Veronica was looking through her closet for the dress she purchased
two weeks ago. She wanted to look perfect for the cocktail party and dinner out with her husband, Hunter, at a top Center City restaurant.
Veronica, a 33-year-old, 5'10", former gentleman's club entertainer with ruby red hair, was ready to cut loose. She was looking forward to a night out. She and Hunter could certainly use it. Their love life was floundering, and she was horny. She felt fortunate she was able to find a local sitter that she both trusted with the kids and could stay until midnight.
A month ago, Veronica ended her six month, steamy, daytime, secret affair with Zach, the ass conquering, pot dealing, bartender from Big Boat Bar. The perpetually broke Zach became boring, always preoccupied with bagging his next piece of ass. Veronica simply stopped returning his calls and texts. Zach must have taken the hint because he stopped calling and texting.
She thought it was time to rebuild her romance with Hunter. Enjoying an intimate dinner with him would be a good start. But first she would spend an hour at a charity cocktail event, chatting up Hunter's senior partners from the law firm, and their well-heeled business clients, holding onto Hunter's arm with a smile plastered on her face.
Veronica hoped Seth and Anna would be able to join them for dinner. She assumed Anna would be going with Seth and wished she had tried to connect with her about going downtown together, but she had forgotten, and time was short.
Veronica found what she was looking for in her crowded bedroom closet and tried it on. It was a red lace cocktail dress with a plunging neckline that fit snugly against her hips and ended just above her knees.
The small red rose tattoo on the inside of her right breast would be visible as the cut of the dress would barely contain her ample cleavage. Veronica loved the look and knew Hunter and every other man would too. After trying it on, she took it off and changed back into her casual clothes and joined her kids downstairs until the babysitter arrived.
By 5:15 pm, Veronica was set. She ordered a rideshare and went upstairs to change into her dress. A few minutes later, her ride arrived. She walked downstairs, said a quick goodbye to her kids and the sitter and was off.
Hunter stood over the sink in the men's bathroom at work
, combing his hair. It was 5:30 pm on a Monday evening in March. He just brushed and flossed his teeth and was getting ready to walk down the street to the Hotel Ranstead for a 6:00 pm cocktail party fundraiser benefitting a local charity that provides social services to homeless families.
Hunter's law firm purchased ten tickets. Three senior members of the firm were to attend and only one was bringing his wife. Junior lawyers at the firm were offered the remaining six tickets. Hunter snapped up two for him and his wife, Veronica.
Tonight, he would have the chance to meet the leaders of some of the firm's top business clients. Hunter hoped to soon become the first junior lawyer at the firm in many years to make partner.
The tall and handsome Hunter had already made a big impression on the firm's senior partners with all his billable hours and his gorgeous, sexy wife, who they were always asking about even though they never even remembered the names of the spouses of the other young attorneys.
Hunter decided his next move was to show off his sexy wife to the firm's business clients to get them talking about her too. Creating an echo chamber between his bosses and firm clients about his brilliance as a lawyer, and his wife's sexiness would surely help him close the deal to become a partner.
His professional goals for the evening were straightforward. First, greet the three senior partners in attendance to demonstrate his commitment to supporting the firm's philanthropic efforts. Second, make sure his bosses and clients hear him say he will be going back to the office after the event to finish preparing for the Morso waterfront lawsuit depositions the next day, to demonstrate his commitment to outworking everyone else.
Other junior lawyers were also working late. Seth told his wife, Anna, not to bother coming downtown for the event because he would only be stopping by to scarf some food, and say hi to the senior partners, before heading back to the office to work late.
Hunter chose a different path. He did not to tell Veronica he was going back to the office. She was under the impression they were going out for dinner after the event, as they had secured a sitter until midnight. If he told her they were only going to the hour-long charity event and nothing else, she would never bother to get all dressed up and venture into town from the suburbs.
Hunter figured Veronica would be a little angry, but he would promise to reschedule soon while suggesting she get a rideshare home and use the delivery app to order dinner from wherever she wanted.
Hunter finished primping and soon was off to the Hotel Ranstead.
Hunter waited for Veronica on the ground floor of the hotel
so they could walk into the event together. She arrived at 6:15 pm. The door attendant opened the large door for her, which led her through the hall to the ground floor elevator bank, where Hunter was waiting.
"You look spectacular, Veronica!" Hunter said with pride as he saw his wife in her sexy new cocktail dress.
"Oh, thank you, dear!" Veronica said, as she smiled at her husband.
They got into the elevator and Hunter pushed the button for the lobby level.
"So have you picked a place for us to have dinner tonight?" Veronica asked Hunter.
"Oh, there are a lot of options." Hunter said, evasively. "Let's talk about it after we make the rounds at this event."
They walked out of the elevator on the lobby level, through the lobby, past the bar and restaurant toward the banquet room. After checking in at the welcome table, Hunter and Veronica walked into the large, crowded room, picking up glasses of white wine from a server's tray.
