I made a mental note to watch myself around him.

***

As soon as I got back to the office, my cellphone dinged indicating that I had a text message. I expected it to be from Tom telling me something or another, but it wasn't. My heart fluttered when I saw that it was from Richard.

Easy girl. It's just a text. When I opened it, it said:

Got some info. Call me.

I couldn't call him right away. I was in the office, and making a phone call like that in close proximity to Mr. Worthy was a no go. I couldn't just leave to make the call because I'd just returned from lunch. So I texted him back.

Can't call now. In office with asshole. TTYL.

I sat down at my desk and heard the text ding again. I pulled it out to see a smiley face with a wink.

"Kara! Have a good lunch? You're over there smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Maybe you could do something more productive, like your job." James bellowed. I hadn't even realized that I was smiling. Luckily for me, James had a way of wiping the smile from my face. I'll bet he has that effect on all of the women he encounters.

The rest of the day was pretty even paced. I only saw James a few times, which always makes for a good day. When I got in my car, I remembered that I had to call Richard back. I found his number in my contact list and dialed it.

"Hey there beautiful. Just the woman I wanted to hear from." He said after the second ring. I caught myself blushing and silently chastised my inner junior-high-school girl.

"You have information for me?" I said, pretending not the hear the "beautiful" remark.

"Sure do partner. I came across a report this morning that interested me. The Monthly Statement of Cash Flows. It seems that there is a discrepancy. The discrepancy seems to be of about $500. When I checked the report for previous months, I noticed a pattern emerging. It appears to me that these discrepancies have one thing in common. Your boss."

"Do you think he's doing something illegal like laundering money?"

"No, I don't think it's anything that serious. But I do think that there is something going on that will not look good if it came out. We need to find out more."

"So can't you investigate him or something? You know, do an audit?"

Richard sighed on the other end. "I could do that, but this could very well just be some random clerical errors, or he could turn out to have legitimate reasons for the missing money. Everything checks out on paper. If I bring this up to anybody, I want to be sure it's gonna stick to him.

"So, what would you have me do? Do you think that there's something on his computer? You need me to hack in?" I asked excitedly. I felt like I was on a Black Ops mission.

I heard him laugh on the other end. "Easy there Anonymous. No need to go all Le Femme Nikita. All of the computers are virtual. If I wanted something from them, I could just have the IT department get it from the main server. Besides, I seriously doubt he's dumb enough to hide incriminating evidence on his work computer. I think that someone is covering his tracks for him."

"So what do you need from me?"

"Well, if there is something fishy about this money, then there has to be someone covering his slime trail. During several encounters with James, I noticed that he was particularly friendly with one of the accountants. He hangs around James like a lost puppy dog.

"You mean Norman?"

"Bingo."

That made sense. Norman is one of James "lunch buddies". He was one of the many guys who sucks up to him.

"Okay, but what does that have to do with me?"

I heard him chuckle on the other end again. It was kind of endearing. Even though he was laughing at me, it was playful.

Stop it Kara!

"I've seen how the other's in James' group treat Norman. He is that nerdy kid from high school who the jocks let hang with them because he does their homework. I'm sure that simply speaking to a woman would probably give him wet dreams for a month. However, speaking to a woman who looks like you..."

"So, you want me to sweet talk him?" I asked, cutting his last sentence off.

"Yes. I need you to see if you could find out what James does with the company's money. Norman isn't going to tell you straight out and betray his friend if there is something going on, but if his guard is down, he could possibly leak something that we could use."

I nodded my head even though there was no one there to see it. I understood the plan, but I wasn't sure how to execute it.

"Okay Richard. I'll go talk to Norman. I don't know I'm going to find anything, but I'll give it a try." I was doubtful that I could convince Norman to step outside of the rules. At least, without sleeping with him. Lord knows I didn't want to do that! I would rather just drop the entire thing and live with James as my boss. I hope he didn't expect me to do that.

I voiced this concern to him. He simply laughed it off.

"Of course I wouldn't want you to fuck him! God no! But if you could try to show a little more cleavage and some leg, I'm sure that would do the trick. It's worth a shot."

"Okay. I'll let you know if I get something."

"Excellent. I know you'll do fine Kara. You're tenacious. Plus, Norman would have to be brain dead or gay to not be swayed by you. Hell, even the latter of those two doesn't stand a chance!"

Once again I had to gloss over his thinly veiled compliment. We talked for a couple minutes more before hanging up. I would try to get to Norman tomorrow at lunch time.

I finished the drive home hoping that Richard's faith in me was not misplaced.

*******************************

Tom narrating: The next morning

I watched my wife through half closed eyes as she dressed. I was about to simply roll over and continue sleeping as I didn't have to be up for another hour, but something caught my attention. Not sure what it was. Nothing in particular stood out to me initially, but for some reason my spidey senses tingled.

So I took a closer look to see what was disturbing the force (I know I just blended references, sue me). Then it hit me.

You see, Kara was looking into the mirror. She was turning to the side, and then completely around, like she was seeing how her clothes fit on her. She unbuttoned and re-buttoned her blouse before snatching it off and putting on another. When she found one that she liked, she started to put on make-up.

Now many of you are wondering what was so strange about this. Isn't this what most women do when they get dressed for work? Well, yes. Most women do that. However, Kara does not.

Kara has always tried to downplay her beauty at work. Her clothes were always worn in the most professional manner. When she did look in the mirror, at least when she dressed for work, it was just long enough to ensure that everything was put on properly. Today, she seemed to actually care how she looked.