Alternate Endings: Lauren

"So what's the plan anyways?"

I grunted out some sort of response as I lifted another trowel full of plaster up to the bathroom wall. The phone sat about two feet away, glowing orange and humming softly, a noise that came through the speakerphone from the other end.

"Come on, caveman, I know you're busy, but if you want to pull this trip off, you're going to have to use your words."

Smiling, I slathered the trowel full of plaster across the white surface and starting the long process of smoothing and texturizing. "Grog say he no like woman with smart mouth. Thump woman over head, drag into cave."

A soft peal of laughter, a sound like bells in the wind, came over the speaker. "Alright, alright, keep your secrets; just tell me when you want me to meet you."

"How's tomorrow sound?"

"Tomorrow? So soon?"

"Well... unless I miss my guess you've got the whole weekend off... and Monday too, if Marty held up his end of the bargain."

"How did yo—wait, if Marty...? You bastard! You set this up!"

Turning towards the phone I raised my plaster covered hand, as though she could see me. "Guilty as charged. So what do you say, Lauren? Meet me here tomorrow at say... noonish?"

"I don't know," Her voice dripped sarcasm as she spoke. "You've done an awful lot of sneaking around trying to get this set up. I'm not sure I should trust you."

"What's not to trust? I'm as innocent as a newborn la—"

"Oh bullshit! And stop smiling at me like that! I can here you doing it, even over the phone."

This time I actually did burst out laughing. It was a nice deep, fully bodied laugh that came from one of the good places deep within my soul. The sort of laugh that you share with close friends over an inside joke, or over something hysterical that comes as a complete surprise.

Seems that I tended to do that sort of thing a lot when I was around her.

"Alright, blondie. I need to get back to pretending to do some work here, and you've got things to take care of before we leave tomorrow, so how 'bout we end the chit chat and I see you tomorrow morning?"

"Sounds good to me. I can't wait." Her voice dropped, becoming husky and filled with the promise of all sorts of indecent things. "Anything you want me to bring with me?"

"Oh... I can think of a few things..."

"Such as?" Her voice sent a shiver down my spine.

"I made a list." Grinning like the cat who got the cream, I whispered into the speaker. "It's on your desk."

And hung up.

"Sounds like you've got quite the weekend coming."

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of another voice. I whirled around, trowel spewing plaster across the floor as my eyes sought the source of the comment.

Standing about five feet away, which was, really, about as far as you could get in the small bathroom I'd been remodeling was my friend Alissa.

"Christ Almighty, Alissa, are you trying to give me a goddamned heart attack?"

She giggled; it was a quality that I would've found annoying in any other twenty-five year old, but from her, it just seemed kind of cute. "Sorry, boss, didn't mean to startle you." She pointed to the phone. "So, was that her?"

"Her?"

"Yeah! The other woman! You know, the one you've been telling me about."

I shook my head and took a moment to massage my temples, realizing too late that I'd just spread green plaster across the side of my face. "You have no concept of discretion, do you?"

"Of course, I do. You and I are the only ones in the house and your girlfriend is still at work for another couple of hours. I can say anything I want without fear of reprisal." She smirked, another quality that I would've liked to find irritating. "Besides, Alek, it's not like she'd believe it anyways."

Continuing to shake my head, I stood up and greeted Alissa properly, giving her a hug and a smack on the ass, delighting in the green plaster handprint that it left on her gym shorts. "So what brings you over here during the middle of the day anyways? I can't remember the last time you were even awake by this hour."

"Techincally speaking I'm not awake at this hour, I'm still awake at this hour...meaning that I never actually went to sleep, but the point is that I was headed to the gym and figured you could use a break, so I stopped by to drag you away from your mess for a little while."

I laughed at the systematic and rapid-fire presentation of facts. "A break, huh? How am I supposed to get this bathroom finished if I keep taking time off to go to the gym with you."

"What do you mean, keep taking time off? It's only the fourth or fifth time it's happened! Besides you need to let it dry before you continue on anyways." She shifted stances, putting her hands on her hips and sticking her bottom lip out just a hair. "Come on, Alek, please? You know I hate going to the gym alone!"

By this point I had already started laying my tools aside. "Yeah, I know you do, little one. Give me a minute to strip this stuff off and get my bag and we'll take the Jeep over."

