For ten years since leaving school I had a great job at my local tax office, fantastic hours and even better money but when they let a lot of staff go, I lost my job and suddenly realized that I was in big trouble. I had a wife and two lovely kids, a big house with a big mortgage, a nice car and all the other financial concerns that go with being part of a family.
Even though I was only in my mid-to-late twenties I had difficulty getting another job as I didn't really have any particular skills, apart from administration and I had to settle for a simple office job where the wages were only half of what I had been on before.
My wife Beth, who was two years younger than me at 25 decided to find a job to help out financially as my earnings just weren't enough to cover all of our outgoings, and this worked out okay as our youngest child had just started school. It was only an office job again, for a stationery company and didn't pay all that well as she could only work hours when the kids were at school but we were that broke that every single penny helped.
We managed for a while, but soon it became apparent that we were still struggling. We had a couple of garage sales and sold some stuff on eBay which earned us a little bit more money but it was only a short-term fix. The bank manager called one day to say we had gone too far into our overdraft, and that if didn't do something soon, our mortgage might be in danger.
It was time to work something out. We couldn't move into a smaller house because of the children and all their stuff, so it was crunch time. Did we get rid of the car? The problem that gave us was that Beth's job was quite a distance away. I had been letting her use the car, while I jumped on the bus as my job was only around the corner. I cut down on my insurance and pension payments, and we made other savings in other areas with our satellite TV and such things but we were still coming short by quite bit of money each month.
I kept looking around for a better job, but without any particular training it was difficult. I couldn't go back to college because we couldn't afford it, so I just kept hunting and keeping my fingers crossed that something better paid would come up. The worst thing about it was seeing Beth so worried. My beautiful wife tried to put a brave face on it, pretending that everything was fine but I could tell that she was no longer the lovely carefree girl that I had met 8 years ago. The final straw came when I found her crying alone in the bedroom one night. Several unpaid bills were scattered across the bed, and a bank statement was in her hand.
I felt such a failure, like I was letting her and my family down. The next day I pulled by boss and explained the situation to him. At first I asked for a pay rise, but when he told me that there wasn't any spare money in the business for that, I asked him for a loan. Again, he flatly refused even though he sympathised with my situation. There weren't any extra hours to be had or any other ways that he could help me out. I went to work that day full of hope and determination, but came home completely flat and disappointed.
I had told Beth of my plans, and it was crushing when I came home and had to explain that my boss had said no to all of my requests. I expected her to start crying, but she just smiled a sad-looking smile at me.
"Don't worry, baby," she took my hand in hers, "We'll be fine... Somehow."
"I don't know," I said disconsolately, "I think we'll have to sell the car."
Beth scratched her head, ruffling her blonde hair and looked at me. "But what about..."
I interrupted her. "You'll have to get the bus, same as me. Think of the money we'll save on insurance and everything, as well as what we'll get for it."
Her light blue eyes gazed into mine for a moment, but she saw the reality of what I was saying. "Okay, I might be able to get a lift home anyway."
Beth had mentioned to me before that Gary, her boss, lived quite close to us. He had offered her lifts home before, but she didn't feel comfortable taking him out of his way. She especially didn't want to risk upsetting him or taking him for granted for fear of endangering her job. If we lost her income we would be in even bigger trouble than we already were.
"Will Gary be okay giving you a lift home?" I asked.
"I don't know," Beth admitted, chewing her lip. "I'll let him know that we've had to sell the car, and we'll see if he offers again. If I let him know we're struggling, then he might even listen to me if I ask him for a rise."
"Do you think there's a chance?" I said hopefully, "You haven't been there all that long."
Beth shrugged her shoulders. "I can try," she said and then gave me a small smile before speaking again. "He's quite fond of me, if you know what I mean." She went very quiet as she said the last part, and I noticed a blush come across her cheeks.
"He fancies you?" I said. It was more a statement than a question, but Beth nodded gently, her face now bright red with embarrassment. "That's why he offered you the lifts home?"
Beth nodded but placed her hand on my arm reassuringly. "Don't worry, he knows I'm happily married. I told him right away when he asked me out."
"He asked you out!" I spluttered and Beth's expression of embarrassment turned into one of indignation.
