Toxic Attraction Ch. 10

It felt like it had been hours since the impromptu Saturday morning company meeting ended. Dan just sat there in his apartment kitchen, dazed, staring at the black computer screen. It had long since powered down due to inactivity.

No matter how many times Dan went over the numbers in his head, there just was no way to make the financials of the new situation work. He still couldn't believe his company was cutting his salary by 40% and expected him to react with a smile for the good of the company.

He was going to have some words with Walt when he saw him on Monday. The hard truth of the matter was that his family had just reached some level of stability. With the pay cut, there was no way they could afford their mortgage payments and the rent on the apartment. If Dan moved back to Middleton, then they'd eventually lose the house. Back home, there simply wasn't any work to be found in his field or any other jobs that he would be qualified for.

He sat there in what felt like a catatonic state, his brain trying to process and find a solution. Perhaps he'd have to find a second job to try to make ends meet. He couldn't believe, at this stage in his life and with the experiences he had behind him, that this was something he even had to consider. It felt like he was backsliding and the walls were closing in. The idea of him standing behind a counter taking a fast food order from a group of teenagers felt utterly humiliating to him.

Dan unconsciously ground his teeth together at the realization that his sabotage of Jessie could have very likely tipped the scales. Without the regular cash flow from the Lincoln Group, it seemed like the company couldn't make ends meet.

He continued to sit there in his near catatonic state until he heard stirring from the other end of the apartment. Sarah must be getting up. He could keep sitting here, eventually, she would come to find him.

What if Lester intercepted her first? That was the last thing he needed, his creepy roommate trying something this morning. Dan knew he'd played a fairly passive role the previous night, just allowing the events to unfold, but he wasn't sure he would be able to hold back his frustration and rage if Lester crossed his path today.

Dan was relieved when he heard the bathroom door close. After a few minutes, he finally stood up, shut his laptop and left the kitchen. As he started to cross the living room, his radiant wife stepped out of the bathroom and turned to look in his direction.

An alluring smile spread across her features as she made eye contact. Even in her pajamas and her messy hair she still looked better than most of the women Dan encountered on a regular basis.

"Morning, baby," Sarah said as she walked towards him. "How did you sleep? I was thinking maybe we can grab dinner tonight and talk about what happened yesterday. I brought that black dress and I was thinking --"

Sarah stopped in her tracks as she entered the living room. She could tell something was wrong with him. "Dan, what's the matter?"

Dan felt his shoulders involuntarily slump forward as he exhaled a long breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. It felt like the walls of the apartment were closing in around him. "Let's sit." Sarah eyed him warily, knowing that something was amiss but unsure what it could be.

Dan motioned toward the couch and sat down. It dawned on him that he had avoided sitting here earlier but he just needed to sit anywhere other than in front of his laptop screen.

Sarah sat across from him, her body turned in his direction with a mask of worry on her face. "Dan, what's going on, you're scaring me. Did things go too far last night? I thought they kind of did at the end. It's always about you, I'm trying to turn you on."

Dan held up his hand, causing Sarah to stop talking. He focused his eyes on the couch between them. "No, it's not that. I mean, yeah, we need to talk about that, I still can't believe it, but no, this is something else. Work sent a message this morning asking everyone to jump on a call."

He took a breath and continued, "Anyway, most people in the company got on there and the head of HR started talking about the company and our loyalty to it but in the end, she announced everyone in the company was getting their wages reduced by forty percent."

Dan finally looked up and met his wife's gaze.

"Forty percent," Sarah said angrily. "Forty percent? They can't do that, Dan! That's huge! We can't....that's a lot of money. Dan, I..I don't know what to say. Fucking bastards - that's going to kill us."

"I know," Dan sighed. He had worked so hard over the past few months to keep his company afloat and now he felt like the boulder he'd been carrying was finally about to crush him.

"Why?" Sarah said, her voice now sounding more scared than angry. "Why did they do that? What reason did they give?"

"Business is a lot slower than expected and they've lost a few clients lately." Dan omitted that the pull-out by the Lincoln Group had likely played a big part in all of this.

"Okay...okay," Sarah said, as she leaped from the couch and ran into the bedroom. A minute later, she returned with her phone along with a pen and notepad. She sat back down and immediately started writing on the notepad. Dan stayed silent, knowing she was likely doing the same calculations he had been running through.

