YOU MATTER TO ME, NOW

by Jan Vivian

  Anna, hi! The sky’s fallen in for me here. At least BIM can’t discipline me for the great times we had together. The condemned man didn’t see this coming his way so soon – he hoped to have the deals being worked on safely brought in. Others will do that now, so I’m told. The angry guy in me is writing this and so I’ll be out an about with a friend who’s in a similar bind. Thinking of you! M x

  As he logged off and put some personal possessions into his soft leather lap-top bag, it also served as a briefcase, his i-phone trilled.

  ‘I didn’t know!’ Anna exclaimed. ‘I haven’t heard from Jamie, or Malcolm, so it is bad news for me too. I’m so…so…sorry, for you!’

  ‘Thanks. I’m so glad you called but I need to ring you back. May I do that in twenty minutes or so? I’ll be out of her in that time.’

  ‘Yes, of course Monty…’

  ‘I don’t want what has gone down here to affect you…there. Understand?’

  ‘Good…okay,’ he said moderating his tone. ‘Only one goes down with this.’

  He closed the call and what had been a whispered conversation.

  Goodbye was soon said in a perfunctory manner, more so than the circumstances and his former colleagues best wishes justified, and he left the building and two years of his life with BIM filled with mixed emotions; pride in what had been learnt and achieved were set against the nagging doubt of how the relationship with Anna could survive.

  His phone trilled again and he was startled to see Anna’s name against a text message icon.

  M (special 1), pls don’t call me. I’ve been told to keep the next two hours free for a client’s conference call. It involves BIM España no less! Sorry. A xx’

  Don’t be sorry, A. Understand perfectly how it has to be from now on. Speak when ready. I’m not going anywhere just yet. M x

  10

  Moving On

  ‘Where are you? Tomas asked. ‘I was about to call you. You’re not at work…I can hear music…Manuel Santana?’

  ‘You’ve got it in one. I’m at home.’

  Tomas went on after a pause to take that in. ‘At this time of the day?’

  ‘I was given the big ‘adios’, the ‘thanks but we don’t need you’ letter…with a cheque.’

  ‘They wanted you out of there that quick?’

  ‘It looks that way, doesn’t it?’ Monty said simply. ‘We can meet whenever you want…and when your ladies can spare you.’

  Tomas laughed. ‘It’s my rest night.’

  ‘Is that a ‘yes’ then…we meet up later?’

  ‘Sure…the usual place. I’ll tell you about the lonely and lovelorn ladies I meet.’

  Not too much, Monty got to thinking. I’m feeling out of it myself at the moment.

  ●

  The usual banter between them soon led to the purpose of Tomas calling him a day or so ago.

  ‘My Beatrix has a friend…’

  ‘Your Beatrix?’ Monty teased, ‘has it got that far? Have you gone all possessive on her?’

  ‘Only in bed,’ Tomas winked. ‘No, what I mean is…Beatrix has a friend, someone who could do with some company.’

  ‘Oh, really…is that so?’ Monty sighed. ‘You get me here…I buy you a drink…or two, and all you have to tell me is that ’Beatrix has a friend who needs some company’. What’s that got to do with me?’

  ‘Nothing, I guess.’ It was Tomas’s turn to sigh. ‘Or, it was nothing until you told me your new girlfriend’s gone back to the UK. Is there a man in her life there?’

  ‘No, not that it’s any of your business.’

  ‘Don’t get touchy, amigo. I was only trying to see how it is with you right now…’

  ‘Fine…’

  ‘Really?’ Tomas drank on his beer, thoughtfully. ‘Sounds to me, from what you’ve said that it’s not so fine…or not as fine as it once was.’

  ‘I’ll get by…’

  ‘Alone?’

  ‘Tell me what this meeting is about, will you?’

  ‘Beatrix is a distraction for me…from what’s going down in my life. I meet a need in her and, so far, it’s been working out just fine. The thing is...she has a friend and she asked me if I knew anyone who might help her…’

  ‘Screw her, you mean?’

  ‘Sure…that’s part of the arrangement.’

