Norman and I are workmates, we have worked together in the same frozen food factory for about six years and we get on well. But work is where it ends because we're such different people. For one thing he's around fifteen years older than me and he's the couch potato type that likes to watch a football game and have a few beers, while I'm more likely to be playing than watching or alternatively eating up the miles on my Harley. So we never socialise. I'd never visited his home nor he mine, in fact we've never even so much as shared a drink together. So I was very surprised when he cornered me in a quiet storeroom with a proposition and I was even more surprised when he explained what the proposition was. He wanted me to try and seduce his wife.
My first reaction was to stare at him in shocked silence, but then I managed to get myself together enough to ask the obvious question.
'Why?'
He flapped his hands and dithered as if he didn't know how to say it, but eventually he told me. 'Well, Jodie's younger than me and I wonder sometimes if she needs someone with a bit more energy than I've got.' He stopped for a moment and looked to see if I'd understood. 'I'm stuck in this godforsaken hole most of the time while she's at home knowing exactly where I am and exactly when I'm likely to be back. If I'm not enough for her I want to be sure I know what's going on.'
'Why, do you think she would cheat?'
'You mean cheat as in go to bed with someone behind my back? No, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't, but it would be good to be certain.'
What else would 'cheat' mean? 'So you want me to what... test things out?'
'Pretty much.' He nodded. 'Yes, test her.'
What he wanted wasn't impossible, our shift patterns don't always match so the opportunity could easily be managed, but I could see problems. 'First, how do you reckon I can get to do that? And second, what if she says yes?'
'I've been thinking about the how. I reckon I can find something that's broken and needs an easy fix, and you could be the repairman.' He paused. 'And as for the second, I would hope you would handle that appropriately.'
I would come to remember that phrase later, but at the time I guessed that handling it appropriately meant acting like a gentleman and making my excuses. I figured I should be able to do that with no problem, but the more difficult problem is that I'm no engineer; I have trouble repairing a fuse.
'But I'm not any sort of handyman, Norman, let alone a repair man.'
'That's all right. If I push a pin right through the television cable near the plug it will kill the picture, all you have to do is pull the pin out again and you're a repairman.'
'You really have been thinking about this, haven't you?'
'Yes.' He answered simply.
'So why pick me?'
'Well, because I know you and I think I can trust you not to talk about it. I also know Jodie's never met you, but I think you're her type and you're not bad looking. So it all comes together.'
I appreciated the not bad looking part, but that prompted me to wonder what she looked like. I had no idea what his taste in women was like, but for a much younger woman to marry someone like Norman she'd have to be a bit desperate. But if I was only going to test her loyalty and then back out, it didn't really matter. Anyway, I thought it over for a day or so and then gave him my answer - and that's why I found myself walking down their drive a couple of days later carrying a tool box and trying to look efficient.
Jodie turned out to be a stunner, and I was suitably stunned. I'd been expecting a plain Jane, but this girl oozed sex appeal. She was about my age and so good-looking that I almost wanted to try it on with her for real. It wasn't that she has film star looks or figure, in fact she's mousy brown and just a little bit skinny, but she's tall, she has a catlike grace and the tomboyish self-assurance that really appeals to me. She obviously doesn't care what people think of her, they have to take her as she is, dressed in an old white blouse and faded blue skirt, and I liked that. Her smile was open and welcoming and she ushered me into their lounge without any hesitation.
'You're Nick, aren't you?' She asked, clearly already knowing the answer.
I nodded, looking around for the television.
'Well I'm sure Norman told you what's wrong, so I'll let you get started.'
Getting started was almost the same as getting finished, I could see the damn pin stuck though the cable as soon as I knelt down, but I had to make it look at least a little bit more difficult than that because I had to be there long enough to make a play for Jodie, and so I disconnected the cable and began to take off the back off of the set.
She made my mission a little easier for me by coming and sitting on the sofa opposite, her long legs folded beneath her and the sides of her skirt slightly parted to show a little thigh, just enough so that I found it hard to concentrate on what I was doing. Fortunately she didn't notice, but after a few minutes she adjusted her position so that I could now see right up to the little triangle of pink panties. Now I really couldn't look at what I was doing and eventually she spotted that I'd stopped work and raised a questioning eyebrow.
'I'm sorry.' I told her, taking advantage to make the first move in my make-believe seduction. 'It's just that you have beautiful legs.'
'Why, thank you.' She said with a smile, making no attempt to move them. 'Are you always so cheeky to your customers?'
'Only the ones with beautiful legs.' I smiled back.
