Andrea and James - Part 1 of 3
Comforting a colleague eventually leads to the end of a marriage
This tale is a slow burn so if you're after a lot of sex quickly, this story may not be for you. There is a little sex towards the end but this part is mainly just background information, dealing mainly with the conflicting emotions of a married woman whose desire to help a colleague begins to transform their relationship. It could also be in Loving Wives, Romance, or Mature categories, but I put it in Erotic Couplings as it is basically about the relationship that develops between work colleagues. It does develop into infidelity that ultimately ends in divorce, (Part 3), but the husband is collateral damage to the colleagues' relationship.
Erotic Couplings: Adultery, infidelity, cheating wife, mature, office, work
Chapter 1
"Do you still miss her?" Andrea asked James.
Andrea was a fox. In her mid-forties, very attractive, married with two grown children no longer living at home, she enjoyed her work as an Administration and Public Relations Manager for a small division of a large manufacturing company. James was early thirties, tall, well-built and thought Andrea, an attractive man.
They'd originally met in the kitchen when they'd bumped into each other as they stopped for a coffee. Andrea had always been a friendly gold-hearted empathetic and caring woman and noticed that the young man she was sharing the kitchen with she'd not seen before, and started speaking with him. Discovering he'd only recently joined the company, and even after their brief chat, she'd developed a good feeling about him and offered to show him around, help him if he wanted. It didn't hurt that she found him quite handsome.
Over the next six-months they'd developed quite a close friendship so she felt quite comfortable when at one time she 'd noticed he seemed a little uncharacteristically distracted and she'd told him she was a good listener so if he ever wanted to talk about anything she was happy to lend an ear. At that time, he'd thanked her, told her he appreciated the offer, but he was okay. He just had a few things on his mind. Since then, they'd had had many conversations over coffee and daily shared time in the lunch room until one day recently, when they were alone at the table, almost on the verge of tears, he'd blurted out, told her, that he'd broken up with his fiancé. At that time, she'd felt a real tug on her heartstrings, a slight tremor of a wave reaching all the way down to her belly, seeing the pain he was in. She'd grown to love his company over those many months and again offered to be a friend, a confidant if you like; just someone to talk too, a shoulder to cry on. He though, had initially been too shy to open up any further. He was a sensitive, possibly overly so, and an emotional man. But over the next week or so he'd started opening up a bit more when it seemed Andrea might really understand what he was going through.
Considering the question she'd just asked him; whether he still missed her, "Yes..." he replied. "I thought it would be easier by now... that I would be over her... It's been a couple of months already and my pain is still as bad as it was when I found out she was cheating on me."
Pausing, he added "Well, not quite as much now... Being able to speak with you, and your company and understanding... and support... have given me some brief moments of relief... a lessening of the pain during our discussions over lunch. You have no idea how much that... you... your support... has meant to me."
"James, I'm so glad that I am able to help, even if only for a few moments."
"Oh, I didn't mean it like that. Andrea, when I'm with you, when we are talking, it's the best feeling. It's... when I look at you, I see you really are listening, I see sympathy, empathy, understanding, in your eyes and it makes me feel so good to know that you are there, that I have the support of someone as wonderful and caring as you."
"Wow! James, that is a really nice thing to say. Thank you."
"Why I said a few moments of relief, I meant that while I'm with you, for a few moments I feel good, for the reasons I already mentioned, but those moments don't last all that long after we leave to go back to work. We've been having lunch most days since I started here and even from the first day Cheryl and I broke up, when you asked me if I was okay when you found me in a bad state, when I blurted out Cheryl and I had broken up, when you saw me on the verge of tears.
"One thing I can truly say is that were it not for you, for your support, I would be in much worse shape. I start to feel better after each of our lunch meetings, despite how brief they are, and that we can't speak too long or too personally, and that better feeling lasts just that little bit longer after each meeting. But the feeling wears off after a few hours and I get miserable again and the pain returns. I was really in love with her. She was my fiancé! I never thought she'd cheat on me... I moved here leaving all my friends and family to be with her, after she said she needed to move here to get the promotion she was after."
After a pause during which she appeared to be quite deep in thought, Andrea, subconsciously reached out her arms, took James's hands in hers and rubbing her thumbs over the backs of his hands said, "James, what can I do to make those moments of relief last longer? Would spending a bit more time together help?" Then, suddenly realising they were still in the lunch room with other employees', Andrea quickly withdrew her hands from his, and hoped no one else had noticed the touch. Even though innocent, some people may jump to conclusions and get the wrong idea.
