I woke up the following morning with a hard-on, thinking that I may have made a mistake by not letting her come to Albany and help me watch the sun come up.
I got up early, did my exercises, and was in the office by eight o’clock. Pauline Jeffers, who has been my assistant for nearly fifteen years, was already there, as usual, and had the coffee made.
“Good morning, Pauline,” I greeted her cheerfully.
She smiled widely at me, a little more widely than usual, I thought.
“Hi, Alex. How was your trip?” she asked with a little more enthusiasm than usual.
I shook my head and answered, “Actually, it couldn’t have been better. I had a great meeting.”
“I meant the extra days you spent out there. I hope you had a chance to uh … relax and enjoy yourself. You certainly deserve to take some time off and rest up a bit,” she grinned.
I might as well get this over with, I thought. “Pauline, I enjoyed myself so much that I want you to make reservations for me to fly back to Seattle on Thursday around noon.”
She quickly looked at me. “This Thursday?”
I nodded. “Yes, this Thursday.”
She stood up, leaned on her desk with stiff arms and gave me a warm, affectionate smile. “She must be something else,” she teased.
I laughed at her. “She is something else, Pauline, and then some.”
She came around the table and hugged me. I’m happy for you, boss. Actually, we’re all happy for you. Her name almost sounds aristocratic, Shannen Louise Carter.”
“She practically is aristocratic.”
She grinned as she handed me a cup of coffee. “Is she any relation to Jimmy?”
I laughed. “That’s funny, Pauline. No, she’s not related to Jimmy that I know of. I don’t think that she grows peanuts, but then I can’t be sure,” I offered with a smile.
She gave me a confused look as Michael’s assistant, Rachael, walked in the door. “Don’t ask, Rachael. I’ve got the whole scoop, and it’s a go on everything.”
Rachael squealed, running over to me in her high heels to give me a hug as well. “Okay, I won’t ask any questions, but I’m so happy for you.”
I cleared my throat. “I didn’t know when I went out on a date, it was of so much interest to everyone.”
Pauline sat back down at her desk. “It’s just that you have been alone for so long that we all want you to have some companionship.”
“What’s her background? I mean where’s she from?” asked Rachael.
Just then, Michael walked in. “Hi, Dad. I see you’re already getting the third degree. You may as well spill it because the entire plant already knows most of it anyway.”
I looked back at Rachael. “What was your question?”
“Where’s she from? What’s her background? I mean, we need to know about her. We need something to gossip about this afternoon,” she teased.
I grinned. “It’s a bit complicated, but she’s from Oklahoma and lives in Seattle now.”
Rachael gave me a look. “I mean, what’s her background? Is she English, French, or Canadian? You know what I mean.”
I smiled at Michael. “Yes, Rachael, that’s correct, mostly.”
Rachael smiled. “What do you mean, mostly?”
“Is it really that interesting?” I asked.
Rachael sat on the edge of her desk. “Your sex life? Oops! No, I mean, whom you’re dating, you bet. But if you don’t want to tell, that’s okay. I’ll just have to suck it out of Michael later.”
I looked at her over my wire-rimmed glasses. She blushed. “I know; that was a very poor choice of words, but you know what I mean.”
“Okay, in an effort to squelch the rumors and to help with your gossip this afternoon, she is Cherokee Indian, English, French, African-American, Hispanic, and Irish.”
“Wow, boss,” said Pauline, “that’s practically everything there is. Do you have a photograph of your girl … friend we could see?”
“Look, girls, she is not my girlfriend. She’s just someone I spent some time with.”
Pauline smirked. “Yes, we know, Alex, but do you have a picture we could see? We’re just curious, that’s all.”
I reluctantly pulled out my cell phone, opened up the photo catch, and showed Pauline the first picture of Charlie and Shannen.
“What?” she said as she playfully pulled the phone from my hands. She huddled up close to Rachael while they scrolled through the photographs.
Neither of them said a word after she returned my cell phone. After a few moments of silence, I looked at Pauline. “Okay, Pauline, you’ve never held back on me before. What do you think?”
“Oh, I don’t know, boss. She sure is beautiful. She’s about as pretty a woman as I’ve ever seen.”
“Come on, Pauline. You’re holding something back. Let’s have it,” I grinned, knowing exactly what she was thinking.”
She shook her head. “Don’t take this wrong, Alex, but if I were you, I would be worried about her being after your money.”
Michael laughed. “Wrong, Pauline. She’s worth far more than Dad is. In fact, we’re not even in the same ballpark.”
Pauline stood there dumbfounded. I had never seen her at a loss for words before.
“Michael, do you have anything pressing today?” I turned to ask.
“Nothing that I can’t shuffle around. Why? Do you need me to do something?”
“Yeah, we haven’t played golf in over a year, and I think I would like to play golf with you today.”
******
On the way back from Seattle, I had thought a lot about what I’ve done with my life during the last twenty-five years. As I looked back, I was generally satisfied with my accomplishments. My wife and I had raised a wonderful son, employed quite a lot of people in a successful business, and had given a lot to charity. In a few years I would be sixty, and I had begun to wonder how many more years I had left before I couldn’t do the things I could do now. Was this going to be it for me? I had a good business, a few friends, a wonderful son with a great family, and a friend with benefits, otherwise, known as a fuck buddy.
