Members of the exclusive Summit Country Club are still talking about a scandal that rocked the club to its core. It involved an affair between one of its comely members and a handsome tennis pro. It wouldn't have been so scandalous had Jennifer Cheney not been married. But she was, and that's what got tongues a-wagging and gossipmongers licking their chops over the juicy affair. But just after they thought they'd heard it all, came even juicier news.
It happened during the George W. Bush administration, when the world was a little less complicated (but not by much). Jennifer Cheney, her hubby Carson and their two teen daughters lived in Avondale, an upper-middleclass community on the East Coast. Jen, as her friends called her, was hot stuff. In her early forties, she was blond and shapely and fit, about as fit as when she led her cheerleading squad in high school. Her legs were long, and she wore her hair--"big hair" they called it in those days--down to the tops of her cosmetically-enhanced boobs. She was a decent tennis player, one of the better women players at the club, but she wanted to get better, and that's where Alex Lopez, the club's tennis pro, came in.
A nationally ranked player in college and beyond, Alex was in his mid-twenties when Summit hired him to be their tennis pro. It might be a cliché that all tennis pros (and ski instructors, right?) were good-looking, but Alex really was. Not all women went for a swarthy ethnic look, but those that did found the six-foot, dark-eyed Alex irresistible. "You could hear the panties drop when he walked into a room," a female club member once said. An exaggeration, perhaps, but not a big one, for Alex was a hot topic among the women who engaged in their own locker room talk.
Jen Cheney was one of those women and, speaking of cliches, she was one of those early middle-aged women a bit bored with her life and married to a man who "doesn't give me the attention he once did," she complained. They had sex, but it was "ho-hum sex," in her words, and not enough of it, ho-hum or otherwise. That said, she never actively set out to find extracurricular fun. Sure, she thought about it, but going out of her way seemed like such a daunting task, not to mention the moral side of it. Brutus was an honorable man like Jen was an honorable woman. Wasn't she? At least she thought so.
Meanwhile, Alex knew he couldn't play tennis at a pro level forever. He saw the job as something to do until he found a "real" career. In college, he majored in broadcast journalism. He'd end up as a news anchor somewhere, he thought. However, by the time he got his degree, his career plans changed because he didn't want to start at the bottom, working at some remote station in a remote town on the edge of civilization. Hence the tennis pro gig until he found a firm direction. The pay wasn't great, but he got free room and board in a cozy cottage all to himself. Plus, as a tennis pro friend working at another club told him, "There are benefits that go beyond what they pay you. Like, if you're looking to bed horny, sexy older women, a club like Summit is the place to be."
That friend had been right. Well, sort of, because most of those sexy older women were married. And not all of them were what you'd call hot. Only a few appealed to him, Jennifer Chaney included. She not only made his list, but she was his numero uno. Of course, she was also married, and Alex had never messed with a married woman, and he didn't plan to start with Jennifer. And yet, it was impossible not to think about it. Lust had a mind of its own, lurking in the shadows, tempting even the most disciplined. He wanted her, no doubt about it, and the feeling was mutual. No doubt about that either, not with the way Jen brushed against him when he was giving her pointers on her serve and backhand, sliding her sexy butt against his crotch.
"I think I'm breaking down his resistance," Jen told three of her married girlfriends in the locker room. "He wants to, I know that. It's just a matter of time before he breaks down and either forgets I'm married or doesn't care."
These women, Nina, Betsy and Francesca, didn't judge or moralize. Sure, they knew infidelity was wrong, but they were too caught up in the excitement to be outraged. It was a case of living vicariously through Jen's would-be sexual exploits, for they also harbored their own bedroom fantasies about Alex. "Be sure to keep us updated," said Nina. Short and brunette, she, like the others, had just changed into their tennis outfits. Rubbing her crotch, she said, "Ohmygod, girls, I'm getting wet just thinking about it."
Francesca, another brunette with long, flowing hair, sat on a bench, legs crossed. "Yes, I know what you mean." She squeezed her hand between her legs. "Look, we better talk about something else before I come all over this bench."
Betsy, a tallish blond and about ten years younger than her middle-aged friends, said, "Girls, I think it's time we get out on the court for our doubles match. Either that or we hunt down Alex for a five-way."
The five-way never happened--Betsy was being facetious, of course--but a two-way did, and that was between Jen and Alex. It happened on a warm September, weekday afternoon, when Carson was at work, Jen's kids were in school, and Jen, as usual, was on Alex's two o'clock schedule. For weeks, they had been flirting, "physical flirting," Jen called it, initiated by Jen. Alex offered no resistance, at least to the flirting. Up to then, he still couldn't bring himself to go further. He knew Carson Cheney, or at least knew who he was. He'd see him on weekends at the pool. Carson played football in high school and wrestled in college. He still lifted weights, didn't play tennis. He was a big guy, standing around six-three, weighing way over two hundred pounds. Alex got the impression that he didn't take shit from anyone, and if you crossed him, look out! If you fucked his wife, and he found out, you'd better leave town. And fast. Such were Alex's impressions, culled from what Jen had told him and the way Carson looked, his size, his swagger and attitude that Alex had observed from the few times that he had spoken with him.
Nevertheless, as Jen had told her girlfriends, it was only a matter of time before Alex broke down. And on that day, he did. The lust that had been lurking in the shadows of his being, stepped from those shadows with a vengeance. Jen, sexy, irresistible Jen, with her long, luscious legs, shining in the late summer sun, her enhanced boobs, her big blond hair and sensuous ways, were drawing him into something he knew he might regret. Still, only a fool would turn her down. Yet only a fool, considering her marital status, would go for it. It was a dilemma on top of a dilemma from which Alex saw no comfortable direction in which to turn.
"We'll be okay, Alex, really," she said, standing close to him on the court after one of their volleys. "You want me, I know you do, and I've been fantasizing about you for weeks." She combed her fingers through his thick, black helmet of hair, while looking around to make sure no one was watching. "My husband will never know. It'll be okay."
Gingerly and just as cautious, he placed his hand over her butt. "I'm not so sure. But I can't resist you any longer." He leaned into her. "Mmm, you always manage to smell so good, even when perspiring."
She smiled, then gave him a quick kiss on the mouth. "Come on. Take me with you into that little house of yours. Do you have anyone else scheduled today?"
"Not until five. Which should give us plenty of time."
"Great. And look, just to help put your mind at ease, I'm on birth control."
They were careful not to let anyone see them going into the spartan, white wood cottage that the club had housed tennis pros for decades. It was a one-bedroom, one bath affair, with an AC window unit in the bedroom and a kitchen, small but still big enough for a small table and two chairs. The bedroom was just as basic, with a light-blue, oval scatter rug over the hardwood floor. The furniture--twin bed, dresser and night table--looked like it came from a cheap motel. "Not exactly the luxury suite of a fancy penthouse," Alex said.
