Sophia's World

TWELVE

When Sophia returned to her home in Barnes, she was surprised to find a postcard with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it waiting for her.

'Who is this Honey character, darling?' asked Peter with the faintest trace of a smirk.

'Do you have to read my private correspondence?'

'Well, you can hardly call it private when it's written for the whole world to read, can you?'

'Oh, Peter, you are incorrigible!'

'So, is it one of your conquests? Looks like a feminine hand.'

'Perhaps you might let me read it first, Peter?'

The card was from Mingzhu and the gist was that she would be over in England in June, travelling with her cousin Honey. They would be based with her uncle in West Sussex, apart from a few days when they would be working at a trade show in town. Mingzhu wondered if they might meet up.

Sophia looked up from the postcard to be met by what could only be described as a lascivious leer from her beloved.

'For God's sake, Peter? Would you cut it out.'

'"Honey". You've got to admit it sounds very enticing.'

'I think I'll tell her we're away. I couldn't take a repeat of your performance with that African minx.'

'Oh, come off it, darling. You got your fair share of the action that night. Who could ever forget Neberu and his twirling tongue?'

'No, honestly, Peter. I think you need to focus your energies on improving your golf handicap or something like that. That cousin of hers could be a mere teenager for all we know.'

Sophia was about to turn and look at Peter, but thought better of it, knowing the kind of grin she would have to encounter.

'Come on, darling, don't be such a killjoy! I'm sure you would be up to a taste of Honey, if the opportunity presented itself.'

Rather than respond, Sophia walked out of the room and took herself upstairs to sort her things out.

Despite her misgivings, Sophia was keen to renew her acquaintance with Mingzhu, even if she wished that the Chinese American had messaged her, as she had always done in the past. Was this, she wondered, a deliberate ploy by the stunning Asian to get to meet Peter again? And where exactly did this Honey fit in? God, life was complicated already without a new complicating factor. Anyway, she must respond and naturally she could hardly decline to meet them. Would they be expecting to stay in Barnes during the trade show? Should she offer to put them up? God, she was getting wet just thinking about that stupendous body and that insatiable appetite for sex!

In the end, she wrote a chatty message telling Mingzhu that she and her ridiculously named cousin were welcome any time and that they could stay with them if that would suit them. Gee, what a pushover I am, she thought. Peter would, of course, be delighted, and was guaranteed to be spending time at the gym in the weeks before they were due to arrive.

Late one afternoon, about three weeks after the delegation had returned from Japan, Sophia was called into the president's office - a rare occurrence indeed. When she entered his office, she discovered that three other of the top Japanese executives were gathered there too. It was either very good news or alternatively the end of her tenure with the bank. Sophia took the seat offered her, crossed her legs to mask a slight shaking that she felt building up and waited for the verdict.

Mr Yamaguchi made some general comments about the great value of the trip in terms of team-building and morale, and Sophia made the appropriate noises. Mr Yamaguchi then turned his monologue to the subject of new business opportunities identified during the trip and outlined a couple of prospects that had been in the pipeline for some time. Progress on these projects had been made and he was confident that commitments would be firmed up in the foreseeable future. Blah, blah, blah.

Sophia was wondering where things were going when the president suddenly became emotional, talking cryptically about the opening up of Japan to foreigners in the nineteenth century, the reaction against this opening and the need to always remain open to the best that the occident, as he quaintly put it, had to offer. Again, Sophia mumbled her agreement, even talking of the importance of embracing diversity and inclusivity. She really was

that

desperate.

It appeared that she had hit the bullseye. Mr Yamaguchi became very animated - an animation shared by the other three suits in the room, one of who was polishing his glasses, as if he had smeared his lenses with tears - and said he and the other three men in the room had much to learn from Sophia. Sophia accepted the accolade with a humility that the Japanese men found disarming and humbling. She was genuinely concerned that she was the victim of a giant wind-up, but she knew that these men didn't do wind-ups. So what was going on?

