The Ceiling

"Hello?"

"GEORGE, MY STUPID CAR JUST STOPPED ON THE FREEWAY. I'M STUCK OUT HERE AND EVERYONE IS HONKING AT ME. YOU'VE EMBARRASSED ME COMPLETELY BY LETTING ME GET STRANDED OUT HERE. WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK AFTER IT? I TOLD YOU IT WAS MAKING A TICKING SOUND. NOW IT JUST STOPPED. FIX IT."

"Val I'm a long flight away. Use your cell and call the auto club for a tow to the dealer where we bought it. Do you remember that I told you to take you car in to get the oil changed? Well, this is nobody's fault but your own. I hope you have left enough money in the accounts after all your shopping for outfits to fix the car. Oh and by the way you forgot our last conversation, I told you not to call me until you could talk in a civil manner. Good luck with your car. Bye."

Val was again left ranting at the dead phone. That is until a semi roared by next to her mirror and scared her into calling the auto club. Later she got the news. The engine was seized from lack of oil. The repair would be $4,500.

She searched the house high and low for the keys to George's car but she couldn't find them anywhere. She picked up the phone and dialed his number again.

"Hello?"

"GEORGE WHERE ARE YOUR DAMN CAR KEYS? MY CAR IS DEAD AND WILL COST $4,500 THANKS TO YOU. NOW I NEED YOUR CAR KEYS DAMNIT."

"Hi Val. My keys are with me. I knew you weren't looking after your car and I didn't want my car to suffer the same fate. Oh, and this isn't a civil phone call yet either. Bye."

This time as she stared blankly at the phone, Val started to sob. She had no car, no supper, the pool was green, the lawn was a jungle and her hair and clothes a mess from being stranded on the freeway. Slowly she slumped against the kitchen door and slid down to the floor, her body wracked with sobs.

She dozed fitfully sitting there on the floor and rose at 9:00 pm and made her way to bed for a night of tossing and turning with little sleep. In the morning, she dragged herself through her morning ritual and went to leave for work. As she walked out the door she remembered her car was in the shop. Sinking slowly to the front porch, she started sobbing again.

Brad's mother, Linda, saw her sitting there and came over. Her husband had briefed her on George's plan and she was actually on George's side in this one. Linda was quite glad to see George's plan was starting to work. She walked up and sat beside Val.

"What's wrong Val?"

"My car is in the shop because I didn't change the oil and I don't have any way to get to work. I'm going to be late and my boss will kill me. He has a big meeting today and I have to be there."

"Have you called work to say you'll be late?"

"No, I forgot I had no car. I'll never make it by bus."

"Well you better go call work and then maybe call for a rental car. Some rental places will pick you up."

"Oh yeah, I guess I could do that. Thanks."

Val got up and went back in the house. Calling work, she was put through to her boss.

"Yeah, I noticed you weren't here yet but the meeting has to go on. I got young Mary from Bill's office down the hall to help me and she found all the material on your computer, printed it out exactly as I wanted and laid out the boardroom table to perfection. She found a couple of typos and reformatted a couple of the charts to fit the page better and be clearer in the process. Don't worry about getting here now, she's covering for you and we've got it all under control."

"Okay thanks. I'll get my car situation sorted out and be in tomorrow."

"That's okay. Bill is away and said I can borrow Mary all week. Take the week off if you need to, we can handle it from this end. Bye."

Great thought Val. First George won't want to talk to me unless I'm civil. Now my boss has replaced me in a little less than an hour with someone faster and brighter. What next?

While she was wondering, the pool company showed up.

"Uh ma'am your sand filter is plugged. No one has been backwashing it properly for a while. A new filter installed will be $800."

"Fine, just fix it and show me what I was doing wrong. My husband is away on business and left me with a lot of stuff to handle. He left me instructions including something about how to backwash the filter but I didn't do it. I guess I broke this too."

"Uh ma'am, did something else with the pool break?"

"No. My car did. I didn't change the oil and the engine is died. That's another $4,500."

"Oh. That sucks. Oh well, crap happens I guess. We'll go replace the filter. Give us about half an hour and come out for a training lesson."