Alissa squealed excitedly and bounced out of the bathroom into the combination closet/laundry room. I stood there waiting for a moment as she looked at me expectantly.

"Come on, strip!"

"Uh uh, I've got enough trouble with women without you getting infatuated with me too." I pointed through the open doorway to the main room of the apartment. "Go on, off with you!"

She huffed and disappeared around the corner, chatting all the while. "What makes you think I'm infatuated with you, anyways? You're not that special. I mean, sure you're good looking, handy, and kind of brilliant, but that's not everything you know."

I chuckled as I shucked the plaster coated clothes into the washer and threw on a fresh pair of jeans. "Actually, I said that you would get infatuated with me, not that you already were."

"Uh huh... and you think just one look at your mostly naked body would be enough to cause this girl to go ga-ga over you? Please... get real, boyo."

I pulled a shirt off the hanger and buttoned one of the middle buttons, leaving the rest to hang open. "Oh come on," I cast the jibe into the other room as I looked in the mirror. "You just wished that Mark looked this good without his clothes!"

Alissa came darting into the room, apparently intent on having revenge for my comment on her boyfriend, but I was kind of expecting it, so I rounded on her and started tickling her very sensitive sides.

"Gah! Hey! That's no...fair! Stop that!"

I let her go and ran some water over my hands and through my hair. "Come on, you big baby, you know I'm just kidding anyways."

"Yeah..." She looked up at me from her position on the floor, grinning. "So?"

Grabbing my gym back, I threw it over one shoulder and started up the stairs. "So you going to get your lazy ass off my floor and come to the gym, or am I going by myself this time?"

* * * * *

It occurs to me now, as I'm telling you this story, that I should probably introduce myself.

Name's Aleksander. Though only family members really call me that. These days, everyone just calls me, Alek.

As Alissa pointed out, I'm a fairly good looking guy. Nothing like the jacked up body-builders you seen on magazines who have more ab muscles than I have teeth, but definitely in shape. I've got a solid six-pack, and a working man's muscular build. Through in the straw blonde hair along with a pair of soul-stealing blue eyes, and that's a fair picture of me.

Now, most days, I can be found in the company of a lovely young woman by the name of Reann. That'd be my girlfriend. Unfortunately, things have been a little rocky on that front the past month or so, and I've decided to give lightning another chance to strike, so to speak.

Enter Lauren. She's an old friend of mine from college. Long dirty blonde hair, busty, and with all the right curves in all the right places. We'd become friends some years back when I was working as a Teaching Assistant in a class she was taking. The only reason nothing ever came of it then was because I had recently started dating Reann.

And mind you that was the

only

reason.

So a month or so ago, when things started to get really bad, I figured that I'd finally take Lauren up on one of those lunch dates she kept suggesting. The air had been rife with chemistry and sexual tension, but I hadn't been willing to give up on things with Reann just yet. So, in my stupidity, I remained the faithful boyfriend, resisting the lure of the evil and wicked temptress...

Sort of.

We'd gotten together a handful of times since then for lunch, dinner or drinks depending on our schedules and every time things seemed like they were on the verge of leaping headfirst over the line, but it wasn't until last time that things really started getting messy.

The two of us were meeting at a small little bar named Casey's. It was a great place, across town from the college, so the younger crowd never even knew it existed. It was the sort of place you go to sit down with a couple friends, kick back a couple of drinks and relax.

I'd been sitting there, hanging out in one of the back booths, just like I normally did when I was waiting for her, and then she walked in.

Or perhaps strutted is really a better word for it.

Knee high boots with four inch heels that ended a good five or six inches below the hem of her skirt, a nice tight fitting black camisole covered (barely) by see-through white men's dress shirt.

In that moment, every man in the bar wanted to be me. And all I wanted to do was pick my tongue up off the floor before someone stepped on it.

I knew from the moment she walked in that I was doomed, but I made, in my opinion, a valiant effort to stay faithful. It took her a solid two hours, during which she'd moved over to my side of the table, and then gotten a whole hell of a lot closer.

