This is my 100th published story; I hope you enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
By the way, for those of you who hate cheaters of any type and it ruins a story for you don't go on -- try something else.
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It had been a bad week for me, Chad Minton -- well maybe even a bad month. My twenty four year old fiancée Charlotte Bronson had been acting squirrely for a while. During the week when this story starts she hit me with what would destroy almost any man's ego. "Chad, I really, really like you. In fact, I love you; but there's something missing. You just don't ring my bells when we have sex." Just what a twenty six year old guy who already had confidence issues when it came to romance would like to hear, huh?
Despite the fact that I choked up and turned red I was able to compose myself enough to get details. "Honey, your in-and-out stroking in my pussy seems perfunctory;" "you don't seem to be really into it when you suck my clitoris;" "your insistence on missionary position gets -- while not exactly boring -- but not exciting either;" and "sometimes you just don't seem to be into worshipping my tits;" were some of the really depressing things that she said.
I didn't know what to say -- except that I'd try harder. That wasn't the option she had in mind. "Chad, I'm going back home to Massachusetts for two weeks to take a break from us and think things over. We can come to a resolution when I get back."
A suburb of Boston is where her family is from. We were living in Orlando, Florida at the time; we shared an apartment. I thought that Charlotte was the love of my life, the only woman for me. While maybe our sex life wasn't the stuff of trashy romance novels, I thought that we had a deeper connection.
It was all that I could do not to shed some tears as we went to bed together Saturday night -- no sex, but some cuddling. I had a hard time getting to sleep -- Charlotte's melodious soft snores indicated that she didn't have the same problem.
Putting my big-boy pants on I took Charlotte to the airport Sunday, the next day, for her Massachusetts return and we parted with a much less than invigorating peck on the lips. The rest of the day Sunday I barely did anything but mope -- I couldn't even garner the energy to exercise, something that normally I did to work out issues.
Monday I had to get my act together for work. I have a bachelor's degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell, but I don't actually work in hotel management. Rather, I've always had an entrepreneurial bent and am the #2 person in Hotelier's Dream, LLC, a company that supplies hotels with a wide variety of products and services. We live in Orlando because the Orlando area has more hotels per capita than anyplace else in the United States. Hotelier's Dream doesn't service the Disney and Universal hotels but we do service many 3.5 to 4.5 star hotels in the area and in a short period of time (the company only started two years before I came on board) have developed a good reputation for prompt and reliable service. As part of my duties I am in charge of personnel and I pay my employees above market and can count on them to deliver exceptional service.
One of our best customers in the Westgate Lakes Resort; I sometimes go there to decompress because I have a very good relationship with all of the three assistant managers, and know all of the friendly bartenders at the sports bar there. Even though I normally don't drink anything except club soda or virgin pina colodas I tip well and always treat them with respect.
Westgate Lakes doesn't get many business travelers, but occasionally has some. After work the Monday after I dropped Charlotte off at the airport I ate dinner at the sports bar and then stayed sipping virgin pina coladas.
As I was moping in a corner of the sports bar a vivacious woman walked in. She didn't look like a typical guest. I say "vivacious" rather than "beautiful" because she was attractive more because of her spirited, lively & animated nature than her facial features and body (although she did have prominent mammaries). She was the type that made friends instantly.
Apparently she had already made friends the previous weekend with Shirley, one of the bartenders on staff who had inquired about my unusually dour demeanor earlier in the evening, because they greeted each other like old friends.
Perhaps one thing I should say about happily married Shirley -- she and other bartenders on duty when I had brought Charlotte there on occasion put up a good front, but it was obvious that there was something about Charlotte that they didn't like.
Occasionally I saw Shirley and the vivacious woman whispering to each other, and once Shirley even seemed to glance my way.
When I walked up to the bar for my third virgin pina coladas the vivacious woman looked at me and with a big smile on her face initiated a conversation. "You look like the guy from the 'Pina Colada Song' before he found out his lady liked getting caught in the rain," she chuckled; "but only VIRGIN pina coladas?" she snorted.
Given my mood under normal circumstances I would have replied something dismissive, or maybe even nasty, but because of her vivaciousness I just laughed. "I feel worse than I look," I mused.
"Tell you what, get a real pina colada and I'll talk you out of your funk -- I'm the best armchair shrink in the continental U. S." she smiled.