After her pool filter lesson, Val went back in the house and crawled into bed. Sleep took her away from her misery quickly. She awoke about an hour later to find the house really hot and a strange smell coming from the furnace. She ran down to the basement to find the furnace was making strange sounds and the bad smell. It wasn't blowing cold air like normal.

Panicking, she called the neighbor. Brad answered.

"Is your Dad home? The furnace is making strange noises, bad smells and no cold air."

"Yeah, he's here. Just a second and I'll get him."

Mark came on the line, "Hello?"

"Hi Mark, the furnace is making strange noises, bad smells and no cold air. Could you come over and look at it for me please? The way this week is going, it has probably blown up because I forgot to do something about it also."

Mark came over and yelled down the stairs. "ANYONE HERE?"

"Down here," said Val.

Mark quickly assessed the furnace.

"The filter got very clogged and collapsed to slightly block the fan. The bad smell is coming from the fan belt slipping on the pulley. George has left you a stack of new filters over there so I'll put a new one in and everything should be fine. I don't think anything is broken or worn out."

"Thank goodness. Was I supposed to change filters? I think George left instructions about something about that."

"Yup. Should be something like once a month in the hot season when the air conditioning is working so hard to keep ahead."

"Oh. Well at least this time nothing broke or plugged up."

Mark made the repair and the furnace was quiet and smell free. Even better, the house started to cool down again. Val thanked him profusely and sank slowly to sit on the basement floor beside the now happy furnace.

Val realized she had finally hit bottom. Sitting in the basement beside the furnace with a growing pile of wreckage accumulating. Without George around, the place fell apart. She fell apart. Her neat and orderly life didn't work without him. People replaced her at work even. As she sat on the basement floor beside the furnace, she started to sob. She realized how much she relied on George. How much he did for her. When she started to play back some of his comments in her mind, she came to the sad realization that he was right. He looked after so much and even with all the pressures of his job, he still tried to remind her of things she had to do as well. He was getting along just fine by himself while she was falling apart, incapable of handling things he did all the time when he was home.

All he had asked of her was some consensual enjoyment. She demanded everything of him. Maybe, just maybe it wasn't too late.

Rubbing her puffy eyes and wiping her runny nose, Val slowly climbed the basement stairs, slumped heavily onto a kitchen chair and dialed George's number.

Chapter 8 -- New Beginnings?

"Hello?"

"Hi honey. I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier and before that and before that. You were right, I didn't look after my car and now I have to pay for it. I didn't get to work and my boss found somebody to do my job better and faster. I didn't look after the pool filter and I have to pay for it. I didn't look after the furnace filter but thank goodness Mark was able to fix that. I'm such a failure. I take you so much for granted that I wound up sitting on the basement floor crying beside the furnace before I realized it. Is there any chance you can come home this weekend? I really want to see you. I realize I've missed you and I want to make things better between us."

"Wow. It sounds like you've really had a rough week. I'll see if I can get home."

"Anytime this week is fine George. My boss gave me the week off since he can borrow an admin assistant from another manager who's on vacation to do my job better than me. They don't need me at work anymore either. I hope you can forgive me and need me for something, otherwise I've become pretty much useless to the world."

"Ah honey, don't say that. You're not useless to the world, you've just come to some big realizations. I'll get a flight as soon as I can today. Luv ya, bye."

Little did Val know but George was done in the southwestern office. With the approval of management back home, he had organized the office differently and made the whole section he was filling in with redundant. Because the section was redundant, the six troublesome employees were given basic severance packages and terminated. The rest of the staff was quietly offered early retirement or positions elsewhere in the company. The manager George was filling in for opted for an early retirement buyout to spend more time with his family. George's boss was quite surprised by this turn of events. Reliable old George sent to do the dirty work and be a hatchet man had actually saved the company $500,000 a year by streamlining the business model in the southwestern regional office with no foreseeable affect on productivity.

George packed his bag for the last time, arranged for the hotel to ship the rest of his accumulated stuff and dropped his rental car at the airport. A few hours later, the taxi dropped him off at home. He quietly opened the door and said "Hello?"

Val was in the kitchen and came running out, flinging her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shirt.

"I-I-I'm so g-g-glad you're h-home," she sobbed.

