December 17, 2028, Sunday afternoon
I loaded my suitcase and garment bag in the Jeep, then went back inside. Ginger and I stood in her living room, looking at each other and holding both hands. When Ginger glanced over at her living room window, this fifty-three-year-old woman began a girlish giggle and I followed suit. "I can't believe we did that!" she said, hardly able to control her giggles.
"Me neither," I agreed. But very shortly after, it turned serious and Ginger wrapped her arms around me, crying. My tears started as well. I didn't want to leave. Ginger gripped my face with both her hands and pulled me to her, kissing me frantically with her wet lips and wet cheeks. We must have kissed several minutes, then she pushed me away and said I had to go.
As I began to close the door behind me, I heard a sobbing Ginger whispering, "I love you," on the other side of the door.
I drove home. The tears on my cheeks eventually drying. I was on my way home, to Adriana, Kevin, Katie. I had a beautiful family to go home to that I loved. The kids will be with Joanie, anxiously waiting for Mommy and Daddy to get home, especially Daddy since I've been gone over a week.
Ginger had... nobody. Not tonight, anyway. I hoped she was being honest about the client who wanted to date her and hadn't just made him up. I'd fallen in love with her and she with me. I hoped that love didn't bring more heartache for her, she's had enough with her husband passing.
I thought back to some of the last week; the topless trip to Grand Coulee, meeting Tammy along the way and it brought a laugh, Tammy suddenly stripping her top off, too. Then the unbelievable coincidence of her applying for the job in our store the next day.
Little bits of the rest of the week played through my mind, our sex together; Ginger laughing about her couch, 'That's not exactly how I envisioned using this couch when I bought it'. That made me smile and laugh a little. Maybe she'll show her new guy 'the right way' to use that couch, too
Thinking about Saturday night brought a huge smile to my face; in her front window, with the audience. That was a new experience for both of us. Bet Addie will enjoy hearing about that and hopefully, even wanting to try it sometime. I'd enjoy that. Pretty tame, though, after that night she had, restrained in that glass cage with a vibrator inside her, then Samuel.
Okay, that brought my mind over to Addie, my wife, Adriana. She'll be on her way home, too, either now or shortly. Maybe she's with Nick one last time right now, naked, being fucked. Or maybe modeling for another sculpture. I know there's something wrong with my brain, how it works. It's not supposed to be this way, but the thought of either was turning me on, sending blood flow down below.
I pulled off the freeway in Umatilla to send Addie a text, 'Hi, on my way home, call when you can,' then back on the freeway.
There was just so much to think about; the kids, Addie, Ginger, Addie and Nick, Christmas, our parents. Hell, I'd almost forgotten - they had dinner together last night. Wonder how that turned out? I could probably guess.
The phone chimed a few minutes later with a text message that popped up on the Jeep's display, I pressed the 'listen' button, hearing the computerized voice, 'Hi, leaving in about half-hour. I'll call."
That was it, the end of the message. Made me wonder what she was doing that she couldn't call then. Maybe nothing, just with Nick and didn't want him to hear. More likely, though, something a lot more than that.
I'd just gone through Pendleton, climbing Cabbage Hill, the long grade on I-84 up into the Blue Mountains, about an hour later, when my phone rang. "Hi," Addie's cheerful voice said.
"I'm just starting up Cabbage Hill, you on your way?"
She hesitated, "Uhuh, just left."
So, I was right, that hesitation told me everything, one last fuck. She would be about an hour-and-a-half behind. I won't say that I wasn't anxious, "I'll pick up the kids... at Joanie's?"
"Uhuh, they're anxious to see their daddy."
I smiled to myself, thinking about how thrilled they'd be when I got there and how lucky I was.
"Love you," I heard over our Bluetooth speaker
"You too," I responded, then thought about Ginger once again, thinking that it could have been me losing my wife like she'd lost her husband, truly hoping she finds love again.
It wasn't quite eight when I rolled into Joanie's driveway. Thankfully, the roads were clear. More often than not, that isn't the case through the Blue Mountains in mid-December. She opened the door when I rang the doorbell and our two little people were there, screeching, "Daddy, Daddy!" rushing into my arms.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can compare with coming home to two small children who love you! I can't even begin to imagine the joy of military families when mom or dad comes home after a long deployment.
