This is the continuation of Back in the Saddle. I got several requests to continue the story and felt like it was time to describe what happens once everyone is back from the festival. For those just joining the story line, you can start here without losing much or read Back in the Saddle to catch up with the characters.
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"What do you mean she broke up with you?" Dan asked.
"Exactly what I said. We were talking Monday night and the next thing I knew, she was dumping me."
"Did you even suspect there was a problem?"
"Nothing more then long boring talks on the phone at night. I agree with her that long distance relationships suck, but it was only for a couple more weeks."
"Well, don't let it get you down. You only knew her briefly anyway," Brad said.
"Yeah, I know. I was looking forward to seeing her in a couple of weeks though."
"What about Cheryl? Have you spoken to her at all?" Brad asked.
"Not very much. We spoke once last week, but I haven't heard from her since."
"Well, that sucks. Maybe when she comes back she'll change her mind," Dan said. "Do you have the kids this weekend?"
"No, I don't pick them up till Monday."
After talking about Kaitlyn and the kids, the conversations turned to more fun things and about midnight I headed home. Every other Wednesday, the guys and I got together for drinks at the Sports Bar. It was a pretty cool place to hang out and watch whatever game happened to be on. It was also trivia night and Brad loved going for that reason alone. The guy's head was completely full of useless information, but every other Wednesday, he became King of Trivia.
After opening the door to my quiet condo, the first thing I did was check messages. There were none. I still found it strange that Kaitlyn had dumped me, claiming she couldn't deal with long distance relationships and that it was probably for the best. I didn't even try and fight her about it, but still held hope that she'd change her mind.
I was still a bit wound up and decided to check my email before heading to bed. The last email of the night happened to be from Cheryl, which is something that I hadn't thought to see. It was timestamped only twenty minutes earlier and asked if I was still awake. It was only about just after midnight, so I sent her a quick email to see if she was still awake and told her to call me if she was. Not even a minute later my phone rang.
"Hey sexy, what are you doing up so late?"
"I was out with some of my girlfriends and thought I'd see if you were around. What about you?"
"I was out with the guys and just got home. I'm a little wound up so I was checking emails before heading bed."
"So, how have you been? I'm sorry I haven't spoken to you in a while, but things got real busy on a project and I haven't had much free time."
"Things are good. Work's been busy and I had the kids all last week, so I haven't had much time for excitement."
"How often do your kids stay with you?"
"Every other week. I pick them up from school Monday afternoon and I have them till I drop them off the following Monday."
"That must suck for the week you don't have them."
"It does, but unfortunately, that's what happens when you can't live with the other person. The kids are doing pretty well with it though."
"That's good. I'm sure it's not easy for any of you."
"No, not really." I sighed as I thought about how hard it has been. "But in all honesty, it's been better for all of us that we are separated. I've had more fun with the kids than when we were together and I'm a lot happier with myself."
"That's good." She paused briefly as if thinking about something. "So, does this mean that you are free this weekend?"
"Yeah. I thought about a short trip to the mountains, but it's not really anything urgent. Do you want to get together?"
"Actually, I have this dinner on Friday night. It's kind of formal and I'd like to see if you'd be interested in coming as my date. I know you and Kaitlyn are still together and you probably need to ask her..."
"We're not together. She actually dumped me a couple of nights ago. The usual long distance thing."
"Oh, I'm sorry John. That sucks. I wonder why she did that?"
"Who knows. But she's not in the picture anymore."
"So then you can come Friday?"
"Definitely. Give me the details."
After telling me all about the dinner, we agreed that I'd pick her up and have some cocktails with some of her coworkers before the dinner. We spoke for a few more minutes before I heard her yawning and decided to head for bed.
The next couple of days flew by and I found myself pulling up to Cheryl's apartment about five minutes early. After knocking, I heard someone on the other side say "Just a minute. I'll be right there." When the door opened, it wasn't Cheryl on the other side.
"Hi, you must be John. Come on in. I'm Cheryl's roommate Krista."
"Thank you. Nice to meet you Krista. I'm John."
"Cheryl said she'd be down in a few minutes. Just a few finishing touches. Can I get you a drink?"