George dropped his bags, except for a special package in his hand and wrapped his arms around her.

"I've missed you too, honey. I got you a little something."

Val looked up at George, tears clouding her eyes. He saw a tenderness there he hadn't seen in a very long time.

"You did. What is it?"

"Here, open it and see."

Val struggled with the wrapping and eventually shredded the paper in her haste to get it off. Opening the jewelry box, she gasped. Inside there was a large diamond solitaire set in a simple gold band.

"Oh George it's beautiful. It matches my wedding band beautifully."

"Read the inscription inside."

"It says 'To my life partner. Luv ya'. Oh honey, I don't know what to say."

"Here, let me put it on. This ring symbolizes a fresh start, a new engagement. From here, we go back to the beginning and start over as full partners. I love you and I want us to enjoy our years as a couple. The kids are grown, we've done a great job with them and now it is you and I again. There was always something else with more importance, something else that mattered more than us. NO MORE. Now, we come first. The rest can wait."

"Oh honey, I love you so much. Why don't you sit in the living room. I'll get you a drink. Supper will be ready in about half an hour, I made up a homemade lasagna ahead of time so I could pop it in the oven as soon as I knew you would be home."

George and Val sat down to a nice homemade dinner with a nice wine to go with the pasta. They were both feeling rather mellow when Val led George to the living room and pulled him down beside her on the couch. She turned her face up to look at him and saw a softness to his eyes she hadn't seen for a long time. She also saw some hesitation. She looked straight at him with an intensity that made his eyes widen slightly in surprise. Reaching up and wrapping both arms around his neck, she pulled him into an intense kiss. The passion in her kiss made him draw a quick breath before he returned her kiss with equal fervor.

"Mmmmmmh," was all she said as she parted her soft lips and sought his tongue with hers. The passion rose in her as he responded with an intensity she had not felt in many years. She tentatively rubbed her hand over his crotch and felt his rising passion making itself known. George in turn pulled the tails of her blouse from the waist of her skirt and ran his hand up her smooth skin to cup her breast inside her bra. Val moaned loudly into the kiss and pushed her chest forward to increase the pleasurable pressure on her aching nipple. George slid his other hand up her back and with uncharacteristic ease, slipped the hooks on her bra strap. Sliding the cups up above her breasts, he focused his attention on teasing her plump nipples to full hardness. Val meanwhile was doing her best to stick her tongue down his throat while rubbing his now very hard cock through his pants.

"Stop. Wait," she said.

With a groan and a sigh, George pulled his hands back and dropped them loosely at his sides. He knew it had been too good to be true. He couldn't hide the disappointment in his face and dropped his gaze to the floor in shame. How could he have been so stupid as to expect to change her? How could he be so dumb?

Val again grabbed both sides of his face in her hands, turning his head and forcing him to look at her.

"Please, wait honey. Not so fast, I have something really special planned and I need a few minutes to get ready. Wait right here and I'll come and get you when I'm ready. In the meantime, put your feet up and relax. And NO PEEKING."

She kissed him again passionately and aggressively and ran her hand over his hard cock, giving him a quick couple of strokes and a good squeeze as she rose to leave.

George sat there dumbfounded. Here was a Val he hadn't even glimpsed in their first fumbling union.

Lost in his thoughts, Val had snuck up on him. She had to clear her throat to get him to turn his head. She had put on a red teddy that came down to the bottom of her ass cheeks and barely hid the matching thong. The material was quite sheer and he could clearly see her plump nipples and make out the puckered areolas around them. Val posed gracefully with one leg slightly ahead of the other, hiding the core of her feminine treasure yet hinting at the bounty within.

Cocking her finger at him, she turned and strutted down the hall, walking with the rolling gait of a runway model placing one foot directly ahead of the other and rolling her hips to his distraction. The back of the thong disappeared between the two firm, quivering cheeks of her ass as she strutted seductively down the hall. George had stopped to just stare at the vision of her departing derriere. She looked seductively back over her shoulder, her eyes twinkling with the pleasant knowledge of what the view was doing to him. Realizing that her desire to show him how much she appreciated him was also making her wet with anticipation, she crooked her finger again at him to get George to catch up.

