The Road to Redemption (5 page)

“That's fine,” replied Alice

Next Audry came in looking a bit flustered and quite frumpy, even though she had on one of her best dresses. She was having a problem with the dinner and it would be a little late. John poured her a wine which she took and hurried back to the kitchen.

“How are things at work Bill?” asked John casually making conversation.

“Not so good, I’m going to have to go to Brisbane all next week and may have to let some people go.”

“I know how it is,” said John. “Things are also quiet on the real estate front. I had to let two people go just last week.”

In fact John didn’t really know how it was. Real estate is a tough business and people change agencies all the time. There is no such thing as a permanent job. In Bill’s case however, most of his employees had been with the company for more than five years. They had families and mortgages. It was going to be hard letting some of them go. One thing he was going to do however, was to do all the redundancies on one day, probably Thursday. There is nothing worse than putting staff off one at a time. This is extremely bad for staff morale, as in these situations; staff keep looking over their shoulders, wondering if they are next. Better to do it in one foul sweep, so everyone can get over it and get on with the job.

Just then the doorbell rang. It was Elizabeth and Peter. The usual greetings were exchanged and they entered the lounge room.

“Hi Bill,” said Elizabeth giving him a peck on the cheek.

“Alice you look,” Elizabeth hesitated  “Well,” she spluttered barely able to control the jealousy in her voice.

“And how are you, John?” giving him the socially necessary, but cold peck on the cheek.

Elizabeth, like Audry’s father, still looked on John as an upstart and not good enough for Audry. There was no love lost between her and John. They basically tolerated each other for Audry’s sake, but had never really sat down and had anything like a meaningful conversation. Still, Elizabeth had to admit that John had provided Audry with a nice home. In fact it was better than her’s and Peter’s, even if there were a couple of touches, like ornaments that didn’t quite match, that exposed John’s working class upbringing.

“Audry in the kitchen?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yep.” And with that Elizabeth toddled off to the kitchen, while John poured Peter a beer.

Peter started to crap on about how wonderful his bank was. What a boring fart, thought John. His eyes kept glancing over at Alice who had positioned herself, leaning against the corner of the mantle piece, near the fireplace. He looked her up and down, while he pretended to listen to Peter ramble on. She had on matching black, high-heeled platform shoes with narrow straps across them. These showed off he beautifully toned legs and calves to the maximum. With one arm on the corner of the mantle piece, her dress moved even higher up her legs. Wow she was really something. She caught him looking a couple of times and just gave him the hint of a smile, then looked away.

After a while Elizabeth and Audry joined them. Evidently the problem in the kitchen had been overcome. The talk went on and on with John still sneaking glances at Alice. He was sure Audry and even Bill, had caught him once or twice. Meantime Peter continued to bore the socks off everyone, totally oblivious to the other games that were being played out. Finally Audry asked everyone to be seated. Alice offered to help serve the dinner and went off to the kitchen with Audry as John compared their backsides as they left the room.

The dinner went smoothly. John had to admit that Audry was a good cook and everyone complemented her on the meal. The wine also flowed smoothly, as John made sure that everyone's glass was never empty. As their tongues loosened with the wine, Bill and Peter got into an argument about the banks. Bill claimed that the Australian housing market was totally over priced and the banks had contributed to this, by lending people too much money at low interest rates.

“With these low interest rates today people can borrow three times what they used to,” argued Bill.

“This is what has pushed house prices up. As long as interest rates remain low they can afford their mortgages, but if interest rates ever rise, there will be big trouble and people will be forced to sell their homes.”

Bill of course claimed that,

“We have one of the best regulated and best managed banking systems in the world. Our banks are all operating on sound lending principles and are doing everything right. We are the envy of the world.”

The banking argument was becoming boring to everyone else at the table. Elizabeth turned towards Audry and started to talk about the upcoming Christmas function, they were planning for their tennis group. This left John and Alice looking at each other across the table.

“How's the walking going? “ quizzed John attempting to engage Alice in conversation as much as anything else.

“Great,“ said Alice,

“I’ve also signed up at the local gym to do aerobics classes twice a week. That's getting me really... fit.”

At the time John noticed the emphasis on, “really...fit”, but didn’t know what to make of it. He was to find out later.

He looked around the table and saw everyone other than he and Alice, was deeply engaged in conversation. Then, he noticed that Audry was so engaged with Elizabeth about their tennis function, she had not cleared the dirty dishes away. If there was one thing John did not like, it was sitting with dirty dishes in front of him.

“I’ll just take the dishes to the kitchen.”

“OK, I’ll help you,” said Alice.

They gathered up most of the dishes and headed off towards the kitchen. Following behind Alice he couldn’t help again noticing that slight sexy wiggle of her hips. She had perfected it to a fine art.

