Friends With Benefits 75

I confess that I was disappointed when Janine got offered the job across in the States. Not that it was disappointing for her. For her it was a fantastic opportunity. And she deserved it. Totally. But it was disappointing for me. Even though we were only casual fuck buddies, it just worked. What had started out as a one-time-only thing after we had probably both consumed rather too much wine at a particularly boring wedding, had, over the space of almost three years, turned into something that fitted perfectly with our busy lives.

'We shall have to investigate mutual online masturbation,' Janine said. And she laughed.

'Not quite the same,' I said.

Janine took another sip of the Jack Daniel's Single Barrel Select that she had picked up, duty free, on her recent trip to finalise the details of her appointment. 'No. I suppose not,' she said.

'Not that I have anything against masturbation.'

Janine smiled. 'Perhaps you will have to get yourself invited to another boring wedding then.'

'Oh? Why? Will you be there?'

'No. At least I don't think so. But there's bound to be someone there who will be happy to become your playmate.'

As it turned out, there was a distinct shortage of weddings. Boring or otherwise. But, a month or so after Janine headed off to Philadelphia, I received an invitation to a dinner to celebrate 40 years of 'The Watchman'. To tell the truth, I was a little surprised when the invitation arrived in my inbox. I had only held the position of Editor-in-Chief at 'The Watchman' for a bit over two years. In terms of longevity, I hardly qualified as 'inner circle'.

I was still trying to make up my mind whether to accept or not when I got a call from Jocelyn Meak. 'Did you get your invitation to the dinner?' she asked. 'Barbara says she hasn't heard from you.'

'Oh... umm... yes, I got it. I'm just trying to juggle a few things,' I told her. (It wasn't true, but it was the best I could manage at short notice.)

'You've got to come,' Jocelyn said. 'You were one of the stars.'

'Hardly,' I told her. 'I was only in the big chair for a couple of years.'

'But what an important couple of years,' she said. 'You were in charge when thing really started to take off.'

'Who else is going?' I asked.

'Pretty much all the usual suspects. Tim. Mark. Janet.'

I thought that it might be fun to catch up with Mark again. He and I had always found plenty to talk about.

'Dennis is not going to be able to make it,' Jocelyn said. 'I don't know if you heard: he had a stroke. Pretty much out of nowhere. And pretty serious. They thought he was going to die for a while there.'

'Not good,' I said.

'No. Oh... and Marion is coming. As you probably know, she's in Toronto these days. But she's coming back to visit her mother.'

Marion and I had always got on rather well. A couple of times, we had come close to making the beast with two backs. But, given that we worked together, we had decided that perhaps that wasn't such a good idea.

'I'll put you down as a yes then, shall I?' Jocelyn said.

I hesitated. But, in the end, I relented.

'It should be fun,' Jocelyn assured me.

The dinner was held in a private room at The Sphere. There were 18 of us altogether.

'Who would have though, eh?' Henry said. 'On that first day. All those years ago. In those funny little offices in Aybrook Street. Marylebone was still pretty shabby back then. If I remember rightly, we didn't pay any rent for the first year. Dorthe, the Danish woman who owned the building, saw herself as a bit of a patron of the arts. Kept suggesting topics for essays. And writers with whom we should be talking.'

Henry had mellowed with the passing years. I think he had pretty much forgotten all about the festering row that he and I had had about the part the internet would play in our industry in the future. 'We need to embrace it,' I would tell him. And he would just shake his head.

'A pity that Dennis couldn't be here,' Henry said. 'You heard that he had a stoke?'

'Yes. Jocelyn told me.'

Henry nodded. Sadly. 'Oh well... a few of us are getting to that age,' he said. 'Although not you, of course.'

Even though it was a set menu, the food was up to The Sphere's usual high standard. And Henry had chosen some excellent wines. But, for some reason that I couldn't quite put my finger on, the mood was rather more sombre than celebratory.

'Are you having fun?' Marion asked as the serving staff cleared away the last of the pudding plates.

'Not especially,' I said. 'You?'

Marion shook her head.

'There are any number of watering holes in these parts,' I said, describing a small circle with my forefinger. 'And, of course, my place is just across on the other side of the park.

'Oh? You're a West Ender, are you? For some reason I had you down as a resident of one of the Chalfonts. Or perhaps Surrey.'

'No. Hyde Park Square,' I said. 'Paddington. Or, as some of the estate agents would have it: Connaught Village.'

'Well, I'm not really wearing walking shoes this evening,' Marion said. 'But we could always hail a cab.' And she smiled.