Finally, she looked up at him. "Dan...I don't know how we make this work."

"I don't know either."

"This is bad timing. Really bad timing. I just registered the girls in swimming lessons and the fee isn't refundable. I was banking on paying off the card with your next paycheck before our mortgage gets taken out. Fuck, what do we do."

"We'll figure something out," Dan mumbled, his eyes unfocused. They had always figured something out, right? He tried to tell himself this would be just like all those other times, but he was having trouble convincing himself.

He felt warm hands on his. He looked down and saw Sarah's tender hands encircling his. The image of her hand around Lester's cock from the previous night flashed into his mind.

Dan looked up at his wife. She had closed the distance between them and was sitting right next to him. She was looking up into his eyes with a determined smile on her face. He knew she wasn't really feeling brave but was putting on a confident front for his sake.

"You are right," she said firmly. "We will figure it out, that's what we do. We'll look for some areas to cut back and see what other moves we can make. I might have some stuff in the basement I could put on Facebook marketplace to help cover some bills. We'll figure it out."

The sound of a door opening caused the couple to pause. Lester emerged from the hallway, wearing only a ratty pair of boxers that caused his naked stomach to bulge out, "Hey, there..."

"Not now, Lester," Sarah snapped at him. She turned her attention back to Dan.

"Hey," Lester said, throwing his hands up in frustration. "What did I do now? Buyer's remorse for all my cum you drank last night?"

Dan watched Sarah's face turn beet red. She turned back to Lester, "No, Lester, not everything is about you. Got it? Dan just got some bad news from work and we are working on figuring it out, okay?"

"Okay, okay," Lester said, trying to walk back his previous comments, "That sucks. What was the news?"

"Pay cut," Sarah said with her back to him. She was focused on the figures on the notepad in front of her.

"Ouch," Lester said as he walked backwards out of the room. Dan heard his door shut.

Sarah sighed and put down her notepad. "I'm sorry, I just wasn't expecting this."

"I know," Dan said reassuringly. "Neither was I."

"Well, the good news is, I can already think of a few ways to cut some expenses. It's going to hurt but we can manage it. It still won't get us all the way but maybe I can pick up some extra hours or figure something else out. But there is one thing I want to ask you and just see what you think."

"Shoot," Dan said.

"Do you think we should update your resume?" Sarah asked. "It's been months since you started here, maybe there are some new things out there."

Dan sat back, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. The last time he had applied for jobs had been a grueling endeavor. Hundreds of applications, dozens of resume tweaks, dead-end interview after dead-end interview. He hated the process and didn't want to go through it again.

"Yeah," he finally said with a sigh. "Yeah, we probably should do that. You're right, there might be something better out there and we aren't even looking for it."

Sarah smiled reassuringly. God, she is beautiful.

"Okay," Sarah said, grabbing her phone. "Let's do this. We'll look at jobs and when we get a bunch of them, you apply and then I'll look at our expenses." The worried look was gone from his wife's face and Dan felt a little better about their outlook as well.

Dan and Sarah spent the next several hours camped out in the living room. Dan was on his laptop going through LinkedIn, noting jobs in Chicago that he would apply for and even some remote opportunities. He wasn't qualified for everything, but he would take a shot anyway. He reached out to old colleagues to start a dialogue, hoping their companies might have openings.

Sarah was on her phone across from him, looking at open jobs in Middleton. Dan was overqualified for all of them and none were in his field. She expanded her search and noted down a few in Chicago.

Dan smiled as he watched Sarah scribble something down on the notepad. She was like a bloodhound on a mission. He loved how she immediately threw herself into figuring a way out of their problems. He loved her tenacity.

As he watched her work, he knew that eventually, everything would end up okay.

***

"Darkspire!" Ned croaked through Lester's headset. "We need to pull back, we lost our tank. That stupid 3lfReuns guy isn't healing us, we're gonna get screwed."

Lester absentmindedly began moving his avatar after Ned's. They were playing with some lower-level members of their guild. Their Chicago-based players in their usual crew weren't on tonight. Lester was much more interested in what was happening on the small screen in the corner of his display.

