The Appointment 13

I thank my friends Sue, Angel and PapaGus for their assistance in preparing this the first of four new short tales for posting. A word of advanced warning on this one, I have visited this particular scenario before.

This short has appeared elsewhere on the Web under the title "Encounter" ©2010.

*

I had to admit that she was pretty! Much prettier than I'd expected her to be actually; considering whom she was married to, that is.

She must have instantly seen the red rose in my lapel as she entered the hotel bar, and came directly over to perch herself on the stool beside me.

"Hi, been waiting long?" she asked, with a confident smile.

"Er, well, a few minutes," I replied. I didn't want her to think I was too... er, eager.

She ordered a large scotch on the rocks from the barman, who'd come over as she'd been climbing onto the tall stool. I paid for it! "You don't have to," she'd said.

"I wouldn't feel right if I didn't," I replied.

Then we both sat in silence for what seemed to me to be a very long time.

"Well are we going to do this or not?" she eventually asked.

"Y-yeah, whenever you're ready," I replied nervously.

I'd never done anything like this before and the fact that I was a novice, must have been showing. Knocking her scotch back like an old soldier, she slid off the barstool and took hold of my arm, then gently guided me from the bar out into the hotel foyer.

I must admit that I felt somewhat proud, that I had such a beautiful stranger hanging onto my arm in a public place. Look, I ain't no god's gift to the females of this planet and I'm the first to admit it; mind you, I ain't no Quasimodo neither.

Crossing the expanse to the lifts, I noted that she seemed to momentarily lose her balance, then, inexplicably, she all-but collapsed against the lift wall as the doors closed.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"A little too much Dutch courage, I think. I should have made that last one something that doesn't have a kick behind it."

"You're pissed, aren't you?"

"You could say that! Double pissed really, from the alcohol I've consumed today, and pissed-off with what that arsehole has been doing for the last six months."

"Six months?" I mused to myself, had I been completely blind?

We were out of the lift by then, and making our way along the corridor to the specific room we'd pre-booked.

"I'm not so sure that this is a very good idea, if you're not fully in command of your faculties." I said as I put the card into the slot on the hotel room door.

"Shit, Donald. If I was fully in command of my faculties, I wouldn't bloody-well be here. I'd be out at the house loading one of his damned shotguns ready for the bastard to arrive home again. I've only got through these last few weeks by staying drunk most of the time."

Then she staggered across the room and collapsed in a heap on the bed.

I had some difficulty equating the woman who'd so confidently walked into the hotel bar just a short time before, with the inert figure lying on the bed. Honestly, I'd never seen anyone go from apparently stone cold sober, to completely legless in such a short period of time.

"Are you going to do me now?" she slurred, as I swung her legs up onto the bed to make her comfortable.

"Oh yeah!" I thought to myself, "Screwing non-compos mentis females is my favourite parlour trick!"

Once I was sure she was completely out for the count; I made a couple of minor adjustments to her clothing to ensure that she'd be comfortable during the night; then gently rolled her into the recovery position for safety's sake.

Then, taking a soft drink from the mini bar, I settled myself into the one comfy chair in the room to watch over her, and wait.

I wasn't sure which would come first, the woman recovering consciousness, or my wife and her lover exiting the room on the opposite side of the corridor. To tell you the truth I wasn't at all sure that I wanted to be there any more anyway.

But I was kind of trapped in that hotel room whether I liked the idea or not. I daren't leave the woman because she might well vomit and choke to death. I had no idea how much, or what she'd consumed earlier in the evening, and I'd been the last person seen with her. Consequently all eyes would be on me, if anything untoward happened to her.

And yet, I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the confrontation with my wife -- and her lover -- in such a public place as a hotel, on my own.

The hours passed slowly with only a faint snoring rising, now and again, from the inert figure lying on the bed, but with not a sound coming from the room opposite; I'd propped the door open so I could see and hear.

More than the odd other occasional hotel guest, looked-in on us through the open door, as they made their way to and from their own rooms; confusion clearly discernable on their faces.

Around seven-thirty in the morning, the woman made strange noise. When I looked, she was sitting up on the bed, staring back at me.

Then she looked down at her somewhat dishevelled clothing.

"You... we didn't; did we?" she asked reaching down and touching her hip.

I do believe to make sure that her knickers were still there.