Clichéd as it may sound, one thing led to another, and then I was leading her back to her car and back to my place. I don't remember most of it. There was passion. And fire. In the darkest memories of half forgotten dreams I can see flashes... of her on her knees in front of me, looking up... smiling at me... I can hear whispered words... declarations of waiting and longing... I can smell sex... and the musky scent of her and I, in the afterglow.

It's from here though, my friends, that the story, truly begins.

* * * * *

The gym that Alissa and I go to is kind of like the bar. It's a quiet little place on the other side of town from campus, as far away from the college kids as humanly possible.

Normally on a Friday morning there's a couple groups of seniors making their rounds about the equipment, but as convenience and a sense of privacy would have it, we had the entire place to ourselves this time.

Now, when it comes to my workouts, I admit, I'm something of a masochist. As a diver in college I had become accustomed to a very fast paced and seriously intense workout. 9 practices a week, four of them spent in the weight room at hours that most people don't like to consider. It hadn't really changed a whole lot since I'd left.

The two of us both started our workout on the elliptical, and so, having the time to take, I took the time to fill Alissa in on some of the many details of my extra curricular activities.

"You're seriously going to take her out of town for the weekend? How the hell do you plan on pulling that one off?"

I shrugged and kept running. "It's not that hard really. Reann is a remarkably trusting woman. I just told her that I'm taking a break from the world for the weekend. Going up into Vermont for a few days, do some hiking, climbing, you know, that sort of thing."

"What if she calls you? You going to... interrupt long enough to answer the phone?"

I barked a laugh. "Alissa, sweetheart... are you kidding me? I'm going somewhere that they haven't even heard of cell phones yet."

The two of us ran on in silence for a few moments, going nowhere and not minding, before I hopped off and went over to some of the weight machines.

"So Alek, what's the deal with you and Reann, anyways?"

I slammed the pin through the hole in the weights perhaps a tad harder than was necessary. "Nothing. That's half the damned problem."

"What do you mean?"

Turning around, I sat down and took hold of the grips. "She's constantly busy and can't seem to be bothered to make time for me anymore. I mean, work is one thing, I can totally understand that, especially with the schedule that I used to keep with Sunrise, ya know? But even on her days off, it's like she's got so much to do, if I'm lucky I see her once a week."

"So? I mean, you survived while she was in South America for that semester, didn't you?"

"It was different. Then we couldn't be together even though we wanted to. Now... it's like she doesn't even want to." I slammed the weights forward, trying desperately to control my breathing and at the same time, my mood.

"Well... why don't you just dump her then? I mean... you guys have been together for a while, but if you're unhappy, there's no point, right?"

Finishing the set, I let the weights rest and took a deep breath. "Maybe, maybe not. I'm giving her a chance to make the effort to fix it, to actually try spending some time together. Not that she's done anything with that chance, I might point out. I don't know... for the moment it's easier this way. Until I know whether I've really struck gold on this one."

"Lightning strike, isn't that what you said before? You're giving lightning a chance to strike again?"

I nodded, not speaking. Instead I focused my attention on the weights and reps, on keeping control of the muscles that threatened to abandon me with every push.

"Don't you feel bad about it though? I mean... I don't feel bad about that sort of thing, but I'm kind of a slut. Well, not a slut... I just love sex too much to only get it from one source, but you... you're Mister Upright and Honorable, aren't you?"

Letting the weights down on the last rep, I sighed. "I was. I'm not so sure about it any more. I can't really say I feel terrible about the whole thing. I know I should feel guilty, and in truth, I think that's the only reason I feel it at all."

Alissa walked by on her way to one of the machines and clapped me on the shoulder. "As a wise man once told me, there's no point in trying to make yourself feel something you don't feel. If it's not there, you probably aren't meant to feel it."

"I said that."

She looked back over her shoulder as she sat down. "Really? I'll have to amend that then. An idiot in one of his few moments of clarity once told me..." Leaning back into the machine, Alissa thought about if for a moment. "Yeah. That works."

Despite everything else, I laughed. "You know, you've got a knack for making me laugh, even when I don't want to."

The girl leered at me over her shoulder. "Sweetie, I've got a talent for making men do all manner of things that they don't want to do."

* * * * *

The next day, I woke with the dawn, my body crying out in protest as I roused myself from another memory of my long night with Lauren. I consoled it with the promise of many more nights to come.