"No, I'm good, thanks. I didn't realize Cheryl had a roommate."
"Kind of a long story, but I was married till about two months ago. We're separated and Cheryl is letting me stay here for a while till I'm back on my feet."
"That sucks. I'm sorry to hear that. How long were you married?"
"Just under ten years. Luckily we don't have any kids to worry about, but it's still hard."
"I know what you mean."
"Oh, that's right. You're separated too. Do you have kids?"
"Yeah, three boys. They've handled it pretty well so far."
"That's good to hear." We both turned when we heard Cheryl come down the stairs. My eyes popped as she descended the stairs and more of her came into view. She was wearing a little black dress that showed off her shapely legs and hugged her hips and ass nicely. She must have been wearing a push-up bra because her small tits were jutting out nicely. As she reached the bottom of the stairs and turned to us, I could see a nice amount of cleavage. Her hair hung loosely past her shoulders and her blue eyes sparkled.
"Wow, you look amazing," I told her.
"Thank you. You look pretty incredible too." Cheryl was close to my own forty years, but looked much younger. I was feeling very lucky to be there with her right then. "So, you've met my friend slash roommate Krista. She's living here till she gets settled."
"That's what she said. Shall we go?"
"I just need to do one more thing and I'll be ready."
"OK."
She went into the kitchen and I heard a door open. A few minutes later she came back with a small black purse and a cover. "Just in case it gets cold later. I'm ready now." I realized I felt extremely awkward suddenly. The last time I'd seen her, we had just finished having crazy sex up at the music festival and we hadn't spoken since then. She must have felt it too, because she suddenly took my hand and pulled me upstairs to her room.
She still held my hand as she turned to me and stared into my eyes. "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling kind of weird right now."
"Me too. Everything ended kind of suddenly and now here we are."
"I don't want to feel weird. And I don't want you feeling weird. What happened at the festival happened and I'm glad it did. I'm a little sad you never called me after we got back to at least say hi, but at the same time, I could have called you."
"I did try to call, but never left a message. Then things got crazy that last morning and I guess I didn't know how to handle it. But I'm glad you called and I'm happy to be here tonight."
"Good, because I'm glad you're here too." Then we were kissing and all those memories of the weekend came back. We kissed for a long time and I started to let my hands wander. She stopped me quickly though. "Not now. I don't want to have to clean myself up before dinner again." She backed away, checked herself in the mirror to fix her lipstick and came back to me. She looked at me for a few minutes and seemed to come to some decision. She then walked over to her closet and pulled an overnight bag out. "OK, I"m ready now."
I looked at the bag and smiled. "Planning on staying out late?"
"Don't be a jerk or I'll put it back. I've been going back and forth for the last two days on whether I should pack some stuff and initially decided not to bring it. I'm still not sure about it, but I'll bring it just in case. So don't ruin it."
"You got it boss."
She slapped my arm, but was laughing. "Let's go before I do something really stupid."
"Sounds like a good reason to delay." She gave me a dirty look, but laughed when she saw my smile. "I promise, I'll behave myself."
"You better."
On the ride to the dinner we made idle chit chat to get to know each other better. It felt odd, considering what we'd done the weekend of the festival. But I realized I really didn't know much about her. When we arrived, I felt a lot more comfortable and she seemed to feel the same way as she took my hand. My nervousness had completely disappeared and I felt like we were going to have a very good night.
We entered and Cheryl gave our names to the people at the registration desk. We got our name tags and table assignment and went into the dining room. I was a bit shocked to see it decked out so nicely, with a large dance floor and a three-person band playing. We found our table and Cheryl put her purse in her chair. Then we made our way to the bar. On the walk over, we heard someone whistle and Cheryl turned to see one of her co-workers. They said a few words, she introduced me and then we continued to the bar.
Suddenly I heard, "Yo John. What are you doing here?"
I turned to see my buddy Sean walking over. "Hey man. I came with Cheryl."
"Cool deal. Get yourself a drink. I'll be right over there."
"OK, give us a few minutes." I found Cheryl at the bar and stepped up next to her. "I just ran into Sean. I forgot you guys worked together."
