To set the stage, so to speak, I'll tell you a bit about myself... and a bit about Katherine, the jilted woman in this recounting of times past.
At the time I was an average older male, successful or at least moderately so and single... well, divorced, but defiantly single with no intentions of being otherwise. I'm the Operations Manager for a smaller company and am at an age and mindset of wanting to retire earlier... like before I turn 60.
I'm tallish at 6'1" and have a neat beard and full head of hair... both having turned from a dark brown to being invaded by gray. My eyes are brown and while I'm nothing to write home about, I'm, as my friends have said, easy on the eyes and exude a certain kindness/friendliness -- basically a nice guy who in the love and marriage part of life seems to always finish last. I don't bemoan this; it is what it is and being a good guy suits me just fine.
Katherine is a bit younger than me... no scratch that, she is quite a bit younger than me, like 13 years younger than me. She too is a successful person and is the corporate Controller, who takes home a nice six-figure income.
Physically she is an absolute knockout! Quite petite at 5"1" tall, has an athletic body with amazingly sexy legs, a nice ass and breasts that dreams are made of. How do I know this? Easy, she is on the company baseball team, and I've seen her at practice in gym shorts and a T--shirt -- really a sight to behold. She has light auburn hair that she wears a bit long, green eyes and a smile that lights up the room.
She has a partner; one she has lived with for many years and talks about him like he is the best thing in her life.
We had at the time worked together for 9 years and because of what we do, we spend not a little time together. In those 9 years we had become friends and while I have to admit to having had carnal thoughts involving her, we were work associates and friends -- nothing more. Well, nothing more until...
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It all began when the President and CEO of the company announced a short fused (the meeting date was just a week away) change in the annual company management meeting. Each year it's held in a different place and the original announcement had been for the meeting to be held in New Orleans -- now, it was to be held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
With the announcement came hurried changes in travel arrangements for the weeklong meeting. Our company is a rather successful one and this management meeting comes with the perk of us being able to pick flights, rental cars and accommodation wherever -- all expenses paid, no questions asked.
The announcement came via intercompany email and came late on a Monday. I decided to wait until the next morning to make the changes in my travel arrangements.
When I came in on Tuesday morning, I went straight to the company break room to grab an early morning coffee... in the break room I found Kat (Katherine) and Marty, Kat's assistant and the company bookkeeper. They had already made the first pot of coffee and were just leaving to go to their offices. Kat saw me, said good morning with her usual killer smile and asked me to come to her office as soon as I got my coffee.
I of course said sure, be right there and before she left, I asked if she had gotten the changes in her travel plan done. Her response was "that's what I want to talk to you about".
Minutes later I was sitting in her office and with her was Marty... "So, what's up?" I asked. For the next few minutes Kat and Marty excitedly told me what they had planned and asked me to join them -- their idea was to rent a really nice Airbnb, a two-story deluxe cabin, to rent cars to make the drive down and back and to make it a full nine-day trip starting with the drive down early this coming Saturday.
I questioned them about the accommodations and found there were two bedrooms upstairs and one down, with a huge family room and kitchen downstairs... each bedroom ahd a private ensuite bathroom and it was just 5 minutes from the meeting room the company had rented. As for the rental cars, Kat suggested we take two cars and split ourselves up among the two cars. Her idea was that Marty had just gotten married and that it would be nice if she and her guy had their own car, which left me in the car with Kat and her partner, Frank.
They were over the top excited about the idea and I just smiled and agreed that it was a great plan... actually I thought it would be fun and who turns down an all-expense paid 9-day trip!
My only reservation was with Frank, Kat's longtime live-in boyfriend/partner. I had always thought he was a jerk and not much more than a freeloader. Still, Kat seemed to think the world of him, and I knew that she and Marty would be fun people to be around... never mind that I always enjoyed being around Kat.
With the plans set I came in a bit late on Friday to find both Marty and Kat absent. In checking around my admin assistant told me the Marty's husband was in the hospital and Marty had called in, and Kat, somewhat mysteriously had called in saying she had last minute arrangements to take care of.
I immediately wondered what was going on with Kat -- she had never called in unless she was deathly ill, and I knew she was OCD about everything... no way she didn't have the travel plans nailed down.
Her not being there bothered me. I mulled it over and ended up texting her asking if she was okay and if there was anything I could do to help.