  ‘And you thought a day or so ago, I know! I’ll go and ask Tomas. How am I doing?’

  ‘Okay…okay,’ Tomas shrugged ruefully. ‘It seemed a crazy idea then, but from what you’ve told me, and your twitchy mood, I reckon you could do with a temporary distraction yourself. It would help you to forget about what happened at work today and also you also get it on with someone else. You live a little differently for a while, that’s all.’

  Tomas simply listened.

  ‘I know it’s not you, doin’ this, but your life’s taken a hit. Going with her, Beatrix’s friend, offers some special company until things get settled again, work-wise and with the new chick in your life.’

  ‘Anna’s no chick, and the work thing is going to be a slow burn…’

  ‘Tell me about,’ Tomas retorted.

  ‘You forget. I’ll get by…’

  ‘Living off your private income?’ Tomas scoffed. His grin told Monty what he thought of that arrangement. ‘You’ll get bored…’

  ‘Oh will I? Will I really?’

  ‘Yeah, you will! You’ve said it often enough. If you’re not in control, get your way…you start acting up. Is that why the people at BIM paid you off?’

  ‘Listen,’ Monty growled, ‘I’m not going to…’

  ‘Answer the question?’ Tomas saw his friend slump down again on the bar stool. ‘I don’t like saying it, amigo, but you can have an attitude problem…’

  ‘And being with this friend of Beatrix’s is going to help me sort that out, the fatal character flaw that gets me fired?’

  ‘Maybe, who really knows, but give it a try? At least you pay attention to someone else for an hour or so…however long she needs you to be with her.’

  Monty looked at his watch. It was way past the time he had expected to hear something from Anna. There was no certainty in anything and he could always say ‘no’ to what Tomas proposed, if the woman called ‘Beatrix’s friend’ didn’t quell the unease he felt about even meeting her let alone going with her.

  Where was the romance in what Tomas proposed he took on for a while? Sure, life was tough…

  ‘The four of us could at least meet for a drink…’ he said thoughtfully.

  ‘That’s the spirit, amigo! Get in the drinks…I’ll go and call Beatrix.’

  ‘Don’t show me up, will you? Tomas ordered with his accustomed candour upon his return to the bar.

  ‘How can I do that?’ Monty quipped, ‘I’m out of work too.’

  ‘You know what I mean…don’t overdress, look so smart. This work’s different.’

  ‘The work you do,’ Monty felt obliged to reply. ‘Anyway, what’s wrong with a bit of class?’

  ‘Sure…’ Tomas answered sarcastically and with a wave of the hand.

  His fingers weren’t so stained, now that he’d given up smoking for reasons of having no money to buy his favourites. Monty had assured him that he looked so much better and his women would like him all the more for the fresher taste when he kissed them. Tomas’s reply to that observation was unrepeatable.

  ‘I’ll break with tradition…Tomas, just for you.’

  ‘Do more than that. Just look cool…’

  ‘And show that I’m available?’

  ‘That’s up to you, amigo,’ Tomas chose to laugh far too knowingly. ‘Beatrix’s friend…’

  ‘Looks like her?’

  ‘There’s a heart of gold in my lady,’ Tomas answered irritably on being reminded so directly of his woman’s plain features and straggly faux blonde hair, ‘and she feels just great.’ Tomas winked.

  ‘Okay…’

  ‘It will be…and it could be for you too. You’re not in a rela
tionship are you?’

  Monty felt obliged to nod. ‘Only on Skype…and that’s not so frequent.’

  Tomas pulled a face. ‘So, there shouldn’t be any guilt trip when we meet Beatrix and her friend, Alicia. Just live out whatever comes your way…get me? No guilt trips…’

  ‘That’s how you get through, is it?’ Monty knew that his friend had ditched such sentiment long ago.

  ‘Si, naturalmente. I have to live, somehow, haven’t I?’

  ‘You should have come with me to South America. I still earn something from the investments made there…’

  ‘Leave it out! I don’t want to be reminded of that!’

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘It is for you, ‘okay’, even if you’ve lost your job. I earn from something that’s fun and healthy…so you should approve. I may as well smile while I go through hell at not working at a proper job…in your eyes.’

