This is a series of stories that are a sort of sequel to two text-adventure games. Each installment is a complete story on its own, but for a full understanding, the reader may want to start with Chapter 1.
+++++
My neighbor Samantha had left my house with a promise to return in the future and improve upon our performance. I looked forward to it, but I also sensed that now that I had encouraged her to escape the celibate prison of her husband's neglect, she was going to get competitive with him in the number of lovers department. I could only hope that she'd find space in her schedule for at least an occasional return engagement.
In the following days, I set out to employ all available free time to get my house up to speed. There was so much to do. I followed Samantha's suggestion and bought my area rugs first. Laying them out in the main room of the house gave me a good idea of how much space I needed to fill, and with what furniture.
Buying the nice modern sectional I was looking for seemed a promising chance to add another good story. The sales girl and I hit it off, and when we discovered we had similar taste in movies, I asked her out to see the new superhero movie that had just opened. It was a pretty good date, but we parted with closure. It turned out our interests were at cross purposes. She was interested in a long-term relationship. I was interested in ravishing her nubile body. We both had a good time, and each was flattered by the other's particular interest, but the whole exercise ended up yielding me only a great piece of furniture.
As I went about shopping for more furniture, plus equipment and decor, I also made an effort to get to know the suburban area I now called home. I discovered two great pizza joints, one of which delivered to my address. I found a cool bakery/cafe that could meet my morning and occasional evening needs. I found several decent bars, but none of them had either drinks or women of sufficient quality to encourage me to make them a regular watering hole. Finding such was going to be a long-term project.
Among my finds, the bakery, Nikki's (Au)Naturel Bakery/Cafe, became the most regularly valuable to me. They made good coffee there for mornings when I was running behind, and I soon found myself swinging by more and more often as an excuse to also pick up one of their incredible chocolate eclairs. The only weird thing about the place was that they had such terrible employee turnover. I seldom saw the same kids behind the counter on more than one or two visits. The girls all looked vaguely creeped out, and the guys were always confused.
I also worked in a swift trip back to San Francisco to call on my big client back there. No way I was going to let my company lose their business just because I wasn't close by anymore. I spent as much time schmoozing with our own sales and fulfillment teams back there to make sure they handled the client the way I wanted, as I did with the clients themselves.
Overall, I was really starting to get settled in.
I also got to learn the joy of home ownership that is repairs. I replaced a few light fixtures voluntarily, and replaced the main wax seal on my master bathroom toilet hastily and involuntarily. Then several of the bulbs in my awesome backyard landscape lighting began to fail. I tried to be a guy and ignore it, but then the awesome downlight that was placed high up in the big oak tree in one corner of my yard went out. Without the ethereal looking, internally lit oak tree, my backyard at night seemed less magical and more creepy. Time to see how many salesmen it took to change some light bulbs.
The problem was, I didn't know what kind of bulb was used in the tree. The three other landscape lights that had burnt out had three different types of bulb already, and I could just tell that the tree bulb had to be yet another wattage. So the next time I had some daylight opportunity, I threw on some old clothes and got ready to do something I hadn't done since I was a little kid: Climb a tree.
The oak was obviously far older than the house, given how high and full it was, and its branches spread out over the privacy fence to throw shade onto the backyard of my neighbor who shared the end of the cul de sac with me, as well as the two houses on the back side. I had to get my stepladder to be able to reach a handhold, but I managed to swing up and into the branches. It was surprisingly easy to climb once I was in the tree, though I had to be careful. The individual branches were not a thick as you might think for a tree this big, and every time I put my weight on a new branch, that part of the tree swayed as if blown by a non-existent breeze on that calm, sunny day.
I was curious about what kind of homes were behind me, and I was frankly a little disappointed. Both were unremarkable, with the dreaded vinyl siding covering the back and sides of both to save money over the brick, stone, or stucco that appeared to cover the fronts. My house had cedar siding on the back and a flagstone front elevation, I observed smugly to myself.
I then turned to check out my next-door neighbor's back yard. It was larger than mine, and most of the extra space was taken up by a pool that was larger as well and the surrounding patio. I caught my breath when I was saw that my neighbor was out sunbathing. She lounged on her back, wearing sunglasses and a black bikini, and was so remarkably good looking that I got an almost instant hard-on when I laid eyes on her. Her legs were long and sleekly muscled, with firm, tight, tanned skin. She had curvy hips and a narrow waist with a flat belly. She was hardly skinny, but I could still make out the impression of the edge of her rib cage, and the ridges of her hip bones. Her breasts were amazing, thrusting upward from her chest so prominently and perfectly that I knew right away they had to be the creation of the best of plastic surgeons. Like her legs, her neck was long, and her features were sharp. Her mouth was wide with thin lips painted expertly in a maroon gloss. The bikini bottom was a string affair, with the straps sweeping up high over her hips, supporting a small but marginally modest triangle in front. The top was odd, looking like some sort of tailored napkin wrapped around her and strapped over and around her neck. It could not possibly have provided any support for her breasts, not that they needed any.
Unlike most sunbathers, she wasn't reading a book, or listening to headphones. She had not one, but two laptops open, on tables to either side of her chaise. She also had a smartphone and tablet to hand. She swept her gaze back and forth between the computers. The screen that I could see looked like it had a bunch of graphs on it, many of which were visibly updating in real time. She mostly interacted with the tablet, scrolling, typing, and reading on it. After a bit, she leaned excitedly over to the computer whose screen I could not see and worked on it feverishly for a bit, and then sat back in the chaise, pumping her fists and wiggling her hips in some kind of minor victory dance.
I just clung to the tree, watching her, for some time really. This stunning creature lived right next door to me? It hit me then that she was the jogger I had seen running in this neighborhood the day my real estate agent Lee had first shown me my future house. And now I was watching that vision of a jogger as she hung out, wearing even less if that was possible, than she did while running. I did see a wedding ring on her finger, which quite frankly sucked, but recent events had reminded me that that was not always the end of the story...
I remained quiet, of course. I could see her pretty well through the branches, but I doubted she could pick me out in the dark center of the tree, even if she had been looking. Nevertheless, I moved to climb a bit higher, in service of getting a better view of her. And besides, I still needed to that that burnt out bulb to replace. As I climbed higher, I found myself on her side of the trunk, and the softly swaying branches were now the ones that hung over her yard. Oaks are always shedding leaves, and the movement accelerated this quite a bit. All of a sudden, there was a coating of leaves on the surface of her sparkling pool. She did notice that, and didn't like it.