The answer was not long in coming. Something had happened during the visit that was unknown in the history of the company, nay, unknown in Japanese banking history. Within the space of a mere week, a giant conglomerate, which the bank had been courting for more than a decade, had committed its business to the bank - lock, stock and barrel. Sophia said that this gave her great pleasure, a sentiment that caused an outpouring of gratitude aimed at her. She had now an inkling of what had transpired, but in these situations, one assumed nothing, committed oneself to nothing, and just made the right noises.

In response to one of these noises, Mr Yamaguchi asked Mr Take, the chief accountant, to let the meeting have the fundamental financial details. Suffice to say, there was a lot of mention of trillions of yen here and trillions there. Moreover, the UK division of the bank would be visited in the autumn by the founder of the group involved, Mr Matsuyama, and his daughter and heir Kaori. A cable (yes, they still used cables) received from Mr Matsuyama had specifically mentioned the role played by Sophia in clinching the deal. Taking the cable from his breast pocket, Mr Yamaguchi read the relevant part.

'Not only did your CFO show great respect to our country, our culture and our traditions, she also went beyond the call of duty by her attention to detail and by her timely and enthusiastic response to all that was asked of her, tailoring her solutions to specific needs as they arose in real-time situations with skill, dedication and stamina.'

Sophia bowed in the Japanese style and said she was only doing what was expected of her and that she was sure the business was coming the way of the bank anyway.

Mr Yamaguchi appeared very pleased with this face-saving formulation and told Sophia that her part in the acquisition would not be forgotten when the remuneration committee met to discuss disbursements at their year-ending meeting.

Taking her leave, Sophia was granted the unheard of honour of Mr Yamaguchi himself rising from his seat, crossing the room and opening the door so Sophia could make her exit. Stunned, she returned to her office and watched a silly dog video on YouTube just to regain her equilibrium and maintain her grasp on the real world. She would contact Kaori later.

When Sophia told Peter the good news about the Japanese trip, he was, as usual, more interested in the woman than the impending improvement in their financial situation. Sophia had deliberately played down the Kaori episode, focusing on the cherry blossoms, but of course it was no good. As soon as he saw a photo of her, he was like a dog with a bone. Was she married? Any children? Did she swing both ways? Had Sophia 'done' her?

Sophia attempted to deflect the questions by talking about the Kobe beef, but that only made things worse, as it filled her husband with visions of their post-prandial activities. As usual, Sophia was worn down into submission, giving Peter a pretty full account of their coupling. Equally predictably, he wanted to know if she was into men, whether, in other words, she would be interested in his cock. When Sophia said the topic had never come up, he hid any disappointment he might have been feeling and asked Sophia if she, as one woman talking about another, thought she would be up for a bit of serious hetero action.

Since there was no point in speaking to Peter when he was in one of these moods, Sophia went to the spare room that served as her study and sat down with her laptop to write to Mingzhu, now that her visit was getting closer.

She felt frankly rather conflicted, knowing how much the little Asian lusted after Peter and vice versa. These days she often found herself pondering the question, 'How do you solve a problem like Peter?' It was a riddle hidden in a puzzle and wrapped in an enigma, as Churchill had once put it. Well, more or less.

First things first, though, she needed to find out a bit more about this Honey. Just how sweet was she? Did she spread herself as thinly as Mingzhu? She would ask Mingzhu fo a photo, at least, and try and hide it from Peter. How she would love a steamy photo of Mingzhu herself! Dare she ask for one? Well, a simple photo would be quite in order, she thought. She'd kick things off by sending her a recent snap of herself, taken in Tokyo, wearing her nice print dress. Perhaps one of Kaori in her kawaii outfit, taken at the restaurant. That ought to get a reaction.

A reaction and some! Mingzhu went through the motions of praising Sophia, but her real interest was reserved for the Japanese woman, with words like 'stunning' and 'gorgeous' proliferating. Sophia got what she wanted vis a vis Mingzhu - a photo of her beside the pool wearing a red string bikini - but there was nothing on the Honey front. To make good this omission, Sophia made a straight out request for a photo.