  ‘I didn’t say that…’

  ‘No, Monty…you don’t have to.’

  Monty sighed. There was no point in being judgmental about his friend’s ways of it, living on the margins of society now. Many in the city were going through hell just like him to get by. Tomas had swallowed his pride and been innovative, not too reckless, in finding his way through.

  ‘You’re getting qualifications…in other ways,’ Monty smiled trying to ease the tension between them.

  ‘I don’t go advertising the fact of what I’m doing, but at least Beatrix is happy and Louisa…she’s the married one…she is too. Being with her beats going to the gym, amigo, I can tell you.’ Tomas nudged his friend. ‘You could try this way of things too…call it an interim assignment?’

  ‘We’ll see.’

  11

  Learning of Distracting Ways

  The women were punctual.

  That was all Monty thought that they had in common save for the tangled bleached blonde tresses that he hated on those blessed with silky black hair. He didn’t want to be reminded of Anna’s beautifully managed bob with its parting so perfectly made; silken strands were always meticulously brushed down to each side of her slender face. That look, along with the frames to over-sized sun glasses, set her apart from all the others.

  Beatrix greeted Tomas fondly, her kindly face wreathed in smiles; she touched him in a moment’s pass of anticipation for all that lay in store for them. The tall woman wore a black trouser suit, the jacket open to reveal a silken patterned blouse, a plunging neckline and an all too fleshy cleavage. A pearl choker failed to offer any distraction from that provocative sight.

  Monty could see what Beatrix liked in his friend. Tomas made up for unremarkable looks with a happy laugh and the attentiveness of a guy who thought of the woman’s needs first. He had time for others and was someone Beatrix could rely upon.

  ‘Hello Monty,’ Beatrix smiled before she introduced Alicia, just by first name and with an easy wave of her hand.

  Her friend was very different.

  She met Monty’s wondering stare with her own, a hard look of dark eyes as if to gauge whether she had been right to go through with the arrangement of a drink as a means to break the novelty of the occasion with this young stranger.

  ‘I don’t know what you’ve been told, but my name’s simply said, even if it’s English…Monty Barnard.’

  He sought to do things properly. Tomas had at least warned him; Alicia was not so brazen as to resort to a newspaper advert that obliquely asked for someone ‘to see to her’.

  ‘Hola,’ was all she said in response to this friendly way of introducing himself.

  A snappy flick at her hair drew Monty’s attention to her face, the sharply plucked eyebrows, long painted lashes and lightly made up pink lips. They had smirked in a smile of greeting. A blouse, like a thin rugby shirt in Aussie colours with a green stripe down the sleeves from shoulder to cuffs, was worn loosely over a clingy thin black skirt; a wide belt had been loosely fastened at her waist.

  Monty thought her petite in spite of the impossibly high-heeled shoes that she had chosen to go about in; but, he could not deny that she was attractively formed.

  ‘Encantado…it’s nice to meet you, Alicia.’

  Monty smiled with more assurance, that he would make an effort for the evening, than felt justified. To any casual observer it seemed all too obvious what the game was – young guys shamelessly going with older women.

  What a bloody awful turnaround in his life since he had last been with Anna. No sooner had that thought arisen than he was confronted by another. They shared an all-too human need for company and Beatrix’s fond looks at Tomas had assured him of that.

  He would have to find his own ways of it once more.

  ♥

  A few drinks and snacks in the tapas bar Tomas had chosen eased the strain between them and Monty now found himself alone with Alicia in a spare room of Beatrix’s apartment.

  She had become disconcertingly confident, ebullient and talkative and showed a genuine interest in him now. He found her attractive, so different to any girl or woman he had been with, and far too direct in her ways of speaking.

  That he spoke Spanish so well had eased her mind, she confessed, that being with him might have all the fumbling preambles that might otherwise spoil a spontaneous time together.

  ‘Look on it like this,’ she now encouraged, touching his face and pressing closer to him. ‘It’s the pursuit of pleasure and nothing more. Where’s the harm in that?’

