Glasgow Kiss

Foreword

I'm grateful to Randi for once again inviting me to take part in a

Literotica writing event

. This time the theme is the song by Percy Sledge, "When a Man Loves a Woman". It's great to get inspiration from someone like Randi, but it was just as inspiring to receive feedback from an anonymous reader earlier this year who said, "I like and enjoy your stories. Thank you for your work." That made my day and got me re-energised. Thanks to Randi and all you readers for your support. I hope you enjoy the following story, which is a work of fiction and any resemblance to real people, whether living or dead, is purely coincidental.

*

BLAM!

The walls of the little apartment seemed to shudder as the front door slammed shut.

"Fuckin' useless bastards!" her husband cursed, thereby announcing his return home.

Cathy Williamson knew the rest of the weekend was going to be tough. She had seen the Scottish football results on TV earlier that Saturday afternoon and was well aware the team Derek supported had lost to their local rivals. If they lost a game Derek always called them fuckin' useless bastards, so the 'Fubs' had become Cathy's secret nickname for the team.

"What're you lookin' at?" he growled at her accusingly as he entered the lounge, taking off his jacket and angrily throwing it on an armchair.

The pretty young blonde had tried to keep her gaze averted to avoid any possible confrontation, but she couldn't help briefly glancing at her husband to gauge the extent of the problem she might be facing. He always went for a few beers with his fellow supporters after they had been at a game. All would be well if the Fubs won or even if the result was a draw. However, if the Fubs lost, Derek's bad mood combined with the alcohol would inevitably light the blue touch paper of his explosive temper. None of his boozy pals would reap the consequences, but it was dead certain he would vent his spleen when he got home.

Cathy's old granny was fond of saying, "When drink comes in, sense goes oot the windae". All Cathy could do was stay out of Derek's reach, hold her tongue and wait for the storm to pass. From previous experience she knew it could take a day or so. Hopefully he wouldn't smash any more of their crockery before he calmed down.

Cathy was no dummy. She worked as an administrative assistant at Kingston Bridge Marketing, a marketing and events agency in Glasgow. Now in her mid-twenties, she had left school at the age of seventeen with little in the way of academic qualifications, but she flourished in the creative business environment of KBM. Her communication skills developed as she gained experience and grew more confident in dealing with KBM's clients. With a positive, 'can do' attitude, she was good at finding practical solutions to challenging problems.

To Cathy it seemed absurd that anyone would let their mood for days ahead be dictated by a bunch of men kicking a ball around for ninety minutes on a Saturday afternoon. She tried in vain to get Derek to understand other things in life might be more deserving of his attention. However he was fiercely loyal to his football tribe, living his life vicariously through the fortunes of the Fubs, his mood varying according to the team's ups and downs.

Despite her improved communications skills, the word 'vicarious' wasn't actually part of Cathy's vocabulary. Nevertheless, she knew it was unhealthy for Derek to allow his outlook on life to swing between joy and despair, depending on the outcome of a game of football. Derek was a good husband when the Fubs were winning, but he was like a bear with a sore head when they lost a game.

It hadn't always been like this. As a teenager, Derek regularly played Sunday League football with his friends and a group of them often went to watch the Fubs on Saturday afternoons, but Cathy became the centre of his attention when they first got together. As boyfriend and girlfriend they were a loving couple and Cathy had been proud of her handsome, dark-haired husband when they got married a few years ago. It didn't matter to her that Derek worked as a fitter in a tyre and exhaust centre. He was a strong, powerful man and she tried her best to give him plenty of love and affection, despite his temper tantrums and increasingly severe moodiness.

Cathy was sure Derek would change his attitude when they started a family. A baby would focus her husband's attention on family, rather than following the fortunes of the Fubs. The problem was they had been trying for a baby for over a year without success and Derek's temper tantrums were becoming a serious worry for Cathy. In the aftermath of the smashed crockery incident she wondered if their lack of success at baby making was contributing to his bad moods, but he didn't seem worried whether or not she got pregnant. If it happens, it happens, seemed to be his attitude.