'I don't think they're anything special, a bit thin really.' She frowned and ran her hands along her skirt as if to smooth it down but only succeeding in making the view slightly easier.
'From what I can see, I think they're very special.' I was laying it on thick, but that was what I was supposed to do. In any case they were worth looking at, long and lithe to my mind rather than thin.
She stood up still frowning and for a moment I thought she was about to get angry. 'And from what I can see.' She began. 'We won't get the television repaired at all if you're going to spend all your time trying to look at my legs, so I'd better show you them properly.' With that she pulled her skirt up and stood showing me her very shapely legs from her ankles to nearly the top of her thighs. 'Well, what do you think?'
My first thought was that Norman was a lucky man, but then my second thought was that perhaps he was right to be worried about her straying if she would show her legs off to a stranger that easily. Then my third thought was, so let's see if she will cheat - it might be my lucky day.
'I still think they're beautiful.' I finally answered her question. 'And the more I see the more I think so.' I was seeing quite a lot from where I was kneeling only a few feet away, another hint of pink panties for one thing.
'Well, thank you again kind sir.' She gave a little bow and a quick smile, letting go of her skirt so that the material fell back into place and spoiled my view.
I think I must have let both my surprise and my subsequent disappointment show, because she laughed a little tinkling laugh and turned for the door. 'I'll get out of your way and let you get on. Would you like a coffee?'
I mentally shook my head and brought myself back from fantasy land. A coffee could provide me with an excuse to stay a little longer after I'd finished. 'Yes please. Milk but no sugar, thanks.'
She disappeared into the kitchen and I returned to my make-believe task. The first thing I did was to pull the pin out of the cable before she could see me doing it, smiling a little at a couple more holes in the cable where Norman had presumably tried to push the pin through without success. At least now the set was now 'repaired' to all intents and purposes and all I had to do was fiddle around a little to make things look good, but not take so long that I had no time left to try it on with Jodie.
Coffee came through in the shape of two mugs that Jodie set on a small coffee table before she stood beside me and watched me quietly 'working'. I loosened a couple of screws and then carefully tightened them again as if making an adjustment, disconnected a spade connector, fiddled with it for a couple of minutes before pushing it back into place and then, when I couldn't think of anything else I could do that wouldn't do any damage but might remotely resemble repairing a television, I replaced the back and plugged in the cable again.
'I've finished.' I looked up. 'It should be all working again. Do you want to try it?'
I switched on the power to the set and waited while she stood beside me and pointed the remote control at it. A few seconds and a picture of some guy describing a typically miserable weather forecast filled the screen. She flicked through a few channels and found them all working and then smiled down at me.
'Clever you.' She announced happily. 'What do I owe you?'
What a question, what an opening, and yet like an idiot I answered without thinking. 'It's all right, Norman's already paid me.'
'Oh, that's good; I don't think I've got enough cash in the house anyway.'
I wondered briefly how she had intended paying me. It looked to me that Norman's concern was not without foundation. But then maybe should I take advantage of that and swear blind to him that he had no need to worry. God, I was tempted.
'What are you thinking?' She interrupted my thought process as I stared into space roughly in her direction.
'Huh? Oh, sorry.' I thought quickly, trying to regain the initiative I'd thrown away only moments before. I pretended embarrassment. 'To be honest.' I told her, deliberately hesitantly. 'I was looking at your legs again. They look so smooth.'
'If they're looking good is probably because I shaved them only this morning.'
I couldn't help but wonder what else she shaved that morning, but I didn't like to ask, that would be pushing things too far too quickly.
'They do look nice and smooth.' I repeated awkwardly.
'They are.' She smiled, making no attempt to back away.
I was pretty sure there was an invitation hidden in that and Norman had wanted me to test things to see how far she would go, though by then I was thinking of further than he was, so I risked all and reached out to run the back of my hand along a little of her thigh. Not too high, just above the knee, but enough I thought to see how the land lay. 'They are, aren't they?' I grinned up at her.
'Now you're being really cheeky.' She cocked an eyebrow at me and smiled.
'But you don't mind, do you?' I asked her, turning my hand over so that I was stroking her leg with my palm.
There was a long pause while I kept stroking her leg and then she looked down and smiled enigmatically. It seemed as if she'd had to make a decision. I could make a pretty good guess what that decision was, and by making it she'd unknowingly made me decide too. I would push things all the way; after all I could always swear blind to Norman that she'd knocked me back, I mean, she wouldn't be telling him any different, now would she? I let my hand wander just a little further up her thigh.
