Brian strolled into the Courtyard by Marriott and walked up to the check-in desk. Cindy looked up from her computer, and the attractive blond broke into a big smile as she said, "Hi, Mr. Parker. Welcome back."
"Hello, Cindy. How are you doing today?"
"I'm doing well, thank you. How was your flight."
"Not bad, thanks."
This was the fifth week in a row that Brian travelled to his client, taking the same flight and arriving at the hotel at the same time every week. Cindy was always on the desk and was always very friendly. He figured she was in her early thirties -- maybe five years younger than he was -- and he noticed she didn't wear a wedding ring. He wondered how strict the rules were about hotel staff getting too friendly with the guests.
Of course, he had no reason to think she would be interested in him. He worked out most weekdays -- especially when he was travelling -- so he had a trim body. He knew he didn't have leading-man looks, but more than one woman had told him he was nice-looking. And though she was always friendly, she never flirted with him. And perhaps, even if she WAS interested, she just might have been reluctant since he wore a wedding ring. She didn't know that Brian and his wife hadn't had sex in at least nine months or that he'd be very open to feeling the warmth of hugging a woman's naked body. In fact, he'd be VERY open to hugging Cindy's naked body.
He snapped out of his momentary fantasy as Cindy pushed the little envelope with his key cards across the counter. "I put you in your favorite room."
"Thanks, Cindy. Are you off at 6:00?"
"Ha, yep. You know my schedule better than my manager does! If I don't see you later, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okey Dokey. Hasta mañana."
Brian walked to the elevator, with his carry-on suitcase in tow. When he got to his room, he tapped his keycard and walked in. Yep, it looked just like it did last week. And the week before. And the week before that. It wasn't fancy, but it was perfectly fine for business travel. It met his three key requirements: it was clean, the shower had decent pressure, and it had fast, free Wi-Fi.
The first thing he did was pull out his computer and check the web to see what was happening at the large university nearby. Sometimes travelling sucked, but he liked this town because there was usually something interesting to do in the evening. He decided to attend some presentations from PhD students in the Computer Science department. He figured it would probably be a little geeky; he would fit in perfectly.
He unpacked, hanging up his pants and shirts, and made a mental note to iron the blue one before he wore it. Then he headed out to a local sushi restaurant he liked.
When he walked in, the hostess greeted him. "Hello. Welcome back."
He thought, "what a pathetic SOB I am. I stay in the same hotel and eat at the same fucking restaurants every week. My life SUCKS." He chuckled out loud. His life didn't really suck, not counting the lack of sex and his habit of repeating the exact same travel routine every week. He was a successful independent consultant, he was paid well for his services, and he lived in a very nice house. He and his wife actually got along quite well and loved each other, though the sex thing was becoming more and more of an issue. He wasn't as much upset that they NEVER had sex as he was that his wife refused to talk to a doctor about her total lack of libido. He KNEW there could be lots of reasons -- god knows he googled the subject enough. But she wouldn't talk to anyone. Lately it started to piss him off.
He recognized the waitress who walked up to him. "Order of edamame and a Rainbow Roll?" she said with a smile. Jesus Christ, he thought, I really do order the same damn thing every time.
"You think you're so smart, don't you?" he said with a big smile. "Well, THIS time, I'm gonna have...... Yeah, I'll have the usual."
The waitress chuckled and said, "very good, sir," before turning and walking away.
During dinner, Brian reviewed his email and checked out twitter on his phone. When he was done eating, he headed over to the University to listen to the presentations.
The event was in a newer lecture hall which had long, curved tables and stadium seating. There was a giant screen in the front of the hall to display presentations to the audience and a smaller screen at the back of the hall so the speaker could see the presentation without turning around or having to look at his computer. There were four students who were presenting. Each had 15 minutes to make his or her pitch followed by 10 minutes for questions. The students were in the fourth year of their program, so these presentations were supposed to be well-honed by now. Soon they would be giving a longer version of these speeches to their PhD. committees, hoping to be awarded their doctorates. A brochure included a picture of each student, a short biography, and a summary of the student's topic.
The first presentation was given by Lee, a Japanese man with a fairly strong accent. His topic was related to the best way to store data on disks to maximize the speed of retrieving it. He used lots of formulas to prove how much time could be saved using his techniques. Although Brian found the presentation rather boring, he thought the ideas actually had a lot of potential.
