Everyone mentioned in this chapter is at least eighteen years old.
By the time Paige left Chad's house that night it was 11:30. This was one of those nights when she wished she could sleep over with him because of how tired she was. "Four more days," the redhead thought, "four more days and this won't be an issue." Almost home she passed by Marie's house and was surprised to see the living room light on through the drapes that weren't entirely drawn. "Look at that," she said out loud, "Maybe Marie would like to hear what Chad and I did tonight?"
Deciding that a five minute stop wouldn't be too much, Paige pulled to the curb. Stepping onto the front stoop, she was about to knock when a movement between the drapes to her left distracted her. As she peered into Marie's living room, Paige clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle a surprised, "Oh my God!" Marie and Kayla were sitting on the sofa locked together in a searing embrace! Kayla was naked from the waist up, and she had her hand under Marie's top visibly groping her friend's left breast. They were kissing frantically as if an explosion had occurred. Paige watched them (still keeping her hand over her mouth,) transfixed by the heat they were generating, "God, look at them! Wow!"
The kissing stopped for just a moment so Kayla could almost literally rip Marie's shirt off, and then it furiously resumed! Without missing a beat, Marie swung her leg over her black babysitter and straddled her thighs. They kissed for perhaps fifteen more seconds before Kayla broke it and lowered her mouth to begin sucking Marie's left tit! The brunette's head rolled back in an open-mouthed ecstasy; her right hand slipped around Kayla's head and pulled it hard against her boob.
All of a sudden...a service vehicle drove by with its flashing yellow lights briefly illuminating the small porch where Paige was standing. It startled her enough to make her think, "Oh my God, someone might see me peeping!" She scurried back to her car and sat behind the wheel for a moment breathing heavily. "I can't wait to hear Marie explain THIS one!" That thought made her giggle!
Tuesday was closing day for the Steadmans and Charlie Green. Paige spent twenty minutes cleaning the conference room and making sure that was ready. Then she listened to her voice mails; the first three messages were from prospective clients looking for an agent. The fourth was from Ms. Icky-Pick, "Hello Paige? This Eve Prater calling; Larry and I have been talking and we'd like to try again. Please call me back at your earliest convenience. Thank you!"
Paige didn't exactly feel like calling her back, but decided that acting professionally was better than acting emotionally. Eve picked it up on the second ring, "Hello?"
"Hi Eve, it's Paige Turner returning your call. How are you?"
"Oh Paige, thanks for calling back so quickly! Before we discuss our next move, I just want to apologize for my attitude last time. I was under a lot of stress, but that's no excuse for being rude. I hope we can move past that and try again...Can we?"
The agent was slightly taken aback; an apology wasn't what she expected at all! Paige took a deep breath and said, "Oh, of course! We'll work hard to find what you want. I still have the notes from the last time. Are there any changes in your search parameters?"
"Thanks for that, Paige; and no...there are no changes. In fact, the last house we looked at... can we look at it again? Larry liked it a lot!"
"Sure, the only thing is, that house has an offer on it. Would you like to wait and see what happens, or search for another property?"
"Let's wait, as I said, Larry liked it. Will you call me when the offer is processed?"
"I will, but it might be next week before I know; I'm getting married on Friday!"
"Oh my goodness, congratulations! But next week? Won't you be gone on your honeymoon?"
"Um, no...no honeymoon! It's a long story; can I call you on Monday?"
"Yes, that works...talk to you soon!"
As she entered the call on her calendar, Paige thought, "Wow, surprises come in all shapes and sizes!" That thought flashed her back to the night before, and she picked up her phone to call Marie!
"Hello, Luv! How was your weekend?"
"My weekend was busy, but last night was amazing!"
"How so? Did you win The Lottery, or did you and Chad stay up all night?"
"Are you alone?"
"I'm in the break room, but no one can hear me."
"Oh my God, Marie, we decided to explore my backdoor!"
There was a long pause, "Wow! Seriously? How was it?"
"Awesome! So very intense!"
"I can't wait to hear about it," Marie enthused, "but I can't right now; how about lunch tomorrow?"
"Okay, but before we hang up, tell me how YOUR last night went! Did YOU stay up all night?"
There was an even longer pause, "Uh, what exactly do you mean?"
"Did you have sex last night?"
"Uh, yes."
"How was it?"
