Teed Off Ch. 03

Now contrary to her opinion, Janet was still a mighty fine-looking woman. Yes, what she said was true, but I always thought that as she got older, she became prettier, even when I couldn't stand her. It would piss me off that even when I hated her, I had to admit I was still attracted to her.

Oh, and one more thing. The last time she modeled lingerie for me was before the girls were born, and I hadn't seen a nice-looking woman in lingerie, or less, in over three years. So I went from mildly interested to hard as a rock in a nanosecond.

I replied, "You know I've always loved you in lingerie. I still do, but here in the store, with the girls, I'll leave that up to you." There, that was about as politically correct as I could muster.

I found a seat about half way from the store entrance, but not right on top of the dressing rooms. I don't know if it was a weekend thing or not, but they actually had a model walking around the store in lingerie. Hello! Of course if taken to an extreme this could be a bad thing. I could just see this become a trend in Victoria's Secret and then again in Walmart. No, thank you.

But here? OMG. She was at least five foot ten plus her heels. She didn't look like those young waifs you see in the fashion magazine or on the runways. She was a real woman, in her prime. I'm guessing late 20s, brunette, short hair, brown eyes, olive complexion and a traffic stopping figure. She was gorgeous. While they were there looking around, she went and changed into a new, mostly sheer bra and panty set with stockings and it was rather revealing. It was quite clear that she shaved, everywhere. ...and she was walking right through the store. Damn. We were definitely in France.

While she was distracting me, my wife must have tried on a swimsuit, because she came out in a very red one piece that showed a small amount of cleavage and was scooped low in the back so she could get sun on her back. In the middle, the fabric criss-crossed in a draping pattern, giving the appearance of slimming her middle. Very, very nice. I smiled and simply said, "We're getting it."

She returned to the dressing room and the girls came out in what appeared to be fairly conservative bikinis considering the store we were in and the model that recently walked by. I told them, "Hey I didn't think you wanted me to perv out while we are here. It's bad enough I have to see you in them, much less you try them on for me."

"Oh come on dad. We're being good. We could put on a lot skimpier stuff if we wanted." I knew they were teasing, but no thank you.

They walked back towards the dressing rooms and smiled at their mom as she came strutting towards me in a black all lace nightgown which came down to her knees. It had spaghetti straps and a plunging neckline, and since it was lace, barely even hid her breasts, which were jiggling hypnotically. You could easily see the matching lace bikini panty under it.

I just stared, slack jawed. She came over to me, plopped down in my lap and gave me a big kiss on the cheek while wiggling her butt in my lap, feeling my hardness. She whispered in my ear, "I would have done this a long time ago if I knew I were going to get that reaction from you. Mmmm. Is that for me, or for the model walking around?"

I smiled at her and said, "Only for you. I would offer to help you take that off in the dressing room, but I'm pretty sure they would have to call security on me if I did."

She simply said, "Good answer," and then hopped up and strutted back to the dressing room purposely swaying her panty clad ass at me. Damn! Was that Janet? Damn.

One of the sales clerks was nearby smiling at me. I don't know if she was involved in the selections or not, but I motioned to her. "That one." She knew what I wanted. I may never see Janet in it again, but it won't be because she doesn't have it.

It would have been really easy to blow my lid over this. I used to buy lingerie for her, but when she stopped wearing it, I quit. She rarely bought lingerie to wear for me, and that stopped completely after the girls were born. However, I would bet anything that she was just as nervous walking through the store in that nightgown a minute ago as she was walking out of Neil's house when she surprised me the other day.

While they were changing, I saw a velvet night gown and matching robe in black. I walked over and felt the material. It felt very luxurious, so I gave it to the sales clerk, too.

We got all of those items and I left the store a happy, happy man. $1600 dollars poorer, but I felt like that was some of the best money I ever spent.

There was a nice Italian restaurant at the mall, and we grabbed a bite before we took a cab back to the apartment and yet again more shopping.

As we walked and shopped along the Rue Saint Honore, Janet took hold of my hand, and I didn't let it go.