The last few days with Shannen had made me want more. Those few days had created a desire in me that wanted more than simply a friend with benefits. I wanted it all again, if it were possible. The only thing that had really bothered me was the age difference but that hadn’t seemed to bother her, and I figured that it was worth a shot. “Hell, she’s worth a shot,” I mumbled.
Michael and I spent the day playing eighteen holes. I wished we had done a lot more of this during the last four years that he had worked with me. Naturally, we talked mostly about Shannen and my relationship with her. This situation was just as new and scary to him as it was to me, and obviously, he was curious. He wanted to know where I thought the relationship might be headed. The problem was that there were no definitive answers to that question because we had only known each other for a few days.
Our connection defied logic. Only Shannen and I could understand our connection, probably because we were both crazy in heat. Every time I tried to explain it, the explanation fell on sympathetic but deaf ears, and I understood why.
When we had finished playing, we stopped at the Nineteenth Hole lounge to have a cold beer. “Michael, what I’m trying to say to you is that this is a chance for me to have the kind of happiness that I thought was behind me. This is a chance for me to love again. I know that it’s risky, and it may only last for a few weeks or months. Who knows?”
While we drank a second beer, I told him how we met but only after I swore him to secrecy.
He laughed. “I can’t believe that you actually propositioned her. My God, one of the wealthiest women in the country, and you offered to pay her for sex?”
I chuckled. “What can I say? I didn’t want her to walk away and risk the chance of never seeing her again. For the first time in a long while, I felt desperate, and I didn’t know why.”
“I’m sorry, Dad, but I thought at y
our age, I mean, no disrespect, but I thought that the last thing on your mind would be, well … you know … sex.”
I laughed. “Are you serious, Michael? In a healthy person, desire doesn’t decrease with age nor does your libido.”
There was a brief pause while he took a large slug of beer. “So, for the last few days, the two of you have been, well, amorous?”
“I can’t get into the details, but for the first time in years, I felt as though I were sixteen again.”
“I can’t say as I blame you. Don’t get me wrong, Darcy is pretty, and I think she is sexy as hell, but Shannen is truly a rare beauty.”
I had called for the tab when my cell phone rang. I quickly looked at my watch and could see it was three o’clock. “Hi, Nancy. How is your day going?”
“It couldn’t be better. Are we still going to have dinner tonight, or do you just want to come over to my place for a quick snatch? Oh, I’m sorry, Alex. I meant snack.”
I chuckled briefly. “Actually, I want to meet you at the usual place and have dinner around six-thirty.”
“Oh, you must be anxious. That’s a little early for me, but I will leave work a little early and be there at six-thirty. I can’t wait to see you, Alex.”
“Great. I’ll probably get there a little early and get us a table in the back. I’ll see you then, Nancy. Bye, bye.”
Michael drank the last of his beer and asked, “What are you going to tell her?”
“We have gone out for quite a long time. I’m going to tell her the truth. In the end, that’s the only way of not hurting her. Besides, when we don’t go back to her place or mine, she’s going to know something is up anyway, so I might as well get it over with and tell her the truth. I will tell her about Shannen.”
“How do you think she’s going to take it?”
I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. “I think she’s going to take it well. Ours has been mostly a physical relationship anyway. That’s the way she wanted it, and that’s the way we have kept it. I didn’t know anyone knew about it until you and Darcy told me that you have known for about a year now.”
“Well, my guess is that no one else knows because, if they did, it would be all over town, and I haven’t heard any gossip about it at the plant.”
******
After I said goodbye to Michael, I went home, took a shower, and drove to the restaurant. I got there at six-fifteen and ordered a Scotch whisky for myself and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc for Nancy.
While waiting for her, I reminisced about our relationship. She was a good person, and I didn’t want to hurt her. That’s why I wanted to tell her in person rather than tell her over the telephone. I thought telling her that way would be cold and somewhat cruel, especially, after what she told me last night. After all, we had been having sex for right at two years, and it had been a very pleasurable two years. However, last night’s revelation, that she hasn’t been dating anyone else for a while, came as a shock to me. People don’t usually do that unless they are emotionally involved.
The restaurant where we had been secretly meeting was a small steak house in Rotterdam, which was a little over fifteen miles out of Albany. The distance wasn’t so far that it was cumbersome, but it was far enough out of the way that it was unlikely we would be seen by anyone we knew.
“Ah, there you are,” I smiled when I noticed her standing there. “I must have been in deep thought to let you sneak up on me like that without noticing. You look fantastic tonight.”
“Why, thank you, Alex. You look pretty yummy yourself.”
I stood up and she scooted in the booth to sit beside me. We had always sat in the back of the restaurant so we did not draw any more attention to ourselves than was necessary. I had originally selected this place, not only because of its location, but because it was always dark inside. It had private booths in which you could do practically anything you wanted without prying eyes watching. Unfortunately, tonight the intimacy would work against me, if I weren’t careful.