Hunter spotted two senior partners near the bar, Douglas and Vernon, and nudged Veronica, pointing her in their direction. They made their way through the crowd of near overflow attendees. The two law partners were talking to two other older men in tailored suits.
The older partner, Vernon, tall, gray haired and thin, turned from his conversation with a similarly tall, but larger framed man of about his same age and spoke to him as he held out his hand toward Hunter.
"Roger, this is Hunter and his lovely wife Veronica. Hunter is the young dynamo at the firm, I was telling you about. He's taking the lead on your case."
As Vernon let go of Hunter's hand, he leaned in to give Veronica a hug as Roger stuck his hand out and gave Hunter a firm handshake.
"Pleasure to meet you, young man. I'm Roger Morso."
"Hello Roger!" A confident Hunter replied while returning the firmness of the handshake. "Meet my wife, Veronica."
Veronica immediately recognized Roger as a frequent patron of Darla's, the local gentlemen's club where she worked when she was single, only ten years ago. In fact, Roger was one of the two patrons from the club she went on a date with, outside of work. Though he was married at the time, they fucked that night, in a room in the very hotel in which they now stood.
Veronica smiled and held her hand out to the man, more than twice her age. As soon as they made eye contact, Veronica knew Roger recognized her.
"The pleasure is all mine!" Roger responded to Hunter as he held out his large hand, smiling broadly at her, but not divulging their shared secret.
Hunter looked on with pride, as the powerful businessman, an important client of his firm, stood seemingly captivated by his wife's beauty. As he stood next to his sexy wife, chatting with one of the firm's top leaders and their most important client, Hunter was certain he made the right call, in having Veronica come downtown to join him, even if it was only for an hour.
The other senior partner, Douglas, a heavy-set man in his early sixties, turned from his conversation with a short, smartly dressed, scrawny older man, around seventy years of age, like Vernon and Roger.
"Hello Hunter, my good young man!" Douglas said as he shook his hand, before leaning over and greeting Veronica with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, making sure to lean in enough to feel Veronica's huge boobs pressed against his chest.
"Hunter, meet Denny Prick, CEO of Big Manufacturing Supply, another valued client of our firm!"
"Mr. Prick, it is an honor, sir."
"Oh, please!" The man, only 5'7" and considerably shorter than Hunter and Veronica, replied, as he stuck his hand out. "Call me Denny!"
Veronica immediately recognized Denny as the other patron with whom she went on a date when she worked at the club. That was a far tawdrier evening. It began with dinner and drinks and ended with her sucking him off in his Rolls Royce around the corner from her apartment building while he spoke to his wife on his cell phone, telling her he was driving home after working late. He handed her ten one-hundred-dollar bills as he pulled around to the front of her building and said good night.
"It is great to meet you, Denny!" Hunter said. "Meet my wife, Veronica."
Denny turned to Veronica and did a double take, making it obvious that he recognized her.
Veronica blushed and nervously shook Denny's hand, further remembering the days when he would surreptitiously walk into Darla's late at night, by himself, and buy couch dances from her. She had probably given the generous tipper, Denny, about a dozen couch dances over the two years she worked at the club.
"I know you from somewhere!" Denny said to her, trying to place her. "Did you ever work at my company?"
Veronica nervously smiled back at Denny, hoping he would not embarrass her by mentioning Darla's Gentleman's Club.
"No, I did not." Veronica answered, not sure what else to say.
Hunter held his smile but had a fleeting thought that Denny could have recognized Veronica from Darla's.
"So, Hunter." Roger said in front of everyone. "How's my case going? Those New York bastards are trying to fleece me!"
"We're on top of it, Roger! We are deposing their risk mitigation team in the morning. I'm heading back to the office after this event for the rest of the night to ensure we are more than prepared!"
Veronica's nervous smile turned to a frown as she essentially heard Hunter tell his client that the two of them would not be going out to dinner after all.
"Good!" Roger replied. "My General Counsel, Nathan, tells me you guys have this under control."
"We have a convincing case, Roger." A confidant Hunter replied. "I was telling Vernon that we may have enough evidence to file a countersuit."
"That's what I like to hear!" Roger bellowed. "That firm is in disarray. They just fired some of their top talent. I'm about to hire one of them, Jameer Billings. He'll give us all the dirt we need on those SOB's!"
The men all laughed at Roger's bravado. Veronica quietly seethed next to Hunter, angry he had not told her they would not be going out to dinner, and uncomfortable, in front of two men with whom she had one-night stands, in exchange for cash, ten years ago.
Denny announced his drink was empty and Douglas finished his drink as well. They led the way for Vernon and Roger to get refills.
Hunter began scanning the room, looking for the third senior partner, Larry. Veronica tugged at his arm.
"Hunter, what do you mean you are going back to work? We have a sitter!" She said, in a hushed but angry voice. "You said we were going out to dinner!"
Hunter looked at Veronica as if he could not understand what she was talking about.