The shopping wore us all out, so we picked up some stuff at another gourmet food market (why can't I find these in America) and took it to the apartment for dinner.

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Monday - When the girls got up in the morning, I asked them what they would prefer to do today, our last day in Paris - shopping or sightseeing? I should have known.

Rachel said, well, when we were walking around yesterday afternoon, that was kind of like sightseeing. Meredith offered the Galeries Lafayette is practically a landmark, so maybe we should check it out. That was fine. Shopping again. If it meant I got to see nearly naked lingerie models and Janet modeling sexy things for me, no problemo.

While not quite as exciting as yesterday, they all found some nice, and expensive, things, but we had a good day. My family, yes I said it, my family was happy, and that made me happy.

Our final night we took one last walk down the Champs-Élysées taking several selfies to remember it by. While Janet and I strolled behind the girls arm in arm, I saw one of the places Janet and I ate at all those years ago. Pizza Pino. It isn't anything fancy. A lot of people would say it isn't even that good, but it was another one of those good memories. This time I embraced it. We embraced it.

Again, I cannot believe it is still here. I saw it the other night when we were walking around, but I wasn't in the mood at the time to point out old highlights from mine and Janet's past. When I pointed it out to Janet, she stopped for a minute and looked.

"Is that..?" she asked.

"It is."

"Can we?"

"We must."

She called the girls back to us and they saw us staring across the street at it. "What's so special about that place? It just looks like a pizza joint."

But at that moment in time, it was so much more. We didn't even ask. We just crossed the street and started walking towards it, with the confused girls following. We walked in and went upstairs close to where we sat the last time, and just sat, not saying a word.

"So are you guys going to tell us why on our last night here, in Paris, we are eating in a pizza joint?"

Janet answered first, "The last time your father and I were here, any time we couldn't figure out where we wanted to go, or if we were tired of haughty, fancy food, we would come here. It sort of became 'our' place." She nailed it. Of course, there is no 'our' place without an 'us', so we were at least going to try for there to be an 'us'. We might fail, but we would at least try.

We took a cab back to the hotel. Our flight to Barcelona was at a reasonable time the next day, so no need to get up any earlier than normal.

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Tuesday. I skipped running that day. I had plenty of exercise the previous several weeks, but more importantly I was sleeping next to a warm body for the first time in over two years and was in no hurry to move.

During the middle of the night, I eased into Janet's room and in the darkness, as slowly as I could, slid under the covers next to her. I wasn't going to try anything that night, but after the last couple of days I felt that I could, no wait, I wanted to hold her next to me.

She jumped a little as I slid in behind her, spooning against her warm body. We both had our PJs on. She pulled my arm, wrapping it around her and said, "It's about time. I was about to come into your room." It was very loving and exactly what I needed.

A few hours later I awoke, and she had rolled to drape her leg and arm across me with her head on my shoulder and chest. She was crying gently. No words were needed. I just kissed her forehead and rubbed her arm until we slept.

I did however need to go and get breakfast one last time. So I made the final trek to the boulangerie, asking for the usual, giving the owner a 20 euro tip and bidding him our farewell.

Janet and I were sitting on the balcony sipping our coffee, not really saying much when we heard the camera click. Meredith was capturing the moment with us in the foreground and the Eiffel tower in the background. Of course, Janet complained about her lack of makeup or preparation, but I knew it would soon become one of my most favorite pictures.

We packed our things and had a car service take us to the airport. Next stop - Barcelona.

We flew into Barcelona's airport and hired a large SUV to carry us and our rapidly growing luggage to the apartment. There was a slight panic when they were struggling to put all their new stuff into their existing luggage. I packed up their rain suits and sent them home via DHL, and whatever else wouldn't fit wound up in my suitcases. I was still carrying my clubs around, but was now seriously thinking of sending those home too. We would buy more luggage in Barcelona for the girls. I knew just the place.