“Thank you for ordering me a glass of my favorite wine. You look good enough to eat,” she said, holding her glass up to mine with one hand while she reached under the table to grab my cock with the other. “Oh, honey, is something wrong? You usually have a hard-on by now whenever we meet.”
I chuckled nervously while I reached down and took her hand. She looked at me with concern in her eyes. “What’s wrong, Alex? There was something in your voice last night that told me our relationship had probably changed. It was those extra days in Seattle, wasn’t it?”
I nodded and looked down at my drink, almost as if I were ashamed or embarrassed for no reason. “Yes. I met someone quite by accident and spent those extra days with her.”
She nervously sipped her wine, took a deep breath, and shook her head. “There are only two reasons why you would tell me this. Either you’re feeling guilty for having a fling behind my back, or you have found someone that you care truly for. Unfortunately, since we’re mostly just friends with benefits, my guess is that you are here to tell me that you can’t see me any longer.”
“That pretty much sums it up. I did meet someone in Seattle. In those few, short days that we were together, something clicked between us. I can’t explain how or why it happened, it just did.”
She sat quietly for a few moments. I felt both awkward and terrible. She reached over, grabbed my hand, and squeezed it hard. She had tears in her eyes that she was trying desperately to keep from spilling over her lids. She sniffled quietly as she took a sip of wine.
“I’m sorry, Alex. After our conversation last night, I was afraid of something like this, but hearing it for real is a little more difficult than I expected it to be. It’s just that we have been together for so long, and you are such a gentleman, both in and out of bed.”
“Nancy, I’m the one that’s sorry. I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you or your feelings or anything else. This isn’t easy for me either. You are a special person, and I will always have a special place in my heart for you.”
She took a napkin and dabbed at the tears in her eyes. “You never know, this might just be a passing thing for you. If you change your mind, Alex, you are welcome to call me anytime. Even if you just want to talk,” she offered as more tears appeared on her lower lids.
I patted her hand. “You never know what’s going to happen. It could last thirty days or thirty years. Well, at my age, it’s not likely to last thirty years. I had no idea that you had any feelings for me.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Oh, Alex, I’m not crying because I love you. I’m crying because I’m going to miss all of the great sex,” she laughed as best as she could.
I could tell she was trying to make light of a very stressful situation. I felt like hell for not being more perceptive during the past year. Who knows what might have happened. I might have ended up with her. Life can take some strange twists and turns and be pretty fucked up sometimes, I thought.
It took a few minutes, but she managed to compose herself, and we ordered dinner. She wasn’t very hungry, but I finally encouraged her to get a small filet and eat as much of it as she could. She didn’t need to be driving home on an empty stomach after having two or three glasses of wine.
Fortunately, once she took a couple bites, she regained some of her appetite, and she was able to finish most of her meal. “Alex, can we be together tonight, for one last time?”
I took a deep breath, and my expression must have given her the answer. “Nancy, I …”
“No, don’t answer,” she interrupted. “I’m sorry. I should have known better than to ask, especially, you.”
I reached over and took her hand in both of mine. “Listen, Nancy, you are a gorgeous lady, and we have had something special for quite a while. I can’t say that I’m not tempted, but I made a promise.”
She sipped her wine and said with a slight chuckle, “She must be a pretty special woman for you to fall this hard for her in such a short period of time.”
“Let’s say that she is different. Actually, she’s much like you in many respects. She’s strong and fiercely independent.”
She laughed. “Well, whatever she is, she must have something pretty good to get you to look twice at her,” she paused for a second then asked. “You told her about me, didn’t you, Alex?”
I nodded. “How did you know?”
“Oh, Alex, it’s not too hard to figure out. She made you promise, before you left, not to have sex with me. Knowing you, you probably wouldn’t have anyway, but she was smart in getting you to promise.”
There wasn’t much I could say to that, and she was silent for a moment.
“Alex, she made you promise her something. Can I make you promise me something before I leave to go home?”
I looked at her anxiously. “I think so. What is it?”
“Don’t look so frightened; it’s not that bad. If things don’t work out between the two of you, would you promise me that you will call?”
I smiled wearily, realizing the sadness she was experiencing right then. “Sure, nothing would please me more, Nancy.”
She leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Okay, I think that I’m going to go home now. If I have another glass of wine, I’ll probably beg you to fuck me, and I don’t want to beg you,” she said as she got up.
She walked away without turning back to wave, and I could see that she was patting her eyes with a tissue as she left. I took a deep breath and looked at the time with a feeling of sadness in my heart for her. It was only seven-fifteen. We had been there for only an hour.
My drive home took only twenty minutes. I was pouring myself a scotch when I received her text.
Shannen:
I’m on my way home, and I’m wet just thinking
about our call. What time is good for you?
Hearing from her lifted my spirits, and the thought of her being wet caused me to swell.
Alex:
I’m home having a scotch and just waiting
for your call.
There was a brief pause while she typed.
Mistaken Identity Page 14