Chapter 2 - Facing The Music
I woke up alone. She'd left without waking me. I didn't even know her name.
FUCK! The money!
A quick scrabble on the dressing table, opening the drawer I stuck the cash into, I see a small note.
'Thanks for a great night. I need to go to work now. I hope you don't mind, I took $100 from your winnings to get a taxi. I only needed $50, but there was nothing smaller.'
The rest of the money lay untouched below the note.
Time was a blur for the remainder of the contract. All I did was work, eat, sleep, drink, occasionally spend a bit of time at the casinos and jerk off to the porn on TV.
Where would mankind be without porn? I view my hotel masturbation sessions as therapy. I would normally wank twice a night, which is funny, because I don't normally come twice a night when I'm having sex. Once is sort of an arbitrary limit for me. But I think my record at wanking in one day was 5. That was a few years ago though. (I'd just inherited a fantastic porn collection from a mate... the potency of which has mostly died out now)
Porn aside, I'd finally reached the end of my current contract and it was time to pack up and head back home to San Diego. Just as well I enjoy driving. Not being able to fly means it's a lot more of a hassle to head home during mid-contract (Impossible when I'm working East-Coast).
As I expected, the shit had hit the fan when I arrived home. My missus had heard from a source (that fucking friend of hers) that I'd been seen getting leaving a casino with a young lady. I explained that I didn't sleep with her (I used the Clinton Defence) as I guess that technically no penetration of vagina was involved. I'm a reasonably good liar though and argued my case pretty convincingly. I even promised her that I'd do anything to prove that I'm trustworthy.
Which brings us up to date I suppose.
I ended up sleeping almost a week on the sofa, which is the longest I've ever been in the dog-house. My wife and I barely talked throughout this time. My firm had lined up another role for me up in San Francisco, so I started to prepare for the trip - reading what I could find out about the financial services company I was going to be analysing and packing what I'd need for my time away.
I was in our bedroom, in the middle of my packing, when my wife comes in and tells me she's got one more thing for me to pack.
'Sure honey, what is it?' I asked.