"Why wouldn't he?" she said, hands now on her hips and a dark look on her face. "I'm still attractive, you know!"
I stared at her, and then sighed in agreement. She was still attractive, far too good-looking for me if I was totally honest. Beth was a similar height to me, average for a woman at 5' 6" whereas I was shortish for a guy. However, she was much thinner than me, and had a great figure for a woman that had given birth to two kids. I had put on a bit of weight after getting married and settling down, but Beth was still just a size 6 and had a body shape that most women would kill for. Her breasts were a 36c but looked bigger on her smaller frame, and from her narrow waist she flared out at the hips with a great ass and then lovely slim legs. Almost the perfect hour-glass figure. I knew how lucky I was. Whenever we went on holiday, I would always see guys giving her the once over when she was on the beach in her bikini. So why wouldn't her boss fancy her?
I said as much to Beth, and she calmed down and then coyly ran a hand through her shoulder-length blonde curls and asked me if I really still thought she was attractive.
"Of course I do!" I told her, and with that she took me by the hand and led me to the bedroom. The children were at my mother's house, so we had the place to ourselves for an hour or two. She closed the curtains, and then lay on the bed.
"What exactly do you find attractive?" she said, invitingly undoing the buttons of her white blouse.
"Everything I always have," I joined her on the bed. "These, especially," I said as I helped her take off first her blouse and then her bra. Her breasts were still full, if not quite as pert as when she was when I first met her, back when she was 17. Beth had only ever slept with one guy back then, although she had played about with a couple of others. Her only ex was a kid she went to school with, and I don't think he had much experience either because Beth was still pretty inexperienced when we first had sex. She had no idea how to give a blowjob or much else to be honest, and looking back she wasn't that great in bed at first. She was shy, but she turned out to be a diamond-in-the-rough. As her confidence grew and she discovered how to please a man as well as herself, she became better and better in bed, and was a real tiger by the time we got married, two years later.
I was pleased about that because I had slept my way through half the girls in my school (despite being pretty chubby now, I was quite good looking when I was younger) and had enjoyed some great sex along the way. I always had a high sex drive, and saw good sex as being important in a relationship. I sometimes wondered if Beth still fancied me, but if I had any doubts right then they were washed away when Beth slipped off her skirt and panties and told me to make love to her. I did, and for the next hour we had the best sex we had enjoyed in some time.
Afterwards, relaxing together and enjoying the brief time we had before the kids came home, I found myself curious about her situation at work. I ran a finger across her bare breasts, stroking a still-erect, pink nipple and asked her when her boss had her asked out.
"I'd only been there a few days," she confessed. "I told him I was married and showed him this," she wiggled her left hand at me and her diamond ring twinkled in the dim light filtering in through the closed bedroom curtains. "He was fine about it and apologized."
"That was ages ago," I pointed out. "Is he fine with you now?" I knew Beth worked closely with her boss. They were a small company, with only around 20 employees, so if you didn't get on with someone, working could be difficult. I also knew that sometimes men, especially wealthy or powerful men, didn't take rejection well.
"Oh yeah, Gary's fine with me," Beth giggled, "I think he tries it on with all the girls. It's just part of the course." There were only 5 girls there, compared to 15 guys, and Beth had told me in the past that they had quite a high staff turnover. Girls didn't last long there, and now I thought I could understand why. A lot of women didn't like the boss trying it on, especially if he was trying to use his position to influence them. Luckily, Beth was a pretty strong character and so she had found it easy to rebuff his advances.
"You said he was sort of fond of you?" I phrased her earlier statement as a question. If his asking her out was so long ago (several months) then why would she think he was still 'fond of her?'
Beth paused for a moment, considering me with those blue eyes of hers before replying. "Well he still flirts with me a little, but that's all it is. Just flirting." She drew my wandering hand down across her navel and down on to her lightly furred mound. Against the current fashion, Beth didn't shave her pussy but it wasn't very hairy anyway. Her pubes were a dark blonde, slightly darker than the hair on her head, and they were quite sparse and fine, so it wasn't a huge bush or anything. Despite having two kids, her pussy was still quite a nice, neat slit, if not quite as tight as when we first met.