Reaching the bedroom, he saw all the candles she had laid out around the room and the new satin sheets that adorned the bed.

Val stopped and turned. Unbuttoning his shirt, she slid her hands up his chest and pushed the shirt off his shoulders. His pecks and abs were a bit better defined from using all his spare time in the gym and she appreciated the updated George. Sinking to her knees, she undid his belt and shoes, slipping the shoes one at a time from his feet. Next came his pants with Val sliding them down his legs and encouraging him to step out of the legs one at a time. Next came his socks and he chuckled nervously that she had always had a thing about no socks in bed. Finally she slipped her fingers in the waistband of his boxers and slid them slowly down over his hard cock. Grabbing his butt as she guided them lower, she was close enough to let his manhood slap under her chin as it popped free from the waistband. Continuing to slide the boxers down, she leaned forward and wrapped her lips around the angry purple helmet of his dick. He was already leaking precum with the anticipation. As she pushed his boxers to the floor, she pushed his cock to the back of her throat, taking him deeper than ever before. He felt the head touch the back of her throat and groaned. She couldn't get it all the way in but this was further than she had ever taken him in her mouth and he moaned loudly with the appreciation of that realization.

Val began a slow rhythm running her mouth and hand up and down the length of his cock, swirling her tongue around the helmet and descending again as deep as she could. George couldn't block out the intense pleasure of the first real blowjob Val had ever given him.

Very soon, he was warning her. "Ahhhh, stop, stop, stop, I'm gonna cummmmm."

Pausing briefly, Val looked him straight in the eye and said "please do, I want you to. I want to do this for you, it is a first for me."

Val resumed her swirling and stroking action while George looked on in amazement. Very quickly she had his undivided attention again as he felt the familiar tingle in his balls. "Ahhhh cummmmming V-V-Val. Arrrrrrhhhhhhhh." George's hips twitched as he pumped his load into Val's mouth. Her hand continued stroking and milking cum from his sack while her lips were sealed to the head to get every drop. After more good spurts than he could ever remember and a couple of after-shocks, George gasped. His knees shaking he slowly slid down to her level.

Val pulled back from the head of his cock and opened her mouth to show him his cum sitting on her tongue. As he watched, she closed her mouth, swirled her tongue around and swallowed his load. George just groaned. "That was the hottest thing I've ever seen you do. Where did that come from?"

"Shhhh. Just enjoy, we'll talk later."

George leaned forward to hungrily kiss Val. Initially she resisted, "I've still got you in my mouth dear, you don't want to kiss me now."

"Sure I do. Any woman who can do that for me deserves a passionate kiss. I'm not bothered by the taste of me if you aren't." With that, George passionately kissed her and Val returned the passion with interest.

George knew he wanted to return the favor so he gently lifted Val by the shoulders and sat her on the bed. Pushing her back to scoot up the bed he crawled between her thighs kissing his way to the promised land and the junction of her creamy limbs. As he arrived, he realized that her usually thick carpet was thinned and trimmed neatly leaving her nether lips bare. A lot of moisture was already evident as he kissed his way in and spread her legs wide in preparation for his oral assault. He flattened his tongue and ran it all the way from her rosebud to her clit and paused to flick the end of her click as he pointed the end of his tongue on the way by.

Val groaned loudly. "Oh my god. Do that again. Please?"

George jumped, startled by her feedback. "Ahhhh. Sure honey. Keep telling me what you like."

George ran his tongue from her rosebud to her clit again, giving her clit a little flick on the way by. He was rewarded with another groan and a very breathy "Again, please."

He found his rhythm, long strokes with enough of a pause to make Val wiggle her hips and pussy at him to get him to do it again. Gradually he added more pressure on her rosebud as he started his swipe up towards her throbbing nub. She was really dripping now and her juices were running into the crack of her ass. This gave George an idea.

On the next swipe of his tongue, he followed his tongue with his index finger, applying light pressure to her anal ring, sliding his finger around the tight opening while finishing an especially slow but juicy lick of her pouting lips. Shortening the path of his lick, he continued to swirl his index finger around her rosebud, gradually increasing the pressure and stabbing slightly in time with the flick of his tongue on her clit.