I would like to say Barcelona is my town, but it's only ONE of my favorite cities in Spain. If this were April, early May or early October, we'd be in Andalucia, but it's usually close to 100 degrees in early August there, so Barcelona was my choice. Also, I selected it as my destination for two reasons; first, there are many things about Barcelona that I wanted to share with my daughters like the Sagrada Familia, MNAC, Montjuïc and many other interesting places.

Second, earlier this year when I selected Barcelona as our second city, it was actually not full of good memories for me and my wife that I would have to manage.

We came here for a few days when we were visiting the south of France one spring during our early years together. We were only here a few days, but it was miserable for us. The weather was rainy, we didn't like our hotel, and we were not very prepared as far as what to see or do.

At the time, the Sagrada Familia still didn't even look like a church. The ticketing area was in an old metal construction trailer. One of the facades was covered during construction, and on the day we came, the elevators weren't working, forcing us to have to climb the stairs in one of the towers.

At that time, I was all pumped to see it. I knew it was under construction, but I had seen pictures of what it would look like once it was completed. So I didn't have too much difficulty admiring the work that had been done and visualizing what was to come.

Janet couldn't understand why I would bring her to an open construction site. Even looking at a picture, she didn't have much interest in trying to visualize what it would look like when finished. Between that and the rain, a dour mood was cast on that trip to Barcelona. This trip, the weather would be great, and unlike the last trip, I knew what the hell I was doing.

With my work at Motorola, I had the opportunity to return to Barcelona, and many other places in Spain, two more times and learned my way around quite well.

Even though the girls and I had our days all planned out, after our experience in Paris, I was now thinking I should probably at least allow half a day for shopping, maybe more. Given the tight jeans, lingerie and swimsuits from our time in Paris, who was I to complain.

I had selected what looked like a nice apartment through the internet, but it turned out even better than the one in Paris. This one had 5 bedrooms. I knew we didn't need the extra space, but the apartments with 4 bedrooms were not available on our dates. So, we wound up paying a little extra, but this turned out to be a good decision.

The apartment was in the La Ribera area which was centrally located. It was in an old building that had been renovated and it was the top floor (or penthouse) apartment. The elevator was new but had a large marble staircase spiraling up the interior of the building with a stained-glass ceiling over the center. Inside, the apartment had parquet flooring that was laid out in a beautiful design and new oriental carpets. The furniture was relaxed, not formal, and there was a large copper-topped dining table with room for 10. The kitchen was modern, and off the living area was also an outside balcony running the length of the apartment over the sidewalk. Each bedroom had their own in-suite bathroom, some larger than others.

The apartment had stairs inside leading to a terrace on the roof which had a large pergola with adjustable shades, a dining table and chairs, and lounge furniture. Oh, yeah! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

Janet complimented us on our selection. We gave her the largest bedroom, with the large whirlpool tub and separate walk-in shower. I took the room across the hall, with the view of the interior stair case (?!). Janet looked at me funny when I didn't roll my luggage into her room, but I whispered to her than I planned on sharing her bed, but this would allow us our own rooms to change. I truly meant that, though I'm not sure she was buying it.

Like in Paris, the rental company stocked the kitchen with the basics. We had located a small bakery nearby for breakfast. Also, Farga was only a short cab ride away if we wanted something larger.

After getting our things put away, we strolled down Las Ramblas simply to look around. For dinner we went to the La Boqueria market, which to me always seemed like a planned party and then a gourmet market somehow broke out. It is always such a vibrant place, and the atmosphere is full of energy and people who enjoy good food.

We got to try many different things from many different food stalls. Our daughters loved it. We were able to pick up some fresh fruit to go with our breakfast on the way out. We left late, and even then, Las Ramblas was still packed.

After everyone headed off to the rooms for sleep, I went in and changed my clothes and brushed my teeth, waited about five minutes, and very quietly eased her door open.

She was sitting in bed reading on her iPad and when she saw me coming in, she gave me a nice smile and patted the bed beside her. She asked me to show her some of the places we planned to go tomorrow, so I opened my Microsoft Onenote page where I had organized everything and started showing her the agenda. She was snuggled against me while she browsed through some of the information. After that we cuddled up and went to sleep.