Once again the response was fast and, one might say, furious. At least, that was the effect on Sophia's emotions. The setting itself was like a film set (or at least a photographer's studio), but Sophia knew it was probably just Mingzhu's palatial home. On a four-poster bed was lying this vision in what appeared to be a silk chemise, which was tied incredibly loosely in the middle and showed off the figure of its wearer to very good effect indeed. Splayed on the bed, barely covered by a garment that focused attention on her assets, Honey was giving the camera, or more accurately the camera operator, what can only be called a come-to-bed look. Which is what, Sophia thought, must have happened as soon as Mingzhu had dumped the camera.

'Obviously not a close "cousin",' Sophia thought, as she fired off a message telling Mingzhu that she should be ashamed with herself for hiding such a sweet little thing from the world. Sophia could imagine the Chinese girl giggling as she responded with a cluster of silly emojis and a tantalising comment (written in that ungrammatical style favoured by young people) to the effect that Honey had heard about Sophia and was looking forward to meeting her 'in the flesh'.

Sophia thought of joking that Peter would be away for the best part of the time they would be staying in Barnes, but decided against it, as in all probability they would either postpone their trip or contact Peter secretly in order to rendezvous with him. So she satisfied herself with a word or two about looking forward to seeing them, leant back in her chair and masturbated to the photo of Honey. Even though her face couldn't be made out very clearly, Sophia had a pretty good idea that she would be another stunner. She prayed she might be a lesbian, so she could be free of the anxiety that Peter's charms always occasioned these days, but she steeled herself to the unpalatable truth that she would be a big fan of cock - especially big white cock.

That evening, Sophia showed Peter the picture of Honey.

'Fuck me!' he exclaimed. 'Sweet and scrumptious, like her name.'

'I know what you want, Peter, and I want it too. Masturbate inside me!'

'Oh, god, yes, while you masturbate all around me. Shall we leave the photo there so we can check in from time to time?'

'Don't be such a klutz, Peter!' said Sophia, placing her phone on the bedside table.

They started to make love, Peter slowing himself down so that Sophia would enjoy it more. When he took a break from licking her out, he asked her who she was imagining him to be. When she refused to answer, he filled in the blanks for her, but he was wrong. It was Mingzhu licking her, while she had her own face buried in Honey's pot.

'And you, Peter, who are you licking?'

'I'm not licking anyone. I'm fucking Honey, while I watch Mingzhu pounding you with the giant cock.'

'How serendipitous, lover! She has just prepared my pussy with her loving tongue.'

'Wrong hole, darling. Wrong hole.'

THIRTEEN

The big day had finally arrived when Mingzhu and Honey were coming to stay. Sophia had asked Myška to prepare both the larger spare room on the first floor (with the double bed) and the smaller one on the second floor (with the twin beds), even though she had every expectation that they would prefer to share the double. One must keep up appearances, she thought with a chuckle to herself.

Myška had been a little moody all that week, ever since Sophia had told her of their arrival, scheduled for the Thursday. She hadn't said much, besides their names, but she'd probably heard all about Mingzhu from Peter, and, as for Honey, well the name itself was enough to send the alarm bells ringing. Both Peter and she needed to work late that evening, and would probably be getting home after the guests arrived, so they had asked Myška if she could stick around until they arrived, which was likely to be around 6.30. Not only had she agreed but, when Peter had said something about getting Deliveroo, she had pooh-poohed the idea and said that she would cook something. Sophia wasn't quite able to square this with her earlier tetchiness, but she put it down to Peter's charm.

Sophia was the first to get home that Thursday and found Mingzhu in the kitchen chatting with Myška and taking cooking lessons from her. Myška seemed much happier now. Sophia couldn't help noticing that she had applied some makeup, so she was definitely not going to take the arrival of the China Dolls lying down. Apparently, Honey was in the shower, which sent Sophia's imagination into overdrive. She couldn't get that image of her sprawled out on the four-poster bed out of her mind.

Sophia took Mingzhu into the sitting room and kissed her on the cheek before offering her the comfiest chair and taking a seat on the sofa. Mingzhu brought with her from the kitchen the soft drink she was drinking, while Sophia fixed herself a rum and ginger beer, a drink she had been introduced to when holidaying in the States while still a student. She could still remember the man who bought it for her. He was on a stag night (he was in fact the key figure in the evening's celebrations) and had spotted her at the bar with the friend she was travelling with. One thing led to another and it was she who he ended up going home with that night. Fortunately, Greta, her friend, had also paired herself off, so everything had worked out very smoothly that evening in Austin, Texas.