Paige heard Marie giggle, "Pretty good if you must know!"
"Will I get the details at lunch tomorrow?"
"Sure, food court?"
"Yep, see you at noon!"
The Hannigan agent spent the next ninety minutes researching the listings for the new clients, and a lot of that time expanding the search for the Praters (just in case the offer she told Eve about was accepted.) It was now 12:30 and the closings were beginning at 3:00; so instead of picking up lunch, she decided to go home for an hour and hang with the family.
Entering the kitchen she was surprised and pleased to see Ted Brecher sitting at the table with her mother. They were just as surprised to see her!
"Hello, you two! Am I interrupting?"
"Not at all," replied Trudy, "but this is a bit different for you; are you home to stay?"
"Nope," said Paige, "I have a very busy afternoon starting at 2:30...and take-out didn't sound very good. How are you, Ted?"
"I'm great; and we just had a great lunch too! Your mother made us chicken salad sandwiches and soup."
"That sounds yummy!" and Paige said to her mother, "Is there any left for me?"
"Just enough, I think...and there are croissants in there too."
Paige looked at Ted and winked, "Croissants? Wow, you guys are eating like kings!"
"No doubt about that! I better tell the team to slow down a little so we can have a few more lunches here."
"Speaking of that, how IS the work going?"
"We're ahead of schedule; things are going well. At this rate, we'll be finished in two more weeks."
"That's great news! Okay, I'll get some of that chicken salad and be out of your way in a minute."
Ted said, "Oh you don't have to rush, I have to get back to work myself."
He got up and went out the back door; Paige opened the fridge to make her sandwich. "Such a nice guy," she said to her mother, "Is your date still on for Sunday?"
"Oh yes, when you walked in he was talking about a movie after dinner."
"Cool! And was there any other interesting conversation besides that?"
Her mother smiled, "No, we're just talking about our lives and families and such. It's a getting-to-know us kind of thing."
"I think he likes you!"
"Of course he does! Who doesn't?"
"No, seriously Mom, Chad says it took him a while to get over things; but it looks to me like he's snapped out of it just fine."
"He said as much," Trudy reflected, "If you remember, it took me a while also."
"Yes, life's a bitch, but clouds have silver linings! Are the kids around?"
"The little ones are coloring in the living room, I dropped Olivia and Sophie off at Bernadette's house for the day."
Paige took her plate and went in search of Jimmy and Jamie; she even rook a page from Jamie's coloring book and sat down to color with them for a while. Jimmy was chattering away about school starting next week (as if he even knew what PreK-4 was all about. All Jamie could say was, "Can I have a cookie?"
When she walked back into the office at 2:15, Virginia and Jack Steadman were sitting there waiting for her. "Wow, you guys are here early!"
"Yes," said Jack, "We went out to lunch and did a little shopping. Rather than going home for thirty minutes, we just came on over."
"Great, well let's go into the conference room; it's all set up, maybe the notary will come early also... we'll see. Can I get you some coffee or water?"
The Steadmans chatted for a while about where they came from, how they met, and how they got to Rochester. Paige told them her situation without going into too much detail; she was anticipating that they would bring up the swinger thing and she wasn't wrong.
"So Paige," Ginny began, "How did you and your friend Marie meet?"
The redhead looked at her, "You haven't met Marie, did Sara tell you about her?"
Ginny smiled, "Of course! In our little circle of friends there aren't many secrets. But outside of the group, we are completely discreet! Sara did say that you and Marie are invited to one of our get-togethers. Do you think that will happen sometime?"
"I think it might, but at the moment there's too much going on. I'm getting married Friday, my fiance Chad Ferris will be moving into my house, school is starting...there's a long list!"
"Yes," Jack added, "and I hear your Chad's company Maxpro is doing the remodel of Jason and Sara's little compound!"
"He is, and you're meeting him on Thursday, right?"
"That's right."
"Exactly, we'll revisit the invitation when things settle down."
Just as Ginny was saying, "Things certainly are very busy, but it IS a fun thought..." Paige's favorite notary Josie Morales walked into the conference room. Everything turned completely business like, and Josie got things started in a hurry. They wrapped it all up in just under forty minutes.
Paige walked Jack and Ginny to the door. "I can't wait to see what you and Chad are going to come up with on your new place? I will get to see the finished product, won't I?"