In the kitchen John rinsed the dishes under a running tap, while Alice bent down stacked them in the dishwasher. She looked very sexy squatting down like that, with her mini skirt creeping right up, showing off all her legs and her ample breasts in full view. John dripped a bit of water on her leg from one of the dishes, as he handed it to her. He bent down to wipe it off with his hand and found she wasn’t wearing any stockings. All she had on was her dress and platform strapped shoes, definitely nothing else. He was getting very turned on. When it came to the last two dishes, he bent down beside her and put them in the dishwasher. For an instant their heads touched, as they brushed against each other. A shiver of excitement went through John’s body and he could swear he felt the same response from Alice.

Slowly they both rose to their feet looking each other in the eye. It was now or never. John purposely put his hands around her waist and gently pulled her towards him. She did not resist. Far from it she seemed to welcome his advance, by putting her hands over his shoulders. Next they engaged in one of the most passionate and exciting kisses he had ever experienced in his life. Her lips were full and smooth and the body he now held in his arms was not only toned, but also surprisingly soft and warm. His mind was spinning out of control. He could feel the curvature of her body through her thin dress. He was totally intoxicated by her expensive perfume. She was sex personified and he was totally in the moment.

Then........

Suddenly his senses snapped back on full alert. It was a voice from the dining room, above the general chatter. Bill was saying quite loudly,

“I’ll take these other dishes to the kitchen.” Obviously he had tired of the argument with Peter and was making an excuse to get away from him.

Quickly John and Alice moved apart. As they did she whispered,

“Lipstick.”

Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed a tissue and gave his lips a quick rub. He had barley got the tissue back into his pocket, when Bill entered the room.

“What have you two been up to?” he asked, handing the dishes to John

Bill had a strange look on his face.

“Just doing some washing up,” John struggled to get out. “Would you like a liqueur to finish dinner off?”

“That would be great. I’m sure Peter could do with one.” Turning quietly towards John,

“You were right he’s a real pain in the arse.”

Bill next turned towards Alice,

“Lets go back and join the others.”

John couldn’t help notice that unlike him, Alice did not seem to be at all flustered by what had just happened. In fact she seemed perfectly calm and in control as always.

Alice led and Bill followed her back to the dinner table, while John went to the drinks cabinet, to get out the liqueurs and some glasses. He could feel his hands still shaking. He had just had the most passionate kiss of his life, with his beautiful exotic neighbour and had nearly been caught by her husband. Yet everything was perfectly calm. Everyone was talking at the dinner table, just as normal.  Sure, he had had a few drinks, but everything seemed surreal, it was almost as if he had imagined the whole thing.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. Peter continued to be the perfect bore, while John and Alice, continued to catch each other’s eyes across the table, from time to time.

As she was leaving Alice gave John the usual kiss on the cheek at the front door, but there was more to it this time. She pressed up against him and he could fell her breasts against his body. He responded by putting his hand around her waist. He was confused, not being able to make head nor tale of it.

“Good night Bill,” he pretended nothing unusual was happening, as they went off down the front steps.

He went back into the house, his mind was racing. He helped Audry clear the rest of the table, while they engaged in some idle talk about what a lovely dinner party it had been. But he was not concentrating; John’s mind was elsewhere.

“I’m going to bed,” said Audry, “It’s been a big night.”

“OK, I’ll be along soon.”

John returned to the lounge room and poured himself a stiff scotch. He sunk back into the lounge. It certainly had been a big night, in more ways than one.

Chapter 7  Another Day at the Office

Monday morning and John arrived later than usual at the office. It was 10 past 9. He usually arrived before 8 am but something had happened to him since that kiss on Saturday night. He just wasn’t in his usual go go state of mind.

Rebecca greeted him at the front desk.

“Bit late today John?” she queried. “Just two messages for you.” She handed him two telephone message slips.

Rebecca was turning out to be quite a good receptionist and after laying off the two staff recently, he had given her the rent roll. The rent roll, as John had experienced early in his career, is the bottom end of the real estate business. It means looking after the properties that real estate agents rent out on behalf of owner/investors for a 7% commission. Not large but steady income for the agency. However there are always problems with rentals from tenants falling behind in their rent, to doing damage to the properties. Not to mention the continuing need for repairs and maintenance, as most properties investors rent out tend to be quite old.

John had to admit he had initially employed Rebecca, six months ago, for her looks, as much as anything else. She was 19 with long blonde hair. Nothing wrong with having an attractive girl at the front desk, he had thought at the time. However she had actually proved to be a real asset to the business, once he had sorted out some of the office rules with her. Like not having her scruffy boyfriend hang around the reception area late in the day, waiting for her to finish. Also he had told her about keeping her desk tidy, as it is the first thing people see when they come into the office and makes an initial impression on them. But she was coming along now and seemed to be quite cluey, so had been given the rent roll. He had also encouraged her to do a real estate course at Tech and she had cleverly negotiated with him to pay the fees. John had always intended to pay the fees, but was impressed with how she had negotiated with him; by saying it was a good investment for the business, if she could take on more tasks. He was already getting her to check over the sale contracts, as well as the rent roll.