'Indeed.'

We said goodnight to Henry and thanked him for his hospitality.

'What!? You're leaving already? The night is but young.'

'Marion has a touch of jetlag,' I said. 'And I have to catch an early train tomorrow morning.'

'Oh well...,' he said. 'We should do lunch or something. Janet likes to get me out of the house. And there's a limit to how much golf a chap can play in any one week.'

'Everyone's getting older,' Marion said, as our cab headed for Hyde Park Corner and then north to Hyde Park Square.

'Including us,' I said. 'But, yes. I know what you mean. And is it my memory, or were some of them always that dull?'

Marion just laughed.

'What do you fancy?' I asked when we got back to my flat. 'Red wine? White wine? Brandy? Scotch?'

'Do you have coffee?'

'I can do coffee,' I said.

'I know they say you shouldn't have coffee after six o'clock -- or whatever. But I think my brain's still on Toronto time anyway.'

'Fair enough.' I switched on the coffee machine, and put on some music. Chris Botti. Appropriately mellow for that time of the evening.

'Are you seeing anyone these days?' Marion asked.

'No. I did have a bit of a thing going with someone. A sort of friendship. Nothing that was ever likely to lead anywhere.'

'And did this friendship come with benefits?'

I laughed. 'You're still as direct as ever,' I said. 'But yes. We did have carnal fun from time to time. But that was the extent of it.'

'You speak of it as if it was in the past,' Marion said.

'Yes. Unfortunately, in her day job, Janine was -- still is -- a successful microbiologist. She always seemed to have one big pharma company or another chasing her. And, in the end, she got an offer she couldn't refuse. Unfortunately, the chaps making the offer were based across the pond. In Philadelphia.'

'Oh.'

'Yes.'

Marion shrugged her shoulders. 'These things happen.'

'And you?'

'After Hamish, I pretty much decided to take myself off the market,' Marion said.

'That must have broken a few hearts.'

'I've managed to find enough other things to keep me occupied,' Marion told me. 'And there's always Roberto, my trusty rabbit.'

'Trusty rabbit?'

'Batteries included,' Marion said. And she laughed.

'Oh. Yes. Right.'

I finished making the coffee and we took it through to my small sitting room. Before I sat down, I got a bottle of brandy from one of the cupboards. 'I think I'm going to turn my coffee into a sort-of Café Royale,' I said. 'Can I tempt you?'

Marion smiled and pushed her cup across the table towards me.

'The brandy will help cancel out some of the effects of the caffeine,' I told her. I added a splash of brandy to her cup and pushed it back across the table.

Marion lifted the cup to her elegant nose and took a deep breath 'Nice.'

The sort-of Café Royale was rather nice. Or was it the company? 'How's your mother?' I asked.

'Not great. I'm thinking I may need to move back to this side of the pond. Somewhere a bit closer.'

Marion's mother was barely 70, but she had been suffering from a rare heart disease for some time. It wasn't sufficient to kill her, but it was enough to make her life difficult.

'She has a woman who comes in for an hour or so each day,' Marion said. 'But she doesn't like to be a burden on her friends.'

We chatted on for a while, and then Marion said that she needed to use the bathroom.

'If you want a bath...,' I said, 'upstairs. Off the bedroom. If you just want the loo, the door next to the kitchen.'

Marion laughed and headed towards the kitchen.

When Marion returned from the her mission, she leaned over the arm of the sofa, turned my face towards hers, and kissed me. 'Yes,' she said, afterwards. 'I have been wanting to do that all evening.'

I smiled.

'And there is something else I have been wanting to do. Move along a little.' And she indicated for me to shuffle along the sofa until I was sitting more or less in the middle. 'Yes. Much better,' she said. And she stood in front of me, unfastened my belt, lowered my zip, and took out my cock. 'Nice,' she said. 'We meet at last.'

I was a little surprised. Well... more than a little surprised. But I didn't complain. Neither did I complain when Marion raised her skirt and straddled me. (She wasn't wearing any knickers. I think she must have parted with those when she had gone to the loo.)

'We probably should have done this years ago,' Marion said. 'But better late than never.'

I just smiled and nodded.

'I told Mother that I might spend the night in town,' Marion said after we had done the deed that first time. (Marion's mother lived out near Rayner's Lane.) 'I didn't want her waiting up. Or worrying unnecessarily.'

'Very wise,' I said. 'Wouldn't be fair to cause her unnecessary worry.'