I rolled off my couch, (Yes, I sleep on a couch. They're just more comfortable) and made my way around to start the day. One scalding hot shower, two bowls of cereal and a quick glance at the morning paper told me all I needed to know.

The Celtics had won, and the weather was supposed to be gorgeous all weekend long.

I did some routine cleaning around the place, picking up the blankets and pillows that I slept with every night and folding them away where random passers through and burglars were unlikely to disturbed them. I popped the hood on my Jeep, making sure there was plenty of oil, washer fluid, brake fluid, and the like, and by the time I was done with all of it, it was just about time to go.

All that was missing was the guest of honor.

She turned up about a half an hour later, bout ten minutes of noon, carrying a black duffel bag and looking like a million bucks. Her long hair was braided and hung nearly to her waist; she wore a simple jeans and polo shirt combination that did wonders for her curves. All that on top of a pair of simple, but sexy heeled boots made her almost irresistible.

Walking softly towards me, hips swaying, she held a folded piece of paper between her fingers and cocked an eyebrow at me. "On my desk? Now, how on earth, did you manage that?"

I felt the wicked grin come onto my face and did nothing to stop it. "Trade secrets, my dear."

Looking around to make sure that none of the neighbors was leaning out and spying on me, I leaned in and kissed her deep, slipping my tongue softly across her lips and pulling her in closer to me so that I could feel the heat of her body against mine.

When I finally broke the kiss, she looked up at me, breathless. "Uh huh... trade secrets? You know... you better stop greeting me like that," she said, her face a mask of mock seriousness. "Otherwise we may never get to this mysterious weekend getaway of yours."

A small smile graced her lips as she said it. I was unable to restrain myself any further and covered that same smile up with my own lips once again. This time she dropped her bag and snaked her arms around me, pulling me in tighter to her, pressing her breasts and body up against my shirtless form.

This time, when we pulled away, we were both short of breath and hardly able to stand. Taking the initiative I grabbed her bag and threw it in the back of the Jeep.

"We almost ready to go?" She asked, her voice chipper and filled with excitement.

I turned and grabbed my shirt, which was hanging across the railing that led towards the garage. Slinging the shirt across my shoulders, I said, "Yeah. Just about. Figured we'd grab a bite to eat once we get on the road."

"Sounds good to me... but please..." She indicated the still unbuttoned shirt. " don't get dressed on my account."

I grinned and motioned for her to jump in. "Now, now... that's later."

And so it was we drove off into the mid morning sun, top down on the Jeep, Nickelback blaring from the speakers, me with my shirt still unbuttoned, one foot on the hinge where the door would have been and her looking me up and down, wondering what I had in store for the two of us this weekend.

I really wanted to just smile and laugh, and keep laughing all the way to Vermont.

If only she knew.

* * * * *

We stopped for lunch at a diner a few exits across the state line into New Hampshire. If I'd calculated it right we still had about two and half hours before we would arrive at the cabin I'd rented us for the weekend.

Lauren had been pestering me nearly non-stop since we'd gotten in the car about the plans for the weekend, but thus far I'd managed to avoid giving away anything. Even when she started stroking me through the fabric of my jeans on the back road to the diner, I'd maintained my silence, if not my composure.

Now that we were back on the highway, music pumping and wind coursing through our hair (hers was much more impressive, I admit), she apparently decided to pursue another line of questioning.

"So, that was quite the list you left on my desk, yesterday... How did you get in to put it there?"

Turning towards her I smiled, and reached out to stroke her cheek. "I told you, trade secrets. I can't go giving everything away, or it wouldn't be any fun, would it?"

She laughed and turned to her bag, reaching behind me to produce a pair of oversized sunglasses and a piece of paper with my hand writing on it. "Now, let's see here..." Lauren put the sunglasses on and tipped her face towards the sheet of paper. "One pair of jeans, no more. Two thongs or g-strings, whichever I prefer. Any lingerie you feel may be warranted." She looked over at me and grinned. "Oh, do I have a surprise for you... but, back to the list. Both of my dildos, my vibrator, two miniskirts, one long skirt, one formal outfit, suitable for fine dining, my hair brush, my hooker boots, as I like to call them, and a long black silk scarf."