Melissa looked around, ticking items off a mental checklist. Laundry, done, dishes done, vacuuming and general cleaning done, everything done except shopping and that could wait. Time for some coffee. She went to plug in the electric kettle.
Three months married, Melissa was happy with the world.
Being married was fun, in Melissa’s opinion. She was out from under rather restrictive parents, enjoyed the companionship of a loving husband, could set up the unit the way she wanted and had freedom to do what she wanted with her leisure time.
If pushed, Melissa would have admitted that sex wasn’t all she had expected it to be, but Bill seemed to enjoy it, and she found it quite pleasurable.
Money might be a little tight but, as long as nothing unexpected happened, they were making ends meet. She expected that she’d be able to find a job soon, and that would help take the strain off their finances.
As far as Melissa was concerned, all was right with her world.
That was the point at which all the lights went out. General blackout or her unit specifically, she wondered, heading towards the fuse box. Seeing the main circuit breaker had been tripped, she flicked the switch. The lights flickered on and promptly went out again as the circuit breaker snapped open again. Resetting had the same result.
Melissa called Bill and explained the problem. She heard a muffled curse at the other end, then Bill looked up the number for an electrician he had used before.
“Give him a call and explain the problem,” Bill told her. “He’ll probably come out straight away, seeing you have no power at all. Don’t get in his way while he’s there. Let him get in and then get out. The less time he’s there, the less he’ll charge, so don’t go offering him coffee or anything. And don’t pay the bill yet. Ask him to leave a bill so I can budget for it”
“I’m hardly likely to offer him coffee when I don’t have power to boil the water, neither do I have any money on me,” pointed out Melissa.
Hanging up Melissa called the electrician and explained, receiving a promise that he’d be out as soon as possible.
Melissa settled down to watch TV while waiting, then said a few words to herself about idiots as the TV remained stubbornly off. She considered listening to music on her smart phone, but realised if she drained the battery, she had no way to recharge. Muttering a few more words she found a book and settled down to wait.
An hour or so later there was a knock on the door and Melissa was relieved to find the electrician there.
“Morning,” he said with a smile. “Mrs. Hampton? You called for an electrician. Call me Gordon.”
“Oh, yes. Come on in,” replied Melissa. “I’m Melissa. The circuit breaker has popped and if I reset it, it just pops again immediately.”
“Sounds like a short,” Gordon told her. “What were you doing when it happened?”
“Doing? I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Think carefully. You wouldn’t have just been standing doing nothing. From the look of the house you must have been doing some housework at some stage. Take it from there until you lost power.”
“There isn’t anything after that. I’d finished the housework put the kettle on for some coffee and there was no power.”
Gordon nodded thoughtfully.
“Kitchen this way,” he asked, and on receiving a nod headed towards it.
Trailing Gordon into the kitchen Melissa saw him walk over and unplug the electric kettle. Returning to the fuse box, Gordon flicked the master circuit breaker, returning full power.
Smiling at the startled Melissa, Gordon explained.
“Your electric kettle has a short in it. It’ll cost more than it’s worth to repair it, so just toss it out and get a new one.”
“That’s it? That’s all that was wrong?”
“Mm-hmm. Quite a common problem. Next time you have an outage like this, try the electric kettle first. If it’s ok, you can then probably turn off all appliances and then turn them on one at a time to see which one blows the fuse. Nine times out of ten, it’ll be the kettle.”
Gordon reached into shirt pocket and brought out a small book.
“Are you going to settle up now, or do you want me to leave an invoice,” he politely asked.
“You’ll have to leave an invoice. My husband will take care of it. Two minutes work and you didn’t even have to unpack a single tool,” grumbled Melissa.
“Doesn’t seem fair, does it?” sympathised Gordon. “But I did have to make the trip here.”
“I know,” sighed Melissa. “It’s just that money is a bit tight and Bill is going to go spare when he finds out it was just the kettle causing it. He’ll say I should have thought of that and checked it, but how could I have known?”
“True,” said Gordon, flicking a glance at her. Then he took a longer look. Now that his mind was no longer on a potential work problem he had time to take a proper look, and he liked what he saw.
Melissa was quite a pretty little thing, dressed for the warm weather in shorts and a t-shirt. A pair of very nice breasts were pressed firmly against the t-shirt, and it was thin enough that Gordon could see the slight bumps where her nipples were pressed against the material. From the look of the shorts, Gordon decided, they’d been painted on. He could see the faintest outline of panties under the shorts and Melissa was showing a very nice camel-toe to the world.
He paused in the writing of his invoice, giving Melissa a more considered look.
“You know,” he said thoughtfully, “I suppose we could forget about an actual invoice and you could pay me for my time via the barter system.”
“The what system?” asked Melissa, intrigued.
“The barter system. It’s where I do something for you and then you do something for me in exchange.”
“Oh, that’s sounds reasonable,” said Melissa thoughtfully, “but what could I do for you in exchange? Bake a cake or something? I’m still learning to cook.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of something else,” murmured Gordon, and reaching over he brushed the palm of his hand across Melissa’s t-shirt, feeling the soft roundness of her breasts.
Melissa promptly bridled.
“Really, you men,” she said with a slight gasp. “Do all of you have your minds permanently turned towards sex? I just don’t see why you all get so excited about it. I mean, it’s nice, but why does every man seem to run around desperate for it?”
“Because we enjoy it, and we like seeing a woman enjoy it when we do it with her,” Gordon said with a laugh. “Don’t you enjoy it?”
Melissa shrugged. “I can take it or leave it,” she said. “I mean, like I said, it’s nice, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.”
“I’m not asking you to go out of your way,” pointed out Gordon. “After all, we’re both right here. Do I take it your answer is no?”
“Umm, I didn’t say no, exactly,” temporised Melissa. “How much is the bill going to be?”
“Good god. That much?” she gasped, when told.
“It was an emergency call out,” pointed out Gordon, “and there is a minimum service charge.”
“I’m not sure how Bill will react if I tell him I paid for your services by having sex with you,” Melissa said.
Gordon blinked at that. Tell her husband? She had to be kidding!
“Ah, I wouldn’t bother telling him, if I were you,” said Gordon. “Just say I was already in the vicinity and as it was just a two minute call I didn’t bother to charge. Tell him I consider it good publicity for the next time you need an electrician.”
Melissa dithered. Did she dare try to settle by having sex with the man? She supposed she shouldn’t tell Bill; men did get a bit queer about sex. Why not? It wouldn’t take long. In her experience she’d be longer getting undressed and dressed again, compared to the actual sex.
Gordon watched the play of emotions crossing Melissa’s face. He was quite certain that she had almost decided to go with it, but didn’t know how to say so. Time to give her a bit of a hand, he decided.
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll just start by petting you slightly, and you can call a halt at any time.”
