It was Saturday morning and I couldn't get the car started. Everything was going wrong. I had made some bad choices and I was out of cash, so things couldn't get much worse. What had begun as a dream was rapidly turning into a horror story.
My parents had been killed three years ago and left me a lot of money. Being under aged at the time they put the money in the hands of an executor who doled it out to me. When I was of age, I received twenty five percent of it in one lump sum, with the rest to follow when I became twenty four.
I had rented this house and started college. Now the cash was running out and they wouldn't let me borrow on the rest. I was two months behind and I was frustrated and if I couldn't get the car running, I'd lose my job at the shop. So that's when I met Mr. Pearson. He was driving by and he saw pacing around the car, trying to figure out what was wrong.
He pulled over, got out, and offered to try and start it for me. The battery was dead. He drove his car next to mine and gave me a jump start. Fine, the engine was running but he warned that if I turned the damn thing off, I wouldn't be able to start it up again and he told me that I needed a new battery.
That's when I finally broke down and cried. I finally just didn't have any pride anymore and confessed that I was broke. He looked at me for a moment then reached into his wallet and took out about a hundred dollars, pressed it into my hand and told me to get the battery. I didn't want to accept the cash, but I was desperate. So that's how I got my second job. I asked what I could do to work it off and he thought for a moment and told me that I could take care of his place when he was out of town.
Maybe it was foolish or maybe it was because I needed someone to care about me, I don't know, but suddenly I looked at him in a different light. He was handsome, sure, and perhaps ten or fifteen years older than I was, but the guy somehow turned me on. I mean how many guys who you've never met would loan you that kind of money then offer you a job?
He wasn't some guy who wanted something for nothing. Hell, it was me who was on the receiving end and it was me who asked for his help. He was just someone who wanted to be nice and wasn't threatening.
He gave me his address and that night I went over to his place to thank him again, and find out what I could do to repay him. At first he just said to forget it. It was a gift, but I reminded him that I had promised work it out with him, so he explained that he was out of town more than he was in town and he needed someone to just straighten up around his place when he was away. So we discussed what I could do and it was settled.
We decided on my doing little things, like bringing in the paper and his mail each day, and things like that. Though I offered, he said he had someone who came each week to take care of his pool, and mow his lawn. So I couldn't offer to do those things but I finally convenience him to let me sort of straighten up around inside his house.
So it began. He gave me a key to his place and we exchanged phone numbers. He would tell me when he was going to be leaving, and when he was arriving. That way we never really were tripping over each other.
Then on Tuesday morning I found an envelope in my mail box. It was his schedule, his house key and another hundred dollar bill.
I figured if he was going to give me more cash, I could at least do more than just bring in the mail for him and straighten up around the place, so I began to do his laundry and even make grocery lists for him, things like that and I began to spend more and more of my free time at his place. To save a little more on cash I began eating over there too. He wouldn't mind I was sure.
He was rarely around so I began to use his pool and I guess curiosity got the best of me because I began to snoop around the place. He had no pictures around. I mean I even looked in his bedroom for a picture of him or his girlfriend or something but there was nothing. He didn't even have a phone in the place, and when he got his mail there were never any bills, only flyers and junk mail. I couldn't get one bit of information about his personal life.
The whole house was open to me except for his office. That was always locked. I was curious as hell about him but although he would sit down with me at the pool and chat sometimes, every time I began to ask personal questions, he somehow turned it around so I was pouring my heart out to him, and learning nothing about him.
I knew that he went to foreign countries often, and he spent a lot of time in Washington DC but that information I got from the airline ticket stubs I found one day.
I was now working at the shop, going to classes and sometimes staying over at his place. He had a spare bedroom and bath so I began using them, but always cleaning things up so he wouldn't know.
Even with his weekly salary and my salary from the shop I was having problems keeping ahead and finally got an eviction notice. I had to tell him that I was going to have to quit college and find another place to live, but stalled, waiting for the right time.
On Thursday he got back in town around three in the afternoon and he asked me if I'd like to go to dinner with him. I jumped at the offer and at five I met him in front of my place.
Janelle's is a restaurant like no other I have ever been to. They have no menu. You call in and tell them what you would like for dinner and if you gave them four hours notice they would make it for you. And there was only one seating in the evening, with each party having their own private dining room. The service was fantastic and I have never had a seven course meal before in my entire life.
