Note: If you are unwilling to read this whole story, don't waste your time writing a comment. It will look out of place and foolish.
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Marcie and Jeff left for the party at the home of Marci's boss and her husband with different attitudes. Marcia was a social animal who liked mixing and talking with people. Her smile seldom left her face and she always charmed most of the people she came in contact with. At 27, she had changed jobs eight months previously. She had been a rising star at a small advertising agency as an account executive until this larger agency had recruited her away. Part of her success had been that she built close relationships with her clients. Once she got to know them and what they wanted to achieve, her intelligence and creativity came to the forefront. Since the change, she had struggled a little as she had to learn about new clients and their needs. At the six month anniversary of her change, she was beginning to feel comfortable with several of the new clients and her talents were beginning to shine through again. She was harder on herself than others were, but that was the way she was.
This party was the first time that the owner of her agency had hosted a party since Marci had been hired and she wanted to shine with her new peers and clients. The new dress she had bought for the occasion was intended for her to be noticed and Jeff felt certain that only a dead person would fail to pay attention to her tonight. It showed a decent amount of cleavage without being excessive. The skirt had a number of panels that flared or moved as she did. Even walking to the door, she radiated movement and sensual grace. She had spent two hours at the salon earlier to get her hair and nails perfect. For her, it was show time and she was ready to make her entrance.
As a counterpoint, Jeff was wearing a cream colored turtleneck sweater with a light camel hair sport coat and dark brown slacks. For him, show time was to stand in the wings and raise and lower the curtain for the stars. On a professional scale, Marcie and he were about equal. The difference was that she was a show room girl and he was a back room boy. He was a business analyst with an investment banking firm. His show time people did the schmoozing and brought him paper and digital files on companies that wanted their recommendations sent to their wealthy clients. His front room people took clients to elegant buffets and courted them with the charm and finesse. Jeff's idea of a really good business lunch was to share a platter of bar-b-que and a pitcher of beer with the Operations Manager of a company. He could learn more about a company in an hour with one of these guys than he could at a four hour buffet with the owners or managers of the firm. In his mind, he specialized in separating the wheat from the chaff and passed along his recommendations on how to use the wheat and where to dump the chaff.
Jeff was 28 and had worked his way up from a data analyst at the firm to his present position. While not as glamorous as the front room folks, he liked to think that they respected his work. That satisfied him. As he and Marcie walked up to the elegant door of the large house, he knew what his function would be today. It was his job to cover Marcie's back. He would keep a drink in her hand after making sure that it was not overly strong or enhanced with anything but the proper ingredients. He would make sure that she met any important people that she might have overlooked. And most importantly, he needed to watch her to insure that the barracudas, which inevitably are at these parties, would not be able to sink their teeth too deeply into her.
After six years of marriage and escorting her to many parties like this, he felt comfortable in his role and she invariably thanked him when they got home and compared notes. This was usually the next morning as she usually left a party with a great deal of pent up energy which she took out on Jeff in bed when they got home. His only concern today was that he didn't know any of the people here and would have to take his time figuring out who was safe and who was on the prowl. Previously, he had known who the regulars were and was successful at keeping them at bay.
This was not intended to be a dinner party, but according to Marcie, her boss always had a great array of hors d' ouvres and things to eat. As a result, neither of them had eaten anything since lunch. Jeff knew from experience that the first two hours would be relatively calm and safe. People would be meeting and chatting, but also just scouting the field of attendees. After a couple of hours, both the tigers and tigresses would begin to focus on their chosen prey for the evening. That would give him a chance to eat something and to figure out who to keep an eye on.
With this confidence, he rang the door bell which was immediately opened by an extremely beautiful woman who was probably five or six years older than Jeff or Marcie were. Besides her obvious physical beauty, she had a smile and a pair of eyes that would penetrate even the coldest of personalities. She immediately took Marcie's hands and pulled her into a hug and cheek kiss as hostesses often do.
"Marcie; you look fabulous. I just love that dress. But you know that it isn't nice to upstage the hostess."
"Give it a rest, Electra; no one can upstage you and you know it. Electra, this is my husband, Jeff. Jeff, this is the woman I always talk about, Mrs. Electra Benson."
Jeff felt Electra's eyes totally absorb everything about him as he replied, "It is a pleasure, Mrs. Benson. I feel that I know you because of all of the things Marcie has told me about you."
"Thank you Jeff; I feel I know about you too because Marcie talks about you frequently. Now hold out your hand." He did as she asked. Then she gave it a light swat. "Consider yourself punished. My name is Electra or Elec. If you call me any other name but those, the next punishment will be on your ass and won't be nearly as gentle." Marcie giggled as Jeff turned pink.
"Elec?" He asked as he tried to regain his composure.
"Yes, my sorority sisters thought that Electra would scare off half of the male population of the school, so they called me Elec for short. I kind of liked it, so I kept it. At work, I am Electra but here, I am Elec to those who I don't intimidate. Do I intimidate you, Jeff?"
He could hear the tease in her seductive voice and could feel Marcie's smiling face watching closely as Jeff tried to wiggle out of that trap. "Find me in an hour and I will tell you. For now, I will go with Electra but reserve the right to change that later."
"Oh my, Marcie; he is a charmer. Come in and let me introduce you to some people you need to know. Jeff, you can get out of my dog house by getting us each a drink. I will have a white wine. Tell the bartender that it is for me." The smile never left her face and the tease was still in full force. Marcie winked at him with a smile as Electra led her into the main living room. Jeff followed and discovered a full and elegant bar built into one wall of the very large room.
The bartender was probably a college student, but he seemed to know what he was doing as he prepared a small pitcher of margaritas for another group. As Jeff waited, he looked the bar over and saw that it was well stocked with good brands. That alone gave him confidence.
Then the young man turned to him and smiled, "What can I get for you, sir?"
"Thank you. I would like a margarita, light on the tequila, for my wife and Electra would like a white wine."
He grinned and replied as he prepared another margarita. "I see that you are Electra's designated cover for the night."
"Oh, did I miss something?"
"Probably, Electra doesn't trust many people to get her a drink. Too many guys try to add some enhancer to drinks. So she usually selects someone that she trusts and will ask you to get her what she wants. Usually with a small group, Mr. Benson over there gets them for her but tonight, they both have clients here and will both be busy. So she has designated you to see that she only gets wine and nothing else."
"Smart woman. Since you seem to understand the game, do you see the woman that she is introducing around?" He nodded. "That is my wife and I also want to see that she only gets what the recipe calls for. If anyone else asks for a drink for her, just get my attention and I will take care of it." I took out a twenty dollar bill and slipped it into his jacket pocket. "Do we understand each other?"
