I stumbled home around 9:00 p.m., for the fourth night in a row. I'd have a 5 o'clock shadow if I didn't have a full beard already. With my tie loosened, and my suit jacket over my shoulder, I drug myself from my car to the door. Not defeated, just exhausted. I've been working on a proposal with the rest of my team, which when presented tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., could result in a multi-million dollar deal for the company I work for. We've spent the last week digging through histories, watching market trends, and generally making our eyes bleed over spreadsheets and databases. With the report as done as it was going to get, we sent it off for final proofing, and as I was the one presenting the next day, decided I would read over the final copy the next morning, with a fresh cup of coffee.
I got through the door, hung up my jacket, and put my leather case down. The familiar and comfortable sounds and smells of home started to perk me, and as I heard my wife tinkering in the kitchen, figured I'd wander and see if she had saved me any leftovers.
"Hey, honey." I called. My wife was standing in front of our bar, I assume making a drink. As you leave out of the living room near the front door, you start to enter the kitchen, which you quickly would notice expands in a very open space off to the right. Around the left and far walls are the normal kitchen attributes, with a door in the corner leading to our deck, which connects to a shared backyard with our neighbors, Jim and Dori Miller. As the back kitchen wall expands to the right, the middle section of the wall houses a fairly well stocked bar, and then starts to lead into the sliding red oak doors of my office / den.
Even though it was just past 9, my wife Julia was in her short khaki shorts and a blue polo. I assume she was wearing them earlier, and as the weather was so nice, and the house a bit warm, decided to not change into something more comfortable, which is what she usually does.
"Good Evening, Mr. MacDougal." she replied. She loved calling me that, especially when I got home from work. She felt that I was too serious, even at home - like I was still running a business. Her calling me 'Mr. MacDougal' is her way of reminding me I can actually relax, and leave the business guy at work. Her long auburn hair flipped around her shoulders as she turned around, with drink in hand - which she walked over and handed to me.
"Oh thanks, what did you make?" I asked.
"Scotch on the rocks, figured you could use it - hows the proposal going?"
"I don't know, I just don't know. We've checked everything, we've got what the client wants, but I hear this Mr. Thompson we're meeting with is a bit of a nut. Random things set him off, no rhyme - no reason, and he's a stickler for facts. It's hard to know what he's going to look for." I replied. I took a sip of the drink which was cool to the lips, and warmed going down. She was right, I could use this, and had been looking forward to making myself one anyway. I loved how she could read my mind sometimes.
"Any leftovers from dinner?" I asked.
"Oh nononono. Remember when we watched the Miller's kid for a week 2 months ago? Well I called in a favor. I knew you'd be tired and hungry - so I got Jim to grill you up a steak. I thought you wouldn't be home for another hour or so, so it won't be read for... 40 minutes yet. I hope that's ok?"
"You're the most wonderful woman in the world." I leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
Jim was no slouch with the grill, and I know the man didn't keep anything less than a 16oz. on hand at any given time, so this was quite a nice suprise.
"I already put Jason down for bed, but I'm going to go check on him really quick. I'll be right down. Why don't you go flip on the news in the den?" With that she kissed me again quick on the lips, and spun around and headed for the stairs. I looked over my shoulder as she dashed up the stairs, still in amazement by how fast she bounced back after the pregnancy. Her butt looked as good as it had 5 years ago when I married her. All firm, no flabby jiggle. The same to be said about her legs, slender and smooth. I told her once that she had no torso. She looked slightly offended until I explained that it was because she was made entirely of legs up to her breasts, which was exactly how I envisioned the perfect woman. Painfully long legs and a full C-cup.
I headed for the den, slid the doors open, walked to the center of the room, placed my drink on the side table, and proceeded to loosen things up. The sleeves were already cuffed, but the tie was now draped, strewn across the desk, the top two buttons undone, the shoes kicked off, and the belt coiled in the floor just next to the shoes. I frumped down into my leather chair, put my feet on the ottoman and turned on the t.v. I like to flip between the major news channels. Everyone at work swears by their favorite, and chastises anyone who watches the other guy - the truth is that none of them tell the full story. They all have an angle. Watch them all, you get a rounder picture.
I lounged this way for about 5 minutes before Julia came back in. She hopped up on the chair, sitting on the left arm, and started to rub my back and neck with her right hand. She had taken her shoes off, and slowly started to creep her toes between the arm of the chair, and under my left thigh, seeking to keep them warm. I lazily flipped between the channels, flipping again at each commercial break. We would both snicker when someone said something stupid or contradicted themselves. Otherwise it was pretty peaceful.
At about around 9:40, Julia braced her self on my shoulder, pulled her toes from under my legs, swiveled around and got off the chair, wandering somewhere behind me, and between my desk, which was about 10 feet away. I figured she was just going over to the wall to turn up the heat a bit. It had been a warm enough day - and as I said the house was a bit warmer, but she was in shorts and a short sleave polo, and it was early september. I figured she was getting a little chilly. A few clinks and a creak or two later she reappeared at my left side, holding a tray. The lights were slightly dimmed, and feeling very comfortable, it took me a second to register the fact that she was waiting on me. I looked over and saw that the tray itself was my cigar ash tray, and in the large bowl of the marble tray sat a fresh cigar, my clippers, and my cigar lighter. This took me for an even bigger suprise, as Julia was not very fond of cigar smoke. It wasn't the worst thing to her normally, but when the pregnancy hit, I had to give it up completely because of her nasuea.
"Well, I, that's really sweet of you, but I don't want to chase you away. I like having you sit here with me." I said, slowly shaking my head left to right.
"No it's ok, really, I don't mind it anymore." she said. She lowered the ash tray a little bit closer to me, and with those reassuring eyes, I took the three items, and she sat the ash tray down on the side table, also to my left. I sat my drink down on the table to my right, and after clipping the end, and lighting up, I placed the items on the table, swapping them for my drink . My dominican perfectly complimented the scotch. Julie returned to her place on the arm of my chair, with her hand around my shoulders. As I slowly drew from the cigar, and sipped my scotch I started to remember the steak that was due out in 20 minutes. I stretched my way upward to my wife, and when she turned to look at me, kissed her slowly on the lips. She returned the kiss, with just a little bit of tongue, and as I broke the kiss I whispered, "Thank you."
We sat that way for another couple of minutes, Julia toggling between ranting reporters, and me falling into my zen. And then she turned and got up again.
Julia walked in between the chair and the ottoman, picking up my calves and lowering them to the floor, and pushing the ottoman a couple of feet closer to the t.v. With that she put her hands between my knees, spreading them apart, and knelt in front of my lap, sitting on her knees.
With that she started to take off my socks. First the left, then the right. As she slowly started to reach for my pants button, I shorted my draw on my cigar and asked, "Anything I can help you with?"