Personal Training

I just really had enough of Annie's balkiness. I'd been clear enough about my intentions, what I was willing to do. So, she didn't fall all over me like so many women did. Maybe that was part of her appeal. She wouldn't take my bullshit, kept me in line. Now, more than ever that was important.

But I had to make some things clear first.

She wouldn't be happy with the result of my first errand. Too bad. She'll understand it's what we need to do.

The next was a phone call I'd put off. I'd gotten the number from her cell phone yesterday morning when she was in the bathroom. IPhone's airdrop is such a useful tool.

A man whose voice sounded as cranky as I felt answered.

"Yeah," he said.

"Mr. Pizzolo, I'm Jack Colson."

"Yeah," he repeated sounding less happy if that was possible.

"I'm a friend of your daughter."

"I know who you are, Colson. She worked for you long enough."

"We are a little more than work buddies. In fact, I think she's a very special woman. I'd like to talk to you a little more about that."

"Talk."

"Not on the phone. Annie and I will be in town this weekend. Can you make some time for me then?"

"If you come over, I can't stop you."

"Thanks. See you then."

I closed my eyes when I clicked off the phone and took a deep breath. God, the man sounded as irritable as my father.

Maybe Annie and I had more in common than I thought.

The new housecleaner said she'd be there at noon, which gave me fifteen minutes to make it to my apartment. I know, I know, I shouldn't have let the last one go, but JuJu was there all the time anyway, and kept things in reasonably good order. I didn't see the sense in paying for cleaning. Now, with JuJu gone, I had to get another one.

As I walked up the steps to my apartment, I brought my head up, and came eye to eye with JuJu.

"Hi, Jack."

"You're here early. How'd you know I'd be here now?"

"I still have friends, Jack. I drew a line from A to B."

She dropped her head and looked at me from under her dark lashes, sliding her hips to one side.

"I miss you, Jack."

"I don't have time for this," I muttered to myself. But she heard me anyway.

"What Jack?" she said taking the few steps down to meet me. "What don't you have time for?"

She licked her red lips.

"I'm not interested."

"You called me, remember?"

"Yes, to get your clothes. Grab them and go."

I walked past her on the stair and opened my apartment. She took her time walking in, swinging her hips, and looking around the apartment. She made her way to my bedroom, and I followed.

"Hmm, your friend is not staying here."

"Get your things."

"Can I use your bathroom? I've been waiting a while."

"You know where it is."

She walked by me with a seductive swing of her hips. For once I didn't look as she walked away.

JuJu didn't spend long in the bathroom. There was a flush and she was back out in the hallway.

"Jack," she said moving to me. "I don't understand. Why you are so mean to me?" She reached out and tugged my tie.

"This isn't going to work," I said.

"I've heard that before." She slid the sharp edge of her red fingernail along my jaw. "We've always made things work."

"Not this time and not today. We're done, JuJu. It's my fault. I never should have started this. But we are done."

She put her arms around my neck and I inhaled her perfume. "You're mad about Tad, aren't you? Well, what did you expect me to do? You won't see me."

I pulled her arms off me.

"Damn it. I'm not mad about Tad." I picked up her clothes. I put them all on hangers last night, so I picked up the batch of them and stuffed them in her arms.

"That's all of it."

She looked at me, shocked.

"You really want me to go?"

"Yes."

She blinked, and then turned and walked out the door. I followed her to make sure she actually left. As she stepped out of the apartment, she turned to me.

"We aren't done, Jack."

"Goodbye, JuJu." I shut the door, loudly. Then I realized she left a little too easily.

I went to the bathroom, and sure enough, my nearly new prescription bottle of Viagra was empty. Fuck me. My plans for the evening were flushed down the drain.

#

The female auditor came into my office.

"I'd like to see Mr. Colson."

I looked up from the computer screen.

"He's not here. He's gone for the day."

"I have questions for him."

"Any questions you have, ask me."

"Yes, but you aren't an employee of the company are you? You don't have fiduciary responsibility."

I shot her a look.

"I'm an agent of the company, brought in especially to work with you."

"Isn't that unusual, for a simple audit?" She drew out the word 'unusual' as if it had special meaning.

"No," I said turning back to my work. "Not if you know Jack. He's not an expert in accounting."

"And you are?"

I sucked in my breath.

"Because I checked the database, and there is no Annie Lloyd listed in the licensed CPA files."

"That's because I'm not a CPA."

"So what makes you an expert?"

"I didn't say I was an expert. I said Jack wasn't."

"You dance around words really well, Ms. Lloyd. But there is something funky with these books, despite your 'expert' doctoring."

I stood then and glared at her.