Cathy had eventually suggested they get fertility testing, but Derek casually dismissed the idea, saying it was an insult to his manhood. Without telling him, Cathy went ahead and got herself checked, heaving a sigh of relief when the check-up confirmed she was ripe for plucking. She had no doubt a baby was the key to building a happy family and she had been taking every possible opportunity to get Derek to pump her full of his sperm.

Later that evening, as Derek bent her over the sofa, pulled her knickers aside and furiously fucked her, Cathy was certain it wasn't her fault if her plan to get pregnant still wasn't working. There was no question that she would simply give up on her ambition to start a family. She was determined to find a way to solve the problem and she had an idea about a possible solution.

*

Bob McEwan had more than a few years of experience in graphic design and marketing. He had started his career as a trainee, studying part-time at college while designing notices and signs for a government agency based in Glasgow. A couple of years later he got a job at Kingston Bridge Marketing. Now in his early thirties, he was considered to be a gold star employee in KBM's creative design team. He regularly came up with good ideas and was a bit of a wizard at copywriting as well as graphic design. His colleagues looked to him for support and guidance and he was well respected by both management and staff at KBM. His friendly nature, skills and experience combined to good effect when it came to managing the expectations of KBM's clients. Bob loved his job and was very happy how his career was progressing at KBM.

Although Bob socialised from time to time with his colleagues, they were aware he kept his private life pretty much to himself. He was a good-looking young man in his early thirties with dark hair and brown eyes that twinkled with good humour. His positive disposition made him very approachable and he was single. A couple of young women working at KBM had each individually tried and failed to gain his attention. He was polite but firm in declining their advances and it became known amongst Bob's colleagues that he wouldn't mix business with pleasure. The office rumour mill had it that he occasionally enjoyed female company in his free time, but remained uncommitted and was content with his bachelor lifestyle.

While it was true that Bob was very professional in his working relationships with colleagues and clients, there was one single, overriding reason why Bob was resolutely unattached. Simply put, Bob had fallen in love with Cathy Williamson. Bob knew Cathy was married and he was careful to make sure he behaved as normally as possible around her, but the two of them worked together on quite a few projects and Cathy soon realised Bob was smitten with her. For her part, Cathy very much admired Bob and she also felt attracted to him, but she had remained faithful to her marriage vows. Until this point in time neither of them had made a move to try and get together.

*

A couple of months later, in a corner of a basement car park of a small office block in central Glasgow, a little white van sat in its designated parking space, trembling slightly. It looked almost as if the engine might be running, as the van seemed to be rocking slightly. However there was no engine noise and the van wasn't an electric vehicle or even a hybrid. Nevertheless, the slight movement could arguably be attributed to both chemistry and physics. In the cargo space behind the front seats, between cardboard boxes full of marketing supplies, a man and a woman were engaged in sexual intercourse. Chemistry had brought them together and physics was the result.

Cathy Williamson lay on her back with her arms and legs wrapped tightly around Bob McEwan as he thrust into her repeatedly. This was going to be a quickie, so both of them were more or less fully clothed. Cathy had deliberately chosen to wear hold-ups, bunching her skirt up round her waist for ease of access. Her plain white cotton knickers hung from her left ankle, contrasting with her partner's rumpled dark trousers and bare backside.

The rutting couple had no idea the slight movement of the van had been observed by a third party. Sitting in his car a few parking spaces away from the little white van, Rupert Wilcox watched as it almost imperceptibly rocked on its chassis. Rupert had come down to the basement car park to fetch some files from his car and he was sitting in the driver's seat looking through the files when the man and woman appeared and got in the back of the van, totally oblivious to Rupert's presence. From the work he was doing at KBM, Rupert recognised both the dark-haired man in his early thirties and the attractive young blonde woman in her twenties. He also knew the van belonged to KBM.