He enlarged it to get a better sense of what was going on. The network traffic on the apartment's wifi was busier than normal. Aside from Lester's usual activities, there was a ton of traffic going to LinkedIn, Indeed, other job boards and what looked like company websites.

Lester reached out and grabbed a pen along with a stained paper towel he had been using to clean his Cheeto fingers. He started to scribble down some of the company names he was noticing, putting an asterisk next to anywhere he noticed traffic going to an application or thank you page.

It looked like the Williamses were trying to get Dan a new job. That tracked after what they'd told Lester earlier. He grinned as he thought about the news that Dan had received a pay cut at work. He could almost smell the desperation emanating from the young couple in the living room.

Desperation was an element Lester knew all about. Especially where best to push to exploit it. Lester chuckled to himself. It's too easy.

If there was a god, Lester didn't think he was what people normally imagined. He must be some kind of deviant given the gifts and opportunities that kept falling in Lester's lap.

He barely registered Ned whining in his ear, "Darkspire come on, what are you doing? We're going to die here. I'll leave you if I have to. Lester! Come on."

This news presented a new angle for Lester, one he hadn't considered before but which could fit perfectly into Phase Two of his plans. He needed to isolate Sarah while simultaneously keeping his thumb on Dan's fantasy, making sure he stoked the fires just enough for Dan to submit. It would be like walking a tightrope, but he was confident. More than that, he loved the chase.

Lester decided to accelerate his timeline and put a new plan into motion. Part of him whispered caution but he decided to push forward anyway.

"Lester? You there, man?" Lester finished his ruminations and realized at some point his character needed to respawn.

"Yeah," Lester answered. "I just got distracted."

"Okay, just let me know next time, okay? We didn't both need to die there." Ned almost sounded apologetic. "Hey, I was talking to PhilWizard earlier today."

"Why do you still talk to him?" Lester rolled his eyes as he quickly switched over to Discord. He noticed several unread messages next to Cronos' conversation.

"Well, he is our DM for one. Anyway, we're going to try to get a game on the books for next month. Just wanted to confirm if you can come."

Lester looked at the unread messages and closed the browser. He didn't want to deal with those issues right now. Focusing on what Cronos wanted was something he'd handle later. "I'll be there, just tell Phil he needs to wrap up this dumb campaign soon."

Ned said something else but Lester noted a few more sites coming across his wifi network that he had to write down. Putting the pen down, he opened one of the drawers in his desk and pulled out a scrunched-up black silk robe. He brought it to his nose and inhaled the delectable scent of Sarah Williams. His boxers strained to hold in his swelling erection.

***

"What about this one?" Sarah leaned over and showed Dan her phone. It was a job listing that was in his field but something much more specialized than he was used to. He smiled and shook his head, idly stroking her back in appreciation.

Sarah leaned back over to her spot on the couch and kept scrolling. He loved how dedicated and committed she was to solving this problem even though she really didn't understand his industry. Still, he appreciated that he wasn't doing this alone. He hated searching for jobs and dreaded the entire process.

He realized he was gripping his laptop too tightly. He relaxed his hands, remembering it wasn't his computer that was jeopardizing the future of his family. It was Walt and the other execs, but Dan couldn't help but wonder if some of the blame fell on him also. They were in trouble well before this incident. It's not your fault.

He tried to remind himself that he wasn't solely to blame. It made sense but he still felt a pit in his stomach.

The sound of plodding fat feet growing closer broke Dan's concentration. Dan didn't look up, hoping that Lester was just going to the kitchen to stuff his face. To his dismay, however, the sound of the fat troll's trajectory kept moving towards them.

Dan's eyes flicked up from his computer screen in time to see Lester's weak arms snaking their way over the couch, his hands moving over Sarah's shoulders. His wife flinched at his roommate's touch, but not as much as Dan would have hoped.

"Lester, what are you doing?" Sarah said as she tried to pry herself free of his grasp.

"You looked tense earlier," Lester grinned, "I was just thinking of a few ways we could relieve that for you."

Dan watched as his roommate took liberties with his wife, his skin connecting with hers. He felt himself being pulled back down into that trance-like state of their previous few encounters. The pit in his stomach started to grow, getting warmer. His rage and frustration were bubbling up.