The second presentation was given by Alana, a stunning, statuesque blond. She had huge breasts, which Brian thought detracted from her appearance. She, apparently, didn't agree, as she showed enough cleavage to say, "I've got 'em, you love 'em, and here they are!" She came across as very smart, which was not surprising since she received her BS and MS from MIT. Her thesis was related to using Artificial Intelligence in the health-care field for faster diagnosis. Brian found it very interesting, and she was excellent at presenting her ideas.
The third presentation was given by Tim, someone who many would describe as a classic nerd. His topic was related to computer games and graphics animation. Although Brian hated computer games, it was certainly a big business and a hot topic in the field. But the nerdy part was the way he gave his presentation. He rarely looked at the audience, preferring to look down. He didn't speak loudly enough. And it looked like he had slept in his shirt. Brian sympathized with him; fifteen years ago, it could have been him (except for the wrinkled shirt).
The last presentation was given by Mara, a cute brunette. Her topic was related to data mining, the process of looking through large amounts of data -- usually collected by businesses -- to discover patterns or useful information. She was developing new algorithms to search the data more quickly to find useful patterns. Brian found this presentation the most interesting, since some of his work related to data mining. He listened intently and thought she had some great ideas. He asked a couple of questions during her Q&A session, and he found her answers thoughtful and intriguing.
After her presentation ended, the moderator thanked everyone for attending and thanked the PhD students. When he was done, some people in the audience walked up to talk to the various presenters. A few people went up to Lee, though they appeared to be his friends. A LOT of people went up to Alana. A bunch of them were younger, so probably undergrads in the Computer Science program. Half were interested in her work; half just wanted to be near the beautiful bombshell they saw walking the halls in the Computer Science department. Two people walked up to Tim to ask about his work, but he was just as awkward at answering their questions as he was during his presentation.
Brian was the only one who walked up to Mara. In fact, she was packing up her computer and didn't even see him standing next to her. Finally, he said, "I liked your presentation."
She jumped as she yelled, "Oh, shit!" and grabbed her chest. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you."
Brian laughed. "No problem. I think you've done some interesting research and have some great ideas."
"Really? Thanks. Based on your questions earlier, I take it you work in the field."
"Yeah. I do lots of general IT consulting, but I've helped a number of companies select Business Intelligence partners."
The two of them started talking about specific vendors in the field, what they thought were good and bad about each, and a little more about Mara's research. After 15 minutes, they noticed they were the last two left in the large hall. Mara looked around and said, "Uh, I think they'd probably like us to leave."
"Would you like to grab some coffee and keep talking?" Brian asked, hoping he wasn't being too forward with the woman he had just met.
Mara hesitated for a second, looked at Brian, and decided he was probably safe. "Sure. Let me just call my roommate and let her know I won't be right home. She gets nervous if I don't show up when she's expecting me."
She pulled out her phone, walked to a corner of the room, and called her roommate. After a minute, she came back and said, "There's a Starbucks just around the corner. That ok?"
"Absolutely."
After Mara finished packing up her computer, the two of them resumed their conversation as they climbed the steps of the lecture hall to the doors at the top. The Starbucks was packed with students, nearly every one sitting behind a computer -- most of them some form of Mac. All the glowing white apple logos could have been right out of an Apple commercial.
They found a table, and Brian asked Mara what she'd like. He went to order the drinks, and she sat down. After he ordered, while he was waiting for the drinks to be prepared, she got up to grab a couple of napkins. It was the first time he really noticed how she looked and what she was wearing. Her hair hung just below her shoulders and waved back and forth as she walked. Her hair framed a very pretty face. She had on a stretchy knit black top with sprinkles of silver which hugged her beautiful B-cup breasts. Rather than creating a "ledge" across her chest, it showed two distinct mounds, which Brian found VERY sexy.
She also had on high-waisted pants that had a wide waistband. The material was also stretchy, and it hugged her lower half. When he saw her from behind, he realized the combination of the high-waisted style and the stretchy material highlighted the beautiful shape of her ass. It wasn't huge and definitely not what some people call a bubble-butt, but he found it really attractive. It had a nice, small curve that he kept staring at as she walked away. Truth be told, he was much more of a boob man, rarely looking at or thinking about women's butts. But this one really called his name. Suddenly Mara looked over her shoulder and caught him staring at her ass. Brian quickly looked away, feeling embarrassed; Mara broke into a huge smile.
Once the drinks came up, he returned to the table. He and Mara continued their discussion about her research and thesis, and they went on for another half hour. Then Mara asked, "so what did you think of Alana?"
"She's got some big ideas," he said, as he took a sip of his latte.