"No, but I did loosen a button or two on the top of your dress and remove your shoes. It's not my habit to molest comatose females." I replied with a smile.

Then I noted that she wriggled her shoulders slightly.

"Sorry, I forgot. I slipped the catch on your bra as well. One handed, it's a trick I learnt in my youth. I thought it would be more comfortable for you."

"Neat trick, you'll have to demonstrate it to me again sometime when I'm... well, when I know what's going on around me. Have our lovers left yet?"

"You haven't heard any fireworks have you?"

"Well, I was so far gone that there could have been a bloody earthquake and I probably wouldn't have noticed!"

"Tell me, what was the point in all this? Why invite me here last night to join you in getting our own back on them, and then getting so pie-eyed that you wouldn't have remembered it anyway?"

"I don't know really. As I told you on the telephone, I've known what my husband's been doing with your wife for months now, but I never had the courage to confront him. I suppose I thought that if I offered to let you bed me, then we could... I don't know, not only get our own back, but confront our cheating spouses together.

"My problem was that I had to rely on Dutch courage. I suppose I'm lucky that you aren't a weirdo. The condition I was in last night, you could have done anything to me you wished."

"In my experience, Dorothy, that is your name, isn't it?"

She nodded.

"Well sex, or preferably making love, is far more enjoyable if both parties are compos mentis during the engagement."

"Engagement?" she exclaimed, "You make it sound like a war!"

"Not so much a war, Dorothy. But a major engagement that needs to be entered into with all the commitment one would use in warfare."

"Christ, what did I miss out on last night?"

"I'm not sure, maybe we can find out after we've ditched those two cheating buggers over the corridor."

"I'll not only take you up on that offer, but I promise that I'll be sober next time. Now bugger, I'd better get cleaned up, or they will think we have been at it all night as well."

She slid off the bed and after locating her handbag, disappeared into the en suite. I distinctly heard the lock click home after she closed the door.

It was almost nine o'clock before the door across the corridor opened and my wife backed slowly out of the room opposite, giggling, and with her lips tightly engaged on her lover's.

The flash of my camera very quickly got their attention.

"What the fuck?" My wife's lover shouted, but then he spotted Dorothy standing there beside me snapping away with her camera as well. "Dorothy, what are you doing here? Look, this isn't what it looks like!"

I wasn't really listening to what he said after that; I was somewhat confused by Lydia's reaction to seeing me standing there. After an expression of shock had come over her face, she'd kinda slowly melted down onto the floor and then curled up in the foetal position, crying silently.

I really wasn't expecting her to do that; I'd been all geared-up for one hell of a ding-dong. No one could ever describe Lydia as the type to try to roll up into a ball and try to pretend that she wasn't there.

You know, all I could think to say was, "Don't bother coming home, Lydia!"

Then I turned and walked away towards the lifts. It was only when the lift door closed that I realised that Dorothy was in there with me.

"Breakfast would be nice!" she said, with an odd smile on her face when we reached the ground floor.

"Sure, why not? Not much to dash home to now, is there?" I found myself replying.

Dorothy took a firm grip on my arm and then we headed for the hotel dinning room together.

===================================

Lydia didn't come home that day. Or any other day when I was around! Oh, she did go to the house the following day, all right! While I was at work, she not only cleared-out all her personal stuff; but anything else of value in the place that wasn't bolted down, as well. Some items of which actually belonged to our landlord.

Oh my, did Lydia look sick, when the judge divided our assets right down the middle. The flat had been rented, which meant there was no equity there, and where the hell she'd disposed of all the valuables, I have no idea. But I'm pretty sure she must have only got about "ten cents on the dollar on them" as our American friends say. It took Lydia months to come up with my share of the cash. And she only did then, after the Beak threatened Lydia with some serious jail time. Oh and of course she had to pay the landlord for his stuff as well.

Dorothy and I did end up in bed together, eventually; but only after both of our divorces had been finalised.

To be perfectly honest with you, I suppose we really should have thanked our respective first spouses. Because, without them, Dorothy and I would probably never have found each other.

Oh yeah, we share the same bed every night, nowadays!

Hey, that's something else we should thank her first husband for. The bugger paid for the house we're living in together, to this day. Yeah, marriage is on the cards, eventually. But for the moment, we're enjoying really getting to know each other.

No, we bought a nice new bed! What the hell kind of a bloke do you take me for?

Life goes on.