BRUSSELS LATE OCTOBER
'OK, Stefan, that's good. Jenica, Marko, you're stars too. Time to finish now. Do the reading if you get time, and be prepared to discuss it on Friday. Have a good evening, all of you.' They gathered their stuff together tiredly, and I sat back and tried to ease my stiff neck muscles. Poor kids, I thought : they probably feel worse than me.
Brussels was preparing for a Eurosummit and all my students were working eighteen-hour days. I'd moved Wednesdays' and Thursdays' classes to Saturday and Sunday, leaving then two clear working days a week to catch up on their duties, but the strain was beginning to tell. For weeks neither Magda nor Elena had had any time for private pleasures, and I hadn't felt like pushing them. What with lesson preparation and classes I didn't have a lot of time either. I was pleased that today was Tuesday and I had two days off. I pushed myself upright and headed for the shower.
Twenty minutes later I was relaxing in my robe with a glass of wine when there was a tap on the door.
'Monsieur Lancer? Are you there?' Laura the receptionist. 'Monsieur Lancer, can you take a phone call from Germany for me? I know you speak it and it's to confirm a big booking and I'm worried I'll get it wrong because I don't speak German and...' she was running on still when I interrupted her.
'Thirty seconds, Laura. Let me put some trousers on.' She nodded and raced off, and when I was decent I hurried after her. She thrust the phone at me and pushed a piece of paper over the counter.
'These are the details. I'm so grateful.' It didn't take long. She'd made an hour's error in the time of arrival, but that's the Germans' fault for telling the time differently from anyone else. I handed her the paper and she snatched the phone up again and passed the information on to someone, then put the receiver down.
'Thank goodness that's done. I'm off now. It's been a long day.'
'Come and have a glass of wine,' I said, 'unless you're in a hurry.' She made a face.
'There's not much to hurry for. Henri found himself someone with a regular timetable.' She looked glum for a moment, then shook her head briskly. 'Trouble is, I love the job too much to really be that sorry.' I made sympathetic noises and pretended to inspect her closely. She was a tall girl, well proportioned, stopping just the right side of plump, with a peaches and cream complexion and a mane of ash-blonde hair. She seemed unaware that she was a knock-out. Think Nicole Kidman, but voluptuously more.
'The man's an idiot,' I told her. 'Come up and relax.' I projected soothing vibes at her. Temptation is a terrible thing.
One thing leads to another. After the first glass she was calling me Luke, by the time she'd absorbed the second she'd agreed that it was a pity that we'd never had a chance to chat before, and when she'd finished the third she'd been persuaded to continue the conversation in her favorite seafood restaurant. She hadn't needed much persuasion, and I wondered just how urgent the phone call had really been.
I'll shower and change,' she said. 'See you in the lobby in an hour?' She lived on site in a rabbit hutch on the fifth floor
'Deal. Don't dress up too much though.' She smiled.
'I was planning casual but provocative.' I watched her ass as she left, and admired it, probably for the seventeen thousandth time.
***********
The waiter helped her on with her coat and left me to struggle into mine by myself. Not that I blamed him.. She'd put on a scoop-necked tee-shirt over low-slung jeans, and there was no sign at all of a bra. The waist band of a scarlet thong rode up under the back of the jeans when she sat down and I knew that concentrating on my meal was going to be a full-time job. I'd managed not to spill any though.
We walked contentedly back to the pension. The food and drink had brought on a feeling of relaxed calm, and she slipped her arm through mine and sighed happily. When we arrived she let go.
'I'm not going in draped all over you. Jeanne would go mad telling everybody. It's been a lovely evening though, so thank you lots and lots.'
'It's still early,' I said. 'I'm going to read for a bit. If you fancy a nightcap, just knock.' She bumped me with her hip.
'I do get thirsty sometimes.'
It was forty minutes before the soft knock sounded. I picked up the tray I'd prepared and answered the door holding it.
'Your nightcap, madame.' She smiled and took the glass, then pushed the door shut with her heel.
'How did you know I'd get thirsty?' She was flushed and there was an air of nervousness about her. I shrugged.
'Lucky guess. Come and sit down.' She sat and held the glass in both hands.