Before Dan fully realized what he was doing, he was on his feet. His laptop was pushed off his lap onto the couch next to him. He quickly closed the distance to his wife and Lester. Lester looked shocked and took a step back, releasing Sarah from his grip.

"Not today, Lester. It's not a good time," Dan barked, his finger pointed at his roommate. "And besides, you don't just get to do that! Get that through your head. This isn't some weird arrangement now where you can just come onto my wife anytime you like, got it?"

Lester put his hands up defensively, feigning innocence. "I just thought I'd be helpful, is all, you know with all the money woes and everything going on."

"That," Dan paused, gritting his teeth and looking to the side trying to find the right words, "...that isn't any of your business."

"Well, it is my business if my roommate can't make the rent." Something had changed in Lester's demeanor but Dan couldn't quite place it. He didn't seem like his meek self. "I'd hate to have to tell the landlord we're going to miss the rent this month."

"That's not going to happen," Sarah chimed in, now turning to face Lester as well. "We're going to figure it out."

"No doubt, no doubt," Lester said, pacing the room and shaking his head, putting more distance between himself and Dan. "I'm sure you guys will figure it all out and this will just blow over."

"We will," Dan said, turning away from Lester. He wasn't in the mood for whatever game this guy was playing. But he was unable to completely block out the thought of the way Lester had positioned and spoken to his wife the previous night. Dan felt the nudging of desire, to see that happen again. If he just relaxed and let things play out, who knew what could happen right now?

But Dan couldn't listen to that voice. If he had stopped listening to that earlier they might not be in this mess. Jesse wouldn't have seen the conversation and pushed Sarah into Lester's flabby arms.

As Dan grabbed his computer and started to sit, Lester said, "Of course, I could help."

"Help us, how?" Sarah asked, narrowing her eyes as she tried to figure out what Lester was up to. Dan set his computer to one side and looked up at his roommate.

"Spit it out, Lester, what are you playing at here?" Dan felt tired and impatient. He wanted to get back to putting out new resumes.

"Hey, if you guys are in a position to turn away help right now, that's fine. Sorry that I offered." Lester started to walk back towards his bedroom. Dan didn't budge, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of making him stop.

Sarah looked quickly at Dan and then back over at Lester. "Hey, wait. What do you mean, help?"

Dan could have sworn he saw another grin appear on the side of Lester's face. When he turned fully around, though, it was gone. "I was just thinking that I could help you out. With rent. I could cover your half until you figure things out."

"And why would you do that?" Dan asked. He felt his blood begin to boil, thinking about where Lester could be taking this. He also felt his arousal flaring up, trying desperately to pull him back down into that chair and watch. He was grateful his tee shirt was draped over his crotch, hiding whatever effect this interaction might be having on him.

Lester, for once, looked uncomfortable. "Can I talk to you for a second? Privately? Sorry, Sarah, I need to speak to your husband man to man."

Sarah waved him off, returning to the job hunt. She knew her husband would share whatever Lester told him.

Lester went with Dan into the kitchen area and spoke softly,"I hate to see my roommate in a pinch. It's just not good for the morale of the apartment, it's bad energy." Lester's eyes flicked briefly in Sarah's direction, confirming Dan's suspicions. "And, of course, there are some ways you could pay me back."

"Like with a loan agreement and some interest?" Dan asked sarcastically. He wasn't buying Lester's delicate manner.

Lester smiled. "That's not exactly what I had in mind."

Dan responded flatly. "If you think I am going to pimp my wife out to you just so you can cover my half of the rent, you have another think coming. That isn't going to fly, I'm not going to let you fuck her like an escort just to cover our ass. Not happening." He'd made his anger clear. In response, Lester turned slightly away from the living room to ensure only Dan heard him.

"Listen, I didn't want to say this in front of your wife, but you could really help me out here. Lizzie... that girl really broke my heart - she was gone so quickly. We had so many plans. And Sarah, you've gotta feel like an incredible stud when you're out and she's next to you. People must think you've got it all figured out. I admit, I got a little of how that could be with Lizzie. And with all this fantasy play, I thought maybe you'd be open to share a bit of how you feel when she's out with you. Would that be too much? I really don't like talking about my feelings or asking for help."