"Why not Alaska and Hawaii too?" I inquired, intrigued by her powerful upbeat personality.
"Lots of depressed people there so more fake psychologists per capita," she shot back.
Shirley placed a drink with an umbrella in front of me. "Vivian mentioned the real thing so this has Ron Zacapa XO in it, on the house," Shirley beamed. That particular rum has the reputation as one of the best -- and most expensive -- in the world.
So the vivacious woman's name was Vivian -- totally appropriate I thought. Vivian picked up her drink -- which looked like a rum swizzle -- and followed me to my table.
Vivian had the most sparkling personality of anyone I had ever met before. Even if she wasn't nice looking (which she was) and didn't have prodigious mammaries (which she did) anyone would have been enamored with her. From the way that she talked and the life experiences she related she probably was in her early 40s -- although about as well preserved as any 40 year old I had seen outside of some movie stars.
Without being asked Shirley brought us refreshed drinks every so often. I know that mine were no longer virgin, but I didn't care; talking to vivacious Vivian had brightened my mood considerably. In fact after my tale of woe to her Vivian actually had me laughing about the situation rather than crying.
After hearing about my situation Vivian had an entire string of stupid heartbreak puns that overcame my defenses and made me laugh. Two examples: "Why did the phone break up with the charger? It couldn't deal with the constant connection issues!; Love is blind but my breakup gave me 20/20 vision!"
I kept demurring that Charlotte hadn't "broken up" with me, but Vivian kept saying "get your head out of your ass -- she broke up with you and is boinking some guy in Boston right now."
Had a guy said that to me I probably would have gotten pissed, and maybe even decked him, but coming from Vivian it was almost humorous -- "almost" being the operative word.
Finally, apparently Vivian had enough of my lack of what she considered a grip on reality but what I considered skepticism, so she said "OK, call this Charlotte woman right now."
"On her cellphone?" I inquired -- the rum in the pina coladas was apparently causing a little lack of awareness.
"Yeah, and when it goes straight to voicemail we'll call her parents' house," Vivian grinned. I had already told Vivian that her youngest (of three) sister Debra was a High School senior still living with her parents Harold and Jill, all of whom, especially Debra, seemed to like me the three times that we'd met.
I called Charlotte's cellphone; damn if Vivian wasn't right, it went straight to voicemail. I didn't leave a message. I turned to Vivian and said "Don't you get tired of always being right?"
"Nah -- no guilt or boredom whatsoever," she snickered. Then she got out her cellphone and asked "What's her parents' land line number?"
I gave it to her. Then completely turning from jovial to serious as the phone on the other end had obviously been answered she said "Hello, this is Vivian from Charlotte's office. Could I speak to her please...This must be Debra, she's had so many nice things to say about you...Oh I bet that I know who she's out with, what's that guy's name...Yes, I figured as much; I told her not to do that to her fiancée but I knew she wouldn't listen...Yeah, I think it's a shame too...No, I just wanted to talk to her about an issue that came up that's right up her alley but I don't really want to bother her. I can find the answer to my question some other way...No, there's no reason to even tell her that I called...Thank you so much Debra and good luck with your college applications...Bye now!"
I guess that I already knew from Vivian's end of the conversation what was going on, but I had to ask anyway. "What's the story?" I glumly inquired.
"She's out with Vance. Sorry, dude; even though I expected it I hoped that it would turn out differently," Vivian replied.
Now the good mood that I had been in was destroyed; I was sure that the Vance that she was out with was her boyfriend in college, "Vance" not being a particularly common name.
Vivian hugged me, Shirley magically appeared with another pina colada, and the tenor of our conversation changed from jovial to pragmatic.
I'm a short hitter, so I know that I got drunk; but I don't remember much else of what happened the next while. I have a vague recollection of Tom -- the bartender on duty with Shirley at the sports bar that night -- and Vivian helping me out of the sports bar, but not much else.
The next thing that I clearly remember is waking up with a start, but without a hangover, in a strange environment. I believed that I was no longer intoxicated, but I wasn't sure where I was. I got my bearings within a few minutes and concluded that I was in one of the rooms at Westgate Lakes. I had been in rooms there many times in providing goods and services, but had never stayed overnight before.