The Greatest Gift

Hi. I want to share a story with you which still surprises me five years after it happened. I call it the Gift because in a strange way, that is exactly what it was. But a little background before I get to the real story.

I was a reasonably good student throughout high school and college. I wasn't a jock but I was popular enough in most social situations and dated a number of girls but never got serious about any of them. I guess I was very picky. I still am. Anyway, I was a senior in college looking forward to graduation with my degree in Marketing and Sales Management when I fell head over heels in love with a beautiful woman getting ready to graduate and become a high school teacher. We had sex on our third date and she seemed to love it. We still had classes and things to finish up but we had sex a couple of times a week. She quickly got hired by the local school district for the next year while I was hired by an up and coming company in the area. They didn't pay a large amount but had a great bonus program. If I made sales and developed new business, I could make the equivalent of a normal starting salary. I just had to keep focused on work. With both of us staying locally, we continued to date and have wonderful sex a couple of times a week. She was taking a graduate class that summer and studied a lot while I was gone two or three days a week on sales trips. In late July, I broke down and asked her to marry me. She accepted and we were married in August and moved into my apartment. Our honeymoon was a weekend at a local resort hotel. Two weeks later, she was taking the new teacher orientation classes and I was back on the road two to three days a week. We usually had sex on the weekend.

Things went on for two years like this. I did well at work and had earned a number of nice bonuses which I banked. Everything was good except sex at home. She seemed less and less willing to have sex even when we had gone without for a week. It was starting to wear heavily on me. She was still desirable but seemed uninterested in me. This finally came to a head when I came back from a trip and found her sitting on the sofa waiting. Something told me my world was about to change. It did. She simply told me she had taken a lover, a female lover, and had discovered she preferred sex with a woman more than with a man. She assured me this wasn't about me at all; it was only about sex. She proposed she move out to be with her girlfriend and we should have our marriage annulled. We talked for hours and by midnight, I was convinced she was telling me the truth. With all of my dreams for the future shattered, I agreed. We moved her out during the next week. She didn't ask for anything like our savings; she only took a couple of pieces of furniture.

I spent the next month soul searching as I threw myself even more into my work. By the end of the month, I decided I needed to quit beating myself up for some undefined sin and just move on. That's what I did. I spent more of my time on the road and increased my sales significantly. It was during this time I took advantage of one of the women who often frequented the hotel bars. She was a good fuck and I enjoyed it. Then she told me she was married to a man who traveled a lot and this would be a one-time thing. If we ever crossed paths again, we might hook up but to not plan on it. From then on, I found a married woman provided a lot of benefits without the downsides. I tried a few single women and discovered the downside was they often wanted more than I wanted to give like money or lavish vacations or a permanent relationship. I was still too gun shy to even think about another permanent relationship and eventually steered clear of single women.

Over the next ten years four things happened which led me to my present life. The company was bought out by a major corporation. They quickly announced they wanted to put all salesmen on salary and our sales quotas would be high. We would be eligible for an annual bonus based on our division profits. I had saved most of my earlier bonuses and had a nice nest egg; so, looked at the potential if I stayed. The salary was twenty five percent less than I was used to making and the bonus was dependent on many more people than just my efforts. I decided to strike out on my own. I had met a number of other salesmen on the road and we often talked about our work. Several of them were independent meaning they worked for themselves and represented several companies in a defined area. They had to pay their own expenses but their income was based only on their efforts. Some had only one company while others had several. Most of the companies were smaller which were either stable and well-known in the market or were new and growing. This had great appeal to me. Several had talked about a company which was fairly new but well respected. They would put people on trial for several months and evaluate their results before finalizing a permanent deal. I looked the company up and found they were in a similar industry as my previous company and I was also somewhat familiar with the type of their products. Many of my previous customers used the products they made. I called the company and they sent their sales manager down to talk to me.

We got along well and he was impressed that I knew something about the products and the customers in my area. Their last rep had five companies and just couldn't spend enough time on theirs. He left me with a catalog, some product literature, and the basic structure of their pricing. He also gave me the name of a contact to work out any technical or pricing issues with. We agreed they would evaluate me for six-months and we would talk again. I was pleased and agreed. A month later, he came back down with an agreement in hand. I had sold more products during one month than their previous rep had sold in a year.

For the next two years, I built up the sales to the point where I only needed to travel one or two days each week but I still continued traveling for four days because I had developed a side business which was also paying dividends. Most of my customers were industrial or large commercial companies. Most of these companies regularly updated their equipment and had used equipment in various stages of utility or disrepair available. Many of the smaller companies I dealt with were eager to have access to used equipment. As a result, I became a used equipment broker for many of these companies. They would send me lists and pictures of the used equipment they had available and the others sent me lists of equipment they were looking for. There were many of the regular used equipment dealers out there who were doing some refurbishing themselves and selling the used equipment at double or triple the price they paid for it. The smaller companies wanted the equipment but wouldn't pay the prices being asked. I settled on a deal where both the buyer and seller would pay me a finder's fee of five percent of the final negotiated sales price if they made a deal. When they each signed the agreement, I put the two companies together to work out a deal. After two years, I was banking around $50,000 a year for simply putting two companies in contact with each other. Since the price I charged was very reasonable, the buyers preferred to work through me rather than others. The sellers, agreed because some used equipment buyers dickered the price down lower than they wanted. It became a win-win deal for all of us with less hassle and cost for everyone.