And then it was Marion's turn to smile.

We finished our sort-of Café Royale (even semi-cold it was rather nice) and then we headed for the bedroom.

'You're remarkably tidy,' Marion said.

'It's Tuesday,' I told her.

'Tuesday? What does that have to do with it?'

'Maria comes on Tuesdays. She "does" for me. Tonight, being Tuesday, we even have clean sheets.'

'Like a hotel,' Marion said.

'Funnily enough, Maria used to work at The Savoy. They taught her well.'

Marion had put on a little extra weight since she had been over in Toronto. Not a lot. Just a little. And it suited her. 'You're looking great,' I told her.

'Thank you. But I think I probably need to lose a pound or two.'

'No, no,' I said. 'At least not on my account. You look fucking sexy just the way you are.'

Once we had disrobed, we kissed again. And then Marion seemed to know, intuitively, what to do next. 'What do you think? Here?' she said, taking up a kneeling position at the foot of the bed.

'I think so,' I said. And, positioning myself astern of her, I slipped a couple of fingers between her upper thighs.

Marion adjusted her knees to give me better access.

'You have a delightful arse,' I said. 'So much more delightful for being naked.'

'Thank you. But not quite as pert as it once was.'

'I will have to take your word for that,' I said. 'This is the first time I have had the pleasure of seeing it naked. And it looks pert enough to me. And very kissable. May I?'

Marion laughed. Which I took for a yes.

I began by covering her left cheek with kisses. And then I turned my attention to her right cheek. And then I gently parted the two globes and ran my tongue down the groove between them. As the tip of my tongue passed over her rosebud, she shuddered slightly. 'Oh, yes,' she murmured. Another couple of passes, and my cock was suitably horizontal. I lined the head up with the entrance to her now-slippery cunt and gently pushed.

'I don't want to get ahead of myself,' I said later, as we lay entwined, 'but I would not be disappointed if you were to return to London.'

Marion smiled.

* * *

Marion didn't return to London. But she did at least return to the UK. She took up a position with a publisher based out in Windsor. From there it was easy to visit her mother. And there were also plenty of opportunities to come into the West End.

* * *

Meanwhile, Janine settled in to her new role in Philadelphia.

For a while, communication between Janine and I was sparse indeed. But once she got a bit more settled we exchanged emails about once every week or so. Then, towards the end of August, she sent me a note saying that she would be passing through London on her way to a conference in Brighton, and she would love to catch up.

'I shall be ready and waiting,' I told her.

* * *

The evening before Janine was due in London, Marion and I caught up for a bite of supper and then went back to my place for a bit of rumpy-pumpy. We had just got back to Hyde Park Square when I got a call from the police. There had been a break-in at the building where Ramparts, the publishing company for which I worked, had its offices.

'Your name is down as the contact,' the cop who called said. 'Well, it's down as the second contact. The first contact is down as James Tooshall. We've tried calling Mr Tooshall, but his phone keeps going to message.'

'Ah. Yes. Jimmy is over in Brussels for a couple of days,' I said. 'He left this afternoon. Is there damage?'

'Not really. It looks as if the place next door might have been the target. But it's hard to say. We have a patrol on site.'

'I'm on my way,' I said.

'Trouble?' Marion asked.

'There may have been a break-in at the office,' I told her. 'And Jimmy's over in Brussels. He seems to have his phone turned off. The police are there. At the office. I need to go and take a look. Pour yourself a drink, and I shall be back.'

When I got to the office, the front door had been jemmied and the alarm box had been smashed. But that seemed to be about it. It looked as if the cops may have been right and the real target of the break-in was the high-end watch repair place next door. I arranged for the door to be temporarily secured and got a cab back to Hyde Park Square.

Back at the flat, everything was in darkness -- except for a light coming from the bedroom.

'In here,' Marion called out. 'And I brought you a glass.'

I double-locked the front door and headed up the stairs. I had just entered the bedroom and was about to tell Marion that the would-be burglars hadn't been very smart when I did a double take. There were

two

naked women in my bed.

'Hello,' a smiling Janine said. 'A little change of plan. I got an earlier flight. An opportunity to have a meeting with Gerda van Leenard suddenly came up. I'm going to catch up with her tomorrow.'

'Umm... right. And I take it you two have met?' I said, looking from Janine to Marion and back again.

'We have,' Marion said. And she, too, smiled.

'We kept you a space,' Janine said. And both she and Marion patted the empty space between them in the bed. 'You'll need to get your trousers off. We have a plan.'