"One. I doctored nothing. I corrected mistakes made by the accountants, the CPA's hired by owner. Second, you better have some juice to back up that charge besides items being put in the proper slots in the profit and loss statements, because I, Miss Ryan don't play."

"There are significant differences between the P & L's you submitted and what is on the company's books."

"Oh, is there? Now, exactly how would you know what our internal documents look like, Miss Ryan?"

The woman blanched having overplayed her hand.

"Who gave them to you?"

She backed away to the door.

"No one gave us anything."

"I didn't say "us," I said you, Miss Ryan."

She turned and fled.

I thought so. She was someone's friend. Someone on that goddamned board.

#

Jack showed up at 5:00 PM just as he promised. He stood over the desk as I finished up and turned off the computer. He'd shed his suit and was wearing khakis and a button down.

"Jack, we need to talk. About the audit."

"Sure, Annie. But let's get out of here."

"Okay, but I'd like to change too."

He gave me a crooked smile. "Sure."

I noticed straight off that we weren't heading to the motel.

"Jack, we are going the wrong way."

"No, we aren't."

"But I need to change."

"And you will."

I suddenly had a suspicion. "What did you do, Jack?"

"I checked you out. There is no use in paying for a hotel room when you should stay with me."

"Jack!"

We pulled in the parking lot of his apartment building. He turned and handed me the key I'd left behind.

"Here you go, honey. I'll wait. But don't take too long or go too casual. Reservations are for 6:30."

"Jack Colson," I growled.

"Go on, now," he said as if he didn't have a care in the world. "We don't have all night."

#

It was a moderately priced Italian restaurant, expensive enough the require reservations, cheap enough to have the prices on the menu.

We were seated, and Jack ordered a whiskey sour for himself, wine for me. I looked at the carefully groomed menu. There were just enough entrees to keep the customer's happy, not enough to overwhelm the cooking staff.

"You chose a decent restaurant for once. You can't have coupons for this one. What's up, Jack?"

He looked slightly embarrassed, and then smiled at me.

"I want to make you happy, Annie. I know you like places like this."

"Bullshit. Spill, Colson."

"I wouldn't bullshit you, Annie."

Before I could shoot off a retort, a man came up to the table. My eyes widened in recognition. It was Jack's lawyer, Robert Anson.

"Jack, Annie, good to see you."

"Hello, Bob," said Jack.

"I hate to keep bringing it up, but you two need to get in to see me about that pre-nup. Your father called me about it today."

I saw Jack swear under his breath.

"You tell that old man that we'll get to it when we are ready."

"Just what does that pre-nup say, Bob?" I asked.

"Well, it says that each of you keep your own property, there is no mixing of that during the marriage, and the only communal assets would be mutually acquired ones."

"Bob," said Jack a warning in his voice.

"No, Jack. That's absolutely fine with me. Do you happen to have this document?"

"Actually, a copy is in my briefcase."

"Get it."

"Annie, you don't have to do this."

"Go ahead, Bob."

Bob moved away from the table.

"Annie, really. My father is ridiculous. You don't have..."

"Jack, if I married you, do you think it'd be for your money?"

"Of course not."

Bob returned and handed me the document and a pen. I signed it and handed it to Jack.

"Go ahead," I said. "Let's get this over with so we can eat."

Jack took the papers and signed them, his lips drawn tightly. Anson looked relieved when Jack handed them over.

"It was nice seeing you, Bob," I said. "Good night."

The lawyer left slightly confused over being dismissed so quickly. Jack's eyes bore into me.

"What was that about, Lloyd?"

I started laughing. I couldn't help myself.

"Your father," I gasped. "So worried I'd get my hands on the family money." I couldn't contain my mirth and the giggles continued.

"Annie, are you okay?"

"He made you sign away all of mine."

"What are you talking about?" he said genuinely confused. "You've struggled this past year."

"Well, just because my father is rich doesn't mean that I'd take his money."

"What?"

"But I am the only child. Eventually it will be all mine."

Jack smiled, and then started laughing too.

#

Jack made sure I had plenty of wine at dinner. I should have watched it myself, but after the stresses of the day, I just gave in to the relaxing glow of the alcohol. Jack drew me close to him as we walked out of the restaurant, and he felt so warm I snuggled next to him. I stumbled a little, a testament to the wine in me, but he held me up. He steered me into the car.

"Let's take a drive," he said.

"I'm really tired, Jack."

"Come on," he said. "There's something I want to show you."

I think I nodded off then. I wasn't lying when I said I was tired. Well, being drunk helped. It was when Jack shook my shoulder that I opened my eyes and saw we were sitting in front of a lake. Across the water, the high rises of the city stretched up to the sky in blackness, and the light from street lamps danced across the moving waters.

