BUZZZZZZZZ
Steve ran his electric hedge trimmers along the top of the hedge outlining the front lawn of the apartment building. As the building's landlord, he had the unfortunate job of filling in for the gardener when the man called in sick. The summer's hot sun beat down, and Steve eyed the small patch remaining. After this, lunch and a beer, he thought.
"Shut your mouth and stop giving me that nonsense!!" Steve heard a shout as a small family began coming up the front walk. He saw a family of his tenants, husband and wife obviously engaged in a heated argument in front of their two small children, an older boy and a slightly younger girl.
"You're not getting more money to go wasting on stupid clothes. I give you enough clothes. I don't care what Aishwarya can buy!" Ravi raged at his wife. The black, wavy hair on his head pulsed as he shook his head at his wife. The man's wife, slightly shorter than him at 5'9, was a thin beauty, luxurious dark hair bobbing in a short pony tail down her neck, her lithe curves wrapped in a colourful sari she liked to make sway as she walked.
"Whoa, hey Ravi, Amrita," Steve greeted. "It's pretty hot to get heated up!"
"Hello Steve," Ravi said. Ravi's wife Amrita dutifully glanced downwards. "I can't be giving all my money for shopping, right?"
"Right!" Steve agreed, "Especially since, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that rent is due."
"Oh, yes," Ravi groaned. "More money. Ok, no problem. I will send it by tonight."
"Thanks muchly" Steve responded, his eyes following Amrita's swaying figure as the family proceeded into the building.
[I'd like to see that hot little number get treated better than that] Steve thought. [So she doesn't get any spending money, does she?] Steve finished up his gardening and continued with his day. Thinking about Amrita's swaying walk kept him warmer than the summer day by itself.
After supper, around 8:00, Steve was sitting on his couch watching TV when his bell rang. Opening the door he found Amrita standing there in the same, body-clinging sari he saw her in earlier.
"Ah...hello, Mr. Steve" the dark wife stuttered nervously. She never seemed to know how to talk to men other than her husband, and Steve suspected she wasn't allowed to find herself in the position of talking to other men. "I...I have rent here for you. Ravi would come but he had work." Amrita held out an envelope to Steve, some of her many bangles rattling on her slender wrist.
"Hey Amrita!" Steve smiled. "Come on in, and it's not "Mr." Steve, just Steve is fine."
Amrita stood holding the envelope looking poleaxed. "Come...come inside?" she whispered.
"Sure, I was watching the game on TV here, have a seat" Steve led the confused woman into his family room. The married woman looked around, seemingly surprised that she was walking in to Steve's apartment. To sooth her fears, Steve acted confident and commanding, sitting back on his sofa and patting the seat next to him.
"Come on, Amrita, I wanted to ask you something" he said.
"Oh...ok, I guess..." Amrita blushed a little and stared down at her sandals. She gingerly sat next to her landlord and placed the envelope on her lap, holding her gaze downwards.
"So earlier I couldn't help overhear you coming back home" Steve started, the beginnings of a plan working in his mind. He'd have to be very careful here. "It sounded like your husband doesn't really respect you much, and doesn't let you have your own money to do things."
"Well..." The wife stammered, "well...is his choice."
"Yeah, I guess" Steve shook his head. "But it would be nice for you to have a source of money of your own, you know, so you can do some things that YOU like."
"Well...I have no job" Amrita mumbled.
"Right, I see" Steve said. "Well...about that...what if there were something you could do to lower the rent that's due for your apartment, just by a little?"
"Oh...husband would keep extra money," Amrita broke in.
"Well," Steve went on, "if the actual rent due to ME was the same, you know, the $2500, maybe YOU could be in charge of bringing me the envelope each month, and I could find myself taking a few hundred out of the envelope and giving it to you. That goes in YOUR purse."
"You...you would do that?" Amrita beamed. "What...what do I do for that?"
[So far so good] Steve thought...
"Well," he smiled, "As you can see, I have no wife, no lady..."
"You...you want to marry?"
"Oh hell, no" Steve gasped. "At least, not now. No, no, I was thinking about something else."
"You were thinking...?" Amrita urged.
[Cripes] Steve thought. [She hasn't been around the block many times has she? I'm gonna have to spell this out a bit for her...]
"Well, actually, I was thinking that maybe we could enjoy each other in private, you know, without clothes..."
"Ohh!" Amrita's thin eyebrows climbed her forehead. "Ohh! Husband would kill me!"
"Well, of course we would keep it very quiet. You know, no one would ever know. Just a short time here, then money in your purse!"
"Ah...ah..." Amrita stammered, "I...don't know Mr. Steve...Steve. Never have I done that before, with someone not husband."
"Of course," Steve calmly smiled at her. "Listen, it's up to you, you can say no, I'll just have to keep the rent. You can think about it, ya know, let me know!"
"Oh...ok" the startled wife gasped. "Please...please don't tell husband."
"Ha, NEVER!!" Steve told her. "This is just for you, Amrita."
"Ok...ah...ok...I should go now..." Amrita stammered. Steve saw her out the door and returned to his game.
Two days later, about 6 PM, Ravi and Amrita's neighbors in the apartments next to them could hear Ravi screaming at his wife again through the walls.
"I told you you get no more money!!" Ravi yelled. "Your place is here cooking for the kids and me, not out shopping with your cousins! You think I work hard every evening so you can go shopping?" on and on he went.
[Asshole] Amrita thought, dropping her head at the usual onslaught from her husband. [You are an asshole to me. Women should not be prisoners to their husbands these days...]
Around 8PM, Steve's bell rang again. This time he was sitting through an action movie on his streaming service. He hopped up to answer the door.
"Amrita!" he greeted the lady at his door. "Hey there! Come on in!" He noticed that the married lady had a strained look on her face. [Uh oh...] Steve thought. [She and Ravi have been at it again I bet...]
Steve enjoyed the view of Amrita's swaying stride into his apartment. Like usual, the hourglass form of the lithe beauty was tightly wrapped in a colourful sari and her hair was swishing back and forth in a raised pony tail. Hoop earrings matched the gold bangles she wore. Steve closed the door behind her and accompanied her to the sofa, where they both sat in silence for a minute.
"You said..." Amrita began, pausing as if she wasn't sure how to proceed. "You said that I come see you sometimes, and you give me back some money?"
"Well yeah, sure, but it has to be what you want. I'm not forcing you to do anything, ok?"
"I see," the married woman nodded. "How much money, and how many times?"
"Well, we can talk about that" Steve responded. "I could take out maybe two or three hundred from the envelope each month, and maybe we could do, let's see...what about two...um...sessions...per week?"
"FOUR hundreds for me" Amrita urged. "And maybe I can do two sessions per week. Maybe one session some weeks."
[Geez, the lady can actually bargain] Steve thought. "Well OK! I guess that would work!"