Evening
"So where were you going again?"
It was early evening, the sun still stood in but was just ever so slightly itching it's way down towards the horizon. The sun setting over the Mediterranean was always a sight to behold, and from the cliffside villa, they had a full view of that blood orange crescent over the harbor bay. Erik was standing by the kitchen island, a small pairing knife in hand and a two bowls in front of him. In one, the one to the left, was a larger pile of sugar snap peas. In the one to the right lay the green sheets that he had already peeled. As he worked from left to right, he looked up and continued.
"Was this that Spanish woman we met? Real talkative husband?"
Julie sat at the foot of the stairs, looking up at her husband working. He was only wearing a simple, white t-shirt but the way it hugged his chest and arms as he worked with his hands made her eyes linger for a second before she answered him.
"Yeah, Elena. Her husband's not coming though, it's girls only."
Julie winked up at him before turning back to strapping up her heels. She wore a pair of sleek, black heels with strappings running up her ankles. They were beautiful but took a moment or two to get on properly. After she fastened the last strap, clipping in a small brass clasp with her slender digits, she stood up and walked over to the kitchen island. She wore a black dress to match, it was knee length with a slits going up her thigh.
The fabric hugged her hips as she walked, singed her waist and raised up to cup her full breasts. The front of it was less tight fitting, hanging in soft, velvet folds and hung across her shoulders in slender spaghetti straps. It was not extravagant, but the way she wore it in a kind of effortless elegance made her radiate femininity. Her hair was freshly washed and lay in soft, flowing waves over her shoulders.
Her face was just perfectly made up in that incredibly demanding, effortless no-make-up look. She radiated a kind of freshly fucked radiance, as she sat by one of the bar stools on the other side of the kitchen island. She had a certain buoyancy to her step and a smirk on her lips as she leaned over the counter to snag one of the green legumes.
"So apparently she's basically native, she's got a penthouse down in the city and she comes here every few months and stays for weeks."
Julie had bit down on the vegetable with a satisfying crunch and spoke through her chewing. Waving the other half of the snap pea for emphasis, she continued.
"I think she works in the art scene in Barcelona, or somewhere around there, and she does all these gallery openings and auctions. She's taking some of us girl out to dinner I guess to network or like, trick us into buying all this art."
She raised her eyebrows in this knowing look towards Erik, the universal look of scepsis. Erik slowly nodded as he listened, he remembered the woman well. They had met at a wine event a few weeks back, where her husband had taken a keen disregard towards the idea of spitting the wine and instead had a rich, old guy buzz going at two in the afternoon.
Now, this would not be any kind of outlier, to see an older gentleman enjoying his life's earnings, if not Erik had had to walk past him throughout the whole tour of the vineyard and listen to his incessant ramblings and never-ending talk. He had been an inherently happy man, eager to tell everyone and anyone stories of his life, and the more wine he tasted the more colourful the retellings would become. While Erik was stuck with the old Spaniard, Julie had walked arm in arm with a tall, beautiful Latin woman.
Elena was a little bit older than them both, but still younger than her husband. He remembered her carrying herself with this strength and direction of an older woman, he was not at all surprised to hear about her doing so well in the art hustle.
"I think she feels lonely, her husband doesn't come around too much I hear... Or maybe she just likes going out to find waiters to fuck, who knows?"
Erik laughed out loud as Julie looked up at him with her shoulders raised, a cheeky smile on her lips. Erik put the small knife down, he had been absent mindedly working as he listened to his wife talk, but now focused his attention on her instead. Leaning across the counter, resting on his forearms, he caught his wife's eyes with his.
"She's going to have a hard time with you there, baby. You look really nice."
Julie's smile softened and she turned her head and upper body first to one side, then the other as she flaunted her outfit. She blushed just slightly before leaning down to meet him in a warm, drawn-out kiss. They held the moment, savoring each other's lips, the taste of Julie's lip balm mixing between the two. Finally, Erik pulled himself away only to raise his hand to her chin, holding it between his thumb and index finger knuckle.