  Monty smiled down at her in disbelief at the brazenness of the moment that she had slowly prepared for by taking off her belt and kicking away her shoes. Now, her closeness and the discreet tang of her pervasive scent encouraged him to respond to exploratory nibbling kisses to his lips and to offer his first touch to the skin of her back.

  Alicia would have to seduce him…he would make a lascivious game of this encounter and use the moment to forget that Manolo and BIM had dumped on him, big time, and with no one else, but the woman clinging to him, to offer lustful consolation.

  ‘We take care of things…have no complications.’

  Alicia said it convincingly as she put her hands to his chest and began to unbutton his shirt, kissed his chest and throat before her hands slid it from him. His kisses were allowed but she kept Monty from touching her, pressed against him so that he could feel her breasts and firm nipples against his bared skin.

  ‘Wait…wait, Monty!’ she urged, sliding her hands over his arms to make him cease in his efforts to undress her. ‘Yes…yes, only that!’

  He was allowed only a moment to tug at his belt before she kept the best for herself, easing his jeans over the bulge in his briefs. Both were soon by his feet, and Alicia knelt to offer tantalising kisses to his belly and thighs before lingering upon him.

  ‘Alicia…Alicia!’ he squirmed and sought a moment’s respite from her ministrations. ‘Together…we do this together!’

  Only then did she respond to him, felt the urgency in his touch, the deft removal of her blouse and strapless bra, the unbuttoning of her skirt until they too lay at their feet. Only then did she know, from a moment’s pause and Monty’s whispered entreaties that her warm searching kisses and claims upon his erect flesh should resume.

  ‘Simple pleasure…no complications!’ It was said on rasping gasps of breath and in acceptance of her wishes.

  ‘Si…’

  ‘Well,’ he said finally, gripping the hands that had so expertly invited him to concede, ‘I don’t just want this…a hand job. We do it properly.’

  What a moment to think back to his earliest fumblings when he was a student! That wasn’t so very long ago and those uni shag fests had left him quite unmoved. Would going with Alicia be any different?

  He made her turn her back on him as he caressed small breasts and teased her, brushed his fingers over the swell of her, brushed the fabric before pulling at her panties firmly with both hands until the ribbon fastenings at her hips broke and she was open to his questing touch.

  ‘Monty!’ s
he screeched as he thrust his fingers into her, deepening slips and coaxing slides encouraging moist rhythmic grips upon them. ‘Oh no…not yet…please, not yet!’ She stopped him.

  In shuffling steps they neared the edge of a simple day-bed from which she managed to take the pack of condoms so conveniently placed there.

  ‘Hace lo! Do it!’

  ‘No, you put it on for me…’

  He guided her, held Alicia’s head as she offered lingering kisses to his dick, each indolent exhorting touch provoking a spasm of delight, the clenching of muscles to keep control of his responses to her knowing ways, until the sheath was smoothed over him.

  ‘You know how it goes from now on, don’t you?’

  She asked it needlessly, offered light caresses Monty’ s back and down over his buttocks as he tore the coverlet from the bed and cast it to the floor.

  ‘Oh yes!’

  Pushing Alicia down onto it and with brutish intent, he kissed, explored every part of her and sucked concessions before taking the woman who had been a stranger only an hour ago. He surprised himself; perhaps she had wanted it to be this way from the very moment they had met, the squeaks of delight and exhorting clamp of her legs, her bucking hips, they had lured him into a wild romp that they had prolonged without the need to say anything.

  He’d enjoyed himself, achieved something very different with a woman whom he only knew from this crazy, unimaginable encounter!

  ‘You’ve pleased me, twice…and surprised yourself,’ Alicia finally murmured as they lay on the floor side by side. They looked at each other and she took hold of his hand and squeezed it. ‘Thank you, my young fucker.’

  ‘I needed that…what you did for me too,’ he confessed simply, unfazed by her choice of language, and moved to kiss her out of simple gratitude. Alicia turned her face away.

  ‘No! The moment for that has passed,’ she replied in response to his evidently unexpected compliment. ‘I told you, no complications.’