British English spelling and grammar.
***
The commission
"I promise this will be the last time." I said.
"But you said that the last time." said Anne.
"And it would have been, but that deal failed, through. And it was no fault of mine. Anyway I don't have sex with those girls."
"You did with that little blonde, Tina."
"I thought we'd got past that. The Japanese guy, Tanaka, suddenly insisted we all did it in the same room; I had no choice. He got off watching everyone else. He never uses a condom, but I did -- which pissed him off by the way. We very nearly lost that contract too."
"There's always a choice."
The problem was that my wife Anne and I had a deal. I'm Owen and I'd, well to be honest, I'd broken that deal. My company did a lot of business with two large Japanese concerns. And when their guys came over to England to sign contracts, they liked there to be English girls available to sweeten the deal. And they had to be 'real English women' -- not whores or escorts. They particularly liked blondes for obvious reasons. And, in a similar vein, they usually specified petite. The Oriental contingent always comprised two men. So sometimes, we provided two girls, one for each of them; sometimes three, to include my participation. That had led to my downfall.
On that fateful occasion, right out of the blue, Mr Tanaka insisted on six people in his hotel room. He'd never done that before. He and his colleague took first pick of course. On previous occasions I'd discretely slipped away and let my girl go home unmolested. But that one time I was fucked; literally. I'd explained it all to Anne, and she took it very well under the circumstances. Later, I introduced her to Tina, who also apologised. What swung it was the big commission. Even with half of it set aside to boost my pension, what remained was enough to completely clear our mortgage, and finance a new car for Anne.
Oscar, my boss, always arranged discreet payment to the stable of ladies, keeping them on a retainer. I don't know how he acquired these willing participants, but he was sure they were better than anything our competitors could provide. We still didn't win every deal though. The ladies were not exactly call girls. Two worked for us and were creeping ahead in the promotion stakes. Two others were divorced horny and welcomed a little extra income. But Jasmine, the most glamorous blonde, who was invariably the first pick, was married. Apparently she used to go home and tell her husband all the gory details of what she'd done. And she did everything. One time she even contrived to pretend to put her phone on charge and videoed her entire sex session for her old man. I remembered Marge's line in an episode of CSI: 'Whatever blows your skirt up'.
This time Oscar was insistent; the current deal could set our company up for life. He said we must do anything and everything it took to win this contract. Anne was uneasy but coming round to the idea, as it would net me the biggest commission ever. Getting enough money to buy us a holiday home on the Spanish coast, convinced her it really was my last time. Early retirement beckoned.
Two weeks before the big signing, Anne had an idea.
"Owen, you said it's not Tanaka coming this time?"
"No, it's a Mr Adachi. Most times their contract manager, Mr Tanaka, signs. Otherwise it's Adachi, the sales manager. He's been here before and is bringing Mr Sato, his sidekick."
"And Tanaka is the one who insisted on the orgy."
"It was hardly an orgy. It was what the swingers call 'same room fun'. But Tanaka is the one who likes to watch. Other occasions with him, we start off at a strip club."
"And what do we know about Adachi; any little foibles?"
"He's specifically asked for Jasmine again, she's his favourite. I don't think you've ever met her; she works in our sales department."
"Who else are you providing?"
"There'll be Tina again; Sato asked for her. And another blonde called Nora, nominally for me. Though every time she attends, she calls herself Naomi. Who knew Naomi is a Japanese name? Adachi says he wants to go to a karaoke. There's one at The Borough Arms, next to their hotel."
"Do you know anything about their sexual preferences?"
"No. Tanaka's the only one I saw in action. He seemed to like his girl on top. Probably so he could look around and see everyone else at it. Why do you ask?"
"I want you to ditch this Nora / Naomi."
"Why?"
"I can book that Thursday and Friday as holiday and take her place. I have a free dinner, a night in a fancy hotel, a free breakfast, and I get to keep an eye on you!"
I thought about it.
"Actually that's rather clever. Jasmine and Tina are their choices, and they'd have no interest in you anyway -- no offence. But you're tall with black hair. Are you sure you don't mind being the one who's not picked for the Oriental team?"
"I'll survive; I'll just have to make do with you!"
Everything was going to plan. The six of us had a great dinner in the hotel. No wine as we needed to have clear heads for tomorrow's signing. We sat in our pairs: Adachi with Jasmine, Sato with Tina and me with Anne. Tonight she called herself Hannah. Tina was the only one who knew we were married, and promised not to let on. Anne was glamorous, but stayed the appropriate side of slutty. Her backless dress came to mid thigh. And the material was substantial enough to hide the fact she was braless. The black stockings and matching g-string were for my benefit later, when the other four retired.
After dinner we made our way, arm in arm, to The Borough Arms. There, all three girls went for gin and tonic. The Japanese guys chose draught Boddington's; fascinated by its creamy texture. It seemed polite to join them though I'm not keen. Suddenly they went silent, and Adachi looked unhappy, when some guy started to sing 'Old time Rock and Roll'.
"What's this?"
"You did say you wanted a karaoke."
This was worrying. Surely we wouldn't lose the contract because someone was murdering Bob Seger?
"But in Japan, we don't don't do it this way. We have private rooms and sing with our friends."
"Sorry, in England it is public."
"Then how do they make money?"