He ordered the right wines for each course and I was getting pretty mellow by the time dessert was served. That was when I got up the nerve to explain my problem. At first he tried to offer me a larger salary but between tuition, books, and room and board, I couldn't hack it even with his help.
Then I got brazen and asked him if I could stay at his place. I wouldn't be a problem, and I could take care of things for him and stay out of his way when he was in town. I practically begged him.
He thought for a moment before he agreed, but only on a trial basis, for a month he suggested. After dinner he drove me back to my place, he walked me up to the door, and then started to turn and leave. I instinctively clutched at his sleeve and turned him towards me. It was so natural; I reached up, put my arms around his neck and pressed his lips to mine. It was supposed to be a "thank you kiss," but since he didn't pull away I opened my mouth slightly and let the tip of my tongue move across his lips, I had lost control completely. And so help me god, I think he kissed me back. I was floating at that point.
The next day we discussed when I would move in and what I might do and not be expected to do. Instead of making the grocery list, I was to order the groceries, keep the liquor cabinet stocked and generally act as a housekeeper between classes. He had no phone lines so he even put in a thing so my laptop would work thru some sort of gadget with his computer. I think it was a router and it worked real well as long as I didn't get too far away from his office. He even offered to pay for my cell phone.
The next day between classes, Susie, my best friend at college, came over to help me pack. Between putting things into boxes, she gave me the third degree. What did he look like, did he have a girl friend, and was he gay, did he come on to me, things like that, and each time I answered one question, she would ask another. Actually half way through her quiz, I realized I was bragging about him and she picked up on it.
"You've got a crush on him don't you Kelsey? You really have the hots for him and the guy doesn't even know how much you care does he?"
At that point I paused and nodded "yes," I probably do, and that was the moment that I began to put fantasies before reality. Sure he was older than me, but that didn't matter, and yeah I didn't know much about his personal life, true, but I didn't care. What mattered were the other things. The way he looked at me, the sound of his voice, the way I was always following him around and Oh yeah, that kiss last night. That was the clincher.
Once I admitted to myself that I had this crush on Ned, Susie and I began to scheme. I would make him dinners, and do his laundry with mine and put it away in his dressers. I'd change the linen on his bed and generally try to make him dependent on me.
I was still a bit terrified that he had someone else who he was seeing when he was away and I began to wonder how he could live without sex or someone warm to care for. Susie came up with a logical scenario. So he isn't gay and has no one now, maybe he was just afraid to make a commitment to someone and just took care of himself when he needed to.
I accepted that as the most logical explanation and the one I wanted to believe, and best of all it gave me some direction for my fantasies. But I'd have to be careful not to go too fast.
To aggravate matters, Susie wanted to come over some afternoon when he was out of town and see his place. That happened on Saturday. I invited her over to go swimming with me. By now I had moved in and everything was settled down. Small things bothered me a little but nothing important.
I had a bathtub in my bathroom, he had a shower and when I wash my hair it was a bit of a choir. Then I had to use my computer in my room because if I took it too far away from his office the thing kept going offline. Little things like that.
Saturday arrived and so did Susie and we went thru the house from top to bottom. She nosed into everything, his night stands his bathroom, even his dressers, feeling under things, trying to find some anything that might give us some clue as to who and what he was. The best we could figure out was the he worked for the government and visited a lot of foreign countries.
He never received calls at home and the one number he had given me to use whenever I needed anything was to some central service place. If I needed a plumber or doctor, or anything at all, I would just call that number and a voice would say: "Yes, Kelsey, what may we do for you today." They recognized my voice.
It was eerie and I even suspected that he some sort of undercover agent or something. Even the TV was satellite as was his internet connections, and we never received bills, that central service place must be taking care of everything.
Anyway Susie and I were at the pool tanning, when he came home. I knew he would arrive and I had hoped that he wouldn't be upset by Susie being there. He wasn't, and when he came out to the pool he had already gotten into his trunks. It was a first for me too. I had never seen him in his trunks.
Susie gave an audible gasp when he opened the sliding glass door and walked out. I stood up and drew a deep breath before walking towards him. I took his hand and led him over to Susie and made the introductions.