Mingzhu was as chatty as ever and as ever a bit on the ditzy side. She was still wearing her work clothes - a dark blue skirt with matching jacket and a white blouse - but even in that she looked as beautiful as ever. After ten minutes or so (Peter had messaged to say he would be back around half seven), the door opened and in walked Honey. She wasn't much taller than Mingzhu (maybe they really were cousins?) and she appeared shorter in her bare feet. She had long dark hair, which she had had streaked with silver, and a figure to die for. She looked no more than 21, but was probably several years older. She was wearing a lavender coloured T-shirt and ankle length blue jeans, generously ripped. She had full lips that reminded Sophia of Angelina Jolie, and she put them to good use when she kissed Sophia lightly on her cheek. Sophia was certain she could recognise the scent that she wore, even though she couldn't put a name to it. She spoke American English without any accent at all, though she too deported herself, as Mingzhu did, in a way that owed more to her Asian upbringing than to her American schooling. She was demur and confident in equal measure, quiet in her speech but not slow to express herself, and assertive without being aggressive. With her more reflective manner, she was less in danger of being taken for a bimbo than Mingzhu was. First impressions can be deceptive, but first impressions suggested that she had been blessed more in the intelligence department than her 'cousin' had been, while Mingzhu shaded her on EQ.

Honey sat down next to Sophia on the sofa, so that the older woman was in between the two visitors.

'Ha!' thought Sophia. 'Peter will have to perch himself on the end of the sofa next to Honey, away from the centre of the action. Or, of course, he can sit in the chair next to Mingzhu.'

The girls told Sophia about their experiences at the first day of the trade show. Most of the interest shown in the condominiums they were selling in the Bay Area had come from what they called 'foreign buyers', by which they meant Arabs, Lebanese, Kazakstanis and, of course, Chinese. It was the last named that the girls had been employed especially to court, although they said that the Arabs and Kazakstanis had proved better prospects. A lot of interest had been shown, which they would attempt, in conjunction with the professionals with whom they were working, to convert into definite sales over the course of the next few days. Just how far they were willing to go to clinch the deal was unclear to Sophia, but she could tell they wouldn't be pushovers, Honey, in particular.

While Mingzhu had some kind of qualification (a diploma, was it?) in PR or Communications, Honey had a BBA, specialising in marketing, from Stanford. She had spent a couple of years working for a company in Silicon Valley, but hadn't like it much and was doing this job while she mulled over her next move. She had received two offers already - both in the Bay Area - and was waiting on a third, the one she really wanted, working for a niche retailing company with a strong and growing online presence.

By the time Peter arrived, it was getting on for eight. Sophia had told Myška she could leave but she had insisted on staying and making sure that the pulled pork with pomegranate salad wasn't spoiled. When Peter, who slipped into the kitchen first thing on getting home, saw that Myška was still with them, he called Sophia out of the sitting room and it was immediately arranged for the Czech nanny to eat with them. She checked with Piri, and it was fine by her: she and her sister Kriszta would catch up on that Hungarian movie they had been wanting to see.

Myška popped the baguettes in the oven and told her employers that dinner would be on the table in ten minutes. As usual, they would be eating round the kitchen table rather than in the dining room, which was only used on high days and holidays. Peter apologised profusely when he entered the sitting room. He hadn't meant to be so impolite, but he felt they really needed to deal with Myška's situation first, since she had gone out of her way for them. He greeted Mingzhu first and it was she who introduced him to Honey, as Sophia watched on like a hawk. For some reason - maybe he hadn't fully wound down yet - he greeted her with a handshake, though Sophia felt he prolonged it rather longer than was absolutely necessary.

He sat opposite Sophia in the smaller of the two armchairs and largely listened, as the girls rehashed their account of their first day at the show. Sophia couldn't help noticing, though, that their retelling was presented with considerably more brio and sparkle than the one they had delivered for her. The Peter Effect was working again...