The third thing happened a year after this. I found myself crowded in my apartment; the same one I had been in since I graduated from college. It was a two-bedroom unit where I slept in one and my office was in the other. It was on the second floor but didn't have a laundry. I took all of my clothes to the cleaners after every trip. The rent had risen also and now seemed to be higher than I wanted for what I had. I looked at some other apartments, townhouses for rent, and even some houses but decided renting was a waste of time. I had a nice cash balance in the bank and stock market but the market was in turmoil. Since the bank paid virtually zero interest on savings and my market holdings went up and down but averaged less than one percent return per year, I felt buying a house might be a better investment choice. The housing market was also in one of its regular swings and prices were way down. I spent three months looking before I settled on the one I'm still in.

This too was a fortuitous find. I had found three houses which I thought would work for me until I found this one. It was in a nice gated community with both very large and medium sized houses. They ranged from 3000-6000 square feet. The bigger ones had large circular drives and gardens in front but very small back yards. The one I liked was on a curve in the road and the front yard was very small but the back yard was much larger, big enough for a pool. This one was only 3000 square feet but still had four bedrooms, a large pantry and laundry room, a full kitchen, a great room with a wet bar and a three-car garage with a rear entry. Most of the big houses were in the center of the development while the smaller ones backed up to the outside fence. This meant the big houses had side driveways while the smaller ones had a utility alley between every three or four houses which allowed for rear entry access. Many of the others backed up to another development behind but the ones along this section backed onto a creek. We were on the high side; so, flooding would be on the other side which remained undeveloped. The developer had shored up our side to ensure it wouldn't erode. I loved the house for several reason but assumed it would be much higher priced than the other three houses I liked. This was resolved when the realtor and I sat down to talk price. This house had been built over a year ago and hadn't sold. The main reasons were that it was one story and it didn't have the curved driveway in front. The developer needed this one sold so he could leave this job and move on to his next project. Mine cost him interest and maintenance every month.

When she told me the as-is price was ten percent lower than the other houses I liked. The only question I asked was when could we close. She was shocked as she expected a buyer to want to haggle. I had found what I wanted at a price I wanted to pay; I couldn't dicker enough out of it to risk losing it. I also figured if the market turned around again, it would increase in value by over twenty five percent in a short period of time. She called and said we could close in a week unless I had trouble financing it. I had thought about putting 50% down and financing the rest but decided this was a better investment than the market which showed little sign of recovering. I told her it would be a cash deal and to set the closing for next week. The smile she wore was almost as bright as the diamond on her left ring finger. She then proceeded to give me a blow job as a thank you.

A week later, I had my new laundry equipment and furniture delivered. Most of my old stuff except for a few things went to a charity store. I hired a maid service to clean the new house from top to bottom the day before the furniture arrived and I spent the rest of the week moving my clothes and office to my new place. I also bought new sheets, towels and kitchen utensils. To start a new phase of my life, I needed to start fresh. I was now a thirty-five-year-old bachelor with money in the bank and a great house. All I needed was a social life. This solved itself later that month as I began to meet my neighbors and were invited to dinner and a couple of parties. It became quickly obvious these people were in the smaller houses because the bigger houses belonged to people who traveled almost constantly and didn't socialize in the neighborhood. After eight years here, I still haven't met the people across the street from me. I have seen the woman a couple of times and had the feeling she was one of the television anchors on a local station. Her work hours must have been atrocious.

In any event, I fit in well with the people I met and they liked and accepted a bachelor into their social circle. I especially got close to my next-door neighbor, the one where we had a common fence rather than the utility drive. Her name was Dixie and it fit because she had a very sweet and natural Southern drawl. She was also hotter than a three-dollar bill. She often hosted social gatherings and I often helped her in the kitchen and cleaning up. After one party when her husband was on the road, we talked over a glass of wine. Although I hadn't made any attempt to hit on her, she bluntly said, "I see you looking at me and it makes me feel good. But I need to tell you something; if you hit on me, I would be putty in your hands. You could fuck me all night and I would blow you every chance I could. I would love it but to be honest, there's a downside. My husband is very jealous of me and I don't handle guilt very well. I would tell him about us. He would smile and kiss me before he went over to your place. He would thank you for making me happy and then shoot you deader than a doornail. I can't handle that kind of guilt at all and I doubt you can either."

"No, that isn't the climax I'm after. With you, it will look but don't touch."

"I like that idea. You can look all you want. But when you look, understand there is only one reason for the limit and it isn't you. In fact, if you want to see all of the things you can't touch, I often sunbathe in the back yard on nice days. Not having anyone behind us has its benefits."