Could I have made love with my ex-wife that night? Probably. Would I like to? Sure. But somethings are more important that sex. Because for me, what I missed most out of our relationship wasn't the sex, it was the loss of the love of my life. What I wanted more than anything, at the moment, was to regain the intimacy that had disappeared. For me, what I needed from her was the closeness that disappeared so long ago.

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Wednesday - In the morning, I eased myself out of her bed and did the same ritual I had in Paris. The local bakery wasn't quite as good as the one in Paris, but their selection was quite different. So, I did my best, took it back to the apartment and went for my run along the path by the beach.

When I got back, the coffee was started but I didn't see Janet. After my shower, I looked on the balcony, but still no Janet. I took my cup up to the roof and found her sitting on one of the lounge chairs, in her robe, with a cup of coffee and her iPad. She smiled at me. "Tim, you may have outdone yourself with this apartment. Paris was beautiful and so quaint, but this place...wow."

"Yeah. I agree. It's just so relaxing. It' beautiful but not pretentious."

It's funny, we didn't really work on our relationship directly while we were there, but I tried to be nice, attentive and put my ladies first. Janet tried to do the same. Sure, we didn't always agree, but we were on our best behavior, without really trying.

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Sunday - In total, we stayed six days in Barcelona and did all the usual things for a summertime visit to Barcelona; MNAC, Picasso, Poble Espanyol, Joan Miro, the beach, the beach again and we even took a trip up to Figures to see the Dali museum. I love Dali. He was a different dude. We even had dinner one night at the Museu de la Xocolata! I mean, really, a chocolate museum that is also a restaurant? Count me in.

A real highlight was the flamenco dinner we had one night. The dancer was amazing and in a flamenco dress which was molded to her body. Wow! The next day we did a little shopping and one of the boutiques we visited had a small flamenco dress section. All of my ladies tried something on. They liked what they tried on but decided against getting them since they would never really have an opportunity or event to wear them.

Gentlemen, another tip; having your wife or loved one try on flamenco dresses is a worthwhile activity. I mean damn, those dresses really do accentuate the female form, without being a short (read slutty) party dress. I highly recommend it.

I winked at the sales clerk and had her get them all fixed up for a few pictures. Actually, I wanted them to return to the dressing room at the same time, so I could give her my business card and credit card. I had those three dresses mailed home.

Another great shop was Aire Barcelona. Their items were more formal with plenty of bridal dresses, mother of the bride dresses and very, very elegant cocktail dresses. They had a wedding dress that was shaped like some of those flamenco dresses we saw. Whatever women that could wear that dress would make her future husband very happy.

Then finally, on our next to last day in Barcelona we had our private guided tour of the Sagrada Familia. Can you imagine a building that is taking over 100 years to complete? It's unbelievable to say "when we were here over 20 years ago" and the building is still under construction. They've made so much progress in the last decade. It has turned into easily my favorite church on the planet.

I've seen plenty. Sistine Chapel, St. John's in London, Notre Dame, Seville, Segovia, Madrid, Cordoba, Leon, New York, DC, but this...THIS, Antoni Gaudi was a freakin' genius. He's like the Einstein of architecture. It was designed by him in 1883 and they've been building it ever since, supported only by donations and ticket sales.

Our guide walked us around the outside of the cathedral explaining many of the more important features, taking time to answer questions. We went inside, early, before regular ticket holders were allowed in. We took the elevator, which were not working last time, up into the towers where the views of Barcelona and the rest of the cathedral are tremendous. If you stay there for a few minutes, you can watch the cranes continuing to move pieces into place.

From there we walked down the stairs and entered the central area of worship. I had seen pictures but really wasn't prepared for what I saw. The sun shining through the multi-colored stained glass, casting various shades of light across the polished floor was stunning. Then you look up, seeing those massive red-marble columns supporting a vault that reaches 200 feet and an apse of 250 feet and you are left awe inspired. Truly amazing, and the outside construction continues.