Author's note: no hot sex or really any sex in this chapter.
******************
Bob had been pretty busy all day Saturday, even before Elaine's belated phone call.
The one really good thing about their very average middle class suburban home - and what convinced them to buy this one instead of one of the almost cookie cutter others - was the already fully finished "mother-in-law" suite walk-in basement. The house was situated on a lot with enough of a slope to make the split-level 3 bedroom house affordable. The basement had it's own separate entrance, a mini-kitchen area with sink, some cabinets, a nice countertop - and room for a full sized refrigerator we had already installed. It also had a full bath - sans tub but with a walk-in shower.
It had just one greatroom rather than separate living room and bedroom - and had served as our entertainment center whenever we had people over. There was another large screen TV mounted on the wall. A fairly nice pull-out sleeper couch, scattered chairs and tables and one small separate room for storage.
I was in the process of moving myself into the basement - moving enough of my clothes into that storage room, along with some towels and sheets and my toiletries into that bathroom. I couldn't afford to move out and neither could Elaine (probably - what did I actually know about her secret life and secret career now?) But I wasn't about to sleep in the same bed with her now or in the forseeable future - and maybe not ever again. And I wanted some space and alone time without bumping into her every moment as it would have been if I had just slept in our guest bedroom upstairs and we shared that kitchen, etc. I might even put a bolt lock on the basement stairs door - if she insisted on "dropping in" on me unannounced much. Of course I still wanted to see and hug my beautiful 11 year old daughter Jules as much as I could and she would always be welcome to just "hang out" with me whenever, just without her mother.
I also decided I needed some new hobbies. I had stopped doing anything relaxing and "just for me" pretty much as soon as I married Elaine. My work and my family were just all that I did. I didn't even have hardly any male friends to socialize with anymore on a regular basis, like Poker nights, or golf or tennis buddies, or just grab a drink and BS each other occasionally but regularly. Obviously Elaine now had some "hobbies" and new friends herself. I had known Susan was a co-worker of Elaine's but I had no idea how close they actually were. For her to know those things about Elaine told me so much, as I thought about it. Not to mention that "carte blanche - go screw my husband to make him feel better pity fuck" authorization. Wow, who was this woman that I once loved and thought I knew so intimately?
I decided the first step was just to get physically back in shape a little bit. I was right at 6 feet tall and about 185 lbs. now - 15 lbs. over my college days, when I played quite a bit of tennis and pick-up basketball. And most of that extra 15 lbs. was in my belly - I now needed 36" waist pants and not the 32" that I used to wear. And I was still only 31 years old! I shouldn't have let myself go even this much.
So, after talking with Elaine about 4PM today I was in the car on the way to the gym where our family membership was paid current - even though Elaine was the only one of us using it - when Ross called me.
"Hey, buddy. I'd like to get together with you tomorrow afternoon sometimes and talk about you joining RSS in a little more detail. Could we make that work?"
"Sure, I replied. That would be great. Where and when?"
"How about my house about 3? I'll throw some steaks on the grill and we can eat. Bring Elaine over and I'll have a date there too. We'll have plenty of time to talk about everything while the girls talk to each other."
"Uh, Elaine's out of town and won't be able to make it. In fact, Elaine can't know about this right now and it's a bit touchy. I'll explain it all tomorrow, OK?"
"Oh, sorry to hear that, I guess. Listen, I'll tell my date to bring one of her own girlfriends over so they can amuse one another while we talk confidentially as much as we need to. It'll be OK for us and seems to me you might need some relaxation, if I am reading you between the lines correctly. Ah...
"Damn it, listen. I still have a lot of friends at IMT&R and they aren't exactly spies for me - but I heard about the Family Dinner and that Elaine was one of the women who left with those assholes. You can talk to me as much or as little as you want - but anyway a good steak and some beers never hurt anyone at all. Right?"
"Ah, gee - thanks Ross. You don't know how much I appreciate that right now. I could use that - just a nice relaxing day and just focusing on a better tomorrow. I am really looking forward to this and I'll be there."
"OK - good. Take care, Buddy. Tomorrow."
That DID make me feel a little better. Ross was still just a rich (well, a lot richer than me, at any rate) bachelor and always seemed to have a new girlfriend on his arm. He was never without a date, unless he wanted to be. He was a couple inches taller than me and had a Steve McQueen type rugged face and down-home friendly demeanor. And it wasn't just an act, as far as I could tell for the 11 years I have known him. Also, I never heard one bit of rumor he ever hit on married women. A real plus in my book right now.
My spirits being lifted helped my workout as well. Mostly I just did the weight machines circuit thing right now. I was soon sweating pretty heavily as I did light weights and lots of reps at each station. I could tell neither the few guys or gals there at basically a Saturday supper time and/or get-ready-for-tonight's-date time was much impressed with the small weights I was lifting - but it still did me a lot of good. The heavy breathing and exercise released a smidgin of endorphin bliss - and I felt like I was sweating some of the negative emotional stress poisons out of my system.
I spent almost 2 hours at the gym in total after showering and changing back into just my jeans and a casual shirt. I decided to stop at my favorite sports bar for some wings and beer for supper. Oh, wait - I didn't HAVE a favorite sports bar, so I drove around looking for one. Finally found a nice looking place in the neighborhood and went in. Must have been a pretty good place since it was already pretty packed. It wasn't Hooters but the girls were attractive and attractively dressed and worked pretty hard with good service. The wings were adequate - and the hot ones better than average in my humble opinion - and the beer was cold. Lots of TV's around and I found one with a game on I was halfway interested in. I would glance around occasionally and the scenery was definitely getting more interesting as the night wore on. I noticed one woman looking right at me several times and halfway smiling. She was at a table with 3 other girls and seemed to be having a pretty good time. I was watching my game when all of a sudden she was standing right there at my table and blushing a little.
"Sorry," she said "and this is gonna sound corny but do I know you? You look real familiar and I just can't place it..."
I looked at her more closely and she was average pretty - long straight red hair and green eyes, freckled skin, thin with nice hips and enough on top, shapely - and a nice smile and blush. I don't think I had ever seen her before.
I smiled back and said, "I don't think so. I think I would remember if I had. You are very attractive."
And I really got all that out without stammering or blushing myself. Cad.
She said "do you work for IMT&R?"
"Yes."
"That's it. Thought so. I saw you at the Family Dinner from a distance - you were sitting at the table up front with all the Big Wigs - what was that all about, what do you do? You are so young looking." And she sat down right next to me.
Oh, crap - I thought - is she making fun of me and going to go laugh about it with her friends?
I kind of frowned I guess - but looking in her eyes she didn't have the look of someone "in the know" and casually cruel. She was just smiling expectantly.
"So, you work for IMT&R too? Where? Which office?"