Jack pulled me closer, putting his arm around me. God, he smelled so damn sexy. He always did. Spending as much time around him as I was, I was getting used to the idea of always having that scent around me. But there is one thing, that's true. Bucket seats in this position are very uncomfortable.

"Jack, um. I'm losing feeling in my hip here."

"Oh." He let go of my shoulder.

"I'm going to sit in the back," I said.

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

Jack's eyes widened but he smiled too. He opened his door while I pushed open mine, and we climbed into the back at the same time. There was a bit of a tussle as who was going to be on the bottom, because cars aren't as big as they used to be.

"I seem to remember this being easier," said Jack.

"That's because forty years ago cars were as big as boats."

"Only forty years?" he said grinning at me.

"Must you top me?" I said giggling. Seeing that he twisted me under him, this seemed funnier in my drunken state than it should.

"I tell you what. I'll buy us a big old Cadillac."

"An old people's Cadillac. People will think we are properly old when we tool it down to Denny's."

"While we ruin the leather in the back seat," said Jack.

"Dream on, big boy," I said.

Jack got very serious then, and with one hand unbuttoned my shirt. He reached in and cupped my right breast.

"God, these are amazing," he whispered. His lips crashed down on my breast, and sucked hard on my nipple. As grew hard under the satin of the bra, he took the nub in his teeth and bit down, saliva from his mouth soaking the bra and seeping down to my skin.

"Fuck."

"You have such a dirty mouth," he said in my ear. "All these years, of your prim and proper suits, and sensible shoes, I never knew how hot you ran."

His other hand wriggled under my skirt. Jack grabbed my ass cheek and squeezed hard.

I whimpered. I was pinned under him, couldn't move, couldn't resist. Not that I wanted to, not in my alcohol-addled state. But there is something very primal about a man on top of you, a man you've known for years, a man as familiar to you as the wrinkles on your face. Guys never get it. They are always looking for something new to spark their imagination. But women? Give us what we see every day and we are just as happy. That is if the guy keeps trying to make you happy. That is the real battle of the sexes, I think, trying to reconcile the new and exciting with the tried and true. And right now, Jack was trying to prove just how true he was even as my mind wandered.

Another sharp bite to my breast jolted me to the present. Jack pushed my skirt up and rubbed his hand between my panty hose covered legs. The idea of him there at that sensitive spot, but not having full access, tripped my arousal up several notches. Still trapped beneath him, there wasn't much I could do. But I could wrap my arms around him, so I did, digging my fingernails into his back through his shirt and dragging them down his spine. He gasped and ground down on me. All the breath was pushed from my lungs.

"I can't believe how hot you make me," he said.

That may be true. I wasn't too good of a judge of that right now. But this space was too small to do much other than some furtive and frustrating groping.

"Sit up, Jack." I said. Then I licked behind his ear.

Jack shifted off me, and I could breath again, thank god. Immediately Jack's fingers found my pussy, but this time he pushed down the panty hose and put his fingers against my clit. He groaned a bit as he felt the wetness between my legs.

"Get up on your knees," he said.

I pushed myself up, my back to the window, with my hands on a backrest on either side. The waistband of my hose was riding my thighs, so I couldn't move them too far apart. My head hung down, looking into Jack's eyes, the back of my head hitting the roof.

Jack pulled down my panties, and he thrust his fingers into my pussy. I jerked up, but there wasn't anywhere else to go. He continued to stare at me as his fingers assaulted me, pushing up as deep as he could go. I could feel my wetness slide down his fingers, and I shivered. My hips moved in rhythm to his finger fucking and I pushed down harder on his hand. He twisted his wrist a bit, and found that sensitive spot, pushing it, stroking it, sending delicious heat through me pushing for release.

"Cum, Annie. Cum for me."

"Fuck!" I said as I shook from the force of my own explosion. Waves of pleasure rolled through me, making me forget where I was, who I was with. His fingers still moved in me as I came to my senses.

I pushed his hand away and leaned over. Unzipping his pants, I put my hand on his crotch. Surprisingly, even after all that, he was still soft.

He pulled my hand away.

"Sweetie," he said softly. "That's not in the cards tonight.

I twisted and sat down next to him and looked into his eyes.

"What's going on, Jack?"

"Nothing much. My medicine fell in the toilet, is all. You don't mind, do you?"

My head knew all about this, but my heart didn't. It was difficult not to feel disappointed that you can't get a man aroused even if it had nothing to do with you. But it was also bad to let that disappointment show.

"Of course not," I said.