"Living next to you also has some benefits."

"I knew you were as smart as I thought you were. But don't give up hope; there are several others in the neighborhood who don't have my problem and already have a pool going on who will be the first to share your bed. You will be pleased at all of your choices."

A week later, a dark-haired beauty christened my new bed with me. Over the next two weeks, I sampled two others. In short, I didn't have to hang out in hotels to have sex with a married woman. They came to me and even seemed to coordinate with each other on their availability, their periods, and their husband's travel schedules. I never knew who or when one of them would show up but the rear-entry driveway made it easy. They could take a walk and go down anyone of the utility drives to the back alley and come in through my back gate with little chance of being seen.

This continued for another year before the final event took place to set the stage for the Gift. A new couple bought the house on the other side of Dixie's house. They too were quickly invited to dinners and parties and that's where I met Donald and Tina McElroy. Donald was around 50 and was actually Dr. Donald, a professor of English Literature at the University. His wife, Tina, was also teaching at the university while working on her doctorate. I doubted she was much over thirty. They made a charming couple and were always welcome at all of our events. The thing about Tina which attracted my attention was she was almost a spitting image of what I thought a beautiful woman was. She was tall with a full bust, long legs, a shapely ass but she also had a warm smile and dark piercing eyes. She also knew how to dress conservatively to show off what God had given her. I suspected she had a lot of Italian or Spanish heritage in her. She also enjoyed talking with me with her warm personality but was never flirty with me or anyone else. I hoped when she settled in, she would join the rotation which frequented my bed but this never happened. She spent much of her time with Dixie and they became close. She seldom came to a party alone and when she did, she avoided talking to any man alone. When she talked to me, Dixie was always there or nearby. I wasn't sure what this was all about but accepted it.

About nine months after they moved in, she and Dixie knocked on my door on afternoon. I let them in and poured them each a glass of wine. They declined going to the patio to talk but sat formally on the sofa. Then Tina began. "Seth, I need a favor. I need to host two small parties for about ten couples each. I would like to have them outdoors around a pool. Some may want to swim since it's so warm. Since you are the only one with a pool, I want to ask you if I can use yours. I will come over and clean up before and after the parties and supply all of the food and drinks. What do you think?" She held my eyes while waiting for my answer. Frankly, I would have slit my wrists if she asked with her eyes looking at me like they did.

It took at least ten seconds before I said, "I would be pleased on two conditions. First, I will have the cleaning people come in to clean before and after the parties and second, I will assist in the background with the food and drinks so you can socialize." Her eyes widened when I finished.

Dixie nudged her and said, "I told you he would say that. All you have to do is say thank you and tell him you appreciate his support. Goofball."

Tina grinned and said, "An Italian girl doesn't just ask a friend without offering to do the work too. An Italian man would look at her and say, 'Fine; you take care of it all.'" She flicked her hand and wrist in the dismissal signal.

I smiled and said, "I'm not Italian. I'm not sure what I am but somewhere in there has to be a man who was willing to share the work."

Tina and Dixie laughed and the details were set. The first one would be the next Friday night with the second one the following Friday. The weather forecast for both was clear and warm. Tina said she would bring the food and drinks over Friday afternoon and get things setup. Dixie said she would come over and help too. Things were set and I was looking forward to helping host a party with her.

Both weekends went perfectly. Both Fridays, the cleaning people came in the morning and cleaned the house while I cleaned the pool area and put out the chairs and lounges. Dixie and Tina came over after lunch and the three of us organized the food and the drinks for the evening although she couldn't be there the first Friday night. The parties seemed to go well as the guests swam, ate, drank, and talked with few problems. I decided they were all single as I didn't see a single wedding band in the place. Tina wandered between groups and talked to everyone. In between, she was in the kitchen helping me keep the food coming and the drinks flowing. The party ended at ten. She said good night to everyone while I put the trash in bags. She gave me a kiss in the cheek as she left for home. The second went like the first except Dixie was in the kitchen with me for the entire evening as her husband was out of town for the weekend. We teased each other as we worked which left Tina free to mingle. I recognized a couple of the guys from the previous week but they were with different women.

Several times, Dixie intentionally bumped me with her hip until I finally asked, "If you do that again and I swat your ass, will your husband show me mercy and only shoot me in my leg or arm?"

She laughed and said, "Try it and see."

That next bump earned her a swat on the ass. She giggled even more.

By the time the last person had gone, we already had the trash bundled and ready for pick up. While we waited for Tina to join us for a glass of wine, she teased me some more and said, "My husband won't be home until noon tomorrow. If you want to talk or something, I'll be free in the morning."

I took this as an invitation for coffee. "I will be there for coffee or something around nine."

"Bring your own coffee; all I drink is tea and talk in the mornings."

Tina joined us for a glass of wine. His time both of them kissed my cheek as they left together. My first thought was that I didn't initiate the kiss to Dixie but I better lock my door and be gone in the afternoon on Saturday to be safe. Then I went to bed.