After another day-and-a-half of no cares in the world bliss with Chrissy at the lodge, we very reluctantly started to close the place up. We put away lawn furniture, packed up her cooler with unused food, and, saddest of all, closed up the old wooden shutters up in the sleeping porch. It seemed such a shame to have such a wonderful old mountain lodge go unused for so much of the year, not to mention the two incredible cars that sat silent in the carriage house garage.
We had gone for a long drive in the old Aston Martin DB4 the previous day, burning up the back roads and reveling in the deep bark and strong pull of its engine. It was thrilling. I insisted Chrissy drive for a while, and watching her skill at handling that manly old sports car was a powerful aphrodisiac. We stopped along a hardly ever used road, she bent over the warm hood and I fucked her right out there in the open, secretly hoping some dude would drive by and see how lucky I was, balls deep in a spectacular woman on the hood of a half-million dollar car. I was delighted to find that Chrissy hadn't worn underwear under her summer dress that day, surely anticipating just such an opportunity.
When we were getting close to having the old lodge closed up Chrissy looked desperately sad.
"I'm not enjoying this," she said.
As we were loading up our vehicles Nicki pulled in the driveway, all smiles. We hugged and she excitedly told us that her new-found confidence had already gotten her a date with a cute boy, and she wanted to thank us again for helping her.
"I feel like I'm a woman now," she said, and she hugged Chrissy and me tightly.
After Nicki left we finished packing up. We locked up the lodge and the carriage house, Chrissy armed the security alarms, and we embraced on the big front porch. We sat down on the steps side by side, talked about what an extraordinary week it had been, and cautiously talked about the future.
"You know," she said, "I don't think I'm the kind of person who can have a steady affair with someone while I'm married. It just doesn't seem fair to my husband, and I'd be wracked with guilt every day. Not that this week was fair to him of course, but something more regular and steady, like every week or more, just wouldn't sit right with me. He does do a lot for me after all, even though certain things are missing in our marriage."
"I absolutely understand that," I said. "Not that I wouldn't love to have you all to myself of course."
"I can't believe the difference you've made in my life," she said. "I really feel like a completely new woman. Unbelievably so, from where I was three weeks ago. I guess I really don't know . . . I mean who knows how that'll make my life play out in the future. Maybe things will be very different for me, I don't know."
"Life's an interesting ride, that's for sure," I said. "Three weeks ago all this would have been a crazy, ridiculous fantasy for me, and yet it all happened, it all came true . . . it's been incredible Chrissy. You've changed my life too. But if it's all over today, I can live with that, if that's what you need. I won't be happy about it, but I can live with it. I don't know if a day'll go by that I won't think about you though."
"No, no,
no!
I couldn't live with
that
, never
seeing
you again!" she said. "I can't even fathom
that
at this point. It just can't be, like an affair, where we sneak around to see each other two or three times a week. I guess that's what I'm trying to say."
"Well," I said, "I'm very glad to hear you say that because I lied before, I could never live with it being all over today. I'll take any few minutes you want to give me, any place, any time. A walk in the park, five minutes sitting together in a coffee shop, anything."
We embraced and kissed long and soulfully.
"You are the sweetest man," she said, and then she paused, looking me in the eye. "I've been thinking a lot about Nicki's mother. Her name's Alicia, but we call her Ally. She's very nice, I like her a lot. She really is very lonely and sad I think. Life's got her down, especially lately. I don't know why, but I never thought about the cause. I guess I thought she suffered from depression or something. She puts on a good act, but I've seen her when she's down and it's very sad. Now that I know about Nicki's father's affairs it all makes sense. I always thought he was a jerk, I never liked him. I guess what I'm getting at is I really would like to share you with her, if you're interested of course. I'm not saying you have to give her the full monty like this unless you want to, but if she just had a sexy male friend, or even just one encounter. I know how special you can make a woman feel."
Chrissy was looking deep into my soul with her twinkling, loving eyes.
"Well, you know me," I said, "I do love to fuck."
"You asshole!" she said, laughing, and she punched me in the arm.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist," I said laughing. "But yeah, well, as you know I kinda love women, and as long as you're okay with it. And Nicki seemed to like the idea too, so . . . yeah . . . how do you want to do it? Jeeze, I guess I like playing with fire—getting involved with rich married women with husbands who can afford expensive lawyers . . . and expensive hit men," I laughed.
"I wouldn't worry about that with these guys," she said.
"Well, I hate to say it," I said, "but if you're going to make your cocktail party tonight you'd better get going. I have a feeling you're gonna knock all the guys dead with your new-found sexiness tonight. I'd love to see it."
"We'll be in touch right?" I said as we walked to her car. "Not just about Ally, but about us?"
"Yes," she said, "I'll call you. Maybe not 'till next week though, I need to force myself to separate from you a bit. It won't be easy."
We embraced and kissed. It was like something out of an old movie, on the tarmac in World War II, and then she got in her silver Mercedes and drove away.
————————
On Monday morning I had a message on my voicemail.
"Hi, this is Ally Clarke . . . I'm Christine's friend . . . I was hoping you could come by and give me an estimate on some work I need to have done . . ."
Chrissy hadn't contacted me about it, and I didn't want to risk contacting her, so I decided to call Ally back and make an appointment and play it by ear. It turned out we were both free that morning, so I went right over.
It was another huge house similar to Chrissy's, on the far side of a circular block they both backed up to. As I was soon to see, the neighborhood backyards all met in the middle, like pieces of pie, with large fancy fences and lots of mature trees and landscaping for privacy. Ally had a big swimming pool like Chrissy's—I'm guessing all the yards had one, but they were nicely private. I pulled in the driveway and went to the door and Ally answered.
The resemblance between she and Nicki was uncanny, and it threw me for a loop for the first few minutes. I had to be careful not to mention Nicki. Ally walked me inside, and then out to the pool patio, showing me some old light fixtures on the back of the house that she wanted changed. She had already purchased the new ones and showed me the boxes.
"Oh sure, these'll work fine," I said. "I can do it today if you want. Probably take me two or three hours."
She was thrilled and I brought in my ladder and tools and got started. As I started to work I surveyed the scene. It was a gorgeous pool and backyard, with lots of trees and only one of the neighbor houses slightly visible. I had a feeling it might be Chrissy's, but I wasn't sure.
After a little while Ally emerged from the house with a pitcher of lemonade and two glasses. She had changed into a white bikini, with a flowing semi-transparent cover-up. She breezed past me on her way to some chaise lounges at the pools edge.
"Would you like a cold drink?" she asked.
What is it with white bathing suits around here, I thought. Had she and Chrissy planned this? I was beginning to think so.
I walked over and sat on the chair next to her, and she handed me a glass of lemonade. The sun was on us and it felt wonderfully warm.