He looked her over with an affectionate warmth in his ocean gray eyes, stroking her chin softly as he admired her beauty. Erik was only wearing his shirt and a pair of track pants and the difference in style in between them was humbling to say the least. He would have come out with her but as he had repeatedly learnt, it was girl's night.
"Say hi from me, and don't buy any expensive art... or at least nothing expensive and ugly."
Erik winked at her and was going to continue as they both heard a car pull up the gravelled driveway. Elena had insisted on sending drivers to pick her guests up and as she was summoned, Julie hopped down from the bar stool and blew a kiss towards her husband. Hurrying to the hallway, she picks up her purse off the stairs on the way and before heading out the door, she turns to him with a smile.
"I promise nothing!"
The door shut behind her and Erik was suddenly alone in the empty house. He kissed his teeth in a hesitant tsk, the worry of waking up to a charge for some new piece of unknown origin, quality, or artist suddenly a very real possibility. He chuckled to himself, and then continued his work. Erik finished in not too long, working in silence and for himself, enjoying the meditative process of the meticulous prep. He had picked the peas from some vines growing in a corner of the yard earlier that day and wanted to make a simple pasta for himself. Lemon, anchovies, peas, and linguine.
With Julie out of the house, Erik decided to take an hour to himself to work up a sweat before his dinner. To the side of the back yard stood a smaller guest house, something meant for visiting family or friends. However, the owner of the house had decided to instead install a smaller home gym to attract more people to rent it and Erik could only confirm that it had worked.
They had used the space a few times already, but not as stringently as they would in their everyday life. Julie liked her runs and Erik much preferred playing around with weights, so they enjoyed each of their different activities when they could. Erik walked past the sun beds by the pool and was reminded of the cardio he had already done that day, with a smirk and a warm tightening in his scrotum, he continued across the patio and down a few stone steps, a small path and then up the stairs to the guest house turned gym.
The small building was in a similar, minimalist but natural style. The walls were in a sleek, warm gray concrete and much of the detailing was in darker wood. There were some larger plants taking up space in the corners but most of the room was sectioned off by some sparse gym equipment. The set up was a bare bones, 'only the essentials' kind of gym but it had anything that Erik could think of needing at this time.
There was a squat rack against the one wall and a rack of free weights along the other. There was a row machine standing against the wall in one of the corners and an assortment of weight plates hanging off a rack next to it. Erik pulled a padded bench towards the barbell rack and began setting up for some chest exercises. Going through his different exercises, Erik tired himself out thoroughly. He did regular and incline bench presses for his chest until he felt the blood physically pumping though his pectorals.
After that, he hit his shoulders, followed by arms. After just over an hour, Erik had droplets of sweat running down his forehead and along his neck. He had taken his shirt off long ago but the evening heat still had him burning up. Through gritted teeth, Erik finished his set of dumbbell curls before placing the heavy weights back in their racks. They fall deftly into place and finally, he exhales.
Taking a moment to breath in through his nose and out through his mouth, Erik collects himself and recovers any missing oxygen to his burning muscles. Rolling his shoulders back, he stretches his upper body, looking himself up and down in the floor length mirror. He can feel the pump surge through him and before picking up and heading back inside, he flexes for himself in the mirror. His chest and shoulders had always been naturally broader but moving steadily up to heavier and heavier weights have only accentuated this feature.
His arms matched the rest of his muscular build and just now, right after his work out, they bulged as if about to burst. The veins down his forearms stood out in vascular lines, pumping warm blood filled with endorphins and electrifying adrenaline. Erik picked up his t-shirt from where it hung. He had thrown it over one of the weight racks in between sets. He closed behind him and went back to the house.
Shedding his workout gear, Erik got into the shower as soon as he came in and upstairs.
He let the warm streams of water massage his neck and shoulders for much longer than he usually showered. He hadn't spent a lot of evenings by himself throughout this vacation and while first he had felt like the house was too large for only himself, he had started to enjoy the feeling of only going by his own clock and following his own needs. After his shower, Erik put on a pair of darker trousers and a white linen shirt. The summer evenings were at least somewhat cooler than the days which suited Erik well.