In many ways, Rupert Wilcox was a small man. That's not to say he was below average height for an adult male in his profession. Whatever the average height of Scottish accountants might be, Rupert would no doubt have been more or less average in height. He wasn't small of stature. His smallness manifested itself primarily in the way his mind worked. He was seldom troubled by anything other than comparatively mundane issues of corporate finance and governance. Not only did Rupert have the purported cold blood of accountancy running through his veins, but he was an auditor. He spent his time checking the work of others and, if truth be told, he contributed little of practical value to the organisations he audited.

Rupert's job existed because organisations must get an audit from time to time by an external, independent third party. This is usually to confirm that whatever the organisation is supposed to be doing is actually getting done and that it's getting done in accordance with the appropriate rules and regulations. Audits are a key feature of mergers and acquisitions, which was the reason why Rupert was spending time at KBM's office.

Rupert undertook independent audits in exchange for a generous fee. Not only did he check the work of the bean counters and other personnel, but he also checked policies and practices were in place to meet the duties and requirements of good corporate governance.

When it came to box ticking, Rupert was an expert. Not all auditors are box tickers, but it's undeniable that many are 'makeworkers'. They inevitably make work for other people as a direct or indirect result of their activities. Sometimes that's a good thing, particularly if it improves corporate performance. However, by way of justifying his fee, Rupert spent most of his time finding or inventing boxes to be ticked, thereby also generating non-productive activity for busy employees.

Of course, Rupert didn't see himself as a 'makeworker'. He was an over-privileged, self-righteous individual, bereft of compassion, empathy and good humour, but he saw himself as a very important, professionally qualified expert in corporate finance and governance. His uniform was a dark blue, pinstripe business suit and he believed it testified to his superior status. What others saw was a dull, middle-aged, balding man with a noticeable pot belly, dressed in conventional, old-fashioned attire. Even his plain white cotton shirt and polyester necktie were dull and boring.

Rupert spent his working hours looking for corporate paperwork that wasn't quite up to date, or procedures that were not being adequately implemented or evidenced by reports and memos. He was an expert at finding minor issues that could be included in his audit report to give it the appearance of substance. He didn't care whether his interventions meant other people had to deal with more paperwork or were blamed disproportionately for some perceived transgression or infringement of a procedure or policy. That didn't matter to Rupert, as long as his audit report could claim to have found something or other that might not be exactly as it should be.

Sitting patiently in his car, Rupert smiled with a great deal of satisfaction as he watched the dark-haired man walk away from the little white van and leave the car park by the door to the stairwell leading to the upper floors of the building. A couple of minutes later Rupert heard the sound of the van's rear doors being closed and the young blonde woman followed in the wake of her colleague.

*

Julia Stewart was KBM's Human Resources Manager. Despite her no nonsense style, her colleagues found her very approachable and she nurtured a positive team spirit by encouraging staff to talk to her about problems or issues and suggestions for improvements.

KBM was proposing to acquire Corolla, a smaller marketing services company based in Edinburgh, so Julia had been working on how the staff of KBM and Corolla could be deployed post merger and what changes would need to be made. Both companies had valuable client bases, which meant their key account management and customer support functions were vital. Both company names were well regarded, with Kingston Bridge Marketing widely referred to as KBM, so the plan was to name the merged entity KBM Corolla.

The chairman and board of directors of KBM knew their employees were their greatest asset. The last thing they wanted was disgruntled employees alienating clients or walking off with chunks of KBM Corolla's business while the merger was taking place. Julia had therefore been busy meeting staff and management at KBM in Glasgow and Corolla in Edinburgh, individually and in groups, listening to their views and addressing their concerns. Reporting directly to the chief executive of KBM, she was making good progress in tackling some difficult issues.

With so much on her plate, the last thing Julia needed was the external auditor requesting an urgent meeting with her to discuss a possible breach of the staff code of conduct. Julia was a 'glass half full' type of person. If people brought her problems, she preferred those who came to her with suggestions about possible solutions to those problems.