"Andrea, of course it would help, but I'm not sure how we could do that... It's not as if we could go out for dinner to talk, or anything. You're happily married and I can't see how we could spend more time together without taking time away from your husband and family. I couldn't ask you to do that."
"James... sometimes a little physical closeness... such as just a simple brief hug, can help restore happy feelings and comfort, but we can't do that in public, nor can we do that at work. It would all be innocent of course, but still, some people might see us hugging and take it the wrong way. That's how rumours start and that cannot be allowed to happen. I can't do anything that might jeopardise my marriage. But I want to help, if I can, to get you back to the happy smiling person I knew when you first started here. I miss that person very much. Sometimes, your laugh, your jokes, just make my day. Administration and public relations activities can sometimes make for horrible days, and often your bright, happy, smiling countenance did wonders for my mood."
"Oh every time I see you, speak with you, you help. And I must admit, when you touched my hands a few minutes ago, although it was only for a brief moment, it felt so incredibly good. Like a load had lifted from me. Sorry... perhaps I should not have said that, but it demonstrates how much your support means to me. I guess I just miss the physical closeness I had with Cheryl. In some respects, that's the hardest part.
"Look... a hug now and then would be really good, but I'm just happy if we can continue to have lunch together sometimes, if that's okay with you."
"James, thank you for understanding... and making me feel good too," she said as she reached out and patted his hand. "Of course, I am happy to continue having lunch with you when I can."
But that afternoon, as Andrea tried to concentrate on her work, she couldn't help wondering how she might help James's mood last longer after their lunch meetings. She hated to see good people being sad or unhappy. That just tore at her heartstrings. She was really quite delighted that James felt she really was helping him recover from a traumatic relationship breakup, even if only for short periods of time, and he did say, those feel good periods were increasing in length, very slowly, but nevertheless, increasing. She could still see though, when she ran into him in the office, that he was still in a lot of pain. How could she maybe help speed up his recovery to the happy guy she knew him to be?
How could she provide him with the brief physical contact that she thought would help, just a simple innocent hug or two? How could she do that for him without jeopardising their positions at work and her married life, her relationship with her husband, her kids? There was a morals clause in her employment contract that strictly banned any sort of personal intimate relationships between managers and subordinate staff unless advised to HR that such an intimate relationship did exist. She was a manager and James a clerk and even though he did not directly report to Andrea, the manager subordinate restriction might still have applied and they could both be fired if that restriction was breached. And she was happily married. She trusted her husband and knew that her husband trusted her, and even though any potential physical contact between James and herself would be innocent, it could, it might, it probably would, if misinterpreted, lead to divorce even though her husband was an understanding man and knew about Andrea's almost obsessive desire to cure all the world's ills. He'd often reminded her that sometimes people just need to work some things by themselves, without interference, no matter how well intentioned the efforts of others. That had occasionally led to some quite heated arguments between Andrea and her husband. But still, a divorce would be unbearable. That would put her in the same situation James was currently in. That would be an unsatisfactory situation. So she needed to ensure that there was no chance of any behaviour that might be interpreted, by anybody, incorrectly, as crossing the line.
To get more from their lunch meetings and a little more privacy, they'd decided sometimes to have lunch in a nearby cafe rather than in the work lunch room. Andrea and James continued most days having lunch at the cafe, sometimes joined by other colleagues, but mostly just the two of them. But they made sure that having finished their lunch, when they walked back to the offices in which they worked, just a couple of blocks away from the cafe there would be no holding hands, no hugging, no other physical contact. Just two work colleagues returning from lunch. But the lunches there enabled conversations that led to the deeper discussion of more intimate issues, such as feelings. The closeness between the two continued to deepen, both unaware of the strong emotional bond forming between them.
One day, a few weeks after the last meeting where Andrea briefly took James's hand in hers, almost subconsciously, she did it again. This time, her heart fluttered a little and a piece of it went out to him when she saw what it meant, when she saw James's eyes light up and a huge smile spread across his face. Oh how good it would be to make him feel that good for longer periods, to heal his broken heart completely. Aware of where she was, and some other colleagues nearby, she quickly withdrew her own hand, but felt a little sad when she saw the momentary disappointment in James's eyes of the loss of physical contact.
As she sat there wondering, how she could make James's happiness last longer, she said, "You really do miss her touch don't you."
"Yes", he replied, "Very much. There was a lot of intimacy between us, just a touch on the shoulder, or cheek or arm, even right up to the end. I guess that's why the pain is there...that's why it's been so bad, because I had no idea I was sharing those touches, her love, with another man!" raising his voice a little. "We had even made love the night before and again that morning!"