Addie was home two hours later. I'd let the kids stay up waiting for their mom. Their excitement at Mom getting home was just as much as mine.
We let her luggage stay in the car overnight to give us a little time together with the kids before they went to bed. It was fun reading them their stories and hard to believe that Katie was now reading the story to us.
We snuggled into bed together, both of us naked. Neither of us talked about our lovers that night. We kissed, held each other, caressed bodies, wanted to make love. But I couldn't purge Ginger out of my brain, her sleeping alone, and that thought that it could have been any of us; that it could have been me sleeping alone tonight. Or Addie.
Addie knew that something was wrong, bothering me, "Hon?" she asked.
I felt ashamed, like I'd let her down, guess she deserved an answer, "I'm sorry, sweet, was just thinking... about Ginger..." and realizing from the expression on her face what she must have been thinking, "No, not that; her husband... even Samuel and his wife so suddenly taken away... that it could so easily have been us."
Her expression changed and a tear fell from her eye as well. We spent the rest of the night snuggling and holding each other, appreciating what we have, until we went to sleep.
We went together to take the kids to school Monday morning, then came home to finish unpacking from the trip. I carried in my things out of the Jeep, then Addie's from the Odyssey. One of the items she brought home was a wrapped picture. When I got it in the house, she unwrapped it, a 16x20 framed photo of her sculpture, obviously professionally taken.
Adriana was proud of how beautiful the sculpture was and so was I. I had a hard time taking my eyes away, almost unbelieving that the beautiful, sexy woman in the photo was my wife. He'd captured the most realistic, sultry, lusty look on her face, almost like it was actually her, rather than just a sculpture. I can't even begin to do it justice with any kind of description. It was her, that morning, through the one-way mirror, that expression on her face when she was begging for Nick to be inside her.
The realization hit me, "What, my love," I asked her, "are we going to do with it?" We sure as heck couldn't put it up in the house where our kids would see it.
Addie scrunched up her face, realizing the same thing, "The office? At the store?"
I laughed, "Kayla takes some of her customers in there. You want them to see it?"
She frowned, both of us recognizing the problem. It was beautiful, sexy as hell, deserving to be seen, but there wasn't anywhere we could put it. It was just too... sultry, and so obviously Adriana.
She sighed, then suggested, "There's a gallery downtown, Avignon Fine Arts, I was there once, they show nudes. I wonder if they'd like to have it as a loan?"
So we re-wrapped the picture, loaded it in the Odyssey and a few minutes later were carrying it into the Avignon Fine Arts gallery, downtown Boise. An older woman, probably early sixties or so met us and asked if she could help us.
The gallery is beautiful, paintings hung on the walls, sculptures on display cases throughout the floor, all beautifully displayed and lighted. And several nudes... nothing quite like Addie's, but some quite sultry.
When Addie unwrapped the picture, her jaw dropped open and she, her name tag said Brigitte, called a man over, Claude, said they owned the gallery. He looked at the portrait, said it was incredible, that they'd love to display it. She asked if we were interested in selling it, "I know it would bring at least a thousand dollars," in her pretty, French accent.
Addie laughed, "No, thank you, though. We just want it to be seen, just a loan."
They both gazed at the picture, then Claude to Addie, "And you're the model, quite obviously. It's so sensuous... so passionate... so..."
Addie's face flushed, started to turn a bit red, "Thank you," was all she said.
"The sculpture, you have it?" Claude asked.
"No, it's still with the artist. There's only one completed. There will be four more, but they haven't been painted yet," Addie explained.
"Ahh, but we would love to have one if possible," Claude said, "you know what he will be asking for them? I presume they will be for sale?"
Addie nodded, "He told me in the vicinity of thirty-thousand dollars. I don't think he's set a firm price yet until they're all completed."
"Please wait, I'll be right back," and he went into a back room, returning a moment later with a display easel, putting the picture on it.
"Beautiful!" he exclaimed all over again. "You know how many photographs he will have?"