Having met him previously, Julia knew Rupert Wilcox was more of a 'glass half empty' type and therefore more likely to draw attention to possible problems, rather than helping find solutions. Nevertheless, she also knew the audit was a necessary evil, so she asked her executive assistant to schedule the meeting for the end of the day when she had a spare half hour.

Julia's meeting with Rupert was comparatively brief. After he told her who and what he had seen in the basement car park the previous day, she tried to persuade him to allow her to investigate without any written reference to the incident in his audit report. As Julia expected, Rupert was only interested in identifying a problem and making a song and dance about it, rather than trying to find a solution. Rupert had found another bit of padding for his report, but it would be up to Julia to sort out the problem and record what she did to address the supposedly serious issue of a breach of the staff code of conduct.

*

Bob McEwan was not too surprised when he got a call from Julia Stewart the following morning, asking him to come to her office. He wondered if Julia wanted to discuss something to do with the merger of KBM and Corolla. Rumour had it some jobs might be on the line and he hoped it wouldn't be bad news. He relaxed a little when Julia greeted him warmly and suggested they sit on the two comfortable lounge chairs in her office, rather than at her desk.

"Tell me what you're working on these days, Bob," she said, smiling briefly to encourage him.

"I've got a couple of big projects on the go at the moment," Bob told her. "We're just putting the final touches to the product launch of the new range of chocolate bars from Scotchoc and I'm working on some ideas for an American-style soda pop ad campaign."

"So you're the client manager for at least two key accounts?" she asked.

"Those are the two big projects at the moment, but I'm the portfolio manager for all our clients in the food and drink sector, so there's no shortage of things to do," he replied, taking the opportunity to make sure Julia got the message that he was an industrious employee.

"I know you've been busy," Julia said, acknowledging the point Bob had made. "I've been doing the rounds recently, talking to people about the planned merger with Corolla, so I know just how hard you're working. From my discussions with our colleagues I know you're held in high regard, Bob. How long have you been with KBM?"

"More than seven years," said Bob.

Julia already knew that, but she wanted Bob to start thinking about his position. "That's quite a while in this type of business and your hard work is appreciated, but I think we may have a serious problem," she said, looking sternly at Bob. "Tell me about your relationship with Cathy Williamson."

To say Bob was surprised would have been an understatement. No one was supposed to know about Cathy and him. He had been caught off guard and Julia was sitting patiently, waiting for him to say something. It was obvious she knew he was involved with Cathy.

Bob sighed deeply. "To tell you the truth, I'm in love with Cathy," he confessed. "I think I fell for her when she first came to work here. I like her as a colleague, because she's so friendly and helpful, but there's much more to it. She brightens up my day and makes me feel like I could take on the world. She inspires me and I would do anything for her. I tried to keep my love for her a secret and I was fairly sure no one had noticed. Of course, Cathy knows I'm in love with her and I think she also has feelings towards me, but she's married and she told me she won't leave her husband. She admits he's a bit of a bad boy, but she seems determined to stick with him."

"Thanks for your honesty and for sharing your secret with me," said Julia. "Now tell me what you were doing with Cathy in the basement car park yesterday afternoon."

Bob was visibly shocked, but immediately realised he could be in serious trouble.

"Take your time," added Julia.

"We made love in the back of the van," admitted Bob. "I suppose someone must have found out?"

"Yes, unfortunately," said Julia. "The external auditor was sitting in his car, going over some paperwork. What I don't understand is why on earth did you use the van? It's company property."

"We didn't really stop to think about it," said Bob. "Yesterday was one of those days when we had some spare time and we just took a short break from work for ten minutes."

"But why can't you just be intimate in the comfort of your own home?" asked Julia. "You've told me you love Cathy and you're obviously in a relationship with her."

"It's complicated," replied Bob. "You see, we're not really in a relationship. The only times we get together are during the working day and occasionally on a Saturday afternoon at my place while her husband is at the football."