I didn't get a response and so, an hour later I called her. When she answered I immediately knew something was off -- we as friends had a thing whereby when we called each other I'd always answer her calls (personal ones) with "Hey beautiful" and she would answer mine with "Hey Handsome".
She answered with a very sad sounding "I can't talk right now Mike". Not only did she sound sad, but like she had been... been what? Crying? "I'm not hanging up Kat and don't you dare hang up on me... we are friends, talk to me".
We ended up talking, or more like me listening, for the next 30 minutes. The jerk had packed up his crap and left her. They hadn't been getting along for several months and suddenly, he left. When she'd arrived at home the previous evening he was gone. No note, nothing... all his crap was gone and so was he.
I told her about Marty and her husband and asked if she wanted me to change the rental cars, transportation, etc., for the meeting.
Her response was "No, hell no! That cheating bastard is not going to ruin my life! Pick me tomorrow morning as planned, and we are going to have a wonderful time -- just you and me. It's time for you and me to get better acquainted anyway. Thank you, Mike, I am so grateful that you called. See you in the morning handsome."
"Bye beautiful" I said and hung up.
I arrived 10 minutes early at Kat's place the following morning and Kat was sitting on her stoop with a cup of coffee in her hand. Being December, and living in the Southwest of Chicago, it was chilly at 6 in the morning, but Kat was sitting there in a sweatshirt and what looked to be running shorts. Getting out of the rental car I called to her -- "don't you know it's freezing out here, have you lost your mind?" She looked over at me, shrugged as if to say she wasn't cold and waved me over and pointed to two small pieces of luggage. "Grab those for me and I'll lock up and we can get out of here."
Minutes later I had her bags stored in the back of the Chevy Blazer I'd rented and as I closed the back hatch, Kat walked up to me and threw the first of what were to be many surprises at me. She came up to me and threw her arms around me, pulled herself in close, rested her head on my chest and murmured "I've been waiting for this hug since I woke up." Then looking up at me she added "Damn you're tall" and suddenly she was on her tiptoes and planted a lingering kiss on my cheek.
To say I was surprised would be an understatement -- not only had she wrapped herself around me, but she had pulled my arms around her and kissed me on the cheek... and as she did, she ground her upper body into me, then looked up and winked at me with a mischievous smile on her face. While we had been friends for years, it had always been a hands-off friendship... those amazing tits pressing into my body, the kiss and the mischievous wink and look floored me. Totally floored me and as she pulled away, I felt myself getting hard.
As for Kat, she acted as if nothing had just happened and as she walked away to get in the car, she shot a smile back at me saying "Come on handsome, let's get this party started!"
My mind was going a hundred miles and hour trying to sort through what just happened and I stood there frozen to the spot thinking "What the hell?" Then, just as she started to get in the car she called back to me, "by the way, Marty's husband is having to stay the weekend in the hospital, so they aren't coming with us -- come on you!"
Again, "What the hell?" How could she be so upbeat, when just yesterday she had her world rocked by a cheating boyfriend -- he jilted her big time and left her without warning. Now she was happy, smiling and... and what? Was she flirting with me? Whatever was going on I wasn't complaining and right there and then I decided to let her take the lead -- that I was going to be a friend and let her talk it out when and if she wanted to.
Our first stop on the 9 plus hour trip was a nearby Starbucks where I got our usuals, a Cappuccino for me and a Caffé Mocha for Kat - only this time I got Venti's for us. As we pulled out of the Starbucks Kat asked if I'd had breakfast, which I hadn't, and so we decided to stop when we got hungry. For the next hour we talked mostly about nothing -- this and that about work, what was wrong with Marty's husband and the like. Then the conversation trailed off until Kat said she was hungry. With that we started watching the signs on the interstate for a restaurant and not long after we pulled off the interstate to try out a random local restaurant.
Before we got out of the Blazer, I looked over at her and suggested she might want to grab something warmer, at least some full-length pants of some sort and she could change into them in the restaurant bathroom. She agreed and asked me to get the blue bag out of the back... that she had a pair of jeans in them. When I brought her the bag, I opened her door and handed it to her.
She looked around the parking lot which had only three other cars parked in it and said "Bathrooms are usually filthy -- I'm going to change right here. Get back in and I'll be done in a jiffy".
